She was active as a trombonist since 1942 in big bands such as those of Gerald Wilson and Dizzy Gillespie, played with Dexter Gordon and Billie Holiday, arranged the music of Randy Weston, appeared as a supporting actress in various Hollywood films and worked as a teacher. Nevertheless, her name is known to only a few, perhaps also because the trombone was not considered an instrument for women for a long time now. A re-evaluation...
This is the detailed version of an article that appeared, considerably shorter, in Jazz Podium (February/March 2026).
„You know, I’m not phony, I’m not social. I can’t just sit around and grin. I’m not really diplomatic in that fashion. So that blocked me from some assignments. I just can’t keep a false face on. And I admire those that can do it because they pave the way for those of us who don’t have the nerve or whatever it is. But I can’t make it work.“[1]
Melba Liston did not feel particularly comfortable in the spotlight. Solos weren't her thing. She preferred to work behind the scenes as an arranger, a job that was traditionally rarely noticed by the general public. “She could outwrite most guys with ease,” commented (classical) composer Hale Smith, who met her in the late 1950s.[2] Nearly 40 years later, she was interviewed by trumpeter Clora Bryant as part of the Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program. Eleven years earlier, Liston had suffered a stroke, which she attributed to overwork and frustration at the lack of success of her music. She was left partially paralyzed and had to give up the trombone. Pianist Randy Weston, along with other friends and colleagues, made sure she received a computer so she could continue arranging music. Together with her aunt, she accompanied Weston on a trip to Morocco, where he was living at the time, and to a concert in Geneva where she conducted the band with her left hand[3]. The stroke had clouded her memory; in conversation with Bryant, she can no longer remember many things, but she also has little desire to reflect on musical secrets. How she came up with the voicings in “My Reverie,” which she wrote for Dizzy Gillespie in 1956, or how she managed to play such an impressive solo on it: she has no idea. I just played[4].
Childhood and youth
Melba Loretta Liston was born on January 13, 1926, in Kansas City, Missouri. Her father died when she was still a child[5], and her grandparents, with whom she spent a lot of time, listened to Cab Calloway, Jimmie Lunceford, Count Basie, and others on the radio[6]. There was also a barrel organ, the pedals of which she would occasionally press for her aunts to play a blues or pop song on it. Music fascinated her in other ways too; even as a child, she developed a number system to remember the intervals of the melodies she heard on the radio and wanted to sing along to[7]. When her school wanted to set up a music program, she visited a music store with her mother and saw a trombone there. The salesperson thought a clarinet or accordion would be more suitable for a girl[8], but Melba insisted[9], and her mother finally gave in[10]. She taught herself to play the trombone for the most part; her grandfather encouraged her, and soon she was playing tunes like “Deep River” and “Rocking the Cradle of the Deep.”[11]. Others in the family were not so enthusiastic; arguing that music would only expose the child to a world full of drugs and pimps[12]. Kansas City was a very lively place musically at the time, and she may have gotten a glimpse of that when older friends took her to the center of the local jazz scene, the intersection of Eighteenth and Vine[13]. She was only eight years old when she first appeared on local radio. Music was so important to her that others perceived her as a loner. Her only friends were children who also loved music[14].
In 1937, the family moved to Los Angeles, where Melba, recognized as highly gifted, immediately skipped a grade. At McKinley Junior High School, she was fortunate enough to come under the wing of music teacher Alma Hightower. Not only was Hightower the great-aunt of saxophonist Vi Redd[15], but had also taught other upcoming jazz greats, such as Dexter Gordon and Sonny Criss. Liston also met Eric Dolphy, who attended a different school[16]. Hightower taught her children all aspects of show business, as Liston later recalled: “We had to sing; we had to dance; we played harmonicas; we recited poetry; and we did variety-type things.” [17] Outside of school, she heard live jazz for the first time[18] for the first time outside of school and, together with her classmates, found out which hotels the swing bands staying in town were staying at so they could get tips from the musicians. Her mother had come to terms with her obsession: whenever friends couldn't find her, she would simply say, “Oh, there must be another band in town; just look in the trombone section.”[19] The young swing enthusiasts listened to records together and memorized the solos[20]. Dexter Gordon later recalled how Liston always encouraged the others to learn the harmonies, think about the arrangements, and write music for each other. Her musical care went so far that her classmates called her “Mama.”[21] She herself recalls that she copied Coleman Hawkins' “Body and Soul” so often for other saxophonists that she eventually didn't even have to look at the original anymore[22].
First jobs in Los Angeles
At 16, she received her membership card for the then still segregated musicians’ union in Los Angeles and, together with another girl, the pianist of the high school band, secured a position in the pit band of the Lincoln Theatre, led by Bardu Ali. Ali had worked a few years earlier as a singer and conductor with the Chick Webb Orchestra[23] and had persuaded Webb to hire the young Ella Fitzgerald, who was inexperienced in show business at the time[24]. In 1942, in the middle of the war, many male musicians had been drafted into the army. In Los Angeles’ Central Avenue Entertainment District[25], where the Lincoln Theatre was located—often referred to as the “West Coast Apollo”—there were therefore employment opportunities for young female musicians, even in bands that would otherwise likely have been composed entirely of men[26]. The theatre booked many of the well-known Black entertainers whenever they were in town. One band that impressed Liston, for example, was the International Sweethearts of Rhythm[27], an all-female ensemble. When they offered her immediate membership, the young trombonist was briefly tempted but declined at the last minute[28] after learning that some of the band members were lesbians and fearing possible advances[29]. Otherwise, she recalls no problems, though she once overheard the theatre manager complaining about her, saying that apparently it was no longer enough to hire women—now they had to hire children as well[30]. Whenever smaller acts accompanied by Ali’s band did not bring their own arrangements, the pianist would quickly write some himself; and when he was absent due to illness one day, Bardu asked Liston whether she could fill in, for an additional ten dollars. Learning by doing—as a trombonist, one sits in the middle of the band and gets a good sense of how everything fits together, Liston explains. Moreover, trombonists are by nature more patient and less “flighty” than woodwind players—a good quality for arrangers[31]. She played in Bardu Ali’s band for a good year and a half[32].
One evening, she heard none other than Louis Armstrong and was asked to play a solo. However, that was never really her thing, as Liston later recalled[33]. Jam sessions, where male colleagues liked to experiment, also did not interest her. Moreover, the sessions on Los Angeles’ Central Avenue were not really safe for women, as trumpeter Clora Bryant notes: “A woman would rarely venture into a club unaccompanied. (…) Women instrumentalists, no matter how well known, steered clear of the jam sessions. Women who did venture into the performing arena found the range of opportunities limited.”[34]
Gerald Wilson
At the Lincoln Theatre, in any case, she was heard by trumpeter Gerald Wilson, who had already played in the Jimmie Lunceford Band. Wilson was looking for musicians for his own big band and hired Liston for the trombone section, but also as a copyist to extract his arrangements for the individual parts of the band. “She was a good lead trombonist,” he later recalled, “but she also played good solos, usually better than the guys in the band”[35]. And because women on this instrument were rather rare, other stars of the time wanted to meet her—Duke Ellington, for example, or Count Basie[36].
Fortunately, we can hear how that sounded, as Liston went to the studio several times with this orchestra. On the one hand, the music reflects the spirit of Count Basie during those years, with riff-laden arrangements that lead to intense solos. On the other hand, you can hear that Wilson was also influenced by the new bebop idiom, which he had encountered through Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker during their visits to the West Coast. For Liston, Wilson was a kind of role model as an arranger; she was writing out the parts of his scores, and soon her own arrangements sounded like his, until he joked that she might have to leave the band as nobody had any praise for his pieces anymore[37]. We don't know how much she wrote back then—she herself thinks it felt like it was half of the repertoire[38].
Her arrangements include "Warm Mood"[39] with a lascivious alto saxophone theme played by Floyd Turnham and underlying big band voicings that suggests that Liston was aware of the Duke Ellington's records with Johnny Hodges.
In "Love Me a Long, Long Time"[40], on the other hand, her arrangement over the blues is clearly influenced by Dizzy Gillespie's bebop tonality, including slight harmonic irritations in the background of the solos.
In "The Saint"[41] this influence is heard even more clearly; and in "The Moors"[42]the distribution of the orchestra's voices already show the first signs of her later style.
In Gerald Wilson's arrangement of Basie's "One O'Clock Jump"[43] Liston can also be heard as a trombonist, just shortly, eight bars only, but extremely powerful and confident. As much as she was reluctant to play solos, she remembers that sometimes it was simply necessary to show that she was not just a stage prop but could really play[44].
Another of her solos can be found in a recording by pianist Wilbert Baranco for a radio broadcast from January 1946:
In the almost six-minute "Baranco Boogie"[45], among others, Snooky Young, Lucky Thompson, Melba Liston, Britt Woodman and Buddy Collette can be heard—in the rhythm section Charles Mingus is on bass. And in October 1946 she can be heard in a rhythm 'n' blues combo by saxophonist Jack McVea, with whom she plays various "boogies", simple riff themes, of which only one, the "Reetie Vootie Boogie"[46] contains a trombone solo, competent, but not really outstanding.
Dexter Gordon
In June 1947, Dexter Gordon, who was a good friend, convinced[47] Liston to record with his quintet for the new, independent label Dial Records. In “Lullaby in Rhythm”[48], she can only be heard in the ensemble head. In “Mischievous Lady”[49], a bebop tune that Gordon dedicated to her[50], she plays the bebop theme in unison with the saxophonist and, after Gordon’s energetic solo, delivers her own rather lyrical half-solo chorus. It was the first time, Liston later recalled[51], that she had played entirely without sheet music.
She was never fast on her instrument, Liston says of her own trombone playing, but more of a ballad or blues player[52]. When improvising, she intuitively followed the ear if she felt the music, and if not, she was professional enough to be able to find her notes according to the underlying chords[53]. Her role models, she says, were trombonists such as Jack Teagarden, J.J. Johnson, Tommy Dorsey (whom she heard on the radio as a child[54]) and Lawrence Brown[55]; but most of the time she didn't like to talk about role models[56]. She felt more comfortable in the trombone section anyway, as she eplains again and again, in 1956 for instance in conversation with Frank Ténot[57], and also in 1979 in an interview with Leonard Feather[58]. The trombone section's team spirit makes her happy every time, it just feels like musical telepathy[59].
For her first recording session, Liston received $41.25 for three hours, “union scale,” meaning the rate negotiated by the musicians’ union[60]. Gordon and Liston remained friends until the end.
Dizzy Gillespie (I) and Billie Holiday
Liston stayed with Gerald Wilson until 1948, after which both played briefly with Count Basie (in Los Angeles). Basie had asked her for arrangements and had her sit in a few times as a substitute in the trombone section[61]. At least she was present at a recording session in which the band recorded Don Redman’s swinging “Just an Old Manuscript”[62]. “I was lucky,” Liston remembered later, to start her career at a time when there were still established big bands[63]. She also learned from the variety of what was demanded in these orchestras: with Gillespie it had to burn, Billie Holiday preferred a more laid-back, bluesy feeling, Quincy Jones was somewhere in between, not quite as bluesy, more “white-collar,” and Basie worked with colors and feelings that felt more organized and routine[64].
When Gerald Wilson disbanded on the East Coast, Dizzy Gillespie took the opportunity to hire both Wilson and Liston for his short-lived orchestra[65], which at the time also included the young John Coltrane[66]. Confusion everywhere: Here, Wilson played in the trombone section[67], and Liston initially did not even know that Gillespie wanted her as a trombonist, not just as an arranger[68]. She sat in the band for about two months[69], for which unfortunately no recordings exist due to a recording ban by the American musicians’ union[70].
In the early summer of 1950, Wilson was asked by Billie Holiday’s management to put together an ensemble to back her on a tour[71]. The three-week rehearsals were scheduled in Philadelphia[72]. The eighteen-piece band was to play for three-quarters of an hour for dancing before Lady Day came on stage. Gigs were planned in Virginia, North and South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, and Louisiana. Deep South, that is—segregation and all. They played for an exclusively Black audience; if a few white fans did show up, they were directed to separate sections of the room[73]. But even the Black people down there were different, Liston recalls. As the only other woman in the group, the manager asked her to share a room with Billie Holiday, who needed someone to look after her because of her drug and alcohol problems[74].
But then everything went wrong. People were neither ready for Billie Holiday’s melancholic music nor for the bebop of the orchestra; they just wanted to dance[75]. And the tour was poorly organized, if at all. The orchestra members waited for their pay, and the bus driver eventually quit in Greensboro or Greenville, North Carolina; the manager also disappeared. No driver, no money, deep down in the racist South; and every night hostile police knocked on the bus and threatened them, saying that if anything happened in town, they would be held accountable[76]. After three days, she and Gerald Wilson took a train to Kansas City and returned from there to the West Coast[77]. This experience made her decide to give up touring. After all, it was not just the racist treatment from strangers. Bathroom breaks were usually too short for a woman[78]; she also repeatedly experienced assaults from her male colleagues. When asked specifically what she meant by this[79], Liston didn't hold back: “rape and everything.” One simply had to pay one’s dues. Gerald Wilson protected her for a while, but in Dizzy Gillespie’s band it started all over again. At some point it subsided, “with age”, as she says[80]. “Rape as hard dues, resolved by menopause,” Monica Hairston O’Connell and Sherrie Tucker summarize matter-of-factly[81].
Liston had just met her second husband and decided that she did not want to live that life anymore. Back in L.A., she mostly gave up active music for a few years.
Interlude in California
She pursued further education and for three years worked full-time for the Board of Education[82]. Later she briefly worked for an insurance company[83]. She largely set the trombone aside, sometimes arranging for one band or another, for example in October 1953 for recordings by rhythm ’n’ blues singer Mel Walker[84]. And she appeared as an extra in films, such as in a crowd scene in “The Ten Commandments,” or played, alongside the lead character portrayed by Lana Turner in “The Prodigal”[85], where at least she is a musician—though here she played a lyre, not a trombone.
