sinatra bassist, "under my skin"

[bruce malcolm]

the nelson riddle 1956 studio cut has very tasty & hip
bass playing. who was the bassist on this & all these
sinatra / riddle recordings, like "witchcraft, tramp, come
fly with me, the way you look tonite, all or nothing at all"?

i just realized how hip this sinatra "big band"bass playing is,
which i think tends to get lost cause it is big band...and also it's frank. for sure...check out "under my skin" & "all or nothing". very cool.

[ZachDad]

+1 on these sessions! Man, to just stand there and swing like that!

[Uncletoad]

I've been wonder this for awhile.

I love that stuff.

[salcott]

"Swingin' Session" has Red Mitchell on the cover. I'm thinking Red, Monte Budwig, Joe Mondragon, or other LA session guys of that era. Maybe Red Callender or Ray Brown as well.

[bassist1962]

I know John Ryan played with him off and on around this time as well.

[Jason Sypher]

I love that stuff. It's just so warm and right. Course, how would you play behind Sinatra?

[mapleleaf4evr]

A great way to hear Frank with a smaller group is the live recording he did with Red Norvo's quintet in Australia from 1959. The bassist listed is Red Wooten. These guys give a text book example of how to play behind a singer. And yes, they do cover "I've Got You Under My Skin".

[bruce malcolm]

and the bass is way in the mix, sounds beautiful &
is carrying & driving these songs with a variety of style
(lines) & dynamics. the tension & release in "under my
skin" is often, varied & is just killin me...especially the
instrumental break & when frank comes back in, the
bass is walkin, then up into thumb & drops back down
with note choices...that are jamerson-esque...that's
how hip "skin" bass is.

[Don Higdon]

For a lot of years, Frank used Jerry Bruno as his bassist. Jerry is still around, frequently works with Bucky Pizzarelli.

[Uncletoad]

Originally Posted by bruce malcolm

the
bass is walkin, then up into thumb & drops back down
with note choices...that are jamerson-esque...that's
how hip "skin" bass is.

I think that's backwards. Jamerson was a handful of years later. Maybe that's where he got his sh.t.

[Uncletoad]

Originally Posted by Jason Sypher

Course, how would you play behind Sinatra?

With my throat in my ass.

[bribass]

Originally Posted by Uncletoad

With my throat in my ass.

ROTFL!! Yeah Phil, we were talkin' about that at my house and my guesses also were Joe Mondragon, Monte Budwig or maybe Gerry Bruno.
BTW is a great guy and a local legend that calls me to sub for him now & then and we end up having long bass discussions on the phone.
I bumped into him last Spring (we use the same accountant). He looked great and still playing/working all the time and going strong at like 88! A real gentleman and inspiration. I'll have to ask him, but I think Gerry was more w/ Frank in the 'NY,NY' era.

BG

[bruce malcolm]

phil, you just read it backwards...my intent was
the bass on "skin" is so hip, it reminds me of jamerson.
sorry for the mis-intent.

bribass, when you're talking to bruno, etc...alot of these
songs are recorded in 1956 & 57, if that is any help in
finding who the player(s) are.

[Uncletoad]

Originally Posted by bruce malcolm

phil, you just read it backwards...my intent was
the bass on "skin" is so hip, it reminds me of jamerson.
sorry for the mis-intent.

Yea I dig that. I'm just saying that Jamerson is so hip he reminds me of the cat playing with Sinatra.

Originally Posted by bruce malcom

bribass, when you're talking to bruno, etc...alot of these
songs are recorded in 1956 & 57, if that is any help in
finding who the player(s) are.

Frank Sinatra and Nelson Riddle paired up in Hollywood for the first time in April '53 for a cut or two that ended up on "This is Sinatra" released in '56. The first full sessions for them were in November '53 to do "Songs for Young Lovers". In March '54 they paired again to do "Wee Small Hours", and again a month later in April '55 for "Swing Easy". Riddle and Sinatra then finished the remainder of "This is Sinatra" in September '55.

"Songs for Swingin Lovers" (what "Skin" is on) was recorded in Holywood October '55 & January '56. "A Swingin Affair" was cut November '56.

