Bubber Miley

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Bubber Miley · James Wesley Miley, known as Bubber, was an American trumpeter and cornettist of early jazz. He was born in 1903 in Aiken, South Carolina, and grew up in New York. He played in small clubs and on boat trips around the city and toured with Mamie Smith's Jazz Hounds. In Chicago he heard King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band and was impressed by Oliver's use of mutes. Miley found his own voice by combining the straight mute and the plunger with a growling sound.

Music and breakthrough

In 1923 he joined Duke Ellington, who by then was already the de facto leader of the Washingtonians. His solos are on early Ellington tracks such as Black and Tan Fantasy, East St. Louis Toodle-Oo, The Mooche and Creole Love Call. His melodies often borrowed from Baptist hymns from his church. Together with the trombonist Joe Nanton he devised the wah-wah sound that characterises the early Ellington style, the so-called jungle music of the Kentucky Club and the Cotton Club. In 1929 he left the band, mainly because of his drinking problem. After that he still played with Noble Sissle, King Oliver, Jelly Roll Morton and Hoagy Carmichael. In 1932 he died of tuberculosis at the age of 29.

Influence

Miley shows how a trumpet can talk, cry and growl. His influence lived on in Cootie Williams and later Ray Nance, who took over his style when needed, and in every jazz trumpeter who uses a mute as a voice.

Listening

In School of Rock

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