Dizzy Gillespie (II)
When Gillespie was on the West Coast in November 1955, he made recordings for Norman Granz with a ten-piece lineup and hired Melba Liston, who made up the whole trombone section by herself and wrote / arranged two of the four pieces: her own composition “Oasis” and “Flamingo”[86]. The following spring, Gillespie was to assemble a big band for a State Department tour through South Asia, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East. At the time of the first rehearsals, Gillespie was traveling in Europe with a Jazz at the Philharmonic lineup and tasked Quincy Jones to lead it. One of his instructions to Jones was to ensure that Melba Liston was part of the group and that she wrote some of the arrangements. The musicians grumbled a bit that a trombonist unknown to them had been flown in[87], but by the time they played her arrangements of “Stella by Starlight” and “Anitra’s Dance,” the protest had subsided, and Liston had earned the respect of the musicians. Well, besides her musical duties, by the time they reached Asia she also acted as cook, in charge of needle and thread, as a hairdresser[88], and as a nurse[89]. A few years later, when she worked in Quincy Jones’ band, he would wryly introduce her as a “composer-arranger-seamstress”[90]. Liston recalls how exhausting life on the road was: “You don’t have time to know or think about nothin‘ twice… whatever happens, ‘cause you know you’re not gonna be the one to drag the band. You’re gonna be on time, clean and fresh and together. And ‘cause you’re a girl, you know… carry your own luggage… you really gotta be strong. So that’s all you have time to think about, you ain’t gonna be thinkin‘ about wrong or right or good or bad or night and day… nothin‘ except pack, wash, do, move… boom, boom, boom! So that’s the story about the girl on the road.“[91].
Phil Woods was featured in her arrangement of "The Gypsy"; one of the highlights of the concerts though was her interpretation of the third movement from Edvard Grieg's "Peer Gynt Suite", here called "Annie's Dance"[92].
In "My Reverie", based on a theme by Claude Debussy, Liston also appeared as a soloist in front of the band[93].
For singer Austin Cromer, she wrote arrangements on "If You Could See Me Now"[94] and "Somewhere Over the Rainbow"[95].
And in "You'll Be Sorry" you can even hear Liston herself as a singer. Her voice is not a professional one, a little lispling, yet quite appealing[96]. In 1957 she played with this band, which included Lee Morgan, Benny Golson and Wynton Kelly, at the Newport Jazz Festival, with which she also went on tour to South America.
Trombonist Al Grey sat next to her in the trombone section and observed her technique of alternate positions. As an arranger, she knew exactly what she wanted and she made sure to demand it, as another section mate, trombonist Benny Powell remembers: she always seemed so gentle, calm, and nice, but if musicians questioned her qualifications as an arranger, she could be quite firm, at times saying, “You can’t play it because you’re a bunch of sad muthafuckas!”[97]. Just as many young musicians in the 1940s had gathered in Mary Lou Williams’ apartment in Harlem to try things out on the piano or talk about music, Liston always had a hot soup on the stove and her house served as a mailing address for numerous colleagues[98].
Freelance in the 1950s
After Gillespie’s South America tour, Liston was once again without a job. In September, she went into the studio with alto saxophonist Ernie Henry for four tracks—two standards and one number each by her and Benny Golson. In his review in Down Beat, Martin Williams mainly criticizes Henry’s intonation, inexplicable, he finds, given the outstanding musicians assembled here[99]. “Melba’s Tune,” however, works quite well; Henry plays little more than the theme of the ballad, Lee Morgan plays the bridge, and Liston, who is also present as a trombonist, can be heard briefly in the background[100].
In an interview with Leonard Feather from 1956, Liston said she had been lucky to have so far avoided a prison that most female musicians faced: she had never had to play in an all-girl band[101]. That changed just two years later, when she was on the road with precisely such a group, the Melba Liston Quintet[102]. An agent had offered her a gig in the Bahamas for a “girl band.” Bandleader and all-female ensemble; later she would recall that she had never really wanted to do either[103]. The trip to the Caribbean was a big success, but back in the States one musician after another left the band. One became pregnant, recalls Liston[104], another couldn't stop crying because she missed her husband[105]; most of them were cocktail-bar musicians and quite happy to return to their old lifestyle[106]. In the end, Listo, too, was pleased, realizing that her name by now carried so much weight that she could hire whoever she wanted, be it women or men[107].
Liston also wrote for other ensembles. She was somewhat dissatisfied with the assignments she received, complaining in a 1961 interview that people didn’t trust her enough. She would have liked to write something “more dramatic”; but because she was a woman—or so she thinks—, she was mainly offered pieces that were either “far out, weird, or mushy.” Didn't they realize that she was just as good at writing marches, polkas, mazurkas, or whatever the occasion demanded—well, she adds, perhaps all of those weren't really her favorites at the moment.[108].
She does write quite "dramatic", though. "Late Date"[109], for example, recorded by Art Blakeys big band, clearly shows how different her style is from other arrangers of the time.
The piece begins with a lagging-behind ringing from the brass, over which trumpets and saxophones voice a melody and counter-melody. Most of the music is through-composed and thrives on timbres typical for Liston, such as the unusual pairings of instruments. "Sonic colors" is a term often used for her music, although Liston herself doesn't particularly like it, saying, she would rather not talk about "colors or that stuff". "I like it and I write it, it's very simple."[110]
In 1957 she was hired for several recording sessions by Dinah Washington, and you can hear her in "Crazy in Love", recorded live at the Newport Jazz Festival in the summer of 1958. She is present both as trombonist in the septet backing Washington, and as the arranger of the piece[111].
In the late 1950s, she met Gloria Lynne, who had just released a successful album.Lynne asked whether she might sing Liston’s song “We Never Kissed,” for which Melba had written both the music and the lyrics[112], and quickly the piece moved into the singer's repertoire. When Lynne planned her second album in 1959, she asked Liston to write the arrangements for vocals and string ensemble[113].
There was not much time left to prepare, and most of the time was spent on the selection of the songs, Liston recalls. In the end, she had to make three to four arrangements a day so that everything would be ready on time[114]. What you can hear well in these arrangements is Liston's close harmonies, for example in "Love, I've Found You"[115]—initially only in the strings, then also together with the wind section. Actually, Liston was supposed to conduct the ensemble, but on the day of the recording she was sick and so Quincy Jones, who had assisted Liston with the arrangements, took over as conductor[116].
The arrangements that Liston wrote in 1958 for the 10′′-LP “Voilá” by bebop singer Babs Gonzalez sound very different. It is one of the more swinging records of her discography and one that the singer calls his "best" in his autobiography[117].
Gonzalez is accompanied by a first-class septet, including Les Spann (flute), Johnny Griffin (tenor sax), Charlie Rouse (bass clarinet), Horace Parlan and Roy Haynes, and Liston also writes for an accompanying vocal quartet, the Modern Sounds. "Le Continental" in French and "Me, Spelled M-E, Me" are a real tour-de-forces, and "Movin' and Groovin'"[118] makes clever use of the sonic possibilities of the unusual wind line-up, but always keeps the band in the background behind Ginzalez' verbal explorations. A year later, Liston arranges for Gonzalez's LP "Tales of Manhattan"[119], a kind of beat-poetry reading in the hippest bebop slang, accompanied by a small combo with James Moody as the only wind player. Not much to arrange, one might think; here her task is mainly to adapt the music to Gonzalez's narrative.
Johnny Griffin hired Liston in 1961 for six of the ten numbers on his album "White Gardenia", a highly emotional tribute to the recently deceased Billie Holiday.
"That Old Devil Called Love"[120] is a particularly good example of how Liston transfers her own emphasis from timbre to the string ensemble or how she holds it in the title track composed by Griffin himself[121] keeps the wind set like a kind of dark echo in the background and effectively uses pizzicato effects.
In 1962, Liston served as one of several arrangers for Charles Mingus' music on the occasion of his Town Hall concert. Her piece of the evening is Mingus' "Peggy's Blue Skylight"[122], in which she also conducts the big ensemble.
This, too, was a last-minute project—on the day of the concert she had to set up a large table next to the stage, on which the copyists wrote the last changes to the parts before distributing them to the musicians[123].
For Dakota Staton, Liston in 1963 wrote arrangements for three out of ten numbers performed during the singer's return to the jazz scene at the Newport Jazz Festival in July[124]. In March and August of the same year, she joined the vibraphonist Milt Jackson for an album, which focused on the big brass sound. "For Someone I Love. Milt Jackson and Big Brass" was the title of the LP on which Jackson plays some standards, three of his own compositions, as well as one each by Mary Lou Williams, Billy Strayhorn and Melba Liston. It is easy to imagine that this instrumentation with its dark sonority was special to Liston: Four trumpets, three trombones, three horns, a tuba—rarely could she use this much brass. In the opener, Henry Mancini's "Days of Wine and Roses"[125], she shows what can be done with these sounds, how to use open and muted sections, and contrast them with the virtuoso vibraphone or with a solo by Thad Jones.
Her own "Just Waiting"[126] is a rather restrained ballad with harmoniously skillful mood swings and a rather effective use of the tuba in the theme—later she would name this arrangement and "Len Sirrah" as her own favorite compositions. Other highlights are her arrangements of "What's Your Story, Morning Glory" and especially "Flamingo"[127], in which she knits a dense yet transparent net of brass sounds, which envelops Jackson's theme like a blanket from all sides.
“What's Your Story, Morning Glory” appeared on Jackson's record for a reason. At the same time, Liston was working on an album under the direction of Mary Lou Williams with band and vocal ensemble, “Black Christ of the Andes.” Liston had become friends with Williams in 1957 when Dizzy Gillespie asked her to check in on his old friend from time to time, who had largely retired from the music business and was running a thrift store in Harlem. Liston told Gillespie that during these visits, Williams would sit down at the piano and play a few chords, “and you ought to hear them. They're really great.”[128] No sooner said than done: Gillespie commissioned Liston to arrange three movements from Williams' “Zodiac Suite” [129] and “Carioca” [130], which he performed with the pianist as his guest at the 1957 Newport Jazz Festival and which, thankfully, have been preserved on record.
Williams had already arranged the “Zodiac Suite” for a chamber ensemble together with Milt Orent in the 1940s; however, a version for big band did not yet exist. Liston’s arrangement attempts what she would do a year later with Randy Weston’s music: she translates Williams’s pianistic language into the sonority of the big band. As an introduction, the band plays Williams’s “In the Land of Oo-Bla-Dee,” a well-selling recording by the Gillespie big band of the 1940s, followed immediately by “Virgo.” Liston takes up the ideas from the piano, runs them through the (not always entirely secure) horn sections, while Williams herself ensures, with shouted cues, that the entrances more or less fall into place toward the end. In “Libra,” Liston makes the most of the complex chords before Williams states the theme on the piano. The rhythm section drops out; a muted (and apparently notated) trumpet solo follows, then another solo piano passage leading to the band’s closing theme, ending with a loud, dissonant chord[131]. The two women remained in contact, and Liston soon also provided arrangements for more recent compositions by her older colleague, “Anima Christi,” for example, for tenor voice, choir, and jazz ensemble (including bass clarinet and electric guitar). This collaboration ultimately culminated in the album "Black Christ of the Andes"[132], recorded in 1964, Williams’s tribute to St. Martin De Porres, the first Black saint canonized by the Catholic Church.
Quincy Jones
Since the mid-1950s, Liston had worked repeatedly with Quincy Jones, and when he founded his own big band in February 1959, he made sure she was in the trombone section. A year later, the band was to appear in the Harold Arlen musical “Free and Easy,” a kind of reworking of the 1946 show “St. Louis Woman,” not in the orchestra pit but costumed on stage itself[133]. The goal of the show was Broadway; however, it started in the Netherlands, in Utrecht, where the entire ensemble rehearsed for two months – the musicians also had to learn their parts by heart, because there were no music stands on stage. The premiere took place in Amsterdam, then it moved on to Brussels and Paris[134]. The lead roles were played by Pearl Bailey and Harold Nicholas; on Broadway, Nicholas was to be replaced by Sammy Davis Jr. But the Broadway premiere never happened. The music was superb, but the content of the piece, which also addressed racism in the American South, ultimately seemed too risky for the producers. 91 performances in Europe; then it was over.
Quincy Jones was frustrated: this was his dream band, and he saw great potential. Instead of dissolving it, he decided to travel with it through Europe for ten months, performing concerts in Holland, Belgium, Italy, Yugoslavia, Finland, Austria, Germany, Sweden, France, and Switzerland, Portugal[135]. Whenever they needed new music, current or former band members themselves wrote it: Ernie Wilkins, Billy Byers, Oliver Nelson, Benny Golson, Melba Liston. As with Gillespie, she was mainly assigned the ballads, Liston recalls, while Golson or Wilkins handled the swingier pieces[136], and Jones himself wrote the lighter material[137]. She later found out that financially it would have been more rewarding for her to write her own pieces; for the standards, she received no additional royalties[138].
Nach ihrer letzten praktischen Erfahrung mit der Frauenband war sie ganz froh bei Quincy Jones wieder in einem reinen Männerensemble zu sitzen. Sie trug eine unauffällige Banduniform, aber, „every now and then I try to get a little fancy – but that’s just to surprise the fellows in the band.“[139] Mit diesem Orchester also bereiste sie zwischen Februar und Juni 1960 Europa. Glücklicherweise sind nicht nur Konzertmitschnitte auf Platte erhalten, sondern auch Filmdokumente, etwa aus Belgien und der Schweiz[140]. In ihnen sehen wir Liston neben ihren Posaunenkollegen Quentin Jackson, Jimmy Cleveland und Åke Persson, und wir hören, dass die Band auch Listons „My Reverie“ spielt, das bereits in Gillespies Band ein so großer Erfolg gewesen war[141].
Sie eröffneten die Konzerte Nat King Coles auf seiner dreiwöchigen Europatournee; und dennoch war Jones am Ende pleite – er musste sich Geld leihen, um die Bandmitglieder zurück in die Staaten zu fliegen[142]. Einige der Musiker entschieden sich in Europa bleiben; für Liston war das nie eine Option. Sie hatte ja schon zuvor erkannt, dass das Tourneeleben eigentlich nichts für sie war: „It used to be 20 to 30 days on a bus sometimes without a hotel, bed or bath. Or we got stranded when a bus broke down in the snow and cold. And money was short.“[143] Außerdem liebte sie New York und fand, Europa könne ihr nicht mehr bieten als der Big Apple[144].
Randy Weston (I)
When Dizzy Gillespie’s big band performed at New York’s Birdland in 1957 shortly before its dissolution, pianist Randy Weston heard them there. He was particularly impressed by the trombonist—her playing, the fact that she was the only female musician in the band, but also her “natural hairstyle” and her beauty[145]. After the set, he introduced himself to her and only then realized that she had written a number of the arrangements as well. Weston asked if she could take a look at his composition “Little Niles”; this eventually led to an album and a collaboration that lasted over the next 40 years[146]. It is this partnership that led journalists to draw comparisons with Fletcher Henderson, Gil Evans, Quincy Jones, Benny Golson, Frank Foster, and Mary Lou Williams[147], who often shaped the sound of an entire ensemble—Henderson that of the Benny Goodman Orchestra, Evans that of the larger-scale recordings of Miles Davis, and Williams that of the Andy Kirk Band.
