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Oldest electric bass recording currently available?

onestring

onestring

Aug 25, 2009
293
210
Pittsburgh, PA
#1
There's lots of threads on "oldest bass" on these here forums, but I'm wondering what the oldest recordings of electric bass are that I can easily get my hands on.

Monk Montgomery, Bill Black, any genre is good. But what I really want are recommendations for specific albums/songs from the earliest days of the electric bass. Pre-1955 anyone?

Bonus points for oldest YouTube video with an electric bass! :bassist:
 
#5
That 1956 Lionel Hampton clip IS AMAZING!

This is an era that is mysterious and new to me. It seems like a weird, exciting, and obscure time in music. Post-big band, pre-rock and roll, a lot of hybridization going on, the technological changes in amplification and recording, small combo jazz, hillbilly boogie, the Fender bass...

MORE!
 
#6
Reading some stuff on Paul & Bud Tutmarc, it seems that some Hawaiian music could take the prize - especially from a guy called Sol Hoopii.

Another contender could be Carl Thompson's father, James B. Thomson...

An ill-fated recording session in 1942 initially inspired James to build an electric bass. Apparently he had a difficult time miking the acoustic upright and wanted to record the bass direct. His electric 4-string blossomed from a broken Kay arch-top guitar; he carved a solid block to fit the inside of the box, which would help to support the pickup and thick strings. The area of the strings directly above the Thompson dual-coil pickup was painted with a conductive coating and wrapped with steel wire to generate signals in the coils. It was a success, and James used this bass on many home recordings; Carl himself played it when he was 12. Although Carl still has many of those early recordings...
Click to expand...

Above taken from: Link Removed

Anyone got a hotline to Carl Thompson?

Pete.
 
#7
Amazing. Note to Carl: If these recordings exist they are historically important and should be in the Smithsonian (and online)!

I have a bunch of Sol Hoopii (I'm a steel player too) but it is all from the 20s/30s. There are some very early 1950s recordings of him (I believe his very last) duetting with one of the Tutmarcs (who also played Hawaiian steel) that appear on eBay on cassette from time to time. I wonder if those have some electric bass on them...

Of course Leo's first big success with instruments were his amazing Dual Pro and Stringmaster steel guitars played by all the big Western Swing bands in the 1940s. The Tutmarcs made steels too, which makes it even more likely that Fender would have been aware of the Serenader...
 
#10
Late followup/update: So far Day The Earth Stood Still holds the title for earliest recording (thanks for that, it is a crazy record!). The movie came out in the summer of 1951.

Right now this is the oldest video I have found of a P bass in action:
The Treniers - Rockin' Is Our Business 1953

At first I thought the date must be wrong because it sounded a couple of years too modern, but I learned more about The Treniers and they had been performing that song since the 1940s.

I'm still looking for even earlier video if anybody has any ideas...
 
#13
I've always suspected that Big Mama Thronton's original version of "Hound Dog" (recorded on 8/13/52) featured an electric bass. The instrumentation is pretty sparse and the bass sounds to me like an Precision with flats and mute as opposed to an upright bass. The bassist on the recording was Albert Winston and I can't find much information about him, although he did record with other blues artists. Composers Lieber & Stoller were at the recording session and they have written a lot about how it transpired, but no info on what kind of bass was used.

If it's a Fender I think it may qualify as one of the earliest recordings of an electric bass and perhaps the first one to become a hit. Give it a listen and tell me what you think: Invalid Link Removed. Notice how the bassist keeps playing at the end of the recording after the guitar and drums have stopped and everyone starts howling.

- Steve
 
#14
I will have to listen to the original 1951 score to The Day the Earth stood still. Hermann wrote the score in july 51 and recorded in August 51. The score includes electric violin, electric cello and electric bass.
Given that the earliest run of Fender P Basses was in October 51, can we be sure that the score does not use an electric bass guitar? Perhaps it is an amplified Double bass?
 
#16
design said:
I will have to listen to the original 1951 score to The Day the Earth stood still. Hermann wrote the score in july 51 and recorded in August 51. The score includes electric violin, electric cello and electric bass.
Given that the earliest run of Fender P Basses was in October 51, can we be sure that the score does not use an electric bass guitar? Perhaps it is an amplified Double bass?
Click to expand...
It was Gort's custom shop intergalactic P bass. I think Bootsy Collins copied it.
 
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#17
On 2 July 1953 in NY, Monk Montgomery cut 4 tracks with the Art Farmer Septet playing a p bass with flatwound strings, and playing with his thumb. His amp was probably a bassman or 53 bandmaster. Quincy Jones played piano. These are probably the first jazz recordings of electric bass, and possibly the first ever recordings. In sept & oct 53 Monk toured Europe with Lionel Hampton's Orchestra and made some live and studio recordings with Lionel.
 
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#18
design said:
On 2 July 1953 in NY, Monk Montgomery cut 4 tracks with the Art Farmer Septet playing a p bass with flatwound strings, and playing with his thumb. His amp was probably a bassman or 53 bandmaster. Quincy Jones played piano. These are probably the first jazz recordings of electric bass, and possibly the first ever recordings. In sept & oct 53 Monk toured Europe with Lionel Hampton's Orchestra and made some live and studio recordings with Lionel.
Click to expand...

Here are a few tracks from that session:





- Steve
 
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#19
Atshen said:
More or less on topic but I've read in BP mag that Elvis' "Jaihouse Rock" was the first Top Ten Hit to feature electric bass.
Click to expand...
That sounds about right, I heard that Bill Black decided to move from upright to electric for that session. He sure worked that electric with a heavy hand though almost like he was still getting used to it. Not so much on topic because this was later but Hank Ballard cut some sides around 1960 that featured some very nice el.bs., always wondered who the player was (check out "Lets Go, Lets Go, Lets Go"). If you have time to listen to a lot of 1950's R&B including a whole bunch that never made the charts, here is the place to go: www.uncamarvy.com. On Marv Goldberg's fascinating weekly 'show' over the years there have been quite a few songs from the early '50's featuring el.bs.
 
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