Trombone
By: Jaclyn Breeze
The trombone is a brass instrument. Players blow air into the instrument and change the position of the slide to change the notes. Historical accounts of trombones start as far back as 1466. Back then, it was good for outdoor events and concerts, as it can be a very loud instrument. It became popular in jazz in the 1900s where it could play bass lines and be used for solos.
Melba Liston was born in Kansas City, Missouri in 1926. She came from a family of musicians and started learning the trombone at age 7. She taught herself how to play, and when she was 8, she had a solo act on a local radio station. When she was 10, her family moved to Los Angeles, California, where she became friends with Dexter Gordon and Eric Dolphy, both of whom became jazz musicians alongside Melba.
After high school, she moved to New York City and joined Dizzy Gillespie’s big band. Dizzy wanted her both as a trombonist and arranger. In the 1950s she started working with pianist Randy Weston, arranging music for his ensembles. They worked together on and off for the next 50 years.
Melba played with many famous artists through her life, taught music in the United States and Jamaica, and eventually started her own all-women quintet called the Melba Liston Company.
Listen to some of Melba’s work:
Melba Liston with Dizzy Gillespie & His Orchestra
One of Melba’s arrangements for Randy Weston
Book: Little Melba and Her Big Trombone by Katherine Russell-Brown
Find it at these Monroe County Public Libraries, or have it delivered to a library near you! (Hold/delivery fee is $0.25 per book)
Arnett
Brockport-Seymour
Central
East Rochester
Frederick Douglass
Gates
Greece
Irondequoit
Lincoln
Lyell
Penfield
Pittsford
Sully
Webster
Wheatley
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