Jump to content

The bass players


Milestones

Recommended Posts

How could I have forgotten Albert Stinson?

You didn't. It's just that in these "name everybody you've ever hear and liked" threads, all the names don't come at once. If they did, your head would literally explode, and then you'd have nothing left to remember. So, you pace yourself, or more accurately, your brain does, via its memory.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 172
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

I’m a big fan of Charlie Haden, but also a whole host of players: Ron Carter, Richard Davis, Ray Brown, Eddie Gomez, Christian McBride, and many more. In electric bass, the top players (for me) are Jaco, Stanley Clarke, and Steve Swallow (not much beyond them).

I’m looking for your favorite bassists, but even more particularly favorite performances. I’m not necessarily talking about long bass solos, but rather uses of the bass that are very striking and effective.

me too :w .....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Put me down for Wilbur Ware, he was one of those guys who was about bass, bass, BASS. From him you can look behind and forward, as far as you want to either direction, and never be totally disconnected. I'd even go so far as to say that if for whatever reason you can't feel Wilbur Ware, then why are you listening to "this music"? For the double fuel points? For the good Christian fellowship? For the mandatory community service time? For the love of Ivy? Pray, tell, why?

Which is the (recorded) Wilbur Ware performance you would not like to be without ?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Any of 'em.

;) .......Wilbur Ware was unfortunately not overly prolific and I agree that all his recordings are important, but again (hope not being too pushy...) if it would come down to 1 TRACK which stands synonymous for your appreciation of Wilbure Ware`s euvre, which one would you choose ??

Edited by soulpope
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Any of 'em.

;) .......Wilbur Ware was unfortunately not overly prolific and I agree that all his recordings are important, but again (hope not being too pushy...) if it would come down to 1 TRACK which stands synonymous for your appreciation of Wilbure Ware`s euvre, which one would you choose ??

For my answer, see post #3.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

How is this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pt4oqVru15o

excellent choice !!

Any of 'em.

;) .......Wilbur Ware was unfortunately not overly prolific and I agree that all his recordings are important, but again (hope not being too pushy...) if it would come down to 1 TRACK which stands synonymous for your appreciation of Wilbure Ware`s euvre, which one would you choose ??

For my answer, see post #3.

saw your original post, thnx for the reminder nevertheless !!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For Wilbur Ware, plug in this (from the Johnny Griffin Sextet) on YouTube:

"Johnny Griffin Woody n You" -- both the opening Ware solo and his later-in-the-track duet with JG.

BTW, I downloaded OS Yosemite the other night, and now when I call something up on You Tube I don't get/see any http address anywhere whereby I can copy and paste a link to that video. Anyone know anything about this?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

BTW, I downloaded OS Yosemite the other night, and now when I call something up on You Tube I don't get/see any http address anywhere whereby I can copy and paste a link to that video. Anyone know anything about this?

You are now a participant in the true public beta test of Yosemite.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

GEORGE JOYNER aka JAMIL NASSER

btw as obviously being a bass fanatic, I was hoping this thread would be mainly about specific bass performances (like obviously stated by the thread initiator) giving the reader a chance to (re)search these - and not turn into another name dropping rundown....just my 5 pence worth....

Well, if you insist ... ;)

With all due respect, I beg to disagree about Jamil Nasser.

He is one of those who have managed to mar my listening experience here and there, specifically as an accompanist to Al Haig ("Strings Attached").

What's all that droning, booming, resonating bass background that distracts from the lead voices and at times even tends to collide with Jimmy Raney's guitar lines? Not always very sympathetic IMO.

Granted that times and styles have evolved since the 50s but what's all that busybody bassing around when, as an accompanist, a somewhat more subordinate role is called for. Where are Ray Brown, Red Callender, etc. when it is all about getting a steady pulse and swing going? There is a time and place for everything and all this droning and resonating may be fine and quite appropriate in other settings, but there??

Or is it all the fault of what recording mix was fashionable in those days?

No doubt Al Haig himself felt differently as he used Jamil Nasser often, but still ... :huh:

Gary Mazzaroppi (with Tal Farlow) is another one in the very same vein (even more so, sometimes crowding out the guitarist) who makes it a bit of a displeasure searching out latter-day recordings by artists who I like immensely. No harm and insult meant, but the way they play there, those bass players just "get in the way" IMO.

BTW, talking about dropping names - no interest in Curtis Counce?

Edited by Big Beat Steve
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I’m a big fan of Charlie Haden, but also a whole host of players: Ron Carter, Richard Davis, Ray Brown, Eddie Gomez, Christian McBride, and many more. In electric bass, the top players (for me) are Jaco, Stanley Clarke, and Steve Swallow (not much beyond them).

I’m looking for your favorite bassists, but even more particularly favorite performances. I’m not necessarily talking about long bass solos, but rather uses of the bass that are very striking and effective.

me too :w .....

Francois Rabbath -- Bass Ball (1963)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

GEORGE JOYNER aka JAMIL NASSER

btw as obviously being a bass fanatic, I was hoping this thread would be mainly about specific bass performances (like obviously stated by the thread initiator) giving the reader a chance to (re)search these - and not turn into another name dropping rundown....just my 5 pence worth....

Well, if you insist ... ;)

With all due respect, I beg to disagree about Jamil Nasser.

He is one of those who have managed to mar my listening experience here and there, specifically as an accompanist to Al Haig ("Strings Attached").

