Double Bass Bassists on Christmas tunes

[Bruce Calin]

Having been exposed, willingly or not, to a lot of recorded Christmas music in the last few weeks, I've been closely listening to the DB playing on the various selections from the various eras in the various styles. The quality of sound and playing has been an interesting study. You can hear a lot of examples in a short time, both good and not so good. A lot of the really old ones that we've all heard many times have some really quality playing with better sound than we might have thought. The era I found most interesting was late 90s- early 2000s, where I heard generally better recording quality and some what I consider excellent playing. John Patitucci on a Barry Manilow album and Dave Carpenter on a James Taylor disc were especially notable, I thought: great sound and flawless execution with some interesting arrangements. Some of the ones that were obviously recorded quickly and sloppily for the seasonal market showed it, but were still interesting to study and gave a reason to listen differently to tunes we've heard so many times.