Herbert Horatio Nichols (January 3, 1919 – April 12, 1963) was an American jazz 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
Herbie Nichols was born in San Juan Hill, Manhattan, New York, United States, During much of his career, he took work as a Dixieland musician while also pursuing the more adventurous kind of jazz he preferred.
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in 1983 by Soul Note, and The Unheard Herbie Nichols (1997), issued by CIMP in two volumes), as well as a book The Unpublished Works (2000).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 performed the music of Nichols at the Ravenna Jazz Festival in Italy. That same year, they recorded an album titled Change of Season (Music of Herbie Nichols) (Soul Note, 1985).
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.
In 2024, Sonic Camera Records released Tell the Birds I Said Hello: The Music of Herbie Nichols, an album by double bassist Ben Allison, guitarist Steve Cardenas, and saxophonist Ted Nash.
Discography
As leader
{|class="wikitable"
|-
! style="text-align:center;"| Recording date
!Title
!Label
!Year released
!Notes
|-
| 1955–05–06
| The Prophetic Herbie Nichols Vol. 1
| rowspan="2" | Blue Note
| rowspan="2" | 1955
| rowspan="2" | Trio, with Al McKibbon (bass), Art Blakey (drums)
|-
| 1955–05–13
| The Prophetic Herbie Nichols Vol. 2
|-
| 1955–08–01, <br />1955–08–07, <br />1956–04–19
|Herbie Nichols Trio
| Blue Note
|1956
|Trio, with Al McKibbon and Teddy Kotick (bass; separately), Max Roach (drums)
|-
| 1957–11
|Love, Gloom, Cash, Love
|Bethlehem
|1958
|Most tracks trio, with George Duvivier (bass), Dannie Richmond (drums); one track solo piano
|}
Omnibus
- Hampton Hawes, John Mehegan, Herbie Nichols, Paul Smith I Just Love Jazz Piano! (Savoy, 1957)[LP] – recorded in 1952<!--. session sometimes reissued with the Gigi Gryce album Nica's Tempo.-->
Compilation
- The Complete Blue Note Recordings of Herbie Nichols (Mosaic, 1987)[5LP/3CD] – reissued as The Complete Blue Note Recordings (Blue Note, 1997)[3CD]
As sideman
- 1953: Rex Stewart and his Dixielanders, Dixieland Free-For-All (Jazztone, 1956)
- 1958: Vic Dickenson & Joe Thomas, Mainstream (Atlantic, 1959)