I wanna dig in jazz bassist

[10emmanuel]

Hello mates!

I have been getting in to the Jazz world but since it's honestly not the genre that I listen the most, very little actually, I wonder if you guys can save me hundreds of hours of searching and recommend me a a couple artist or bassists to listen and start influencing my improvisations.

Thanks!!

 

[Bob_Ross]

Since you're asking this in the Bass Guitar forum I'm presuming you're specifically inquiring about electric bassists? You'll get a whole different bunch of answers if you ask this over on the Double Bass side.

And actually, most Jazz fans/players over here on the Bass Guitar side are conversant in who the Upright role models are, so you'll probably get a lot of suggestions in this thread anyway...as well you should, since most of the innovators and groundbreaking definers of the role were Upright players.

But since I find the Bass Guitar gets short-shrift when it comes to talk of pure "Jazz" players, I'll limit my suggestions to players whose primary instrument is the electric bass guitar. In no particular order:

- Jeff Andrews
- Tom Warrington
- Jerome Harris
- Jeff Berlin
- Steve Swallow
- Monk Montgomery
- Chris Brubeck

...plus a few guys who swing both ways:

- John Patitucci
- Tom Kennedy
- Dave Carpenter

 

[10emmanuel]

Since you're asking this in the Bass Guitar forum I'm presuming you're specifically inquiring about electric bassists? You'll get a whole different bunch of answers if you ask this over on the Double Bass side.

And actually, most Jazz fans/players over here on the Bass Guitar side are conversant in who the Upright role models are, so you'll probably get a lot of suggestions in this thread anyway...as well you should, since most of the innovators and groundbreaking definers of the role were Upright players.

But since I find the Bass Guitar gets short-shrift when it comes to talk of pure "Jazz" players, I'll limit my suggestions to players whose primary instrument is the electric bass guitar. In no particular order:

- Jeff Andrews
- Tom Warrington
- Jerome Harris
- Jeff Berlin
- Steve Swallow
- Monk Montgomery
- Chris Brubeck

...plus a few guys who swing both ways:

- John Patitucci
- Tom Kennedy
- Dave Carpenter

thanks. And Yes, I play electric not upright , so your answer helps.

 

[bassbrad]

@Bob_Ross has made a worthy suggestion and certainly great places to start. You should also check out @pdbass youtube channel his video series is well researched & presented and always informative even for someone that has spent all my years digging into jazz.

I would add Bob Cranshaw and stress that you also delve into upright bass players for the ability to swing and for their note choices and approaches to playing jazz.

I like to take 1 song at a time to dig into, learning the changes, melody and the listening to as many versions as I can find, this is so much easier with streaming music instead of buying and borrowing recordings. For me keeping the melody going in my head is a way to keep my place in tunes, this suggestion came from a drummer who was essential in my studies.

 

[10emmanuel]

@Bob_Ross has made a worthy suggestion and certainly great places to start. You should also check out @pdbass youtube channel his video series is well researched & presented and always informative even for someone that has spent all my years digging into jazz.

I would add Bob Cranshaw and stress that you also delve into upright bass players for the ability to swing and for their note choices and approaches to playing jazz.

I like to take 1 song at a time to dig into, learning the changes, melody and the listening to as many versions as I can find, this is so much easier with streaming music instead of buying and borrowing recordings. For me keeping the melody going in my head is a way to keep my place in tunes, this suggestion came from a drummer who was essential in my studies.

great advise! thanks!

 

[10emmanuel]

@Bob_Ross has made a worthy suggestion and certainly great places to start. You should also check out @pdbass youtube channel his video series is well researched & presented and always informative even for someone that has spent all my years digging into jazz.

I would add Bob Cranshaw and stress that you also delve into upright bass players for the ability to swing and for their note choices and approaches to playing jazz.

I like to take 1 song at a time to dig into, learning the changes, melody and the listening to as many versions as I can find, this is so much easier with streaming music instead of buying and borrowing recordings. For me keeping the melody going in my head is a way to keep my place in tunes, this suggestion came from a drummer who was essential in my studies.

Since you're asking this in the Bass Guitar forum I'm presuming you're specifically inquiring about electric bassists? You'll get a whole different bunch of answers if you ask this over on the Double Bass side.

And actually, most Jazz fans/players over here on the Bass Guitar side are conversant in who the Upright role models are, so you'll probably get a lot of suggestions in this thread anyway...as well you should, since most of the innovators and groundbreaking definers of the role were Upright players.

But since I find the Bass Guitar gets short-shrift when it comes to talk of pure "Jazz" players, I'll limit my suggestions to players whose primary instrument is the electric bass guitar. In no particular order:

- Jeff Andrews
- Tom Warrington
- Jerome Harris
- Jeff Berlin
- Steve Swallow
- Monk Montgomery
- Chris Brubeck

...plus a few guys who swing both ways:

- John Patitucci
- Tom Kennedy
- Dave Carpenter

I apologize for insisting in the topic, but I forgot to mention or being more specific.
What I am looking for is an approach to walking bass. Those artists above ( I have listened patitucci, warrington, and swallow only, so far. Listening right now his solo album self titled from 1988 ) seem to be too complex for what I aim to learn at this moment of my life. I dont say those artists ( again I have listen only some of them ) dont worth to be listened and in fact I am liking this album so much.

Would you say that those same artists do perform tunes with walking bass lines?

