Melba Liston grew up in Kansas City, Missouri, during its jazz heyday when band leaders like Count Basie were rising stars on the national music scene. It's not hard to imagine the kind of influence this must have had on her own musical interests as a young child. But, even so, it is still quite remarkable that a seven year old girl would even think about playing a trombone, much less actually set her mind to it. But she did. And by the age of eight, she was playing solos on the local radio programs.
She continued to study and played in several youth bands, and in 1943 she got a big break, when she joined the big band led by Gerald Wilson. This led to more gigs with up-and-coming artists, and she toured and performed with Dexter Gordon (who wrote "
Mischievous Lady" in her honor), Dizzy Gillespie (listen for her solo in his version of
My Reverie), Count Basie, and even Billie Holiday.
