Double Bass Duo Recordings

[Ben Rose]

Gary Peacock & Ralph Towner: Oracle

+1 Great Album


There is a good Joe Pass and Red Mitchell album that is live in Oslo, but I can't remember the name of the album.

 

[Joe Smithberger]

Just picked up Pat Metheny and Charlie Haden "Beyond the Missouri Sky"...beautiful stuff.

 

[Mr. Engberg]

Hi...

I just want to mention a duo cd with Arild Andersen and Sheila Jordan named "sheila". It's great, really intimate!

I think Sheila has made a few more duo cd's with bassplayers, but I don't know any titles and with who!

By the way. She is a very, very good singer.

Mr. Engberg. Denmark.

 

[Paul Warburton]

Sheila and Harvey Schwartz.... don't know his spelling? (Now Harvie S.?) did a bunch.
She's done a bunch more with other bassists as well...
She's our kinda girl!

 

[Paul Warburton]

+1 Great Album


There is a good Joe Pass and Red Mitchell album that is live in Oslo, but I can't remember the name of the album.

'It's About Time' ??

 

[Confucius]

Sheila and Harvey Schwartz.... don't know his spelling? (Now Harvie S.?) did a bunch.
She's done a bunch more with other bassists as well...
She's our kinda girl!

Mostly recently she did one with Cameron Brown called "I've Grown Accustomed to the Bass"

 

[Mr. Engberg]

Mostly recently she did one with Cameron Brown called "I've Grown Accustomed to the Bass"

Like Paul said: She's our kinda girl.

 

[Ben Rose]

'It's About Time' ??

I had the wrong location; it was recorded in Stockholm, not Oslo. The album is called Finally. I didn't pay anywhere near $35 for it.

 

[musicman5string]

If you can find it, I'd recommend Marc Johnson's "2x4";

It's an album of duets with Sheila Crane, Toots Theilmans, Makoto Ozone, and Gary Burton.

Marc's playing is impeccable on this. Really. His tone is warm and natual too. This album was actually a big influence on me.

And as far as obscure goes, Dave Holland and Steve Coleman put out a duo record called "Phase Space" around 1991.

 

[Jeremy Allen]

If you can find it, I'd recommend Marc Johnson's "2x4";...And as far as obscure goes, Dave Holland and Steve Coleman put out a duo record called "Phase Space" around 1991.

+1 on both of those. Marc Johnson's sound on "2x4" is very "acoustic" and would, I hope, offer a different perspective to those nay-sayers who think he's a small-sound/no-swing kind of guy (there are plenty of threads arguing about this on TB...).

"Phase Space" is one of the coolest duo albums no one has ever heard of! I got a copy from a sax friend of mine when we copped the version of "Ah Leu Cha," and even Steve Coleman afficionados I meet often haven't heard the album. Dave Holland plays a lifetime's worth of bass on this one.

PS Re: Sheila Jordan, her first album ("Portrait of Sheila") isn't a duo album but it has a lot of stuff on it with just Steve Swallow (on string bass) and the drums backing her up. Steve's playing is quite brilliant, and with the way the drummer is kind of laying in the weeds it almost feels like a duo record on those tracks. I don't begrudge any man his choices, but damn--if I could play double bass like Steve Swallow did on this recording, I would never dream of turning my back on it...

 

[Reuben]

Barry Guy/Barre Phillips - Arcus

Mark Dresser & Denman Maroney - Duologue

Gene Bertoncini & Michael Moore - Two In Time

William Parker & Joelle Leandre - Contrabasses

Tim Berne & Michael Formanek - Ornery People

John Butcher & John Edwards - Optic

You guys have already mentioned most of my favorite Charlie Haden duo recordings. Especially the one with Carlos Paredes. Another one I like is with Christian Escoude, called Gitane. Nice.

 

[Reuben]

Steve Adams & Ken Filiano - In Out Side

Damon Smith & Peter Kowald - Mirrors - Broken But No Dust

Peter Kowald also recorded two CDs of duos, one in Europe and one in the US, and they're both great.

Masashi Harada & Barre Phillips - Voluminous Venture

oh! And of course, one of my all-time favorites:
Ornette Coleman & Charlie Haden - Soapsuds

Mark Dresser & Farnces-Marie Uitti - Sonomondo

I have a particular love of duos, especially with bass...

 

[Andy Allen]

One that I've almost worn out listening to is Howard Alden (GTR) and Jack Lesberg (DB) - "No Amps Allowed." Some simple, but wonderfully lyrical playing from both players.
More info here: http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?...586EF54F6DC61373988FEC61D&sql=10:kikniklhbb29

Sadly, Jack Lesberg died late last year, he was one of the old-shcool, having played with Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, and Billie Holiday, plus a lengthy tenure with the New York City Symphony Orchestra under conductor Leonard Bernstein. Needless to say, when he plays arco an the CD above it sounds great.

 

[Aaron Saunders]

I just know this thread has happened before...but it's a great read nonetheless. One that I don't think has been mentioned so far are the great recordings by Dave young called [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]. These recordings are WELL worth the price of admission, and you get to hear duos with a variety of different great pianists.

I'm also looking to play in a few duo-type settings. Going to try it out with the sax player from my quintet soon.

Chris -- another one worth mentioning in this one is Dave's recordings titled "Side By Side," the third volume in Dave's series if piano/bass duet CDs. It's the only record of his I've heard -- absolutely sick! What amazing playing...

 

[msprong]

I don't think they have been mentioned yet:

NHØP & Philip Catherine: The Viking
NHØP & Philip Catherine: Art Of The Duo

The second is a live recording featuring some of the tunes also on the first. The tune "Air Power/Dancing girls" is one of my personal favourites.

MS

 

[Reuben]

I can't believe I forgot to mention Mark Dresser & Mark Helias - The Marks Brothers CD.

It's a must-have!

 

[musicman5string]

Big Joe Williams did an album with Willie Dixon called "Walking Blues" and let me tell you, that ***t is falling off the bone. "Tell Me Mama" is worth the price of the whole cd and a big influence on me when I was living and scuffling in New Orleans.

What is the instrumentation on that? Willie Dixon on bass and Big Joe Williams on vocals? Is it a duo album? Or something else?
Man, that sounds good.......

 

[Andy Allen]

More info here:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...1/103-2912809-8671057?s=music&v=glance&n=5174

From that page:

By the time these sessions were recorded in the early '60s (as Studio Blues and Blues for Nine Strings), the sounds of Big Joe Williams's thundering voice and his extraordinary nine-string guitar had been heard from the levee camps of the Delta to the freight yards of old Chicago. Once rediscovered by the folks at Prestige/Bluesville (like so many blues artists), he was placed in the studio with an understandably nervous young harp player named Larry Johnson and legendary bassist Willie Dixon. What resulted was a down-home jam session in which Big Joe dragged the others to wherever his personal muse led. Highly personalized versions of ancient ballads are the norm here, with Big Joe's fluid fingerpicking weaving its way around Dixon's deep, syncopated groove. It's incredible how tight the trio is and how original each song sounds considering the improvised nature of the sessions. But then, the great ones always make it sound easy. --Ken Hohman

Available as MP3s individually from eMusic here:
http://www.emusic.com/album/10592/10592467.html

A mere technicality, but I think that makes it a trio...