• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Double Bass Must-have CDs for upright jazz ???

crocau

crocau

Sep 28, 2004
163
43
Quebec City, Quebec
#1
Hi ! I wish to improve my old-school jazz library (and culture) ! In these days, i'm always listening to Keith Jarrett Trio, Patitucci, Mingus play-along, Meyer-O'connor-YoyoMA, Jazz at the Pawnshop 1&2, blue note and verve collections and that kind of stuff. :confused:

Please give me your list of must-have upright bass jazz albums. No compilations, a little variety, no fusion, no electric bass. :p

My ears are thanking you in advance !
 
#3
Personal favorites
1.MOTION - Lee Konitz, Sonny Dallas, Elvin Jones
THE best quarter note line, par none

2.THE ARRIVAL OF VICTOR FELDMAN - Victor Feldman, Scotty LaFaro, Stan Levey
Scotty at about 19, he just takes over this record

3.ALL NIGHT SESSIONS - Hampton Hawes, Jim Hall, Red Mitchell, Bruz Freeman (I think). Red before he switched tunings, very swinging, very melodic. The solo on THESE FOOLISH THINGS is transcribed in Todd Coolman's HISTORY OF BASS book

4.JIMMY RANEY LIVE IN PARIS - Jimmy Raney, Sonny Clark, Red Mitchell and I can't remember the drummer (EDIT:Bobby White). Great group, great feel, great ideas. Recorded in 59.

5. JIMMY RANEY LIVE IN TOKYO - Jimmy Raney, Sam Jones, Leroy Washington. recorded in the 70s, very swinging and solid work from Sam.

6. JIM HALL LIVE - Jim Hall, Don Thompson, Terry Clark

7.WALTZ FOR DEBBIE - Bill Evans, Scotty LaFaro, Paul Motian. More killer Scott.

8. CONFERENCE OF THE BIRDS - Sam Rivers, Anthony Braxton, Dave Holland, Barry Altschul

9. THE REAL NEAL - Doug White, Chris Bergson, Neal Miner, Joe Strasser. Newer on the scene, but such a solid musician. Great sound, great ideas.

10.GROOVY - Red Garland, Paul Chambers, Art Taylor. One of the swingingest rhythm sections around, this is like having cake AND pie.

There's LOTS more, but that's a nice cross section. These are all records I've spent a LOT of time with.
 
#4
A slightly different approach:

1. Duke Ellington 1938-40 -- the Jimmy Blanton years. This is where it all begins.

2. The New Oscar Pettiford Sextet -- The first jazz bass virtuoso.

3. Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus -- So much creativity in such a groovin' package

4. Wes Montgomery with the Wynton Kelly Trio -- Smokin' at the Half Note -- a fine later recording date by Paul Chambers

5. Bob Brookmeyer Quartet -- Live at Sandy's a/k/a Small Band featuring Michael Moore at his finest, and that's damn fine.

6. Sonny Rollins Quartet with Doug Watkins -- Saxophone Colossus -- old school bass-playing at its essence

----

A few entries in the "Not old school" category:

a. The Bill Evans Trio -- Live at the Village Vanguard with Scott LaFaro -- 43 years and counting, and there's more freedom in this bass-playing than on most records released last year.

b. Chick Corea's Return to Forever -- Light as a Feather featuring 20-year-old Stanley Clarke re-defining the double bass.

c. Dave Holland Quintet -- Not for Nothin' -- my favorite record from the past five years, for amazing writing and playing

d. Bill Evans & Eddie Gomez -- Intuition -- A terrific duo record; my favorite old Gomez

Happy hunting & have fun!
 
#5
Sam Sherry said:
A slightly different approach:

1. Duke Ellington 1938-40 -- the Jimmy Blanton years. This is where it all begins.

2. The New Oscar Pettiford Sextet -- The first jazz bass virtuoso.

3. Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus -- So much creativity in such a groovin' package

4. Wes Montgomery with the Wynton Kelly Trio -- Smokin' at the Half Note -- the final recording date by Paul Chambers

5. Bob Brookmeyer Quartet -- Live at Sandy's a/k/a Small Band featuring Michael Moore at his finest, and that's damn fine.

6. Sonny Rollins Quartet with Doug Watkins -- Saxophone Colossus -- old school bass-playing at its essence

----

A few entries in the "Not old school" category:

a. The Bill Evans Trio -- Live at the Village Vanguard with Scott LaFaro -- 43 years and counting, and there's more freedom in this bass-playing than on most records released last year.

b. Chick Corea's Return to Forever -- Light as a Feather featuring 20-year-old Stanley Clarke re-defining the double bass.

c. Dave Holland Quintet -- Not for Nothin' -- my favorite record from the past five years, for amazing writing and playing

d. Bill Evans & Eddie Gomez -- Intuition -- A terrific duo record; my favorite old Gomez

Happy hunting & have fun!
Click to expand...

