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OSCAR PETTIFORD double bass
LIFELINE 1922-1960
1922
Pettiford is born in Oklahoma in a large musical family. He is a multi-instrumentalist in his family's touring band based in Minneapolis.

1945-58
Pettiford plays in various small bop ensembles and with the big bands of Ellington from 1945-48 and Woody Herman in 1949. His abrasive personality is the downfall of his own occasional big band. From 1950 Pettiford occasionally substitutes a 'cello for bass.


1942-44
He joins Charlie Barnet's band and travels to New York. He becomes associated with the new bebop movement and plays in, and records with, a quintet led by Roy Eldridge; also with Coleman Hawkins, Earl Hines and Ben Webster. He co-leads a small group with Dizzy Gillespie at the Onyx Club from 1943-44.


1958-60
Pettiford settles in Copenhagen where he dies suddenly from a viral infection.
STYLE
Pettiford assumed the mantle of Jimmy Blanton and perhaps achieved more than any other bassist in the emerging bebop movement of the mid-1940s, where he set the standards for performance and made a case for the double bass as a persuasive and melodic solo instrument.

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