„Little Niles“, den Tribut an seinen Sohn, hatte Weston 1956 zum ersten Mal mit seinem Trio aufgenommen. Im Oktober 1958 ging er für ein Album mit eigenen Kinderliedern ins Studio, darunter auch Stück für seine Tochter Pamela, „Pam’s Waltz“. Die Linernotes verfasste der Dichter Langston Hughes, den Weston aus seiner Zeit in den Berkshires kannte, wo er regelmäßig Marshall Stearns Musikvorlesungen im Musik Inn besucht hatte. Die Besetzung für die neue Platte war nur ein Sextett, Liston aber gelingt es vom ersten Ton an, die Frontline weit größer klingen zu lassen. In „Earth Birth“[148]beispielsweise verzahnt sie die Töne der drei Bläser in dauernd neuen Konstellationen, dass man das Gefühl hat, es mit ganzen Bläsersätzen zu tun zu haben.
Westons Kinderlieder waren alle im Dreiviertel- oder Sechsachteltakt geschrieben, Taktarten, die ihn interessierten, seit er in den Berkshires mit einem ursprünglich aus Trinidad stammenden Musiker zusammengearbeitet hatte, dem Sänger Macbeth, der seine Calypso-Quadrilles besonders zum Swingen bringen konnte[149].
It was love between them, perhaps briefly even a romantic liaison[150], but above all a love for music and for people, explains Weston—a spiritual connection that also encompassed their political and social views. Musically, it could certainly be compared to Ellington and Strayhorn; sometimes neither of them knew anymore which musical idea belonged to whom—it just fit together so well[151]. Liston radiated a kind of “revolutionary spirit,” emanating even from her appearance, the way she wore her hair: in natural curls, never straightened or hidden under wigs as was often fashionable for African American women at the time[152].
Melba can also be heard on trombone in this recording, and Weston later recalls how she repeatedly ran into problems with trumpeters in his projects, because she felt that they were not playing their parts as written[153]. Solos still were not her thing; for the solo sections in “Earth Birth” or “Babe’s Blues,” he had to practically push her[154].
About their collaboration, Weston explains: he would first play her his pieces on the piano, then give her tape recordings of the piano versions to work with. Then they would discuss possible orchestrations[155], but also the story behind the pieces. She would then suggest voicings while he improvised on the piano[156]. Weston becomes even more specific in a 2008 NPR profile about Liston: “Take a piece like ‘Hi-Fly.’ Okay, originally, ‘Hi-Fly’ was at a medium tempo. But I play it for Melba, and she just records what I’m doing. We’ve been talking about, what’s the meaning of the song. So, I say, okay, Melba: ‘Hi-Fly’ came out of a drum rhythm, it was a rhythm that was something like this [drums with his fingers]. And from that rhythm, I picked it up on the piano. Then I added some chords to it. Okay. She’s recorded what I’d done. She would look at the chord… Why don’t you improvise a little bit on the theme? Just to hear how I would improvise on ‘Hi-Fly.’ Then Melba would take that, and she would listen to that over and over and over. Then she would add her own chords and melodic ideas to the piece. At that she writes the parts for the various instruments, and out comes a Melba Liston arrangement. But hers was basically on my piano arrangements of a composition“[157]. Their musical thought worlds are so closely aligned that he sometimes does not even know which idea came from whom. In his words (referring to a later, slower Liston arrangement for strings of “Hi-Fly” from 1995): “And at one point Melba creates a line, a melody based on what I do, but it sounds like it’s me, but it’s not me, it’s her. So somehow she has this wonderful quality of being able to get into my creative process and taking it someplace else“[158].
Trombone quartets and musical interpretations
After “Little Niles” came “Destry Rides Again,” an album for which Liston once again wrote the arrangements, this time for a lineup with Weston and rhythm section (including Elvin Jones on drums and Willie Rodriguez on the congas) and a horn section of four trombonists (Liston included). The idea for the instrumentation may have been Liston’s, who in June 1956 recorded an album with trombonist Frank Rehak, “Jazzville, Vol. 2”[159] and in December 1958 an album with four trombones and rhythm section[160], “Melba Liston and Her ‘Bones,” with arrangements by her and her instrumental colleague Slide Hampton. In the liner notes for Rehak’s album (actually half an album, which he shared with pianist Alex Smith), Burt Korall writes in a chauvinistic tone about Melba Liston that she “plays not like a girl, but like a trombonist”[161]. The titles of Rehak’s pieces all refer to Gillespie’s Middle East tour, on which he also participated; Liston contributes “Insomnia”[162].
Auf „Melba Liston and Her ‚Bones“ ist sie in ihrem eigenen „You Don’t Say“ zu hören, einem 40-taktigen Stück (AABBA), das geschickt zwischen C-Dur und a-Moll changiert und in dem sie nach Bennie Green das zweite Posaunensolo spielt. Alle vier Posaunen erhalten genügend Soloraum; Liston ist auch in der Ballade „Wonder Why“[163]zu hören, die sie aus Gillespies Repertoire kannte, in dem dies ein Feature für den Sänger Austin Cromer war, sowie als Solistin in Hamptons „Christmas Eve“, in dem sie das vierte Solo (mit Dämpfer) spielt[164].
„Melba Liston and Her ‚Bones“ war das einzige Album, das sie jemals unter eigenem Namen einspielte. Warum? „I don’t know. I have written for nearly everybody and conducted and played for and everything. But nobody has come to me for no action, and I haven’t been to anybody. I guess I’m a little shy. I don’t know…“[165] Vi Redd ahnt, dass die Zeit nicht reif war, dass es eben doch etwas anderes war, ob eine Frau als Sängerin oder Pianistin auf der Bühne steht oder als Bläserin und damit Konkurrentin ihrer männlichen Kollegen[166]. Und der Journalist Ira Gitler kommentiert (wie ein Echo Burt Koralls): „Melba Liston will surprise a lot of people who have never heard her at length before. She has more than a hint of Lawrence Brown in her background, but her foreground is modern without being stylized. As a woman, she is feminine; as a trombone player, very masculine.“[167]
Die grundsätzliche Idee zu „Destry Rides Again“ stammte vom Label United Records, dessen Produzenten Weston mit dem Versprechen überzeugten, wenn er eine Platte mit Musik aus einer populären Broadwayshow aufnehmen würde, könne er danach seine Idee realisieren, mit „Uhuru Afrika“ ein großes Werk einzuspielen. Weston schaute sich an, was aktuell alles auf am Broadway lief, und seine Wahl fiel auf das Cowboy-Musical „Destry Rides“ des Komponisten Harold Rome. Man merkt der Platte zwar von den ersten Tönen an, dass Musik und Musiker wenig gemeinsam haben. Immerhin aber versuchen sie sich die Musik, so gut es geht, anzueignen. „I Say Hello“[168] habe er ursprünglich im Dreivierteltakt geschrieben, erinnert sich Rome im Plattentext, dann aber, weil die Show noch eine Ballade brauchte, in vier Viertel umgesetzt. Niemand habe davon gewusst bei der Plattensitzung – er selbst habe die Musiker ja gar nicht gekannt zuvor –, umso erstaunt war er, als Liston dieses Stück von sich aus zurück ins Walzertempo setzte.
Tatsächlich sind gleich mehrere Stücke des Albums im Dreiviertel- oder Sechsachteltakt („Rose Lovejoy of Paradise Valley“, „Anyone Would Love You“, „I Say Hello“). So richtig inspiriert seien sie alle nicht gewesen, erinnert sich Weston später; sie hätten das Album ja auch nur aufgenommen, um „Uhuru Afrika“ realisieren zu können[169].
Die Mode Musicals in Jazz-Themenalben zu verarbeiten hatte wenige Jahre zuvor mit „My Fair Lady“ begonnen und krankte oft daran, dass die Musiker sich nicht hundertprozentig mit dem Repertoire identifizierten bzw. dass der dramaturgische Bogen des Musicals sich in den Jazz-Umsetzungen nicht überzeugend realisieren ließ. Von 1961 gibt es immerhin ein halbwegs gelungenes Beispiel für die Umsetzung eines Broadway-Musicals mit „A Jazz Version of Kean“, gespielt von den tatsächlich star-besetzten Riverside Jazz Stars (Liston, Blue Mitchell, Clark Terry, Jimmy Heath, Bobby Timmons, Ron Carter u.a.). Liston steuert zwei sehr sound-bewusste Arrangements bei, die Ballade „Penny Plain“[170] sowie das relaxt-schmissige „Willow Willow Willow“[171].
John S. Wilson ist in seiner Rezension angetan von „Penny Plain“, urteilt aber dennoch: Schade, sowohl die musikalische Vorlage als auch die beteiligten Künstler hätten mehr versprochen; letzten Endes sei das Ergebnis eher musikalisches Alltagsgeschäft und Routine, erzeugten die Soli (vor allem durch Mitchell, Heath und Timmons) nicht den Funken Vitalität, den dieses Album dringend gebraucht hätte[172].
1962 folgte „The Soul of Hollywood“, eine Platte mit dem Pianisten Junior Mance, die sich berühmten Filmmusiken widmete und bei dem Liston alle ihr zur Verfügung stehenden Klangquellen einsetzt, Trompeten, Posaunen, Flöten, Klarinette, Bassklarinette, English Horn, Harfe, Marimba, jede Art von Perkussion. Wie bei solchen Themen-Alben damals üblich, entfernt sich Mance nie zu weit von der Vorlage; Harvey Pekar findet das letzten Endes relativ langweilig, erwähnt aber immerhin die „never overlush“ Arrangements Listons, insbesondere für die Holzbläser[173]. Ein gutes Beispiel für ihre Arbeit ist in „Never on Sunday“[174] zu hören, in dem sie fast schon spielerisch mit dem Instrumentarium umgeht oder, wie der Autor des Plattentextes meint, kleine Concerti um den Pianisten herum schreibt.
The Metronomes were a vocal quartet from Philadelphia that, with Liston’s help, was to become a kind of male Lambert, Hendricks & Ross. The album “Something Big!”[175] contains standards and pieces from the contemporary jazz repertoire (“Monk’s Mood,” “I Remember Clifford,” “Round Midnight,” “A Night in Tunisia”). Liston had heard the quartet when she played with Quincy Jones in Philadelphia; afterwards, the group’s manager kept calling her to engage her for arrangements. In the summer of 1961, the quartet then met every Sunday in her one-room apartment in Harlem. In the album notes, Liston recounts how she tore apart the original arrangements, which the quartet had been quite proud of, to make something completely different. Some of her decisions nearly drove the four young singers to give up: “We’ll never get through … What does she think we are … Nobody sings like that, with notes rubbing up all against each other … We’re not instrumentalists.”[176]
Randy Weston (II) + Elvin Jones
After “Destry Rides Again,” Randy Weston came up with the idea for a live recording with an all-star band, which included trumpeter Kenny Dorham and the legendary saxophonist Coleman Hawkins, arranged by Melba Liston. The brief liner notes for “Live at the Five Spot” (United Artists UAL 4066), recorded on October 26, 1959, don’t say much about the music, but they report the difficulties surrounding the show: Coleman Hawkins was flown in at the last minute from Chicago, Roy Haynes likewise, but from Boston, Wilbur Little and the bassist came by train from Washington, D.C. Melba Liston had been in a hospital in California and sent her arrangements by airmail, which were only delivered shortly after all the musicians arrived at the club at 9:30 p.m. “There was no rehearsal – only very little warm-up time.”[177]
Weston's idea must have pleased producer Tom Wilson, who joined the United Artists A&R team shortly before the recording date – a transitional document involving Hawkins, one of the most important saxophonists since the 1920s, Kenny Dorham, a trumpeter, whom Wilson had already used for a project with Cecil Taylor and John Coltrane, and Weston, a pianist who explored the history of African-American music in his compositions. "Live at the Five Spot" is a record that also corresponds exactly to Wilson's idea of "Live Concert Fidelity", as he called it and as Ira Gitler confirms in his review, in which he writes: "you can almost reach out and touch the players. Whoever the engineer is, he deserves credit."[178] The singer Brock Peters sings a dramatic version of "Where". Hawkins can be heard in Billy Strayhorn's ballad "Star-Crossed Lovers". And for "Lisa Lovely" Weston brought in 18-year-old drummer Clifford Jarvis on a second drum kit.
Im Februar 1965 arrangiert Liston die Titel für „And Then Again“, eine Platte des Schlagzeugers Elvin Jones. In seinen Linernotes schreibt Leonard Feather, Liston sei mittlerweile so gefragt als Arrangeurin, dass sie kaum mehr Zeit finde, Posaune zu spielen – was sie bei diesem Date auch nicht muss, da diese Position bereits von J.J. Johnson gefüllt wird (der aus Vertragsgründen unter dem Pseudonym Hunt Peters gelistet ist)[179]. Ihre Aufgabe sei es gewesen, Backgrounds für Jones zu schreiben, so wie sie es sonst für Bläser tue. „So he’s not just a drummer forthcoming as a leader, he’s part of an over-all musical picture in which the drums play an integral role.“[180] Das hört man gut in „Len Sirrah“, in dem Liston dissonant klingende Parallelbewegungen und lyrische Passagen abwechselt und dabei dem Schlagzeug, das das Stück sehr dominant einleitet, eine besondere Rahmung bietet. Geof Bradfield[181] weist darauf hin, wie ganz anders dasselbe Stück zwei Jahre später in einem Arrangement für den Trompeter Blue Mitchell klingt[182].
Auf Jones‘ Platte hört man in ihrem Arrangement über ihr eigenes „All Deliberate Speed“[183] (der Titel spielt auf die Notwendigkeit sozialer Veränderungen im Rahmen der Bürgerrechtsbewegung an) gut, wie sie alle drei Jones-Brüder (Thad und Hank Jones spielen bei diesem Track mit) in ein repetitives, doch nie langweiliges Klanggewand kleidet. „I write better than I play“, kommentiert sie. „I’d like to write all the time, but when I do I miss my horn.“[184]
Randy Weston (III): „Uhuru Afrika“
Those responsible for United Artists did not keep their promise to Randy Weston to realize his Africa project in return for his musical album. With the help of Sarah Vaughan's husband and manager C.B. Atkins, he managed to accommodate "Uhuru Africa" on the Roulette label. Weston was a founding member of the African American Musicians' Society, which wanted to take care of the rights of black musicians, and which soon also Melba Liston also belonged - Weston as chairman, Liston as deputy chairman[185]. This is important in that one must also hear "Uhuru Africa" against the background of a strengthening black consciousness in the United States, which also included a stronger interest in the African continent. Weston had been playing with the idea for the suite for a while and was happy when Liston agreed to write the arrangements for a now really big cast, big band, an opera singer and a folk singer, six percussion, including Max Roach, Charli Persip, Babatunde Olatunji and Candido. In the Melba Liston Collection at Columbia College Chicago there are notes that prove how much Liston was involved in aesthetic choices, the respectful mixing of two languages (Kisuaheli, English) and two cultures[186]. And for the introductory Invocation[187] as well as the text of "African Lady" Weston succeeded in winning the poet Langston Hughes[188].
