Electric bass in Jazz/Standards

[kurkomat]

To answer the original post, check out Jeff Berlin's latest few albums, going back to "Taking Notes" and the few since then. They contain many tunes that are probably as close as you're going to get to "straight ahead" from a fretted EBG.

Related topic, I studied with Jeff for a while and it struck me how much of a true jazzer he really is.... he has almost every old standard memorized (and I mean the really old stuff) and he can solo beautifully over every one of them. You can ask him to play like Armstrong, Sonny Stitt, Ellington, Shorter, Rollins, etc. and he can pull it off effortlessly. In the entire time I spent with him I never once heard him play fusion-ish stuff (not a peep from his Bruford days, etc. he seems to be way past that now) it was all straight ahead. It just really goes to show how much of a stigma the EB really has as a "fusion" instrument. I think you could put Berlin with the Lincoln Center Orchestra playing "C Jam Blues" and people would still (regrettably) call it fusion.

 

[Bruce Lindfield]

Call me wierd, but I love Ron Carter's upright sound on those CTI recordings. My favorite is on Freddie Hubbard's "Skydive" album -- it sounds like Creed and van Gelder chained several compressors together. The Marsalis brothers have specifically vilified this sound.

Yeah, I've got that album and I love the tune "Skydive" - but I know a lot of people I talk to, hate the sound.

I came to it from hearing it played by an acoustic Jazz quintet at my local Jazz club and it was so inspiring, I asked the band leader about it after the gig - Ed Jones (who played/plays Sax for Incognito) .

 

[Christian Houmann]

I got his CD a few weeks ago and Bona plays the fretless on this record. There is alot walking and Bona just makes it sound so good.

You should really check this cd out if you have some love for Jazz/Fusion music

-Christian

 

[bassist15]

Definetly not all standards , but Hugh Hopper from Soft Machine played some cool sounding walking lines in live videos from the 70's.

 

[Tim 'Funk' B]

I wish that Prestige would reissue the first Mastersounds record, Jazz Showcase Introducing the Mastersounds, on CD. It was recorded in 1957. Monk Montgomery plays a single coil Precision Bass on it, and it sounds lovely. The cover is one of the coolest ever: a photograph of the band in front of an enormous speaker and Monk is holdiing a new (then) P-bass.

I just googled like mad for 2 hours trying to find this cover...

And here it is for those who never saw it !

Link Removed

Definately too cool !

Probably played it with flats too.

 

[Blackbird]

Also check out this:

Not standards, but jazz with fretted electric bass...

 

[The Owl]

Anthony Jackson w/ Michel Petrucciani - not exactly straight ahead but I would definitely call it jazz. There's one recording they did w/Bob Brookmeyer that is pretty bopish.

Lincoln Goines is another guy to check out.

Excellent picks! Anthony Jackson spent nearly a decade or so with pianist Michel Camilo doing some AMAZING forward thinking jazz too.

 

[manicbassman]

There used to be more players, but creeping "Wyntonism" has made many think a DB is the only legit way. SCREW HIM.

I'm confused... I've just googled "Wyntonism" and am non the wiser... how has he made many think the DB is the only "legit" way?

 

[MaHei]

I remember seeing Dizzy Gillespie's ensemble doing a 1990s TV concert with a guy on slab. .

That would be John Lee who also worked with Joe Henderson and Gil Evans. He plays a fretless Rob Allen.

 

[Bruce Lindfield]

LARRY CORYELL - Spaces Revisited


I got his CD a few weeks ago and Bona plays the fretless on this record. There is alot walking and Bona just makes it sound so good.

I've had this CD for a few years now - a fusion classic - it actually says that on the CD cover!

 

[Paul New]

i think that this attitude is finally on the decline now that fusion has been pretty much assimilated. still a lot of snobs out there though.

look for something new from patitucci, who on his website talks of his ambition to use the slab more in acoustic jazz.

i love double bass, but i also love the fact that i can concentrate more on actual music and less on technique with the electric.

my left arm is in a sling due to a motorcycle accident, sorry for the lack of caps.

 

[yodedude2]

That's what I was saying earlier - that anything with bass guitar on it is classed as fusion - because of that fact alone!

<snip>)

i detest the thought of defining jazz by its instrumentation.
it's so unimaginative and stifling. later, ron

 

[freshbass]

Bob Cranshaw with Sonny Rollins. Sonny had him play an electric, as he said he heard the bass better, and he keys his improvs off the bass.

There used to be more players, but creeping "Wyntonism" has made many think a DB is the only legit way. SCREW HIM.

I ran into this big time when I played in Pittsburgh, and I did a party gig with some of the Pitt Jazz guys who were studying with Nathan Davis.

monk montgomery was the very 1st to do just that and IMO he set the benchmark....also bob cranshaw and tyrone brown

 

[gcb]

Joe Byrd

 

[basshawk]

I don't know if you consider Pat Metheny Jazz, but he's in the Jazz section in the record stores I went to (ok, dating myself), but, anyway, I remember when he used Mark Egan on electric fretless to hold it down.

 

[Bob_Ross]

Bruce Gertz plays "Straightahead" EB.
...can't think of the particular recording I have. I do recall thinking "Why" (again).

Apologies for replying to a ~20-year-old post, but since someone revived this zombie thread this week I'm just now reading it all.

I first heard Bruce Gertz in the summer of 1977 when he was playing with the band Ictus. Bruce was playing exclusively electric bass in that band; he had a pair of Marc Campellone 4-string basses, one fretted and one fretless. I don't think I even heard Bruce play upright for at least another year, I thought he was just an electric player!

Admittedly the stuff he was playing with Ictus was definitely fusion-esque. But I've also heard him play straightahead standards on electric

 

[jerry]

Joe Byrd

Some more Joe Byrd, this is excellent. Unknown bass, but sounds sweet!

 

[gcb]

Some more Joe Byrd, this is excellent. Unknown bass, but sounds sweet!

 

[gcb]

Some more Joe Byrd, this is excellent. Unknown bass, but sounds sweet!