10 Facts About Milt Buckner

Milton Brent Buckner was an American jazz pianist and organist, who in the early 1950s popularized the Hammond organ.

Milt Buckner pioneered the parallel chords style that influenced Red Garland, George Shearing, Bill Evans, and Oscar Peterson.

Milt Buckner's parents encouraged him to learn to play piano, but they both died when he was nine years old.

Milt Buckner studied piano for three years from the age 10, then at 15 began writing arrangements for the band, he and his brother going on to become active in the Detroit jazz world in the 1930s.

Milt Buckner first played in Detroit with the McKinney's Cotton Pickers and then with Cab Calloway.

Milt Buckner was part of a Variety Revue of 1950 organized by Lionel Hampton at the Cavalcade of Jazz concert held at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles which was produced by Leon Hefflin, Sr.

Milt Buckner led a short-lived big band of his own for two years, but then returned to Hampton's in 1950.

Milt Buckner often played in Europe in the late 1960s.

Milt Buckner is known for the use of his song "The Beast" in the film Mulholland Drive and in the title menu of the video game Battlefield: Bad Company.

Milt Buckner died of a heart attack in July 1977, in Chicago, Illinois, at the age of 62.