Artist: Milt Hinton

Milton Hinton was an American double bassist and photographer. He was also a photographer of note, praised for documenting American jazz during the 20th Century. 

Hinton grew up hearing concerts featuring Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Fletcher Henderson, Earl Hines, Eddie South, and many others. As a young man, he played violin with Freddie Keppard, Zutty Singleton, Jabbo Smith, Erskine Tate, and Art Tatum.  Hinton soon taught himself to play the double bass because opportunities for violinists were limited.

After graduating from Crane Junior College in 1932, he attended Northwestern University for one semester, then dropped out to pursue music full-time. He received steady work from 1932 through 1935 in a quartet with violinist Eddie South, with extended residencies in California, Chicago, and Detroit. With this group he first recorded on double bass in early 1933. 

In 1936, Hinton joined the Cab Calloway Orchestra, initially as a temporary replacement for Al Morgan, while the band was on tour en route to a six-month residency at the newly opened midtown location of the Cotton Club in New York City. He quickly found acceptance among the band members, and he ended up staying with Calloway for over fifteen years.  During the Cotton Club residencies, Hinton took part in recording sessions with Benny Goodman, Lionel Hampton, Billie Holiday, Ethel Waters, Teddy Wilson, and many others.

Hinton was also heavily influenced by the musical innovations of Dizzy Gillespie, with whom he had informal sessions in the late 1930s, during breaks between sets at the Cotton Club. Hinton credits Gillespie with introducing him to many of the experimental harmonic practices and chord substitutions, that would later be associated with bebop. 

By 1950, popular music tastes had changed, and Calloway lacked the funds to support a full big band. Instead, he hired Hinton and a few others to create a smaller ensemble, first a septet and later a quartet, which toured until June 1952, with trips to Cuba and Uruguay. After the Calloway ensemble disbanded, Hinton spent more time as a freelance studio musician in New York City. 

In July 1953, Hinton signed a one-year contract to tour with Louis Armstrong. He described the decision as "very difficult" as it would force him to be away from his family, and it would also slow down the momentum he was gaining as a freelance musician in New York City. Steady pay and the opportunity to perform with Armstrong were persuasive, and Hinton performed dozens of concerts, including a tour of Japan, as a member of the band.

For roughly the next two decades he performed regularly on numerous radio and television programs, including those hosted by Jackie Gleason, Robert Q. Lewis, Galen Drake, Patti Page, Polly Bergen, Teddy Wilson, Mitch Miller, Dick Cavett, and others.

By far, his most regular work during this era was in the recording studio, where Hinton was among the first African-Americans to be regularly hired for studio contract work. From the mid-1950s through the early 1970s, he contributed to thousands of jazz and popular records, as well as hundreds of jingles and film soundtracks.

Starting in the mid-1950s, he regularly worked in the studio with Hank Jones (piano), Barry Galbraith (guitar), and Osie Johnson (drums) in a group that informally became known as the New York Rhythm Section. The four played on hundreds of sessions together and even recorded an LP in 1956 that was titled The Rhythm Section.