Jazz Artists with "Good Technique"

[Don Higdon]

Originally Posted by Paul New

Django had pretty decent chops without fingers.

I wouldn't know; I never heard him playing bass.

[basspirate777]

Not a huge name in the bass world; but a fellow named Jim Ferguson from Nashville is a guy who deserves a lot more attention. You can always tell it's him on the local NPR station because of his HUGE booming sound. Also, as a soloist he's smooth as butter from half position to the tippy-top of the bass; and has a very refined vocabulary. Very friendly as well. He's also a great luthier- I believe he has worked on Edgar Meyer's basses (or does on a regular basis still).

[Paul Warburton]

+1. One more of Red's boys.

[boylebass]

When I think of 'technique' I think of more than rh/lh issues. I think of overall biomechanics- balance, posture, overall shape of the shoulders, arms, and wrists, etc... My old teacher would bring me into a rehearsal room for a lesson every so often, and he would walk around making adjustments.

That said, Dave Holland had the finest technique I've ever seen. Absolutely flawless, no slop. Really fun to watch.

BUT another big part of our lessons was how to 'service the groove'. When I think of players with that type of technical and artistic balance the players that currently (and usually) come to mind are Brown (of course), Holland, and Christian McBride.

[funkifiedsoul]

Originally Posted by SimpleIsBest

An interesting thing one of my teachers said once:

"Oscar Peterson and Thelonius Monk. Who had better technique?"

(

With Oscars' chops, and Monks' mind, there would be no one else.

[jumpinin]

Dave Holland almost goes without saying. Anthony Cox always impressed me with the precision of his technique.

[RHFusillo]

ZonGuy--

The jazz bassist with the absolute best technique I've ever seen was John Adams, who played with our mutual acquaintance/teacher, Joe LoCascio, during the 90's. He's on Joe's CD's like "Silent Motion," with Ed Soph. I used to marvel at the physical perfection of Adams' playing. His playing lacked a certain "funkiness" (not in the R&B sense) for me, but his technique was flawless.

[Tampabass]

Originally Posted by SimpleIsBest

Wow! Scott Colley is REALLY great!

+ 1 - and Brian Bromberg and (the late) NHOP

[ZonGuy]

Originally Posted by RHFusillo

ZonGuy--

The jazz bassist with the absolute best technique I've ever seen was John Adams, who played with our mutual acquaintance/teacher, Joe LoCascio, during the 90's. He's on Joe's CD's like "Silent Motion," with Ed Soph. I used to marvel at the physical perfection of Adams' playing. His playing lacked a certain "funkiness" (not in the R&B sense) for me, but his technique was flawless.

I remember seeing John and Joe performing at C., but at the time I was too ignorant to recognize good technique as I was still primarily a 4 fingered electric player, but I did recognize the superb musicianship. Same for Lynn Seaton.

The irony is that I saw Joe play with one of Houston's best - Bill Miller recently - and it really struck me how unorthodox his left hand thumb positioning/technique was. Sort of like Mingus's. Just shows that there is more than one way to get the job done well. BTW, Bill Miller deserves way more attention than he gets - he really has been stretching the limits of the upright for years. I bet if there was a you-tube of him to show the TBer's, they'd flip the way electric players do over Victor Wooten.

[RHFusillo]

No question -- Bill Miller is an unorthodox player in multiple ways. And he's well worth hearing.

[YamBass]

Patittucci has a great technique, in therms of traditional achademic way of playing.

[joemato]

I had studied with Miroslav 25 years back and he really cleaned up my technique. Many of the things he showed me were so simple yet so good like using open strings on runs, moving earlier than when you run out of position and 3 finger right hand for speed. I remember going to his place and banging on the door for the longest time until he woke up then him going about 3 hours with me(I needed a nap) He also made me a copy of the Posta technique book which I have to dig out. A big thing I had previously learned was to always use a mirror when practicing technique, it don't lie.

[Square Bear]

Originally Posted by Tampabass

+ 1 - and Brian Bromberg and (the late) NHOP

+1 for NHOP. not as polished "looking" technique as say patittucci, but hey, when you can play like this it doesn't matter too much what you look like doing it...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vm8HU...eature=related

any bassist who hasn't seen this video hasn't lived.

[ClassicRock55]

I love this comment from the vid:

"That bassist hand looks like a creature living on itself. Best visualization of aural music ever."

Everything about that video is amazing, especially the musicality of both Joe and NHOP. I swear though, watching NHOP's left hand dance across the fingerboard is something else....

[RayBrownAddict]

Ray Brown is the man for jazz technique
If you want to be amazing
Ray Brown Method Book
Other people with great technique are
Rufus Reid
Ron Carter
John Pattitucci
and Marco Panascia