Melba Liston wasn’t just a trombonist—she was a jazz legend. WBGO’s Emily Springer (@emspringer_) reminds us of her incredible legacy, from playing with Dizzy Gillespie to arranging for Randy Weston. #melbaliston #jazzlegend #blackhistorymonth #wbgojazz #jazzeducation | WBGO

Celebrating National Endowment for the Arts #JazzMaster Melba Liston's birthday (Jan 13, 1926 - April 23, 1999). Other than those playing in all-female bands, she was the first woman trombonist to play in big bands during the 1940s and 1960s.Liston's career helped pave the way for women in jazz in roles other than as vocalists. At the age of seven, Melba's mother purchased her a trombone. Liston was primarily self-taught, but she was "encouraged by her guitar-playing grandfather", with whom she

Celebrating National Endowment for the Arts, trombonist and arranger #MelbaListon on her birthday. When Melba Liston came of musical age in 1940s California, the path for a woman wanting to become an arranger/composer and an instrumentalist in the jazz world was almost non-existent. Liston persevered through a long lifetime of achievement, becoming the first major female soloist on trombone, and a first-rank arranger and composer who worked with Gerald Wilson, Dexter Gordon, Dizzy Gillespie, Ran