Sinatra took a break from Riddle and worked with a couple other arrangers pairing with Riddle one more time in May and September of '58 for "Frank Sinatra sings for Only the Lonely" one of the best of the bunch.

I think that same bassist was on all the Riddle recordings. I'll bet he was from California but who knows, Riddle was from New Jersey and did a lot of work in NYC. He may have brought some cats out for it.

[bruce malcolm]

phil, i think you're right, it probably is "the same
bassist on all the riddle recordings". i googled
mondragon & budwig, but no ties to sinatra or
riddle. the search continues...for me.

[RTB72]

It's Joe Comfort on that stuff isn't it.

Nelson Riddle arr late 50'S

[Uncletoad]

Dig this page. It totally discounts the timeline I put up before.

Sinatra Capital Discography

It cites Joe Comfort for most of that stuff with a smattering of sessions with Edward Gilbert, Meyer Rubin, Sam R. Cheifetz,Nat Gangursky, John Ryan, and then in 1960 Red Mitchell.

Joe Comfort is credited for the Skin session and most of the other cool stuff.

Who the hell is he?

[Jeremy Allen]

I had always thought it was Al McKibbon, based on the fact that he did play on a lot of that famous Sinatra stuff after he moved to LA and judging from the sound. However, according to his website, he didn't move out there until 1958. Doesn't mean he couldn't have done those 1956 dates, of course, but it would make it less likely.
...
Oops, just saw the Joe Comfort stuff. Joe Comfort?

[Uncletoad]

From Wikipoop:
Joe Comfort (July 18, 1917 - October 29, 1988) was an American jazz bassist. Comfort, from a musically oriented Los Angeles family, taught himself bass and began performing with Lionel Hampton's orchestra in the late 1920s, and later began performing with Nat King Cole in a partnership that would continue until the early 1950s. Comfort participated in numerous studio dates in the late 1950s and early 1960s, with such luminaries as Sammy Davis, Jr., Benny Carter and Nancy Wilson.[1]


Ok this is even weirder. Joe Comfort's wife was Mattie Comfort was the Satin Doll in the Ellington toon. Her obit from '03

Singer, dancer and actress, known for performing with Duke Ellington’s band in the early 50’s, who appeared in the 1955 film “Kiss Me Deadly” with Ellington, and for whom the 1956 hit song “Satin Doll” was written, died June 20 ,2003 of a heart attack in Whittier, CA at age 79.

[Uncletoad]

Yea, I just read several different things including Steve Hoffman's remastering notes that verify...


Joe Comfort!


The name Joe Comfort represents an important example of a musician's surname summarizing what is expected of them as an instrumentalist. It would be grand to say this man's name is thus synonymous with great jazz bass players, but unfortunately this artist has much less name recognition with jazz fans than some of the players that inspired him, a list that starts with Jimmy Blanton of the Duke Ellington Orchestra and continues with reliable mainstream jazz veterans such as Paul Chambers and Ray Brown. Comfort's discography rivals any of these players in size, nonetheless, the most extensively heard sides most likely being recordings with stars such as Nat King Cole and Frank Sinatra.

Comfort's Los Angeles family were entirely musically talented, although the general alignment was the classics rather than swinging. The soon-to-be bassist's father taught him trombone initially; Comfort never lost his ease with brass, keeping up chops on an arsenal of at least four such instruments throughout his career. Comfort taught himself bass and by his late '20s was gigging with enthusiastic bandleader Lionel Hampton. Cole called a couple of years later and their relationship continued into the early '50s, including an extensive European tour. Comfort also worked independently with Oscar Moore, a guitarist whose style was considered an important element of Cole's original trio groove.

In the second half of the '50s the bassist began picking up a larger proportion of studio credits, soundtrack music for bosses such as Nelson Riddle as well as pop and vocal music. The aforementioned blue-eyed wonder was comfortable enough with Comfort to include him on anABC television series in 1957. A crime series entitled M Squad was even more of a jazz highlight for the boob tube set around the same time, featuring the bassist in the context of a studio band helmed by the brilliant Benny Carter. This amount of popular exposure and the bassist's rafter of commercial recording sessions apparently backfired in terms of maintaining interest amongst the jazz snobbery, however. ~ Eugene Chadbourne, All Music Guide