It's Milt Jackson's birthday (January 1, 1923).

Click Milt Jackson in action to open to the Modern Jazz Quartet performing his composition, "Bag's Groove," which became a jazz standard. A fellow musician nicknamed him "Bags" because of the bags under his eyes. [MJQ: John Lewis, piano; Milt Jackson, vibes; Percy Heath, bass; Connie Kay, drums.]

He zings the pings off his vibraphone bars and it's like tasting that first sting of a soft drink's fresh carbonation. His musical vibes can tingle your spine. The notes he sends into the atmosphere are like singing chimes. His chords are as crisp and clear as a sunny winter's morning. Magic!

Click Mr. Jackson to run his rendition of Monk's "'Round Midnight."

Milt Jackson up front with his MJQ associates, playing what I consider one of the prettiest tunes in all jazz, "Softly, As in a Morning Sunrise" (by Sigmund Romberg and Oscar Hammerstein II from the 1928 operetta The New Moon).