The release of the album was dated five months after the murder of Patrice Lumumba with the help of the CIA and shortly after the admission of sixteen sub-Saharan nations to the United Nations. During the preparation, Weston and Liston were advised by several UN delegates, one of whom, Tuntemeke Sanga from Tanganyika, finally recited Hughes's freedom poem on the record[189]. For Liston, working on this and Weston's next album was an opportunity to deal intensively with African music and culture[190]. Weston describes the process as follows: "Melba had great pride in herself and her people, and it came out clearly in her music. It was a natural thing for her to express the greatness of her people through music, just like it was for me, because we were constantly involved in the struggle of black people.
Auch bei der Auswahl der Musiker verließ Weston sich auf Liston – insbesondere Budd Johnson, Quentin Jackson und Charli Persip gingen auf ihre Anregung zurück[192]. Liston weiß, wie man für Bigband schreibt, und sie versteht Westons ganz eigene Klangvorstellung, kann diese daher geradezu kongenial auf die große Besetzung übersetzen. Gleich zu Beginn etwa in „Uhuru Kwanza“[193] (Freedom First), wenn die Bigband nach dem Klavier einsetzt, meint man, die Obertöne, die Weston durch seinen kräftigen Anschlag aus dem Flügel herausholt, auch in der Bigbandorchestrierung zu hören, in der Art, wie Liston die Posaunen und Holzbläser zusammengehen lässt, aber so, dass die Posaunen wie eine Art Resonanzraum für die Saxophone wirken, oder wie sie ähnliches wenig später mit Flöten und Trompeten macht.
Langston Hughes beschreibt in seinem Plattentext, wie die Instrumente in „African Lady“ eine Art Morgen der Freiheit heraufbeschwören: „The flutes of Yusef Lateef and Les Spann are awakening birds. Benny Bailey’s muted trumpet sings a sunrise song behind the lyric voice of Martha Flowers. Then Cecil Payne greets the morning with a joyous solo punctuated by the brasses.“[194]
Weston summarizes Liston's special approach to the arrangement as follows: "Most arrangement writing is along horizontal lines, but Melba wrote the parts in a oblique direction."[195] "Oblique", oblique, indirect, perhaps it actually fits this description best. It is never only about the harmony, never only about the effectiveness of the individual instrumental movements, but always also about the change of sound, sound, sonorality, mood. The musicologist Lisa Barg describes the variety of timbres in the beginning of "African Lady": "In just under a minute and a half, the arrangement sets the quiet accompaniment of a trio (piano, bass and drums) against and within a stream of polyphonic countermelodies provided by the obbligato flutes and muted trumpet and deep splashes of color, such as the dissonant chordal pyramids that tag Flowers's dramatic vocal crescendo for the line 'African Lady'."[196]
Eine ähnliche Vielfalt in der Klanglichkeit findet sich auch anderswo in Listons Arbeit, eine fast nicht wahrnehmbare Polyphonie unterschiedlicher Stimmcharaktere, die für immer neue, andere, leicht sich ändernde Farben sorgt. Im 3. Satz, „Bantu“[197], kommen in einem energiegeladenen Kontext etliche der großartigen Solisten zu Wort, die Weston für das Projekt gewinnen konnte, unter ihnen etwa Julius Watkins, Clark Terry, Sahib Shihab und die ganze Percussion-Gruppe.
Und der „Kucheza Blues“[198] wird zu einer Art Jam Session, die die Erinnerung an Afrika mit der Spielhaltung des Hardbop vereint, in Soli etwa von Budd Johnson, Benny Bailey, Jimmy Cleveland, Gigi Gryce, Kenny Burrell und Weston selbst.
Liston was also a perfectionist in this project, recalls Weston, who changed things in the arrangement until the last moment[199]. Shortly after the release of the record, it was banned in South Africa; in the concert, Weston performed the suite only in 1972[200].
Nach dem Release von „Uhuru Afrika“ hatte Weston Langston Hughes im Dezember 1961 auf eine Reise zum AMSAC Cultural Festival in Lagos, Nigeria, begleitet[201], bei der er mit lokalen Künstlern und Intellektuellen genauso zusammentraf wie er mit Lionel Hampton spielte[202]. Seine Eindrücke hielt er 1963 auf dem Album „Music from The New African Nations featuring the Highlife“ fest. Weston war besonders beeindruckt von der tänzerischen Qualität der Musik, die er etwa in einem Club in Lagos erlebte und in seinem Stück „Caban Bamboo Highlife“[203] festhielt.
Der Besitzer des Clubs war selbst Schlagzeuger und Gitarrist; von ihm stammt „Niger Mambo“[204], das ebenfalls auf dem Album enthalten ist.
Liston arrangiert diesmal für eine Besetzung mit sechs Blech- und zwei Holzbläsern, Rhythmusgruppe inklusive Schlagzeug und zwei Perkussionisten. In „Zulu“[205], einem Stück, das Weston 1955 bereits im Trio aufgenommen hatte und das jetzt der Highlife-Atmosphäre des Albums angepasst wurde, hört man sehr deutlich, wie es ihr gelingt, Westons Klaviersprache aufs Ensemble zu übertragen, die offenen Oktaven beispielsweise, die nachzuklingen scheinen, weil er sie mit solcher Wucht in die Tasten hämmert.
Und in „Congolese Children“[206], Westons Adaption eines Bashai-Volkslieds[207], meint man einer nigerianischen Dorfkapelle zuzuhören in einem Arrangement, dass die Kollektivität einer New Orleans-Brassband andeutet, dabei aber an keiner Stelle historisierend oder kulturell aneignend wirkt.
Liston nahm viel mit bei diesem Projekt, ahnt man, und man ahnt auch, wie sehr diese Musik bei ihr weiterklang, wenn man die Beschreibung der nie auf Platte erschienen Orchesterkomposition „African Joys“ liest, die Liston 1980 während einer Residenz an der Northeastern University mit dem dortigen Studierendenensemble einstudierte[208].
Weston's next collaboration with Liston comes from 1973, "Tanjah", re-recorded with big band and large rhythm group. The LP begins and ends with two of his best-known compositions, "Hi-Fly"[209] and "Little Niles"[210], and in addition to the African sounds, especially those from Afro-Cuban music are added. Weston had visited the African continent several times and lived in Morocco between 1967 and 1972, taking up influences that can be heard clearly in the title track of the album, with Ahmed Abdul-Malik on the Oud[211].
Bread arrangements + symphony orchestras
In den 1960er Jahren war Melba Liston gefragt als Freelance-Arrangeurin für Projekte, die irgendwo zwischen Jazz und populärer Musik schwebten. Sogar mit Duke Ellington habe sie ein paarmal gearbeitet, erinnert sie sich später, und auch für Abbey Lincoln und Ray Charles habe sie geschrieben[212]. Anfang des Jahrzehnts jedenfalls schrieb sie Arrangements für Solomon Burke und arbeitete zwei Jahre lang für Tony Bennetts Show im Copacabana Club[213]. Selbst für Zirkusmusik wurde sie von einem Einrad-Jongleur angefragt[214], dem Gillespies „Manteca“ so gut gefallen hatte, dass er Teile daraus in seinem Act haben wollte[215]. Vor allem stieg Liston in diesen Jahren ins kommerzielle Geschäft ein, schrieb insbesondere für das Label Motown Records unzählige Arrangements. 1964 fungierte sie eine Weile als musikalische Leiterin für den Schlagersänger Eddie Fisher[216]. Für Billy Eckstine arrangierte sie 1965 das Album „The Prime of My Life“[217]; Diana Ross und die Supremes versorgte sie ebenfalls mit Arrangements, wenn auch hier nicht bekannt ist, für welches Album. Zusammen mit Jerome Richardson und Ernie Wilkins war Liston außerdem an den Arrangements für Marvin Gayes LP „When I’m Alone I Cry“[218] beteiligt.
Sie selbst spricht über diese Zeit von „Fließbandarbeit“[219]. Das waren mal mehr, mal weniger ambitionierte Charts, etwa ihre beiden Arrangements auf dem Debutalbum „For the First Time“ der inzwischen von Motown zu MGM gewechselten Sängerin Kim Weston, „Come Rain Or Come Shine“[220] und „When the Sun Comes Out“[221].
Und es habe jede Menge Material gegeben, das nie veröffentlicht wurde, weil der Stil nicht zum Label passte[222]. Am Ende hätten die Produzenten ihr irgendwann nicht mehr richtig vertraut, dass sie musikalisch genau das abliefere, was der Firma vorschwebte: Ihr musikalisches Ethos habe ihr in diesen Jahren im Wege gestanden[223].
In der Melba Liston Collection am Columbia College in Chicago bekommt man einen ganz guten Einblick in die Bandbreite. Neben Jazzgigs war Liston für kommerzielle Produktionen gefragt, Aufnahmen von Marvin Gaye („Goodbye“[224]), Ivy Jo Hunter, Billy Eckstine, Louis Jordan („Texarkana Twist“[225]), der Harfenistin Betty Glamann, der Sängerin Lyn Roman, in den 1970ern außerdem Jon Lucien, der Stovall Sisters (LP „The Stovall Sisters“[226]), des Soulsängers Calvin Scott (Album „I’m not blind… I just can’t see“[227]) oder des jamaikanischen Sänger Funky Brown („Any Day Now“[228]).
Und neben den in der Liston Collection dokumentierten Partituren gibt es wahrscheinlich etliche mehr, für die sie als „ghost writer“ aktiv war, als Arrangeurin, die Stücke „im Stile von“ bearbeiten sollte[229]. Emmett Price III deutet sogar an, dass einige von Quincy Jones‘ Fernseh- oder Filmmusiken wenigstens teilweise von Liston geschrieben worden sein könnten[230]. Tatsächlich gab es ja gar nicht so viele Arrangeure, die in jenen Jahren erfolgreich zwischen den Welten von Popmusik und avanciertem Jazz wechseln konnten: Quincy Jones, Neal Hefti, Ernie Wilkins, Jerome Richardson, Thad Jones, Benny Golson, Oliver Nelson… und Melba Liston.
In conversation with Leonard Feather, she remembers that the realities of the music world in the 1950s and early 1960s had completely confused her: "By the 1960s I was really lost. I just took any job that came along: assembly line writing for Motown, arranging for Eddie Fisher – bless his heart, I don't want to say anything bad about him: he just didn't keep very good time. You certainly didn't mean it badly, it was just natural male chauvinism[232]. All this took her enormously, also in terms of health - she could hardly walk anymore, needed a stick at some point.
But there were also musical bright spots. At the end of the 1960s, for example, Liston founded the publisher Étoile Music Productions together with Phil Woods and Clark Terry, with which they wanted to take their business into their own hands. And again "learning on the job": Liston wrote arrangements for Terry's Big B-A-D band and the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and had to rewrite all the symphonic voices again because their notation did not correspond to the custom in the philharmonic world[233]. Terry still uses the charts when he performs with symphony orchestras, Liston knows how to report in 1980, also because he always gives her royalties for such performances[234].
Auch mit Randy Weston gibt es ein Album, auf dem die Effektivität ihrer Arbeit mit Streichern deutlich wird, „Earth Birth“ von 1995 mit Westons Trio und dem Orchestre du Festival de Jazz de Montréal, einem 25-köpfigen Streicherensemble. 1981 hatte sie bereits ein Arrangement über „Three African Queens“ geschrieben, fürs Boston Pops Orchestra unter John Williams, erinnert sich Weston, das sei die Grundidee für das spätere Album gewesen[235]. In „Hi-Fly“[236] hört man deutlich, wie Liston mit Streichern ähnlich klangmalerische Effekte erreicht wie mit Bläsern: das Spiel mit dunklen und hellen Klängen, mit dem Nachklingen der Akkorde.
„Portrait of Billie Holiday“[237] ist ein Remake von Westons „Cry Me Not“, einem Stück, das Liston bereits 1961 für eine Aufnahme mit Freddie Hubbard arrangiert hatte[238], und es ist ganz aufschlussreich, die beiden Aufnahmen nebeneinander zu hören, den Voicings zu lauschen, die sie mit der dreiköpfigen Bläsergruppe der früheren Aufnahme (Hubbard, Julian Priester, Jimmy Heath) entwickelt, und wie die Möglichkeiten der Streicher sie zu anderen, nicht weniger lyrischen Lösungen animieren.
Jamaica
When she was still in school with Alma Hightower, Melba Liston had told herself, If I am ever retired, I also want to recognize and promote young talents[239]. In 1964, Mary Lou Williams had created a festival in her hometown of Pittsburgh and asked Liston to take over the musical direction on the one hand, and on the other hand to help with the founding of the Pittsburgh Jazz Orchestra[240]. At the same time, the trombone was involved in school projects in Washington, D.C. [241], as well as in New York[242], where she got involved in the initiative Jazz Mobile launched by pianist Billy Taylor or and worked with the Harlem Backstreet Tour Orchestra, but also founded the Youth in Action Orchestra of the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn in Brooklyn<a href="applewebdata://73D6554A-AE59-4F51-
In 1974, her boyfriend Randy Weston took her on a trip to Jamaica. The warm weather and the relaxed atmosphere would have done her good, and when the Minister of Culture offered to head a new department for African American Studies at the Jamaica School of Music, she immediately agreed. She had to fight for her place at the school, for example against the 73-year-old British rector, who already hated the idea that there would now be a lot of Rastafaris running around on campus[244]. Unlike the others, their department should be open to everyone, including the poorer and poorly educated people from the neighborhood[245].
She taught music theory, ear training and led four ensembles and a large Concert Band[246], for which she also composed and arranged - "I write a little above their natural level, but below where I'd really like to be."[247]The repertoire was her own pieces, Ellington's "Caravan", compositions by Herbie Hancock and Oliver Nelson, "Bantu" by Randy Weston as well as local pieces by Jamaican musicians<a href="applewebdata:// In the end, even the colleagues who did not want to have jazz at school at the beginning of their time there were proud of the students with whom she had worked so intensively[249]. She had started at 40, in 1977 there were already 80 students; she now received assistance in her courses and was always able to win American colleagues for workshops, Frank Foster for example, Elvin Jones or Lester Bowie[250]. Among her students was the trombonist Ronald "Nambo" Robinson, who later wrote the arrangement for Bob Marley's "Buffalo Soldier" (1980)[251].
