Nichols, Herbie [Herbert Horatio] (New York, 3 Dec 1919 - New York, 12 April 1963)

Pianist and composer

He studied piano from the age of nine and attended the City College of New York. In 1938, at Monroe's Uptown House, he took part in some of the jam sessions that led to the new bop music. But although Nichols was the musical equal of the other players there, his education made him feel ill at ease in their company. As a result he worked infrequently and generally not in his preferred style; when he did find employment (from the mid-1940s to the mid-1950s) it was not in bop groups but in dixieland and swing bands with such musicians as Danny Barker, Illinois Jacquet, John Kirby, Snub Mosley, Edgar Sampson, Lucky Thompson, Arnett Cobb, and Wilbur De Paris. He composed many tunes, though none were recorded until 1951, when Mary Lou Williams included Stennell (retitled Opus Z) and The Bebop Waltz (retitled Mary's Waltz) on her album Mary Lou Williams Trio (Atlantic 114). Nichols recorded three albums as a leader (1955-7), which received critical acclaim but sold poorly. Like Thelonious Monk, he enhanced his playing of conventional bop by the addition of unusual rhythms and gestures derived from swing.

 Barry Kernfeld

The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, © Macmillan Reference Ltd 1988