Double Bass Leroy Vinnegar

[bassfiddlesteve]

I have had this CD for a long time, but don't remember it. I'm going through and listening to a lot of things lately and today had this on. It may be the best Leroy Vinnegar recorded performance that I've heard. I'd be happy to discover something better, but he is very, very good on this record.

I see that Leroy is only on side A. Sam Jones plays bass on side B.

- Steve

 

[Paul New]

 

[oren]

The revival of this thread got me listening to that Ben Webster and Gerry Mulligan record again. Definitely some bass transcribing in my near future!

 

[gerry grable]

I could be described as a fan of Leroy's. I got pretty heavy into him in my last year of college. For those who aren't familiar, Leroy's style was to walk for his solos as well as for accompaniment. I just loved his sound and feel. There's a bunch of west coast records that would have sounded a lot lamer if he hadn't come in and lifted them up.

One thing that I noticed when I started learning his parts off records was that he would play basically almost the same bass line over and over, chorus after chorus. Then his solo would come, the band would drop out and Leroy would walk, expanding on his original line with rakes and drops and all that. At first I thought, "What's this? Is he saving his best stuff for his own solos?" I was actually a little put off. But I talked to an older bassist who I respected about it. I said "Man he plays the same line over and over again.." His reply: "Yeah but it's a GREAT line, right?" It was true.

It kind of reminds me of a great story my wife told me. She went to the Mt Fuji jazz festival some years ago where she saw Art Blakey's band with a young Peter Washington. At the end, there was a sort of all-star jam session, with Herbie Hancock on piano and maybe Tony Williams on drums, I can't remember just now. Anyway, they played Just One of Those things, and Herbie and the drummer and horn players started playing all kinds of crazy stuff. All through the storm, Peter just played the tune. He didn't try to follow all the crazy s*** going on around him, he just closed his eyes and laid it down. My wife said because of the shaved head, and because he didn't let anything affect him, and just made himself the center in a certain way, he looked like a Buddhist monk up there playing bass, the sound of one hand clapping itself. In some ways, I think Leroy was like that too. He wasn't all trying to be clever and "interactive," just getting deep, deep into the groove.

If one of the things I've learned from Ron Carter is that you can find endless new ideas to play basslines on even the simplest chord progressions, then one of the things I've learned from Leroy Vinnegar is that even a single line repeated many times can be just as great, if it's played with depth and conviction.

As to records, his leader records "Leroy Walks" and "Leroy Walks Again" are great, real favourites of mine. The other famous ones make good starting points: Shelley Manne's "My Fair Lady," where Leroy achieves the near impossible task of making Andre Previn almost sound like he's swinging and Les McCann's "Swiss Movement"

Leroy. Yeah.

Leroy was one of my first influences and I was with you until you took the closing dig at Andre Previn.
Are you kidding? Previn can't swing? Have you heard Pal Joey and Gigi with Previn and Red Mitchell? Or 4 to Go?
I seem to recall Paul Warburton saying that the reason Leroy Vinegar was on My Fair Lady was that Mitchell was not available because of studio commitments. I go way back. My favorite Vinegar recording is Little Band--Big Jazz on Crown Records with Conte Candoli and Vince Guaroldi, Buddy Collete, and Stan Levey.

 

[BobDeRosa]

I love LeRoy's playing and own a couple of his recordings, but for some reason his name never leaps to mind when the talk turns to one of the "best" (whatever that means) jazz bassists. Ray Brown, Paul Chambers, Sam Jones, Israel Crosby, and so many others jump right onto that list and Leroy, sadly, is always left off. Is it because as an Easterner I'm less familiar with West Coast bassists? Because he really didn't distinguish himself as a soloist (I hope not!)? There's really no reason that he shouldn't be on my Top 10 as well as everyone else's.

 

[paulunger]

There are some great recordings that Leroy made in the 90's when he lived in Portland.
My favorite being, "Walkin' The Basses" w/ Geoff Lee and Mel Brown - unbelievably swinging!
also check out: "The Boss of the Walking Bass", "Infinity", "Encounters" and "Encounters 2" with Jessica Williams and "Modern Refections" with Randy Porter.
From the 60's check out "Jazz's Greatest Walker" with Mike Melvoin and Bill Goodwin and his funky 70's release "Glass Of Water".