1976 schrieb die Liston Musik zur jamaikanischen Filmkomödie „Smile Orange. The Jamaican Experience“[252], eine Adaption des Theaterstücks „Smile Orange“ über ein drittklassiges Touristenhotel auf der Insel, die Filmmusik angesiedelt irgendwo zwischen Soul, Rhythm ’n‘ Blues, Reggae, Ska, Calypso und ein bisschen Jazz.
Nicht nur lebte Liston bereits seit vier Jahren auf der Insel; sie hatte sehr bewusst ein Department aufgebaut, das den Jazz zwar in den Mittelpunkt stellte, andererseits aber auch ein Bewusstsein für die lokale Kultur behielt. So ist auch die Musik zu verstehen, die sie 1979 für „The Dread Mikado“ schrieb, eine Art jamaikanischer Übersetzung der Gilbert and Sullivan-Operette „The Mikado“, aufgeführt von der Jamaica Musical Theater Company und beeinflusst von einer früheren Fassung „The Black Mikado“, die 1975 in London Erfolge gefeiert hatte[253]. Aufnahmen existieren nicht, aber die Liston Collection in Chicago enthält die darin enthaltenen Songs, die auf jamaikanische Traditionen wie Reggae, Mento und Calypso Bezug nehmen[254].
Return home
In the 1970s, the jazz world in the USA had undergone a change of consciousness. In 1977, the label Stash Records released a double LP under the title "Jazz Women. A Feminist Retrospective"[255], which for the first time drew attention to the contribution of musicians and included, among other things, Liston's "My Reverie" for Dizzy Gillespie. In 1979, two jazz friends from Kansas City organized the first Kansas City Women's Jazz Festival with the help of pianist Marian McPartland and critic Leonard Feather to draw attention to the presence of musicians on the jazz scene. They contacted Liston in Jamaica, and it took almost a year of persuasion – on the island she had barely touched her instrument[256]. At the rehearsals of the All-Stars, with whom she was to play, she was unnerved by the rhythm group and only relaxed when Marian McPartland replaced the originally planned pianist in the trio with bassist Carol Kaye. In the end, the audience cheered and the success encouraged Liston to think about returning to the United States[257], especially as the political situation in Jamaica escalated: "It was a war going on down there. The money had dropped down to zilch."[258]
Back in the USA, she misses her students, "all my children", as she called them, but also remembers how she missed writing for "more advanced musicians" there[259]. In New York, she founded the septet Melba Liston and Company, a women's band with two trombones (Liston and Janice Robinson), two saxophones plus rhythm group (no trumpets, which, it was said, would scare her[260]). There are no official recordings of this cast; in a radio profile about Liston you can hear at least a short excerpt from her composition "Ben Loves Lu"[261]. The band's repertoire: Swing and Bebop, pieces by Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, Fats Waller, Patti Bown, Mary Lou Williams and herself. Soon the cast changed; Britt Woodman came for Janice Robinson; every now and then a horn was added; in any case, Liston made sure that he always had musicians with him who made their very special timbre possible[262]. In the early 1980s, the band traveled to China and Malaysia. Liston, who had been on the stick for years, liked to drink - "she had a taste for hard liquor", as Dottie Dodgion, the band's drummer, remembers[263]. You may have the fact in mind when you find a gin drink in a recipe book about cocktails, which is called "Mischievous Lady" in honor"[264]. Melba Liston & Company existed in different casts[265] and with diminishing quality, as even Dodgion admits, until 1983[266].
In 1985, Liston was asked to arrange the music for a Eubie Blake tribute at the Kool Jazz Festival in New York, which did not come about due to lack of finances[267]. When she suffered her first stroke in April 1985, she was working on a reggae album that she had already started in Jamaica. She also planned to get more into the jazz education business, introduce young people to the evolution of jazz and give workshops for arrangers[268].
After the Stroke
On the 1st In April 1985, Liston suffered his first stroke[269]. In November and December she was able to conduct concerts again, including one at the Jazz Center on Lafayette Street in East Village[270]. Further strokes eventually led to right-sided paralysis, memory loss and speech disorders. Her trombone had been stolen from her in New York just as she was thinking about learning to play the instrument with her left hand[271]. Good friends, including Randy Weston and bassist Major Holley, organized a charity concert in Los Angeles in October 1990. With the proceeds, she bought a computer and learned to use it for arranging[272]. One of the first albums thus created is Weston's double CD "The Spirits of Our Ancestors"[273], recorded in May 1991, once again an album with a clear reference to Africa, on which this time Dizzy Gillespie and Pharoah Sanders join the band as guests. In the meantime, Weston had spent a lot of time in Morocco and dealt with the music of the Gnawa musicians. On "Spirits" there is a Gnawa piece with singer and Genbri player Yassir Chadly, as well as Weston's "Blue Moses", which is based on a Gnawa spiritual (with Sanders) and "African Sunrise", a composition for (and with) Dizzy Gillespie. The album contains solo numbers, improvisations and some pieces arranged by Liston using the computer, among which "The Call" stands out in particular, which features the percussionist Big Black with a Yoruba rhythm.
The next Weston-Liston-was the CD "Volcano Blues"[274], recorded in February 1993 and released under both names. The whole album is a celebration of the blues with musicians of different generations. In addition to Weston and Charli Persip, Weston's band is the alto saxophonist Talib Kibwe and the trombonist Benny Powell, but also the trumpeter Wallace Roney as well as older colleagues such as the saxophonist Teddy Edwards and the guitarist and singer Johnny Copeland. Liston's arrangement of the "Chalabati Blues" is limited to wind insertions, which live from the alternation of darker (trombone, baritone saxophone) and light tones (flute, soprano saxophone). Also in the "Penny Packer Blues" and in the finally swinging "Blues for Elma Lewis" you can hear the entire range between the deepest and highest instrument.
They're so accustomed to all the reeds playing this way, and all the trumpets playing this way, so when they get my arrangement, the saxophone might be playing with the trombones, this one might be playing with the trumpets, and the mixture slows things up. Every now and then I get some kind of funny remarks from the dudes – 'Why can't you write like everybody else?' But then, after they get used to it, they find out that they like it very much.[275] In "The Nafs" a reduced arrangement kicks the solo parts of Hamiet Bluiett and Weston. Two Count Basie numbers ("Volcano", "Harvard Blues") conjure up the riff tradition from Liston's hometown of Kansas City. Weston's "Blues for Strayhorn" animates Liston to quiet pitches, in which she tickles a maximum of timbres from the five winds.
She reflects on her composition process years later: "I usually sort of meditate on it for a long time, and get an idea or a plan in my head, and then I will go to the keyboard and work at it, and search for moods and colors to give the feeling of whatever the story is that I'm trying to tell."[276] Already in school she was bored with the trombone parts, then preferred to play the baritone saxophone or the cello part, because they had more beautiful, more melodious lines. "Whenever I wrote something, I always tried to make the lines individually beautiful so the player could put more feeling into it (...) So I try to make all the parts sort of free and special. Melodic.[277]
The last album she was supposed to be active for was Randy Weston's "Khepera", music with which Weston wanted to pay tribute to the spiritual traditions of Africa, a mixture of West African polyrhythmics with brass sounds and profound chord clusters[278]. His trio is complemented by wind players such as Talib Kibwe, Benny Powell and Pharoah Sanders, as well as the African master drummer Chief Bey and the Chinese Pipa player Min Xiao Fen. Here you will find a new version of the "Niger Mambo" from the LP "Music from The New African Nations" with a Kibwes alto saxophone solo, which in places sounds almost like a North African double wind instrument. We were blessed, because although there was segregation, we had the best of everything, the blues and black church, the jazz, calypso... We had all of that experience. Melba's able to describe all of that in her arrangements. So if I say, 'Okay Melba, we're going to Jamaica today,' she's going to write about Jamaica, or I say, 'We're going to the Congo, to Mississippi...'[279]
„You do the singing, I’ll do the arrangements!“
The singer Leon Thomas remembers how he appeared rather unprepared at a rehearsal with Art Blakey at the end of the 1950s. Melba Liston was also in the studio, had brought arrangements and encouraged him: "You do the singing, I'll do the arrangements!". She knew that her duties included providing the soloists with some freedom. She was an arranger, conductor, musical director of numerous sessions. "If you take care of your music," Liston continued in her encouragement of the young singer, "the music will take care of you."[280] Nice note, which, however, did not quite apply to herself. Except for a single album under her own name, she wrote her music only for other colleagues.
Liston knew about the problems you faced as a black female instrumentalist on the jazz scene: "First you are a jazz musician, then you are black, then you are female. I mean it goes down the line like that. We 're like the bottom of the heap."[281] Finally, she expressed her frustration with the music business quite clearly: "Bebop will be here, but whites will be playing it. We didn't teach our children to love the music. You can still get involved as often as she had done in different organizations[282], the system would always win[283].
Randy Weston delighted her translucent openness despite her shyness. The naturalness that had already fascinated him when they first met, when Liston was still playing in Dizzy Gillespie's big band, was also perceived outside the music world. The illustrated Jet and Ebony addressed to an African-American readership, for example, showed photos of Liston and especially highlighted the "natural look" of her hair (similar to Odetta and Abbey Lincoln, by the way). In Jet it says concretely: "Melba Liston had her own unique way of dramatizing the aims of the confab (resolve problems concerning jobs, race bias and the Negro image). Her gimmick: She allowed her hair to revert to its natural state to express her 'nationalistic' views.[284]
She has been married three times, reveals Melba Liston. Each time she put her instrument aside and tried to just be a wife[285]. The first man was then in the army for three years, when he returned, she didn't think about giving up her gig and just returning to him. She met her second husband Jason around 1949/50. Also because of him she had given up the tour and accepted an office job. The marriage lasted a few years, but when Gillespie brought her into his new big band, she didn't say no. Her third husband was Nell Harris, whom she married in 1969 (and to whom she dedicated her composition "Len Sirrah" as early as 1965)[286]). But even that didn't hold[287].
After her first stroke, Melba Liston was honored several times, received the Mary Lou Williams Award from the Kennedy Center in 1986 and was named NEA Jazz Master by the National Endowment for the Arts in 1987. She died on the 23rd. April 1999 in Los Angeles at the age of 73 as a result of her various strokes.
