Contents
- Descriptive Summary
- Biographical note
- Scope and Contents note
- Custodial History note
- Processing Information note
- Indexed Terms
- Conditions for Access
Collection Access
Melba Liston collection
Descriptive Summary
- Title
- Melba Liston collection
- Identifier
- BMRC.CBMR.LISTON
- Repository
- Center for Black Music Research, Columbia College Chicago
- Language
- English
- Size
- 54.4 Linear feet
- Predominant Dates
- Bulk, 1958-1985
- Dates
- 1958-1999
- Creator
- Liston, Melba
Columbia College Chicago's Archives and Special Collections now manages the Center for Black Music Research collections, and is currently in the process of reviewing and standardizing CBMR finding aids. Please consult the Digital Commons site for available finding aids, including the complete guide to this collection.
Biographical note
Melba Liston was a jazz composer, arranger, and performer born in 1926. She was a trombonist during an era (1942–1985) when few women played brass instruments and even fewer toured with jazz bands. She played in the bands of several important jazz musicians, including Count Basie, Dexter Gordon, Dizzy Gillespie, Charles Mingus, Randy Weston, and Quincy Jones. Liston had an active career as an arranger for important jazz composers as well as popular music record labels. She also worked with youth orchestras in the troubled neighborhood of Watts, California, leaving the United States to teach at the Jamaica Institute of Music for six years (1973–1979). After suffering a stroke in 1985 that left her paralyzed, she continued to arrange using a computer through the 1990s until her death in 1999.
Scope and Contents note
Music manuscripts including lead sheets, scores, and parts and 1 letter box of papers concerning the career of Melba Liston.
Custodial History note
Donated by Thelma Stattion, 1999.
Processing Information note
This collection was surveyed as part of the Black Metropolis Research Consortium's Survey Initiative on 2011 January 5 by Lisa Calahan.
Indexed Terms
- African American women composers
- Big band music--Scores
- Jazz--Lead sheets
- Music by African American women composers