Double Bass Basses seen on-screen

[Jake deVilliers]

I don't see where anyone has mentioned the bass played by the Darlings (Dillards) on the Andy Griffith show. It appeared any number of times...can anyone identify it?

That bass looks like your basic Sunburst Kay in this clip which features Charlene - great song too! There's also a good look at both the block inlay F-5 and the bowtie inlays on the banjo.

And of course The Country Boys were the first bluegrass band on the show with Eric White playing a white-edged Kay.

 

[bejoyous]

Just finished watching this film. I watch it every 3 years or so. Gotta go to Prague some time.

You can see two basses as part of the opera orchestra during the several opera scenes. However, near the end of the film during Papageno's aria from The Magic Flute, Mozart is sitting at a celesta-like instrument and directly behind him are the bassists. Watching their fingers, I'd say they are real bassist and not musicians faking it. Their "german" bows are huge and they hold them against the strings at an almost 45 degree angle to the strings!

 

[Matthew Tucker]

Well it IS on screen ....



It's a prop, but it probably doesn't count. KEEP YOUR EYES ON THE BASS

 

[robobass]

How about "The Godfather"? I remember a scene with a piano and bass playing in like a dark cafe, interwoven with newspaper headlines about gang wars. The bass is bowing a brooding solo on some melancholy Italian song. I don't think you can see enough to tell anything about the bass, but it sticks in my mind because the bassist is playing in a very strange way. It's like he has his whole left arm over the fingerboard. Anyone else ever notice this?

 

[bassbuddie]

The is one were Michel goes to Las Vegas and kick out the band and everybody who is in the room were his brother organized a party for him.

And in Godfather part two, outside at the begining of the movie with the band playing at his girl's birthday, and one I think it's in part one, when there is a party for the mariage of Micheal's sister.

 

[Clark Dark]

how about the free credit report.com commercials. The guy has played a P, an Urge, a couple of J's and a Hoppus, they have lots of Fender gear showcased in those ads.

 

[WinterBass]

Here's the youtube of W.C. Fields destroying a bass that Arnold mentioned.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3j79oPPFsM

Has anyone seen the old movie Orchestra Wives where Jackie Gleason porrays the bass player?

 

[bejoyous]

Here's the beginning of Orchestra Wives. Jackie almost seems to know what he's doing, but when they start playing you can tell he doesn't know how to play. Great classic tunes.

 

[Jesse Rosenburg]

Gee, I didn't know that Hitchcock worked with an artist named Saul Bass for his film posters and opening sequences

Of course, Sir Alfred in Strangers on a Train seems to be carrying his bass backwards

 

[Steve Killingsworth]

Invalid Link Removed. Great story, great music, lots of basses.

 

[Turock]

Henry Fonda was a bass player in The Wrong Man, another Hitchcock movie, IIRC.

 

[Bill Bentgen]

Don't forget Hitchcock's "The Man Who Knew Too Much" where one of the secondary characters actualy plays "Happy Birthday" arco on the double bass. This is the same movie where Doris Day sings "Que Sera Sera".

 

[Mr.Ecko]

Gee, I didn't know that Hitchcock worked with an artist named Saul Bass for his film posters and opening sequences

I use to work in Saul Bass old studio in Hollywood, a few years ago on Sunset Blvd, about a block from Hollywood High. It was behind another studio that face Sunset. It had a life size Ostridge movie prop next to my desk. Those were cool times...

1- Cadillac Records; Cedric the Entertainer(aka Willie Dixon) plays a blond upright (obviously not Willie's King Bass).

2- Tom & Jerry - Tom plays an upright singing "Is you ain't my baby". Very Funny... Here's the link,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YhgWAU6m7E

 

[bejoyous]

A great tune from The Aristocats 1970 Disney cartoon featuring the whole band and there's lots of cuts to the bass player.

 

[steverosati]

David Lynch Twin Peaks movie "Fire Walk with me" in the night club in Canada there is a band playing spaced out kinda stuff.

 

[forester]

original titanic what's left of the ships orchestra vows to play on,and go down with the ship (tough gig) closing scenes include either a cello or dbbass bobbing like a cork after surfacing from below.

 

[swingingoodtime]

Invalid Link Removed. Great story, great music, lots of basses.

Music, yes. Basses, yes. But a great story...? Hmmm... IMHO, it's okay, but not great...

I must say though, the soundtrack is a cracker; it's the only recording I've ever found of the Count Basie number: "Shout and Feel It". Awesome track.

 

[swingingoodtime]

original titanic what's left of the ships orchestra vows to play on,and go down with the ship (tough gig) closing scenes include either a cello or dbbass bobbing like a cork after surfacing from below.

"Sorry lady; there's only space for one more and... well, it's you or the bass..."

 

[bejoyous]

Here's a great Cab Calloway tune. I'm not sure what movie it's from though.

Reefer Man - imagine that, a bass player high on marijuana playing weird..... never heard of that before! Great slap work. Apparently he had several songs on the topic of funny cigarettes.

 

[Paul Dwyer]

Meteor Man