[1] Dalia Pagani: Melba Liston. Interview, in: Cadence, 11/5 (May 1985): 11
[2] „She could write most of the guys under the table without trying, and I’m talking about some of the best out there.“ Zit nach: Erica Kaplan: Melba Liston. It’s All From My Soul, in: The Antioch Review, 57/3 (Summer 1999): 415
[3] Leonard Feather: JAZZ. Melba Liston: Tribute to Jazz Pioneer, in: Los Angeles Times <www.latimes.com>, 14. October 1990
[4] Clora Bryant: Melba Liston. NEA Jazz Master (1987). Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Programm (1996)
[5] Leslie Gourse: Melba Liston. Magnificent trombone obsession, in: New York Amsterdam News, 20. Juni 1981: 36
[6] Dalia Pagani: Melba Liston. Interview, in: Cadence, 11/5 (May 1985): 5
[7] Dalia Pagani: Melba Liston. Interview, in: Cadence, 11/5 (May 1985): 5
[8] Stan Woolley: Melba Liston. The trombonist, arranger and composer talks to Stan Woolley, in: Jazz Journal, 40/2 (Februar 1987): 20
[9] W. Royal Stokes: The Essential W. Royal Stokes Jazz, Blues, and Beyond Reader, Elkins/WV 2020 (Hannah Books): 107
[10] Erica Kaplan: Melba Liston. It’s All From My Soul, in: The Antioch Review, 57/3 (Summer 1999): 417
[11] Leslie Gourse: Melba Liston. Magnificent trombone obsession, in: New York Amsterdam News, 20. Juni 1981: 36
[12] Linda Dahl: Stormy Weather. The Music and Lives of a Century of Jazzwomen, New York 1984 (Pantheon Books): 252
[13] W. Royal Stokes: The Essential W. Royal Stokes Jazz, Blues, and Beyond Reader, Elkins/WV 2020 (Hannah Books): 107
[14] Linda Dahl: Stormy Weather. The Music and Lives of a Century of Jazzwomen, New York 1984 (Pantheon Books): 253
[15] Eric Porter: „Out of the Blue“. Black Creative Musicians and the Challenge of Jazz, 1940-1995, Ann Arbor/MI 1997 (The University of Michigan): 44
[16] Erica Kaplan: Melba Liston. It’s All From My Soul, in: The Antioch Review, 57/3 (Summer 1999): 417
[17] W. Royal Stokes: The Essential W. Royal Stokes Jazz, Blues, and Beyond Reader, Elkins/WV 2020 (Hannah Books): 108
[18] Dalia Pagani: Melba Liston. Interview, in: Cadence, 11/5 (May 1985): 5
[19] Paul F. Berliner: Thinking in Jazz. The Infinite Art of Improvisation, Chicago 1994 (University of Chicago Press): 38
[20] Paul F. Berliner: Thinking in Jazz. The Infinite Art of Improvisation, Chicago 1994 (University of Chicago Press): 96
[21] Maxine Gordon: Sophisticated Giant. The Life and Legacy of Dexter Gordon, Oakland/CA 2019 (University of California Press): 85
[22] Paul F. Berliner: Thinking in Jazz. The Infinite Art of Improvisation, Chicago 1994 (University of Chicago Press): 97
[23] Dalia Pagani: Melba Liston. Interview, in: Cadence, 11/5 (May 1985): 6
[24] Bob Bach: Hall of Fame, Ella Fitzgerald. The First Lady of Song. Everybody who is anybody in the music business agrees that Ella is the greatest but still she isn’t on the air: Bob Bach gives the subject an airing, in: Metronome, 63/11 (November 1947): 20-23; reprint, in: Leslie Gourse: The Ella Fitzgerald Companion. Seven Decades of Commentary, New York 1998 (Schirmer Books): 42-46; hier: 45
[25] Clora Bryant et al (eds.): Central Avenue Sounds. Jazz in Los Angeles, Berkeley/CA 1998 (University of California Press): 257
[26] Linda Dahl: Stormy Weather. The Music and Lives of a Century of Jazzwomen, New York 1984 (Pantheon Books): 254
[27] Clora Bryant et al (eds.): Central Avenue Sounds. Jazz in Los Angeles, Berkeley/CA 1998 (University of California Press) 257
[28] Frank Ténot: Melba Liston. „Je ne suis pas une femme, mais un musicien“, in: Jazz Magazine, May 1956: 9
[29] Monica Hairston O’Connell & Sherrie Tucker: Not One to Toot Her Own Horn (?). Melba Liston’s Oral Histories and Classroom Presentations, in: Black Music Research Journal, 34/1 (Spring 2014): 140
[30] Benjamin S. Page: A Toast to Melba, in: Down Beat, 28/1 (5 Januar 1961): 19: „It wasn’t enough that they had to bring a female here to play. They had to bring a child.“
[31] Linda Dahl: Stormy Weather. The Music and Lives of a Century of Jazzwomen, New York 1984 (Pantheon Books): 255
[32] Clora Bryant et al (eds.): Central Avenue Sounds. Jazz in Los Angeles, Berkeley/CA 1998 (University of California Press): 258; Dalia Pagani: Melba Liston. Interview, in: Cadence, 11/5 (May 1985): 6
[33] Nancy Wilson: NPR Jazz Profile. Melba Liston: Bones Of An Arranger, 9. Juli 2008. https://www.npr.org/2008/07/09/92349036/melba-liston-bones-of-an-arranger (aufgerufen am 28. Dezember 2025)
[34] Donica L. Stein: Clora Bryant. Gender Issues in the Career of a West Coast Jazz Musician, in: Jacqueline Cogdell DjeDje & Eddie S. Meadows (eds.): California Soul. Music of African Americans in the West, Berkeley/CA 1998 (University of California Press): 285
[35] Clora Bryant et al (eds.): Central Avenue Sounds. Jazz in Los Angeles, Berkeley/CA 1998 (University of California Press): 334
[36] Linda Dahl: Stormy Weather. The Music and Lives of a Century of Jazzwomen, New York 1984 (Pantheon Books): 255
[37] John S. Wilson: Melba Liston Returns With Horns and Baton, in: New York Times, 6. Juni 1980: C5; siehe auch: Paul F. Berliner: Thinking in Jazz. The Infinite Art of Improvisation, Chicago 1994 (University of Chicago Press): 290
[38] Paul F. Berliner: Thinking in Jazz. The Infinite Art of Improvisation, Chicago 1994 (University of Chicago Press): 290
[39] Gerald Wilson Orchestra: „Warm Mood“, Los Angeles 1946. Black & White 778. https://youtu.be/WGmvZASzVuU (aufgerufen am 21. Dezember 2025)
[40] Gerald Wilson Orchestra: „Love Me a Long, Long Time“, Los Angeles 1945. Exclusive 150. https://youtu.be/I8MPS5bWM78 (aufgerufen am 21. Dezember 2025)
[41] Gerald Wilson Orchestra: „The Saint“. Los Angeles, 1946. B&W 813. https://youtu.be/kmBRycPE2Is (aufgerufen am 26. Dezember 2025)
[42] Gerald Wilson Orchestra: „The Moors“. Los Angeles, 1946. B&W 813. https://youtu.be/qiFvpG8458M (aufgerufen am 26. Dezember 2025)
[43] Gerald Wilson Orchestra: „One O’Clock Jump“, Los Angeles 1946. Black & White 778. https://youtu.be/1tSyntKa7TU (aufgerufen am 21. Dezember 2025)
[44] W. Royal Stokes: The Essential W. Royal Stokes Jazz, Blues, and Beyond Reader, Elkins/WV 2020 (Hannah Books): 108
[45] Wilbert Baranco Orchestra: „Baranco Boogie“, AFRS Jubilee, Januar 1946. Hep 15. https://youtu.be/H_iAGjt-Dng (aufgerufen am 21. Dezember 2025)
[46] Jack McVea: „Reetie Vootie Boogie“. Los Angeles, October 1946 (Black & White 809). https://youtu.be/VY3ajiPJB-w (aufgerufen am 31. Dezember 2025)
[47] Maxine Gordon: Sophisticated Giant. The Life and Legacy of Dexter Gordon, Oakland/CA 2019 (University of California Press): 77
[48] Dexter Gordon: „Lullaby in Rhythm“, Hollywood, 5. Juni 1947. Dial 1038. https://youtu.be/2OMj71LUjy8 (aufgerufen am 21. Dezember 2025)
[49] Dexter Gordon: „Mischievous Lady“, Hollywood, 5. Juni 1947. Dial 1018. https://youtu.be/U37oh5Yr4GM (aufgerufen am 21. Dezember 2025)
[50] Maxine Gordon: Sophisticated Giant. The Life and Legacy of Dexter Gordon, Oakland/CA 2019 (University of California Press): 77
[51] Maxine Gordon: Sophisticated Giant. The Life and Legacy of Dexter Gordon, Oakland/CA 2019 (University of California Press): 79
[52] Stan Woolley: Melba Liston. The trombonist, arranger and composer talks to Stan Woolley, in: Jazz Journal, 40/2 (Februar 1987): 20
[53] Paul F. Berliner: Thinking in Jazz. The Infinite Art of Improvisation, Chicago 1994 (University of Chicago Press): 208
[54] W. Royal Stokes: The Essential W. Royal Stokes Jazz, Blues, and Beyond Reader, Elkins/WV 2020 (Hannah Books): 108
[55] Frank Ténot: Melba Liston. „Je ne suis pas une femme, mais un musicien“, in: Jazz Magazine, May 1956: 9
[56] Benjamin S. Page: A Toast to Melba, in: Down Beat, 28/1 (5 Januar 1961): 18
[57] Frank Ténot: Melba Liston. „Je ne suis pas une femme, mais un musicien“, in: Jazz Magazine, May 1956: 9
[58] Leonard Feather: A Toast to Melba, in: Jazz Forum, #61 (1979): 39
[59] Leonard Feather: A Toast to Melba, in: Jazz Forum, #61 (1979): 39
[60] Maxine Gordon: Sophisticated Giant. The Life and Legacy of Dexter Gordon, Oakland/CA 2019 (University of California Press): 82
[61] Dalia Pagani: Melba Liston. Interview, in: Cadence, 11/5 (May 1985): 6
[62] Count Basie: „Just an Old Manuscript“, Los Angeles, 11. April 1949. Victor LPM1112. https://youtu.be/IUufGROUB_I (aufgerufen am 21. Dezember 2025)
[63] Sally Placksin: American Women in Jazz, 1900 to the Present. Their Words, Lives, and Music, New York 1982 (Seaview Books): 180
[64] Paul F. Berliner: Thinking in Jazz. The Infinite Art of Improvisation, Chicago 1994 (University of Chicago Press): 445
[65] Dizzy Gillespie (& Al Fraser): To Be Or Not To Bop. Memoirs – Dizzy Gillespie, Garden City/NY 1979 (Doubleday & Company): 356; Clora Bryant et al (eds.): Central Avenue Sounds. Jazz in Los Angeles, Berkeley/CA 1998 (University of California Press): 259
[66] Clora Bryant: Melba Liston. NEA Jazz Master (1987). Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Programm (1996)
[67] Stan Woolley: Melba Liston. The trombonist, arranger and composer talks to Stan Woolley, in: Jazz Journal, 40/2 (Februar 1987): 20
[68] Dalia Pagani: Melba Liston. Interview, in: Cadence, 11/5 (May 1985): 6-7
[69] Dalia Pagani: Melba Liston. Interview, in: Cadence, 11/5 (May 1985): 7
[70] Stan Woolley: Melba Liston. The trombonist, arranger and composer talks to Stan Woolley, in: Jazz Journal, 40/2 (Februar 1987): 20
[71] Sally Placksin: American Women in Jazz, 1900 to the Present. Their Words, Lives, and Music, New York 1982 (Seaview Books): 181; Clora Bryant et al (eds.): Central Avenue Sounds. Jazz in Los Angeles, Berkeley/CA 1998 (University of California Press): 259; in einem anderen Interview nennt fälschlicherweise sie North Carolina: Dalia Pagani: Melba Liston. Interview, in: Cadence, 11/5 (May 1985): 7
[72] Julia Blackburn: With Billie, London 2005 (Jonathan Cape): 240
[73] Julia Blackburn: With Billie, London 2005 (Jonathan Cape): 243-244
[74] Julia Blackburn: With Billie, London 2005 (Jonathan Cape): 244-245
[75] Stan Woolley: Melba Liston. The trombonist, arranger and composer talks to Stan Woolley, in: Jazz Journal, 40/2 (Februar 1987): 20
[76] Julia Blackburn: With Billie, London 2005 (Jonathan Cape): 246-247
[77] Die Geschichte wurde oft wiederholt, statt North Carolina wurde gern Charleston, South Carolina, als Endpunkt der misslungenen Tournee angegeben.
[78] Leslie Gourse: Melba Liston. Magnificent trombone obsession, in: New York Amsterdam News, 20. Juni 1981: 36
[79] Steven Isoardi: Interview of Melba Liston. UCLA Library. Center for Oral History Research. 12. September 1992. https://oralhistory.library.ucla.edu/catalog/21198-zz0008zqzt?counter=36 (aufgerufen am 26. Dezember 2025)
[80] Clora Bryant et al (eds.): Central Avenue Sounds. Jazz in Los Angeles, Berkeley/CA 1998 (University of California Press): 259
[81] Monica Hairston O’Connell & Sherrie Tucker: Not One to Toot Her Own Horn (?). Melba Liston’s Oral Histories and Classroom Presentations, in: Black Music Research Journal, 34/1 (Spring 2014): 143
[82] Leonard Feather: Linernotes, „Melba Liston and Her ‚Bones“. New York, Dezember 1958 (Jazz Workshop JW109); W. Royal Stokes: The Essential W. Royal Stokes Jazz, Blues, and Beyond Reader, Elkins/WV 2020 (Hannah Books): 108
[83] Clora Bryant: Melba Liston. NEA Jazz Master (1987). Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Programm (1996): 14-15
[84] Wiederveröffentlicht auf „The Mercury Blues ‚N‘ Rhythm Story 1945-1955“ (Mercury 314 528 292-2), CD6 von 8 (1996)
[85] Clora Bryant: Melba Liston. NEA Jazz Master (1987). Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Programm (1996): 23. Vgl. https://youtu.be/FM1BIJmGCXo (ca. ab 23:48) (aufgerufen am 22. Dezember 2025)
[86] Frank Ténot: Melba Liston. „Je ne suis pas une femme, mais un musicien“, in: Jazz Magazine, May 1956: 9
[87] Dalia Pagani: Melba Liston. Interview, in: Cadence, 11/5 (May 1985): 6
[88] Linda Dahl: Stormy Weather. The Music and Lives of a Century of Jazzwomen, New York 1984 (Pantheon Books): 255-256
[89] Paul Ward Perry: Music. Melba Liston’s Slide to Success, in: The New Crisis, Mar/Apr.2000: 38
[90] John S. Wilson: Melba Liston Is Mostly Unseen. Jazz Trombonist at Basin Street East Avoids Limelight, in: New York Times, 20. October 1961: 40
[91] Dalia Pagani: Melba Liston. Interview, in: Cadence, 11/5 (May 1985): 8
[92] Dizzy Gillespie: „Annie’s Dance“. New York, 25. Mai bis 6. Juni 1956 (Verve MGV8017). https://youtu.be/YtQo7jHAZ3w (aufgerufen am 22. Dezember 2025)
[93] Darren Mueller: At the Vanguard of Vinyl. A Cultural History of the Long-Playing Record in Jazz, Durham/NC 2015 (Duke University): 167. Dizzy Gillespie: „My Reverie“. New York, 25.Mai bis 6. Juni 1956 (Norgran MGN1084). https://youtu.be/YDgPVaPA7VI (aufgerufen am 22. Dezember 2025)
