Bass Vocalizations

[mjzee]

I'm listening now to Hawkins! Alive! At The Village Gate (Verve, 1962).  On "Joshua Fit The Battle Of Jericho," Major Holley does one of those solos where he sings the notes he's bowing.  Is there a name for this technique?  Anyway, he's pretty good at it.  What other notable solos can you name?

[JSngry]

Slam Stewart had a lifetime of them...the "Lionel Hampton" Just Jazz concert which produced "The Man I Love" & "Stardust" seem to have remained "famous" over the years, whatever that really means.

 

 

Barney Kessell on "The Man I Love"...tone to die for, just full of all kinds of DIRT. Hello Oklahoma, hello Charlie Christian under your fingernails.

[medjuck]

Did Paul Chambers do this?  I remember he did a lot of bowed solos when I would see him live  and have a vague memory of him humming along. (After 50 years, many of my memories are vague.)

[l p]

Major Holley

56 minutes ago, medjuck said:

Did Paul Chambers do this? 

it's not the same thing. Major Holley made it part of his routine. i think slam stewart did it too? one of these 2 seemed to do it on every solo that he took, which gets old very fast.

[BillF]

Was very surprised when I first heard Major Holley doing this (on record in the early sixties) as I'd thought it was a Slam Stewart preserve. Can't think off hand of anyone else who does/did it. I have to confess I find it annoying.

[Justin V]

I really enjoy Major Holley's bass/vocal solo on 'Angel Eyes' from the Al Cohn/Zoot Sims album, You 'n' Me.

[jeffcrom]

2 hours ago, JSngry said:

Slam Stewart had a lifetime of them...the "Lionel Hampton" Just Jazz concert which produced "The Man I Love" & "Stardust" seem to have remained "famous" over the years, whatever that really means.

 

 

My sweet mom used to love rummaging in junk stores, and would bring home anything that looked like a jazz record for her music-obsessed 15-year-old. She brought me the 10" LP pictured above, and for the life of me, I couldn't figure out what that strange sound was. In those far pre-internet days, I went to the library and combed through jazz books until I came across a reference to Slam singing along with his bowed solos, and the light bulb finally clicked on.

And by the way, that nice habit of my mom's is the reason I first heard Albert Ayler. I certainly didn't know enough to seek him out on my on.

[JSngry]

I think that 10" must have been a "hit", seeing how it's pretty much always been in print in some form or fashion. I bought a used copy a few years ago, and have seen it in the used bins often enough over the years that I think it was a popular item. My HS band director had it, and it was one of  his records that he brought to school and left there for us to play before and after school, and he knew we were going to ask waht "that" was, and sure enough, we did. You think of it, what are the odds of a 13 year old kid in Gladewater, Texas hearing Charlie Shavers and Willie Smith before hearing Dizzy & Bird? Never mind Corky Corcoran! Life is strangely random at times...Even now, this is still my favorite Barney Kessell, period, ever. That shit is in there!

Also...I love when this one here came out I had a WHAAAAAA?????? kind of a laugh about the cover. I saw what they did there!

[BillF]

6 minutes ago, jeffcrom said:

My sweet mom used to love rummaging in junk stores, and would bring home anything that looked like a jazz record for her music-obsessed 15-year-old. She brought me the 10" LP pictured above, and for the life of me, I couldn't figure out what that strange sound was. In those far pre-internet days, I went to the library and combed through jazz books until I came across a reference to Slam singing along with his bowed solos, and the light bulb finally clicked on.

 

Yes, I recall not knowing how the sound was made - and so it was initially intriguing. It sounded better on Slam's earlier dates as recording of the time merged the two sound sources. I've heard it caught by modern recording where the far from perfect integration of voice and bass is exposed. Essentially I see its main value as entertaining, rather than musical - much like when Steve Turre lays down his trombone and takes up a seashell, to the delight of audiences.

[l p]

Slam Stewart & Major Holley ‎recorded a couple of co-leader albums together

Two Big Mice
http://www.discogs.com/Slam-Stewart-Major-Holley-Two-Big-Mice/release/2405206

Shut Yo' Mouth
http://www.discogs.com/Slam-Stewart-Major-Holley-Shut-Yo-Mouth/master/572581

 

[mikeweil]

I have all of the Stewart/Holley Black & Blue sessions, all are enyoyable, especially the one where George Duvivier plays walking bass behind them! There is another album on PM Records, CD reissue on Delos, "Shut Yo Mouth" - a very appropriate title! The main difference between them is that Major Holley has a much lower singing voice and thus sings in unisons, while Slam Stewart sings an octave higher. When I first heard Slam's Stardust solo on the radio, I got me a copy of that LP immediately!

There are many nice albums by both; one I fondly remember is "Dialogue" by Stewart with Bucky Pizzarelli (Stash).

The only other bassist doing this that I know of is Avery Sharpe who sang along on one track of his Sunnyside CD "Unspoken Words"  - "A major slam jam in a sharp(e)".

Edited January 7, 2016 by mikeweil

[JSngry]

For Major Holley completists:

 

 

Better vocals.