NEW YORK — Some 30 musicians traversed the stage of Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College on Tuesday night to perform as part of bassist Milt Hinton's 90th birthday celebration, courtesy of the JVC Jazz Festival.

Players included bassist Ron Carter, saxophonists Jimmy Heath and Frank Wess, bassist Christian McBride and many other jazz luminaries. The audience consisted of Hinton's friends, well-wishers, fellow musicians and students, all treated to a special evening of swing and bop.

"I've had several impressions so far," ABC news anchor Peter Jennings said, blending into the chatty intermission crowd. "First, as a personal friend of Milt's, I can feel a tremendous outpouring of love. But, I'm also reminded that Milt became part of this music's living tissue years ago when he first landed in Chicago, tissue that has grown all through its history."

Jennings, whose book "The Century" came out in December 1998, recruited the bassist as one of his witnesses to the 20th century.

The evening's witty emcee, bassist John Clayton, shared touching birthday wishes from a variety of admirers, including jazz historian Nat Hentoff, bassist Ray Brown and saxophonist Benny Carter.

"As someone who preceded you to this golden age, I must say that life hasn't just begun at 90," read Carter's message. "But it sure ain't over yet." Carter is 92.

A Life Of Jazz

Hinton, born June 23, 1910, in Vicksburg, Miss., moved with his family to Chicago in 1919, joining thousands of African Americans in migrating to northern cities. As a boy, Hinton learned violin and took up the tuba for his high school marching band, the equivalent of the bass in early New Orleans-style jazz. He played in the Chicago Defender's Newsboy Marching Band, where he first met vibraphonist Lionel Hampton, with whom he would later record.

While his early experience on bass came with trumpeters Jabbo Smith and Freddie Keppard, Hinton would eventually join Cab Calloway's band, staying from 1936–51. It was the longest tenure of his career. There he developed the full tone and tremendous drive for which he is known, and worked alongside such bandmates as saxophonists Ben Webster and Illinois Jacquet and a young trumpet-playing upstart named Dizzy Gillespie.

Hinton also performed with Count Basie and Louis Armstrong, making numerous studio records with such stars as singers Billie Holiday and Pearl Bailey, saxophonist Coleman Hawkins and bandleader George Russell. He became a staff musician at CBS in 1954, one of few African Americans at the time to do so. One of the most sought after sidemen, he worked through the 1980s.

All the while, Hinton documented his experiences through thousands of candid photographs. In conjunction with the JVC festival, the gallery American Vision 145 is presenting an extensive collection of his images through July 2.

(Click here for a report on Hinton's photo exhibition.)

Exciting Combinations

Festival season generates much of its excitement in combining people who don't ordinarily play together. Hinton's gathering proved no exception. An octet with clarinetist Kenny Davern, saxophonist Frank Wess, trumpeters Warren Vaché and Byron Stripling, pianist Dick Hyman, guitarist Howard Alden, bassist Christian McBride and drummer Joe Ascione started off the evening with a rousing "Lester Leaps In."

The ensemble attained big-band proportions and captured the Basie spirit without ever threatening to become a museum piece. Flexible head arrangements left generous space for solos, granting players plenty of freedom and adding fuel to the fire. This generally held true with all the musical groupings throughout the evening.

Musicians reconfigured after almost every tune, some in unusual settings. Guitarists Alden and Russell Malone glided through "It Don't Mean a Thing," supported by Richard Davis' bass, while Davis bowed "Over the Rainbow" in counterpoint with McBride's varied underpinnings. Carter delivered one of the evening's highlights with a solo version of "Willow Weep for Me." Its melody wove through intervallic sequences, etude-like at times, stretching the rhythmic structure. Mahogany-toned pitches bent gradually like reluctant oaks swayed by a strong wind.

Making a rare appearance at the piano, JVC Festival impresario George Wein gracefully rendered "Rosetta," backed by bassist Bill Crow and drummer Jackie Wilson. Trumpeter Stripling sang "Minnie the Moocher" with such gusto that the audience returned improvised choruses of "hi-de hi" in full voice. Other performers who graced the stage included trumpeters Jon Faddis and Randy Sandke, trombonist Art Barron, pianists Joe Bushkin, Renee Rosnes, Benny Green and James Williams, bassists Jay Leonhart and Brian Torff and drummers Dennis Mackrel, Kenny Washington and Bob Rosengarden.

An all-bass ensemble composed of 19 Hinton students made for a grand finale. Hinton has spent the last 30 years teaching, for a time at Hunter College, and the evening's proceeds went to a scholarship fund in his name.

Clayton conducted the majestic "Our Father, Our Judge" (Hinton's nickname is The Judge), then "Old Man Time." The audience sang along: "He gave me beauty, charm and grace, then put wrinkles on my face." A funky, riff-based "Happy Birthday" closed the proceedings, except for the warm personal exchanges following the last notes.

"Milt's just one of the greatest people," said bassist Jack Lesberg, another distinguished Armstrong sideman left practically speechless by the night's end. "He's beautiful, and the man and his music go together. What else can I say?"