Background, formation, departure of Kenny Clarke, and Prestige recordings (1946–1955) Two of the four founding members of the Modern Jazz Quartet, pianist
John Lewis and drummer
Kenny Clarke, met and first performed together in 1944 while stationed with the US army in France during World War II. In 1946, they reconnected in New York, where Clarke, who had joined his friend
Dizzy Gillespie's big band, introduced Gillespie to Lewis, who went on to replace
Thelonious Monk as the band's pianist. The band's rhythm section now consisted of Lewis (piano),
Milt Jackson (vibraphone),
Ray Brown (bass), and Clarke (drums). On Gillespie's encouragement, they began to perform improvised renditions of
jazz standards as a standalone unit between sets of the big band's music, as an
entr'acte, a practice that had been accepted in jazz since
Benny Goodman introduced his trio in 1935. Jackson later recalled: "From the first time we performed in that band as a quartet, we became prominent and a part of the band. We would play fifteen to twenty minutes, two or three tunes, and everybody loved it, including Dizzy and the band." Upon the dissolution of Gillespie's band, the rhythm section considered continuing as a quartet under Jackson's name, but they went in their own directions for the next three years. Three or four names were considered, including the New Jazz Quartet, before the group decided to use the name
Modern Jazz Quartet. In a 1992 interview, Lewis said of the name: "It was an arbitrary name, the quickest name we could get cleared for a corporation in New York state. It had nothing to do with a description of the music." In April 1952 they recorded for Hi-Lo Records as the Milt Jackson Quartet and also made a record for
Blue Note Records with
Lou Donaldson on saxophone as the Milt Jackson Quintet, later released on
Wizard of the Vibes; the latter record contained the first recording of "
Bags' Groove", which would become a signature song of the Modern Jazz Quartet. In November of that year they accompanied
Charlie Parker in a live recording at
Birdland. For
Prestige Records, they made their first recordings as the Modern Jazz Quartet on December 22, 1952 which, on Prestige CEO
Bob Weinstock's insistence, were released under the group name
Milt Jackson and the Modern Jazz Quartet. These recordings contained the original version of Lewis's composition "Vendome", the Quartet's first experiment with combining jazz and fugal counterpoint. Between 1953 and early 1955 the group recorded the tracks that were eventually released on the album
Django (1956), including their first recording of Lewis's composition "
Django", another signature piece for the Quartet. In October 1953, the Quartet began its first major booking at Birdland, which was followed by appearances in Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and
Carnegie Hall. Reviewing their appearance at Birdland,
Nat Hentoff wrote: "If the success of the Modern Jazz Quartet depended only on the support of jazz musicians, this could be the most in-demand unit in the country." Lewis recalled "He was trying to find himself. There was a change in the music, but it was early when Kenny left so it was easy to handle and adjust to. If we had to make the change later, it would have been a disaster. We had to give up a lot of pieces we played when Kenny left." The next year they came back to Europe on their own, performing 88 concerts in four months in Germany, France, and the British Isles, receiving rave reviews. In 1957, they also recorded a
self-titled studio album, the live album
The Modern Jazz Quartet and the Oscar Peterson Trio at the Opera House, and Lewis's
first film soundtrack, for
No Sun in Venice. They followed up with
The Sheriff and
Collaboration with guitarist
Laurindo Almeida (1964), along with ''
The Modern Jazz Quartet Plays George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess and Jazz Dialogue'' with the All Star Jazz Band (1965).
Hiatus, reunion, and final years (1974–1997) {{quote box In July 1974, Jackson quit the group, later citing frustration with their finances as his primary reason. He was also unhappy with the group's touring schedule, which by then had become year-round rather than the previous arrangement in which they had vacations during the northern hemisphere summer. Jackson had previously used the downtime to play and record music that was not in the style of the Modern Jazz Quartet, but felt saddled in the group after they also began playing at summer jazz festivals around 1970. In November 1974 they performed a farewell concert at
Avery Fisher Hall, later released as a series of two albums and then as a complete package,
The Complete Last Concert (1988). Kay died in November 1994, after which the group operated on a semi-active basis; the 1995 album
Dedicated to Connie, a recording of a 1960 concert in Slovenia, was released in his memory. In February 1995,
Albert Heath, Percy Heath's brother, became the quartet's percussionist. Percy Heath had become tired of touring by 1997 and the group permanently disbanded in that year after a final recording date. In October 1999, Jackson died, followed by Lewis in March 2001 and Heath in April 2005. ==Style and public image==