What's all that droning, booming, resonating bass background that distracts from the lead voices and at times even tends to collide with Jimmy Raney's guitar lines? Not always very sympathetic IMO.

Granted that times and styles have evolved since the 50s but what's all that busybody bassing around when, as an accompanist, a somewhat more subordinate role is called for. Where are Ray Brown, Red Callender, etc. when it is all about getting a steady pulse and swing going? There is a time and place for everything and all this droning and resonating may be fine and quite appropriate in other settings, but there??

Or is it all the fault of what recording mix was fashionable in those days?

No doubt Al Haig himself felt differently as he used Jamil Nasser often, but still ... :huh:

Gary Mazzaroppi (with Tal Farlow) is another one in the very same vein (even more so, sometimes crowding out the guitarist) who makes it a bit of a displeasure searching out latter-day recordings by artists who I like immensely. No harm and insult meant, but those bass players just "get in the way" IMO.

BTW, talking about dropping names - no interest in Curtis Counce?

I liked George Joyner on some Prestige dates from the late '50s, disliked him, for the same reasons you did, as Jamil Nasser later on. The way he had his pickup set up by then was pretty ugly, and he used it to play obtrusively as well. Likewise with Mazzaroppi.

I like Counce's quintet recordings as a leader a lot but don't recall any instances where his own playing struck me as that special, though every rhythm section he was part of IIRC worked just fine or better than that. But then Counce came up in an era when unobtrusive support was the name of the game.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Any of 'em.

;) .......Wilbur Ware was unfortunately not overly prolific and I agree that all his recordings are important, but again (hope not being too pushy...) if it would come down to 1 TRACK which stands synonymous for your appreciation of Wilbure Ware`s euvre, which one would you choose ??

Ok, I can get it down to three, from which I'll leave it to you to make the final selection. :)

  1. "The Man I Love" from The Chicago Sound. That arrangement has a "showcase" feel to it, like it was designed to be played in clubs by a working band as a more or less set piece, and it sounds to me like Ware plays it accordingly. So I get a kind of "community" feel to it that I really like.
  2. "Well, You Needn't" from Monk's Music - both the solo and the accompaniment show how Ware could swing you into bad health and move you ears into totally unexpected places harmonically with his logical yet still atypical substitutions.
  3. "By Myself" from Super Bass (also included in the Clifford Jordan/Strata-East Mosaic set) - 7:42 of solo bass over basic changes. As Stefan from SNL used to say, "This one has it all", only, like, in the best, the very best way.

I feel funny for not including anything off the Rollins Vanguard date, or from the Grant Green trio side, but in the case of the Rollins, I couldn't pick just one, and besides, that's a perfectly triangulated trio, so...I will say though, that Elvin never again had a bassist so bass-icly propulsive until he got hooked up with JG. not that propulsive!

These are just my first three that come to mind. Like I said, any others will do as well!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Two guys who were consummate pros for their entire careers but both made at least one astonishing record that maybe you did not see coming: Earl May [thanks Paul!], for his contributions to the trio performances on Coltrane's LUSH LIFE, and the always-swinging Joe Comfort for being captured so beautifully by Roy DuNann of Contemporary Records on Gerald Wiggins' RELAX!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bz2eFW8yxJE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgHaSkK13nM

Among the avant-free-etc. bassists, Marcello Melis made three great records for Black Saint and can be heard on important recordings made by Enrico Rava and Mario Schiano.

Edited by Joe
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Anybody who played in Ellington's band.

Yes!

I've got a lot of love for Scott LaFaro and many others mentioned so far.

I'll add one masterful piece of bass work that grabbed me the first time I heard it and still does. It's Fred Atwood on "I Have a Good One For You". (Warne Marsh, All Music)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Two guys who were consummate pros for their entire careers but both made at least one astonishing record that maybe you did not see coming: Early May, for his contributions to the trio performances on Coltrane's LUSH LIFE, and the always-swinging Joe Comfort for being captured so beautifully by Roy DuNann of Contemporary Records on Gerald Wiggins' RELAX!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bz2eFW8yxJE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgHaSkK13nM

Among the avant-free-etc. bassists, Marcello Melis made three great records for Black Saint and can be heard on important recordings made by Enrico Rava and Mario Schiano.

I know you meant Earl May. Just wanted to let people know who might be looking for Early May.

Perhaps with the World Series and baseball in the air, you had Early Wynn in the back of your mind. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There is no early autumn in Texas, so why not look forward to a Late Spring?

Joe Comfort was the man who convinced me about Nelson Riddle, who was the man who convinced me about Frank Sinatra. I might be in the minority by recognizing it so explicitly, but for how many others through the decades that might be at least in part subliminally true, I'd not want to hazard a guess.

So in sociological terms, Joe Comfort possibly = one of the most important bassists ever?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For the record (since I got this thing rolling) here are some of my spotlight bass performances:

"Two Folk Songs"--Haden (Metheny)

"The Left Hand of God"--Haden

"Jade Visions"--LaFaro (Evans)

"Bottoms Up"--Ron Carter

"Nature Boy"--Jimmy Garrison and Art Davis (Coltrane)

"Alfred"--Richard Davis (Andrew Hill)

"Sepia Panorma--Blanton (Ellington)

"Travelin'--Percy Heath (MJQ)

"Walk-A-Way"--Dave Holland

"Think of One"--Miroslav Vitous (Corea)

"Blue Moses"--Jamil Nasser and Alex Blake (Weston)

Just a few...

Edited by Milestones
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.

×
×
  • Create New...