[94] Dizzy Gillespie: „If You Could See Me Now“. New York, 7. April 1957 (Verve MGV8222). https://youtu.be/zZPoj9rDCOI (aufgerufen am 22. Dezember 2025)
[95] Dizzy Gillespie Big Band: „Somewhere Over the Rainbow“. New York, 7.April 1957. Verve MGV8222. https://youtu.be/8TcHUwvcYDE(aufgerufen am 28. Dezember 2025)
[96] Dizzy Gillespie: „You’ll Be Sorry“. New York, Juli 1957 (Verve 527900-2). https://youtu.be/YtQo7jHAZ3w (aufgerufen am 22. Dezember 2025)
[97] Erica Kaplan: Melba Liston. It’s All From My Soul, in: The Antioch Review, 57/3 (Summer 1999): 424
[98] Eric Porter: „Out of the Blue“. Black Creative Musicians and the Challenge of Jazz, 1940-1995, Ann Arbor/MI 1997 (The University of Michigan): 58-59
[99] Martin Williams: Ernie Henry: Last Chorus (Riverside RLP 12-266), in: Down Beat, 25. Dezember 1958: 34
[100] Ernie Henry: „Melba’s Tune“. New York, 23. September 1957 (Riverside RLP12-248). https://youtu.be/DOcT9iooEpo (aufgerufen am 26. Dezember 2025)
[101] Leonard Feather: The New Melba, in: Melody Maker, 7. Juli 1956: 5: „Melba says she has managed to escape one peculiar form of imprisonment that threatens most feminine musicians: she has never workd in an all-girl band!“
[102] NN: Melba Liston Quintet Tops Lounge Card, in: Pittsburgh Courier, 8. November 1958: 20
[103] Benjamin S. Page: A Toast to Melba, in: Down Beat, 28/1 (5 Januar 1961): 19
[104] John S. Wilson: Melba Liston Returns With Horns and Baton, in: New York Times, 6. Juni 1980: C5
[105] John S. Wilson: Melba Liston Is Mostly Unseen. Jazz Trombonist at Basin Street East Avoids Limelight, in: New York Times, 20. October 1961: 40
[106] John S. Wilson: Melba Liston Returns With Horns and Baton, in: New York Times, 6. Juni 1980: C5
[107] Linda Dahl: Stormy Weather. The Music and Lives of a Century of Jazzwomen, New York 1984 (Pantheon Books): 257
[108] Benjamin S. Page: A Toast to Melba, in: Down Beat, 28/1 (5 Januar 1961): 18
[109] Art Blakey Big Band: „Late Date“. New York, Dezember 1957 (Bethlehem BCP6027). https://youtu.be/cATxoaPooK0 (aufgerufen am 28. Dezember 2025)
[110] Melba Liston, in: Nancy Wilson: NPR Jazz Profile. Melba Liston: Bones Of An Arranger, 9. Juli 2008. https://www.npr.org/2008/07/09/92349036/melba-liston-bones-of-an-arranger (aufgerufen am 29. Dezember 2025)
[111] Dinah Washington: „Crazy Love“. Newport Jazz Festival, 6. Juli 1958 (EmRacy MG36141). https://youtu.be/ZBXLooODZz8 (aufgerufen am 24. Dezember 2025)
[112] Gloria Lynne: „We Never Kissed“. New York, September 1959 (Everest LPBR5063). https://youtu.be/pQaSJcZ8Hjw (aufgerufen am 24. Dezember 2025)
[113] Cheryl L. Keyes: „We Never Kissed“. A Date with Melba and Strings, in: Black Music Research Journal, 34/1 (Spring 2014): 58
[114] Benjamin S. Page: A Toast to Melba, in: Down Beat, 28/1 (5 Januar 1961): 19
[115] Gloria Lynne: „Love, I’ve Found You“. New York, September 1959 (Everest LPBR5063). https://youtu.be/PudaR8DPvYY (aufgerufen am 28. Dezember 2025)
[116] Clora Bryant: Melba Liston. NEA Jazz Master (1987). Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Programm (1996): 54
[117] Babs Gonzalez: I Paid My Dues. Good Times… No Bread. A Story of Jazz, East Orange/NJ 1967 (Expubidence Publishing Corp.): 134
[118] Babs Gonzalez: „Voilà!“. New York, 16. Juli 1958 (Hope LP1). https://youtu.be/91Ry-hSUX4g (aufgerufen am 25. Dezember 2025)
[119] Babs Gonzalez: „Tales of Manhattan“. New York, 1959 (Jaro JAM5000). https://youtu.be/EVP0trtZ1-Y (aufgerufen am 25. Dezember 2025)
[120] Johnny Griffin: „It’s that Old Devil Called Love“. New York, 14. Juli 1961 (Riverside RLP 387). https://youtu.be/bVtH6b8ICEo (aufgerufen am 25. Dezember 2025)
[121] Johnny Griffin: „White Gardenia“. New York, 14. Juli 1961 (Riverside RLP 387). https://youtu.be/gTLXSLc3Gq4 (aufgerufen am 25. Dezember 2025)
[122] Charles Mingus: „Peggy’s Blue Skylight“. Town Hall, New York, 12. Oktober 1962 (Blue Note CDP7.8 28353-2). https://youtu.be/f4fj1gFqPck (aufgerufen am 26. Dezember 2025)
[123] Gene Santoro: Myself, When I Am Real. The Life and Music of Charles Mingus, New York 2000 (Oxford University Press): 203
[124] Dakota Staton: „Live and Swinging“. Newport Jazz Festival, 7. Juli 1963 (United Artists UAL3312)
[125] Milt Jackson: „The Days of Wine and Roses“. New York, 5. August 1963 (Riverside RM478). https://youtu.be/KlTTFxD77f0 (aufgerufen am 25. Dezember 2025)
[126] Milt Jackson: „Just Waiting“. New York, 5. August 1963 (Riverside RM478). https://youtu.be/CJdTGL8-rI4 (aufgerufen am 25. Dezember 2025)
[127] Milt Jackson: „Flamingo“. New York, 18. März 1963 (Riverside RM478). https://youtu.be/W8mLdNyPPWI (aufgerufen am 25. Dezember 2025)
[128] Tammy L. Kernodle: Soul on Soul. The Life and Music of Mary Lou Williams, Boston 2004 (Northeastern University Press): 188
[129] Dizzy Gillespie: „Zodiac Suite: Virgo / Libra / Aries“. Newport Jazz Festival, 6. Juli 1957 (Verve MGV8244). https://youtu.be/vSJf5UkqBD0 (aufgerufen am 26. Dezember 2025)
[130] Dizzy Gillespie: „Carioca“. Newport Jazz Festival, 6. Juli 1957 (Verve MGV8244). https://youtu.be/SFKQJb-BLcE (aufgerufen am 26. Dezember 2025)
[131] Vgl. auch: Tammy L. Kernodle: Black Women Working Together. Jazz, Gender, and the Politics of Validation, in: Black Music Research Journal, 34/1 (Spring 2014): 44
[132] „Mary Lou Williams presents Black Christ of the Andes“. New York, 9. Oktober 1963 (Mary Records M-101). https://youtu.be/I_LcpXEA0W4 (aufgerufen am 26. Dezember 2025)
[133] Leonard Feather: Linernotes, „Melba Liston and Her ‚Bones“. New York, Dezember 1958 (Jazz Workshop JW109)
[134] Quincy Jones: Q. The Autobiography of Quincy Jones, New York 2001 (Doubleday): 136
[135] Quincy Jones: Q. The Autobiography of Quincy Jones, New York 2001 (Doubleday): 138
[136] Dalia Pagani: Melba Liston. Interview, in: Cadence, 11/5 (May 1985): 9
[137] Stan Woolley: Melba Liston. The trombonist, arranger and composer talks to Stan Woolley, in: Jazz Journal, 40/2 (Februar 1987): 21
[138] Dalia Pagani: Melba Liston. Interview, in: Cadence, 11/5 (May 1985): 9
[139] John S. Wilson: Melba Liston Is Mostly Unseen. Jazz Trombonist at Basin Street East Avoids Limelight, in: New York Times, 20. October 1961: 40
[140] https://youtu.be/pjtdLeaul4M (aufgerufen am 24. Dezember 2025)
[141] https://youtu.be/pjtdLeaul4M ab 1:04:45 (aufgerufen am 24. Dezember 2025)
[142] Quincy Jones: Q. The Autobiography of Quincy Jones, New York 2001 (Doubleday): 144
[143] Leslie Gourse: Melba Liston. Magnificent trombone obsession, in: New York Amsterdam News, 20. Juni 1981: 36
[144] Dalia Pagani: Melba Liston. Interview, in: Cadence, 11/5 (May 1985): 8
[145] Randy Weston (with Willard Jenkins): African Rhythms. The Autobiography of Randy Weston, Durham/NC 2010 (Duke University Press): 73
[146] Jack R. Marchbanks: Pride and Protest in Letters and Song. Jazz Artists and Writers during the Civil Rights Movement, 1955-1965, Athens/OH 2018 [PhD thesis: Ohio University]: 179-182
[147] Erica Kaplan: Melba Liston. It’s All From My Soul, in: The Antioch Review, 57/3 (Summer 1999): 415-416
[148] Randdy Weston: „Earth Birth“. New York, Oktober 1958 (United Artists UAL4011). https://youtu.be/7HAos9niM1g (aufgerufen am 23. Dezember 2025)
[149] Randy Weston (with Willard Jenkins): African Rhythms. The Autobiography of Randy Weston, Durham/NC 2010 (Duke University Press): 224
[150] Randy Weston (with Willard Jenkins): African Rhythms. The Autobiography of Randy Weston, Durham/NC 2010 (Duke University Press): 76
[151] Zan Stewart: Melba Liston & Randy Weston. The Spirit of Colaboration, in: Down Beat, 62/2 (Februar 1995): 23
[152] Randy Weston (with Willard Jenkins): African Rhythms. The Autobiography of Randy Weston, Durham/NC 2010 (Duke University Press): 74
[153] Randy Weston (with Willard Jenkins): African Rhythms. The Autobiography of Randy Weston, Durham/NC 2010 (Duke University Press): 73
[154] Randy Weston (with Willard Jenkins): African Rhythms. The Autobiography of Randy Weston, Durham/NC 2010 (Duke University Press): 75
[155] Lisa Barg: Taking Care of Music. Gender, Arranging, and Collaboration in the Weston-Liston Partnership, in: Black Music Research Journal, 34/1 (Spring 2014): 104
[156] Randy Weston (with Willard Jenkins): African Rhythms. The Autobiography of Randy Weston, Durham/NC 2010 (Duke University Press): 75
[157] Randy Weston, in: Nancy Wilson: NPR Jazz Profile. Melba Liston: Bones Of An Arranger, 9. Juli 2008. https://www.npr.org/2008/07/09/92349036/melba-liston-bones-of-an-arranger (aufgerufen am 28. Dezember 2025)
[158] Nancy Wilson: NPR Jazz Profile. Melba Liston: Bones Of An Arranger, 9. Juli 2008. https://www.npr.org/2008/07/09/92349036/melba-liston-bones-of-an-arranger (aufgerufen am 28. Dezember 2025)
[159] Frank Rehak Sextet / Alex Smith Quintet: „Jazzville, Vol. 2“. New York, Juni 1956 (Dawn DLP1107)
[160] „Melba Liston and Her ‚Bones“. New York, Dezember 1958 (Jazz Workshop JW109)
[161] Burt Korall: lLinernotes, in: Frank Rehak Sextet / Alex Smith Quintet: „Jazzville, Vol. 2“. New York, Juni 1956 (Dawn DLP1107)
[162] Frank Rehak Sextet: „Insomnia“. New York, Juni 1956 (Dawn DLP 1107). https://youtu.be/pQaSJcZ8Hjw (aufgerufen am 24. Dezember 2025)
[163] Melba Liston: „Wonder Why“. New York, 24. Dezember 1958 (Jazz Workshop JW109). https://youtu.be/BnyaecKPnmk (aufgerufen am 24. Dezember 2025)
[164] Melba Liston: „Christmas Eve“. New York, 24. Dezember 1958 (Jazz Workshop JW109). https://youtu.be/hcJdPuLvvJA (aufgerufen am 24. Dezember 2025)
[165] Melba Liston, in: Nancy Wilson: NPR Jazz Profile. Melba Liston: Bones Of An Arranger, 9. Juli 2008. https://www.npr.org/2008/07/09/92349036/melba-liston-bones-of-an-arranger (aufgerufen am 29. Dezember 2025)
[166] Vi Redd, in: Nancy Wilson: NPR Jazz Profile. Melba Liston: Bones Of An Arranger, 9. Juli 2008. https://www.npr.org/2008/07/09/92349036/melba-liston-bones-of-an-arranger (aufgerufen am 29. Dezember 2025)
[167] Ira Gitler: Melba Liston – „And Her ‚Bones“ (Metrojazz), in: Down Beat, 27/18 (1. September 1960): 37
[168] Randy Weston: „I Say Hello“. New York, Mai 1959 (United Artists UAL4045). https://youtu.be/RE7C4wbd7uc (aufgerufen am 23. Dezember 2025)
[169] Randy Weston (with Willard Jenkins): African Rhythms. The Autobiography of Randy Weston, Durham/NC 2010 (Duke University Press): 95
[170] The Riverside Jazz Stars: „Penny Plain“. New York, 31. Oktober / 1. November 1961 (Riverside RLP397). https://youtu.be/glwdzGVkqnE(aufgerufen am 25. Dezember 2025)
[171] The Riverside Jazz Stars: „Willow Willow Willow“. New York, 31. Oktober / 1. November 1961 (Riverside RLP397). https://youtu.be/oaYmQ8L3yg0 (aufgerufen am 25. Dezember 2025)
[172] Down Beat, 15. Februar 1962: 30
[173] Harvey Pekar: Junior Mance. The Soul of Hollywood (Jazzland 63), in: Down Beat, 19. Juli 1962: 42
[174] Junior Mance: „Never on Sunday“. New York, Oktober, Dezember 1961, Januar 1962 (Jazzland JLP63). https://youtu.be/JDCZQqR_8KQ(aufgerufen am 26. Dezember 2025)
[175] The Metronomes: „Something Big!“. New York 1962 (Jazzland JLP 78). https://youtu.be/vr2zAB3o5Xs (aufgerufen am 26. Dezember 2025)
[176] Linernotes, The Metronomes: „Something Big!“. New York 1962 (Jazzland JLP 78)
[177] NN: Linernotes, Randy Weston, Live at the Fivespot (United Artists UAL 4066), 1959
[178] Ira Gitler: Randy Weston, Live at the Five Spot (United Artists UAL 4066), in: Down Beat, 31 August 1961: 28
[179] Elvin Jones: „And Then Again“. New York, 16. Februar / 18. März 1965 (Atlantic LP1443)
[180] Leonard Feather: Linernotes, „And Then Again“. 1965 (Atlantic LP1443)
[181] Geof Bradfield: Digging Down in the CBMR Archives. New Music Inspired by Melba Liston’s Scores, in: Black Music Research Journal, 34/1 (Spring 2014): 92
[182] Blue Mitchell: „Len Sirrah“. Englewood Cliffs/NJ, 17. November 1967 (Boue Note BST84272). https://youtu.be/e7YYSMD0nhk(aufgerufen am 29. Dezember 2025)
[183] Elvin Jones: „All Deliberate Speed“. New York, 18. März 1965 (Atlantic LP1443). https://youtu.be/lzG_cmZpQJU (aufgerufen am 26. Dezember 2025)
[184] John S. Wilson: Melba Liston Is Mostly Unseen. Jazz Trombonist at Basin Street East Avoids Limelight, in: New York Times, 20. October 1961: 40
[185] Ray Bryant, in: Randy Weston (with Willard Jenkins): African Rhythms. The Autobiography of Randy Weston, Durham/NC 2010 (Duke University Press): 85
[186] Vgl. Lisa Barg: Taking Care of Music. Gender, Arranging, and Collaboration in the Weston-Liston Partnership, in: Black Music Research Journal, 34/1 (Spring 2014): 110
[187] Randy Weston: „Uhuru Kanza“. New York, November 1960 (Roulette R65001). https://youtu.be/dqVW5dy–kk (aufgerufen am 23. Dezember 2025)