 

[bassbrad]

Yes they do play walking bass lines when appropriate but there are a number of styles that a fluent jazz bass player needs to master. Walking bass lines are a necessary building block.
If you are serious about learning walking bass lines starting with a method book is essential, I have used many over the years from Ray Brown, Rufus Reid as well as a book by Earl Gately. There are many others. These books will cover the theory, scales and approaches to improvising walking bass lines. Without a complete understanding of theory it is nearly impossible to be a fluent bass style.

 

[10emmanuel]

Yes they do play walking bass lines when appropriate but there are a number of styles that a fluent jazz bass player needs to master. Walking bass lines are a necessary building block.
If you are serious about learning walking bass lines starting with a method book is essential, I have used many over the years from Ray Brown, Rufus Reid as well as a book by Earl Gately. There are many others. These books will cover the theory, scales and approaches to improvising walking bass lines. Without a complete understanding of theory it is nearly impossible to be a fluent bass style.

great! Thanks again

 

[smeet]

Especially in early on in jazz, I think you shouldn't pay so much attention to what instrument someone plays. IMO, Miles Davis is the GOAT, period. Listen to the "Kind of Blue" album at least 100 times. You can learn SO much just from that one album.

Also: John Coltrane, Keith Jarret, Ray Brown, Ron Carter, Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie, Oscar Peterson, Art Tatum, Louis Armstrong, … so many more…!

I also recommend listening to a bunch of Hal Galper's YouTube videos, he is an incredible educator.

 

[Killing Floor]

Reggie Workman and Percy Heath are 2 of my favorites.

Edit, RW worked with Art Blakey for one, and Heath in MJQ.

 

[mikewalker]

 

[JRA]

I wonder if you guys can save me hundreds of hours of searching and recommend...

... if only that was so!

i don't think any of us are gonna save you "hundreds of hours." but what the cats recommended, above, is solid stuff. i would add to that: when possible, watch while you listen* --- youtube is your friend. e.g., watch ron carter walk on a bazillion tunes. if you watch DB players work it = loads of "influence."

good luck with your walking bass and your improvisations!


* getting out to some jazz joints and seeing it live-and-up-close is the bomb!

 

[Paul New]

https://www.amazon.com/Building-Walking-Bass-Lines-Builders/dp/0793542049

 

[Matthew_84]

If you just want something to get you started:



This video is part of a playlist and Chris expands upon it later on.

There are also great books like Ed Fuqua's "Walking Bassics".

As far as players go, I am partial to Ray Brown's playing, especially his work with Oscar Peterson. His playing on the "The Oscar Peterson Trio Plays the Cole Porter Songbook" is perhaps my favourite.

 

[Bassnkeys]

I play electric bass in the full-on "upright" style of music — occasionally gigging jazz standards in a trio with a pro pianist. I agree with @smeet — if you "start" with Miles Davis "Kind of Blue" — listen to Paul Chambers on that and other key recordings and follow Miles through his second Quintet with Ron Carter on bass (the most recorded bassist in history) — it would be hard to argue that those two cats don't represent traditional jazz bass as much as anyone on the planet.

 

[MrLenny1]

Brian Bromberg, Upright bass and electric bass.

 

[Altitude]

I got into jazz as a player as a kid in the 80s. I'd been a cello player in high school and wanted to play bass in college. Which is what I did, but the fact that my teachers were cello players and not bass players along the way ended up presenting a challenge.

Specifically, nobody told me whom I should be listening to nor what the foundations of an understanding of jazz bass were. So left to my own devices I listened to Jaco, John Patitucci, Stanley Clarke, and a bunch of other chopsy players who are profoundly good musicians but doing things that were very complex and not a great foundation of a jazz education. To make things worse, I attended a university where the bass professor was not a jazz guy and he wasn't any help either (UT has a great jazz bass professor now).

So - here's what nobody told me.

If you're in it to listen and enjoy, follow your ears and listen to whatever. But if you want to approach jazz bass from a learning standpoint, you should listen to these guys and the records they played on. I put the bandleaders they are maybe most notable for working with (in parenthesis) below, though all of these guys played all over. Ron Carter has played on something like 2400 recordings.

Jimmy Blanton (Duke Ellington)
Oscar Pettiford (Ellington, Gillespie, Woody Herman)
Ray Brown (Charlie Parker)
George Duvivier (Bud Powell)
Ron Carter (Miles Davis)
Paul Chambers (Miles Davis)

All those guys are upright players because upright was the only choice when they were breaking the ground they broke. Never mind that, you want to listen to note choices and interplay with other musicians in jazz; whether it's upright or electric doesn't matter.

There are a zillion others and a lot of younger/contemporary guys playing right now who are probably even better than these guys, but every bass player in jazz stands on these guys' shoulders.

Listen to the records these guys are on, a lot. Dedicate some turns to listening only to the bass, try to move the rest of the music out of your head so you can focus on what these guys were doing.

Also learn the melodies of the tunes. If you read music, download or buy a copy of the Real Book, which has lead sheet versions of all the normal jazz standards. When I was a student, the Real Book was actually illegal and you had to buy them like you were buying drugs. These days they worked out whatever the copyright issues were and you can get a version in any clef from Amazon with one click.

Jazz is a world, an art, a life. It will make you love music more, the more you learn about it. Enjoy.

 

[aprod]

Listening will only get you so far. You need to understand what you are hearing. That requires study of jazz theory. Otherwise you are just wiggling your fingers.

 

[GodPlayedBass]

Is nobody gonna tell him about Jaco Pastorius?

 

[elpancho]

Marcus Miller
Alain Caron
Stanley Clarke
Jeff Berlin
Jaco Pastorius
Chick Correa
Weather Report