who is great?- solo doublebass

[Jordi Carrasco]

[quote=Christopher;4995303]Add Renaud Garcia Fons.[/
QUOTE]

Tanks a lot Cris! That gau really is a monster!

[RobinBetton]

Stefano Scodanibbio

[reedo35]

Originally Posted by Bruce Lindfield

Using Google will give you a pretty good idea of who each is!

True!- All the more reason to check them out, it's not that difficult!

[bassist1962]

Danny Thompson. Although mainly a sideman, he has done some absolutly wonderful solos within that framework.

[Paul New]

Andreas van Voelen

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yFl5IG7LSQ

[Eric Swanson]

Originally Posted by Paul New

Andreas van Voelen

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yFl5IG7LSQ

Nice! Really dug the bass saxophone! Thank you.

+1 on all mentioned. Additionally, some different folks for different things:

Wilbur Ware (for beautifully contrapunctual bass lines, lovely, melodic playing, and driving time)

Jimmy Blanton (for playing like a horn for the first time on record, that I know of)

Terry Plumeri (for redefining jazz bass to include arco soloing that has freedom and intensity to match anyone in jazz; for playing in the National Symphony bass section at the same time he was soloing his butt off in jazz clubs)
http://www.youtube.com/results?searc...&search=Search

Orin O'Brien (for trailblazing the way for female bassists in the NYPhil and teaching scores of great players) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orin_O'Brien

Robert Brennand (former NYPhil Principal, pre-Schaeffer) for just playing his butt off, for decades, with an amazingly sweet, huge sound. Also for teaching many folks)

Rodion Azarkhan (for being insane/ambitious enough to play the Bach Chaconne for solo violin on the bass)

Fred and Oscar Zimmerman (for dedicating so much time to our solo literature)

The list goes on and on...how many generations back do we want to go?

[Pops]

DaXun Zhang!!!

[hepcat1950]

Originally Posted by Eli_Upright12

There is truth to this comment though, I think stanley clarke is better on Bass Guitar than on double bass, dont get me wrong I love him on both, but sometimes on the DB he gets kind of repetitive, but he deserves his place for some of this innovations hes made to playing with unique techniques like using the modern slap technique on DB.

Did you ever listen to the early (1972) ECM release "Chick Corea: Return To Forever"? Listen to Stan's double bass solo at the beginning of "Sometime Ago/La Fiesta". Stan is a killer double bass player. So he's at least capable to play the double bass as good as the bass guitar. Maybe he made use of this capability too seldomly.....

[hepcat1950]

[quote=Jordi Carrasco;4999811]

Originally Posted by Christopher

Add Renaud Garcia Fons.[/
QUOTE]

Tanks a lot Cris! That gau really is a monster!

Well, I bought a couple of Garcia's albums due to the fact that he's such a great double bass player - and he recorded some fine music. But first he attached a fifth string (above the G-string) to his bass, and (for me) he leaves the thumb position too seldomly. At times I think he'd better chosen the cello or viola instead.....

[Hoover]

Just want to give props to some of my favorite bassists whose names I haven't seen mentioned yet:

Mark Dresser
Mike Formanek
Marc Helias
Drew Gress
Barre Phillips

and yes, I think Stanley Clarke is an awesome contrabass player...when he's not doing all the wanky show-off solo stuff. When he's just playing along he's got a groove like a piledriver and a tone that's bigger & plusher than Coco Austin's buttocks. Fabulous rhythm section teammate.

[RobinBetton]

barre phillips. love his playing. anyone checked out the new robin williamson album?

[Cosmos]

-DaXun Zhang
-Joel Quarrington
-Ed Barker
-Gary Karr - his early recordings are phenomenal and his more recent ones are pretty decent, too
-Eugene Levinson's recordings are nice
-Edgar Meyer obviously

Also, I'm surmising that when Tim Cobb and Tom Martin's Bottesini duos CD comes out that that'll be pretty phenomenal, too.

[mcnaire2004]

A little less known is Donovan Stokes

[pao_bass]

francois rabbath
renaud garcia fons
fred zimmerman
stuart sankey
eugene levinson
gary karr
ludwig streicher
and a lot more......

in jazz, I dig:

eddie gomez
john patitucci
christian mcbride
stanley clarke
and of course, ray brown

[Tel-X]

Gary Karr was a massive influence on me from the time i first watched he and Harmon Lewis (at the age of eight) give a recital in Gainsborough, UK (must have been 1977). He is/was, in my mind, the greatest double bass soloist of our times. I had the honour of playing on stage with him once, in Sheffield, in 1985.

Last year i was trying to track down my old bass tutor (a wonderful man called Lawrence Gray) to thank him for picking me for the instrument all those years ago. Wherever i looked i could not track him down. Then i had a brainwave. "Why not try to ask Gary Karr..? He must have a website". So, i wrote a humble note to Gary and within the week i received an answer telling me his whereabouts. Not only that, we exchanged our home info and a couple of weeks later Gary sent me a cd with a personal card to my home in the UK. He had told me at the Sheffield concert that i could be one of the great double bass players but, (un)fortunately, i never heeded his advice (it actually did my head in because my state-funded tutor at the time - Lawrence Gray had quit - wasn't as advanced as myself) and so i moved to guitar/vox/songwriting (which i've stuck to ever since). I get the bass out when a song requires it and it's just like riding a bike... five minutes and i get my mojo back.

Despite what some idiots have written about the great man on these forums (which is a little disheartening as i'm brand new to this place) i have to tell you in no uncertain terms that Gary Karr is one hell of a human being and it's a pleasure and an honour to know him and his beautiful sound. Legend.