A good Walking basslines Cd

as far as pop music, i'd recommend "only the good die young" by billy joel.

 

Well firstly you may have confused people as you have put this in the Bass Guitar(BG) section rather than the Double Bass (DB) section.

Secondly what you are asking for may well be a contradiction in terms. It is really bass guitar that has strong mids and is very clear - in terms of pitch.

What I mean is that generally (although not always)Double Bass is characterised by a sound that is very bassy with a lot of fundamental and has a certain "vagueness" in sound (I'm not sure how best to describe this) - so that in a Jazz setting a walking line is ambiguous at points and hence leaves the soloist more freedom. (Soloists like this)

One of the problems of Bass Guitar players in a Jazz setting is that they are too "clear" and what is wanted is something that allows more freedom and is more ambiguous.

A further problem in terms of making suggestions is that in the classic Jazz period when a lot of the best albums were made, the technology was such that Double Bass lines are not very clear in terms of pitch and they definitely don't have clear mids.

Most Jazz walking lines also include a lot of chromatic passing notes that aren't in the key and together with the fact that you get things like sliding notes and the nature of the Double Bass with it's long scale and stretches you are going to get some notes that are "inbetween" in terms of intonation.

Of course it should always be possible to hear the "sound" of the chord/scale and resolutions, but I think it is quite demanding listening and very different to someone who is used to the clarity of Bass guitar.

So you may not get an answer on this - I could suggest a hundred great walking lines on records and you might say - well none of those are clear with pronounced mids - but that's the nature of the beast as far as I'm aware??

 

If you are looking for a CD to start learning how to walk, try "Night Train" by Oscar Peterson. It has Ray Brown on bass, is well recorded and mostly blues tunes so the chord progressions will be easy to hear.

 

blue train/John Coltrane

 

Many of the play along CD's offer what you are looking for. The bass lines are isolated so you can adjust tone if needed.

One of my favorites is Vol. 15 of the Aebersold series that has Ron Carter walking standards with piano comping and drums. You can turn the piano or bass off by panning. You can also get a transcription of the lines.

www.jazzbooks.com

I'll also recommend the remastered Oscar Peterson CDs w/ Ray Brown. Man that's sweet stuff!