One of the most famous female jazz instrumentalists, Melba Liston was born January 13^th, 1926 in Kansas City, Missouri.  She spent many years playing and was eventually more recognized for her arrangements than her skills with the trombone.

How It All Began

At the age of 7, Liston was introduced to the trombone. Her school had decided to start a  music class and when she saw the trombone, the little girl decided she had to have it. Her reasons were quite unmusical . . . it looked pretty and she wanted a pretty instrument! No one suspected what would happen when that little girl was given her whim.

By the following year, Liston was playing music on the radio. She wasn`t able to reach all the positions on the trombone, because it was too long for her, so she managed by turning her head sideways to play. Her mother sought out a private music teacher, but the young Melba refused to study with him and went on to teach herself to play music by ear.

At sixteen, the young artist was already playing in the pit band at the LA Lincoln Theater and she was also writing music by this time, for any acts that didn`t have their own music.

All Grown Up

Getting onto the music circuit was exciting and Melba did well, playing first with Gerald Wilson, then with Dizzy Gillespie, and again with Wilson who was doing the backup music for Billie Holiday. However, life on the road wasn`t all it seemed and the musicians were dirt poor by the end of their tour.

Liston found that she was so disillusioned by the life of a traveling musician that she gave it all up. She continued to compose music, though she didn`t play and she found a job as an administrator for the Board of Education.

She also worked as an extra in several movies before rejoining Dizzy Gillespie and later Quincy Jones. As the bands joined and fell apart again, Liston decided to freelance, working on her own compositions and playing for studio gigs.

This talented jazz artist went on to live in Jamaica for over a decade and form her own bands. Her composing became the main priority in her life and after the first of several strokes rendered her unable to play, she continued to compose.

Melba Liston was not just a jazz instrumentalist, she was also a great composer and arranger. Her songs live on in many albums.