Take Five Bassline?
 

(Sorry I posted this in the Bass Guitar forum as well but I figured there are probably loads of smart jazz guys here so....)

So I always just kinda played this song repetitively and I finally watched a live version of Brubeck with Desmond and the gang and it occurred to me that I wasn't playing anything like what the bassist (I think it was Eugene Wright or something along those lines) was playing...for reference I usually play the song like this: (I'm putting tabs to help with explainations)
Eb Bb Db
G|----------------| and then vamp it or whatever
D|----------------|
A|-6-6--6-6----4-|
E|-----------6----|

then play this (with some passing notes or whatever in between) with different rhythms (I'll just put the notes to save space)
B Bb Ab Gb B Bb Ab F
G|----------------------|
D|----------------------|
A|-2-1--------2-1-------|
E|------4--2-------4--1-|

then go back to the vamping part for the solos and just change it up with rhythms and such...


Anyone know how to really play it? ALA This version (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faJE92phKzI)

I hear the bassline duplicated by the piano and then the piano additionally plays riff. I tried loading it into Transcribe and selected the bass and this is still what I hear, so... To my ear, the bass is kind of redundant on this tune. This pdf notates what I play. I haven't had any complaints in the dozen or so times I've played it. It doesn't seem to get called very often but once in a while. Hope that helps. Someone correct me if they hear something different; I'd be interested in other opinions.

Looks correct to me.

You came to the right place. To my ear, it goes "beam boom bum..beam boom bum...beam boom bum..."

No man...it's boom boom babee bum...boom boom babee boo".

But seriously, you can probably find countless versions of the song being played with variations. It is great to go to the source. Then, go check out some other successful versions. You'll have a lot of different options to satisfy your own personal sound.

Just was listening to the live version with the Paul Desmond Quartet Live. Don Thompson on bass. It sounds to me like he tuned his e string down to Eb.

Reminds me of the joke-
How many bass players does it take to screw in a light bulb?
;)

I've heard versions where (from bar 9 in the PDF version) the bassist starts walking, then goes back to the 1-4-5 rhythm when the solo instrument goes back to the original theme in bar 16.