[188] Randy Weston: „Uhuru Kanza“. New York, November 1960 (Roulette R65001). https://youtu.be/j-fhU-pMlaI (aufgerufen am 23. Dezember 2025)
[189] Randy Weston (with Willard Jenkins): African Rhythms. The Autobiography of Randy Weston, Durham/NC 2010 (Duke University Press): 92
[190] Dalia Pagani: Melba Liston. Interview, in: Cadence, 11/5 (May 1985): 9
[191] Randy Weston (with Willard Jenkins): African Rhythms. The Autobiography of Randy Weston, Durham/NC 2010 (Duke University Press): 74
[192] Randy Weston (with Willard Jenkins): African Rhythms. The Autobiography of Randy Weston, Durham/NC 2010 (Duke University Press): 93-94
[193] Randy Weston: „Uhuru Kwanza“. New York, November 1960 (Roulette R65001). https://youtu.be/lrw3ldSMTmk (aufgerufen am 23. Dezember 2025)
[194] Langston Hughes: lLinernotes, „Uhuru Afrika“. 1960 (Roulette R65001)
[195] Randy Weston (with Willard Jenkins): African Rhythms. The Autobiography of Randy Weston, Durham/NC 2010 (Duke University Press): 74
[196] Lisa Barg: Taking Care of Music. Gender, Arranging, and Collaboration in the Weston-Liston Partnership, in: Black Music Research Journal, 34/1 (Spring 2014): 114
[197] Randy Weston: „Bantu“. New York, November 1960 (Roulette R65001). https://youtu.be/EwrroSvPAmc (aufgerufen am 23. Dezember 2025)
[198] Randy Weston: „Kucheza Blues“. New York, November 1960 (Roulette R65001). https://youtu.be/jJUa-Z-fDHI (aufgerufen am 23. Dezember 2025)
[199] Randy Weston (with Willard Jenkins): African Rhythms. The Autobiography of Randy Weston, Durham/NC 2010 (Duke University Press): 96
[200] Randy Weston (with Willard Jenkins): African Rhythms. The Autobiography of Randy Weston, Durham/NC 2010 (Duke University Press): 100
[201] Jack R. Marchbanks: Pride and Protest in Letters and Song. Jazz Artists and Writers during the Civil Rights Movement, 1955-1965, Athens/OH 2018 (Ohio University): 185-189
[202] Randy Weston (with Willard Jenkins): African Rhythms. The Autobiography of Randy Weston, Durham/NC 2010 (Duke University Press): 102-105
[203] Randy Weston: „Caban Bamboo Highlife“. New York, August 1963 (Colpix CP(S)456). https://youtu.be/6iu-5Jc3bkY (aufgerufen am 25. Dezember 2025)
[204] Randy Weston: „Niger Mambo“. New York, August 1963 (Colpix CP(S)456). https://youtu.be/Sj0RFur9_jc (aufgerufen am 25. Dezember 2025)
[205] Randy Weston: „Zulu“. New York, August 1963 (Colpix CP(S)456). https://youtu.be/paQDpEMdITg (aufgerufen am 25. Dezember 2025)
[206] Randy Weston: „Congolese“. New York, August 1963 (Colpix CP(S)456). https://youtu.be/k8sa4_Ec_zQ (aufgerufen am 25. Dezember 2025)
[207] Robin D.G. Kelley: Africa Speaks, America Answers. Modern Jazz in Revolutionary Times, Cambridge/MA 2012 (Harvard University Press): 77
[208] Myron D. Moss: Concert Band Music by African-American Composers, 1927-1998, Ann Arbor/MI 2000 (University of Michigan): 260-263
[209] Randy Weston: „Hi-Fly“. New York, 21.-22. Mai 1973 (Verve 527778-2). https://youtu.be/nW9N1Mg46lQ (aufgerufen am 25. Dezember 2025)
[210] Randy Weston: „Little Niles“. New York, 21.-22. Mai 1973 (Verve 527778-2). https://youtu.be/8e1ObvP6U78 (aufgerufen am 25. Dezember 2025)
[211] Randy Weston: „Tanjah“. New York, 21.-22. Mai 1973 (Verve 527778-2). https://youtu.be/-DWk39E-T-o (aufgerufen am 25. Dezember 2025)
[212] Stan Woolley: Melba Liston. The trombonist, arranger and composer talks to Stan Woolley, in: Jazz Journal, 40/2 (Februar 1987): 21
[213] Stan Woolley: Melba Liston. The trombonist, arranger and composer talks to Stan Woolley, in: Jazz Journal, 40/2 (Februar 1987): 21
[214] Benjamin S. Page: A Toast to Melba, in: Down Beat, 28/1 (5 Januar 1961): 18
[215] Benjamin S. Page: A Toast to Melba, in: Down Beat, 28/1 (5 Januar 1961): 19
[216] D. Antoinette Handy: Black Women in American Bands and Orchestras, Metuchen/NJ 1981 (The Scarecrow Press): 137; vgl. auch: NN: Whatever happened to … Melba Liston?, in: Ebony, Juni 1977: 122
[217] Billy Eckstine: „The Prime of My Life“. Hollywood/CA 1965 (Motown MM632)
[218] Marvin Gaye: „When I’m Alone I Cry“. Ca. 1963 (Tamla Records 251). https://youtu.be/OEFy4UGZ-Ls (aufgerufen am 25. Dezember 2025)
[219] „assembly line writing“. Cf. Leonard Feather: A Toast to Melba, in: Jazz Forum, #61 (1979): 38
[220] Kim Weston: „Come Rain or Come Shine“. New York, ca. Juli 1967 (MGM E4477). https://youtu.be/XjpZStdpWUw (aufgerufen am 25. Dezember 2025)
[221] Kim Weston: „When the Sun Comes Out“. New York, ca. Juli 1967 (MGM E4477). https://youtu.be/sBpEVMzvj6c (aufgerufen am 25. Dezember 2025)
[222] Dalia Pagani: Melba Liston. Interview, in: Cadence, 11/5 (May 1985): 12
[223] Dalia Pagani: Melba Liston. Interview, in: Cadence, 11/5 (May 1985): 12
[224] Marvin Gaye: „Goodbye“. 1965. https://youtu.be/NRsDQLciQts (aufgerufen am 26. Dezember 2025)
[225] Louis Jordan: „Texarkana Twist“. 1962. https://youtu.be/IPBsyFqGKHs (aufgerufen am 26. Dezember 2025)
[226] „The Stovall Sisters“. San Francisco 1971 (Reprise Records RS 6446)
[227] Calvin Scott: „I’m not blind… I just can’t see“. Los Angeles 1972 (Stax Records)
[228] Funky Brown: „Any Day Now“. 1974. https://youtu.be/2ujWXxVyzAw (aufgerufen am 26. Dezember 2025)
[229] Carolyn Glenn Brewer: Changing the Tune. The Kansas City Women’s Jazz Festival, 1978-1985, Denton/TX 2017 (University of North Texas Press): 85
[230] Emmett G. Price III: Melba Liston. „Renaissance Woman“, in: Black Music Research Journal, 34/1 (Spring 2014): 162-163
[231] Leonard Feather: A Toast to Melba, in: Jazz Forum, #61 (1979): 38
[232] John S. Wilson: Melba Liston Returns With Horns and Baton, in: New York Times, 6. Juni 1980: C5
[233] Clark Terry (with Gwyn Terry): Clark. The Autobiography of Clark Terry, Berkeley 2011 (University of California Press): 189-190
[234] John S. Wilson: Melba Liston Returns With Horns and Baton, in: New York Times, 6. Juni 1980: C5
[235] Zan Stewart: Melba Liston & Randy Weston. The Spirit of Colaboration, in: Down Beat, 62/2 (Februar 1995): 23
[236] Randy Weston: „Hi-Fly“. Montréal, 4. Juli 1995 (Verve 557821-2). https://youtu.be/VnjKDJRzuZA (aufgerufen am 26. Dezember 2025)
[237] Randy Weston: „Portrait of Billie Holiday“. Montréal, 4. Juli 1995 (Verve 557821-2). https://youtu.be/6esCsoQDtT0 (aufgerufen am 26. Dezember 2025)
[238] Freddie Hubbard: „Cry Me Not“. Englewood Cliffs, 9. April 1961 (Blue Note BLP4073). https://youtu.be/UNZ7z0tgDHA (aufgerufen am 26. Dezember 2025)
[239] Linda Dahl: Stormy Weather. The Music and Lives of a Century of Jazzwomen, New York 1984 (Pantheon Books): 254
[240] Tammy L. Kernodle: Black Women Working Together. Jazz, Gender, and the Politics of Validation, in: Black Music Research Journal, 34/1 (Spring 2014): 49
[241] Clora Bryant: Melba Liston. NEA Jazz Master (1987). Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Programm (1996): 33
[242] Stan Woolley: Melba Liston. The trombonist, arranger and composer talks to Stan Woolley, in: Jazz Journal, 40/2 (Februar 1987): 21
[243] Zit nach: Erica Kaplan: Melba Liston. It’s All From My Soul, in: The Antioch Review, 57/3 (Summer 1999): 422
[244] Dalia Pagani: Melba Liston. Interview, in: Cadence, 11/5 (May 1985): 10
[245] Dalia Pagani: Melba Liston. Interview, in: Cadence, 11/5 (May 1985): 10
[246] Dianthe Spencer: Smile Orange. Melba Liston in Jamaica, in: Black Music Research Journal, 34/1 (Spring 2014): 68
[247] Leonard Feather: A Toast to Melba, in: Jazz Forum, #61 (1979): 38
[248] Dianthe Spencer: Smile Orange. Melba Liston in Jamaica, in: Black Music Research Journal, 34/1 (Spring 2014): 68
[249] Leonard Feather: JAZZ. Melba Liston: Tribute to Jazz Pioneer, in: Los Angeles Times <www.latimes.com>, 14. October 1990
[250] NN: Whatever happened to … Melba Liston?, in: Ebony, Juni 1977: 122
[251] Dianthe Spencer: Smile Orange. Melba Liston in Jamaica, in: Black Music Research Journal, 34/1 (Spring 2014): 70
[252] „Smile Orange“ (Film, 1976). https://youtu.be/8tmSudEbbpo (aufgerufen am 28. Dezember 2025). Soundtrack auf Knuts Music LP601
[253] Dianthe Spencer: Smile Orange. Melba Liston in Jamaica, in: Black Music Research Journal, 34/1 (Spring 2014): 71-72
[254] Dianthe Spencer: Smile Orange. Melba Liston in Jamaica, in: Black Music Research Journal, 34/1 (Spring 2014): 71
[255] „Jazz Women. A Feminist Retrospective“. 1977 (Stash ST 109)
[256] Leonard Feather: A Toast to Melba, in: Jazz Forum, #61 (1979): 38
[257] Linda Dahl: Stormy Weather. The Music and Lives of a Century of Jazzwomen, New York 1984 (Pantheon Books): 250
[258] Dalia Pagani: Melba Liston. Interview, in: Cadence, 11/5 (May 1985): 10
[259] John S. Wilson: Melba Liston Returns With Horns and Baton, in: New York Times, 6. Juni 1980: C5
[260] John S. Wilson: Melba Liston Returns With Horns and Baton, in: New York Times, 6. Juni 1980: C5
[261] Nancy Wilson: NPR Jazz Profile. Melba Liston: Bones Of An Arranger, 9. Juli 2008. https://www.npr.org/2008/07/09/92349036/melba-liston-bones-of-an-arranger (aufgerufen am 28. Dezember 2025)
[262] John S. Wilson: Jazz. Melba Liston Band, in: New York Times, 24. December 1980: C16
[263] Dottie Dodgion & Wayne Enstice: The Lady Swings. Memoires of a Jazz Drummer, Urbana/IL 2021 (University of Illinois Press): 215
[264] Der so genannte Cocktail wurde von Jemima McDonald gemixt, einer Bartenderin aus Newtown, NSW, Australien, die dem Drink auch seinen Namen gab. Vgl. Kirsten Amann & Misty Kalkofen: Drinking Like Ladies. 75 Modern Cocktails from the World’s Leading Female Bartenders, Beverly/MA 2018 (Quarto): 20-21
[265] Dalia Pagani: Melba Liston. Interview, in: Cadence, 11/5 (May 1985): 11
[266] Dottie Dodgion & Wayne Enstice: The Lady Swings. Memoires of a Jazz Drummer, Urbana/IL 2021 (University of Illinois Press): 220-221
[267] Dalia Pagani: Melba Liston. Interview, in: Cadence, 11/5 (May 1985): 11
[268] Dalia Pagani: Melba Liston. Interview, in: Cadence, 11/5 (May 1985): 12
[269] NN: Melba Liston Stars at Jazz Center, in: New York Amsterdam News, 9. November 1985: 26
[270] NN: Melba Liston Stars at Jazz Center, in: New York Amsterdam News, 9. November 1985: 26
[271] Leonard Feather: JAZZ. Melba Liston: Tribute to Jazz Pioneer, in: Los Angeles Times <www.latimes.com>, 14. October 1990
[272] Clora Bryant: Melba Liston. NEA Jazz Master (1987). Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Programm (1996): 24
[273] Randy Weston: „The Spirits of Our Ancestors“. New York, 20.-22. Mai 1991 (Antilles 511896)
[274] Randy Weston / Melba Liston: „Volcano Blues“. New York, 5.-6. Februar 1993 (Antilles 519269-2)
[275] Erica Kaplan: Melba Liston. It’s All From My Soul, in: The Antioch Review, 57/3 (Summer 1999): 419
[276] Sally Placksin: American Women in Jazz, 1900 to the Present. Their Words, Lives, and Music, New York 1982 (Seaview Books): 183
[277] Sally Placksin: American Women in Jazz, 1900 to the Present. Their Words, Lives, and Music, New York 1982 (Seaview Books): 183
[278] Nancy Wilson: NPR Jazz Profile. Melba Liston: Bones Of An Arranger, 9. Juli 2008. https://www.npr.org/2008/07/09/92349036/melba-liston-bones-of-an-arranger (aufgerufen am 28. Dezember 2025)
[279] Erica Kaplan: Melba Liston. It’s All From My Soul, in: The Antioch Review, 57/3 (Summer 1999): 423
[280] Erica Kaplan: Melba Liston. It’s All From My Soul, in: The Antioch Review, 57/3 (Summer 1999): 424
[281] „First you are a jazz musician, then you are black, then you are female. (…) We ‚re like the bottom of the heap.“ Zit nach: Chiara Fasi: „Yes, I’m With the Band.“ The History and Perception of Black Women in Jazz, Brooklyn/NY 2020 (Long Island University): 1
[282] Paul Ward Perry: Music. Melba Liston’s Slide to Success, in: The New Crisis, Mar/Apr.2000: 38
[283] Ihr Frust ging so weit, dass sie zumindest im privaten Gespräch schon mal ungerecht wurde, etwa als sie hinter der Bühne mit Mary Lou Williams über Marian McPartland lästerte: „‚blah, blah, blah, and Marian McPartland’s going to be there,‘ one of them said. ‚Yeah, the whitey one, she can’t swing,‘ was the reply as the first one snickered.“ Vgl. Dottie Dodgion & Wayne Enstice: The Lady Swings. Memoires of a Jazz Drummer, Urbana/IL 2021 (University of Illinois Press): 210
[284] NN: Hairdo of the week, in: Jet, 21.Sep.1961: 28; zit. nach: Maxine B. Craig: Black Is Beautiful. Personal Transformation and Political Change, Berkeley/CA 1995 (University of California): 88
[285] Sally Placksin: American Women in Jazz, 1900 to the Present. Their Words, Lives, and Music, New York 1982 (Seaview Books): 181-182
[286] Dalia Pagani: Melba Liston. Interview, in: Cadence, 11/5 (May 1985): 9
[287] Dalia Pagani: Melba Liston. Interview, in: Cadence, 11/5 (May 1985): 8-9