Herbert Horatio Nichols (January 3, 1919 – April 12, 1963) was an American

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

pianist and composer who wrote the jazz standard " Lady Sings the Blues". Obscure during his lifetime, he is now highly regarded by many musicians and critics.

Life

He was born in San Juan Hill, Manhattan, New York, United States, to parents from St. Kitts and Trinidad, and grew up in

Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater Ha ...

. During much of his career, he took work as a Dixieland musician while also pursuing the more adventurous kind of jazz he preferred. He is best known today for program music that combines bop, Dixieland, and music from the Caribbean with harmonies from Erik Satie and Béla Bartók. His first known work as a musician was with the Royal Barons in 1937, but he did not find performing at Minton's Playhouse a few years later a very happy experience, as the competitive environment did not suit him. However, he did become friends with pianist Thelonious Monk. Nichols was drafted into the Army in 1941. After the war, he worked in various settings, beginning to achieve some recognition when Mary Lou Williams recorded some of his songs in 1952. From about 1947, he persisted in trying to persuade

Alfred Lion Alfred Lion (born Alfred Löw; April 21, 1908 – February 2, 1987), was an American record executive who co-founded the jazz record label Blue Note in 1939. Lion retired in 1967, having sold the company, after producing recordings by leading musi ...

Blue Note Records Blue Note Records is an American jazz record label owned by Universal Music Group and operated under Capitol Music Group. Established in 1939 by Alfred Lion and Max Margulis, it derived its name from the blue notes of jazz and the blues. ...

to sign him up. He finally recorded some of his compositions for Blue Note in 1955 and 1956, some of which were not issued until the 1980s. His tune "Serenade" had lyrics added, and as " Lady Sings the Blues" became identified with

Billie Holiday Billie Holiday (born Eleanora Fagan; April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959) was an American jazz and swing music singer. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and music partner, Lester Young, Holiday had an innovative influence on jazz music and pop s ...

. In 1957, he recorded his last album as leader for Bethlehem Records. Nichols died of

leukemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia and pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or ...

in New York City at the age of 44. One of the four essays in A.B. Spellman's ''Four Lives in the Bebop Business'' (also known as ''Four Jazz Lives'', 1966) is about Nichols. A biography, ''Herbie Nichols: A Jazzist's Life,'' written by Mark Miller, was published in 2009.

Influence

Nichols's music was energetically promoted by Roswell Rudd, who worked with Nichols in the early 1960s. Rudd released three albums featuring Nichols's compositions ( Regeneration, issued in 1983 by

Soul Note Black Saint and Soul Note are two affiliated Italian independent record labels. Since their conception in the 1970s, they have released albums from a variety of influential jazz musicians, particularly in the genre of free jazz. History Black S ...

, and ''The Unheard Herbie Nichols'' (1997), issued by CIMP in two volumes), as well as a book ''The Unpublished Works'' (2000). In 1984, the Steve Lacy quintet with George E. Lewis, Misha Mengelberg, Han Bennink, and

Arjen Gorter Arjen (also spelled as Arjan) is a given name, a variant of the Dutch/ Finnish name Adrian. Arjen (sometimes also Ariën) is derived from the Latin name Adrianus. The name Adrianus means "native of, from Adria", a place near Venice. Adria is asso ...

performed the music of Nichols at the

Ravenna Ravenna ( , , also ; rgn, Ravèna) is the capital city of the Province of Ravenna, in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy. It was the capital city of the Western Roman Empire from 408 until its collapse in 476. It then served as the c ...

Jazz Festival in Italy. A New York group, the Herbie Nichols Project (part of the Jazz Composers Collective) has recorded three albums largely dedicated to unrecorded Nichols' compositions, many of which Nichols had deposited in the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The libra ...

Discography

As leader

Compilations

* 1952: Herbie Nichols Quartet (Savoy; first LP issue: Various Artists ''I Just Love Jazz Piano - Down And Out'' (1957), session sometimes reissued with the Gigi Gryce album ''

Nica's Tempo ''Nica's Tempo'' is the most common latter-day title of an album by the Gigi Gryce Orchestra and Quartet, recorded and first released in late 1955. The title track is a reference to Nica de Koenigswarter (born Kathleen Annie Pannonica Rothschild) ...

'') * ''The Complete Blue Note Recordings'' (Blue Note; reissued by Mosaic)

As sideman

* 1953: Rex Stewart and his Dixielanders ''Dixieland Free-For-All'' (Jazztone, 1956) * 1958: Vic Dickenson & Joe Thomas, ''Mainstream'' (Atlantic)