Sam, A great list ,although not to be a Jazz History Snob on a Bassists recorded history[Paul Chambers] I do have a record Paul recorded w. Wynton Kelly Trio in 1968[Paul passed away in 69] Not his best playing , So your comment on his final recording would be pretty much correct from the quility of his playing as the last several of his life he really started to lose it.But he did do several dates in his later years.
 
#6
Nice stuff: Sam, Ed ,Mark,
You guys picked some of LP/CD's I would of recommended.
So l 'll suggest some others:
1) Miroslav Vitous- "Mountain In The Clouds"- Atlantic. with
Joe Henderson, Herbie, John Mclaughlin, Joe Chambers,
& Jack Dejohnette. prefusion- on Freedom Jazz Dance. Miroslav does great solo work on the other tracks too. May not be your taste- tho.

2) Albert Stinson- under Clare Fischer " 2nd Trio." Pacific Jazz. LP. Not sure if it's on CD.

3) Oscar Pettiford-"The Finest of O.P." Bethlehem. Stardust is great solo piece.

4) Oscar Pettiford-under Helen Merrill 's "Helen Merrill" EmArcy. with Clifford Brown.

5) Morrison Peck- under Charlie Rouse's "Unsung Hero" Epic. The other side of Charlie- straight ahead.

6) Paul Chambers-under Frank Strozier's " Fantastic Frank Strozier". VeeJay. with Booker Little.

7) Paul Chambers- under Art Pepper's " Art Pepper Meets The Rhythm Section". Contemporary.

8) Doug Watkins-"Watkins At Large" Transistion/ BN. Japan
import Lp. or BN "Transistion Double CD.-not sure??

9) Doug Watkins-under Jackie McLean's" The Jackie McLean Quintet". Jubliee.

10) Scott LaFaro-under Booker Little's "Booker Little" Time.

11) Art Davis- under Booker Little's "Booker Little 4" UA. Cd has 2 extra tracks with Phineas Newborn & Jamal Nasser(Ahmad Jamal's bassist) who takes some nice solos.

12) Red Mitchell-"The Red Mitchell- Harold Land Quintet- Hear Ye- Hear Ye". Atlantic. If you look at the cover- Red's holding a 5 String DB- unusual for a '62 recording.

Does anyone know the make of the Red's 5 string bass??

13) Tony Dumas- under JJ Johnson & Nat Adderley's "The Yokohma Concert" Pablo Live. Tony does play electric on
some of tunes, but I like the album for his upright playing.

14) Eugene Wright- any of Chet Baker's albums " Grooving, Bobbin', Cookin', etc .Prestige.Lp's with George Coleman. Issued as CD 3'fer?? with George Coleman.

15) Ray Brown " With The All-Star Big Band" Guest Soloist: Cannonball Adderley. Verve Lp. Ray does great solo work &
duet with Cannonball -cello & upright. Don't know if it came out on CD.

16) Sam Jones-"Something New" 12 Piece Band. Interplay. nice solo work with a big band. Again don't know if it came out on CD.

17) Sam Jones " Visitation" SteepleChase. Nice solo work by
Terumasa Hino- trumpet, Bob Berg- sax and Sam. Not sure
if it's available on CD. Has been reissued on audiophile vinyl.
 
#8
Mark Carlsen said:
Sam, A great list ,although not to be a Jazz History Snob on a Bassists recorded history[Paul Chambers] I do have a record Paul recorded w. Wynton Kelly Trio in 1968[Paul passed away in 69] Not his best playing , So your comment on his final recording would be pretty much correct from the quility of his playing as the last several of his life he really started to lose it.But he did do several dates in his later years.
Click to expand...
Are you talking about Wynton Kelly's "Blues On Purpose" .Xanadu. recorded in July - August 1965?
I just dug the LP out as you got my curiosity...
 
#9
Dennis,
The album is called "The Last Trio Session" Wynton Kelly Trio and is on Delmark records out of Chicago.
The recording date is listed as August 4,1968.
The trio sounds pretty good ,although I believe it must of been the record company who had artistic control of the song selections .They are mixing some rock tunes of the day w.some blues and ballads.Tunes like 'Light my Fire', "Say alittle Prayer for Me", and 'Yesterday' are among the choices on this record.
As I stated before Paul Chambers sounds like he is on his way out,he doesn't even get one solo on the album.Fairly commercial for it's time.It says he passed away on Jan.4,1969, so this may be his last recording.
 
#10
Thanks Mark:
I 've seen that album and always have veered away from it
because of the song selections even tho' I do like Rock.
It's hard for me to imagine those guys do rock standards instead of the usual jazz standards. And Paul not taking any
solos too.
I suggest the Xandau recording if you' re Paul complete-ist.
The recording itself is not too good- kinda murky sounding and bass is very soft. Musically it's pretty good -Paul takes
some good blues solos- not his best but I like to hear how
those guys sound live -mistakes and all. It gives you a better prespective of them being human as well as them being the supermen.
 
#11
Mingus is one of my fave jazz bassist! He's just out there....but I PC is on the top of my list. The first time I heard his sound I thought he was using steel strings. THen I learned he used guts. To me PC has the best old school Upright jazz sounds ever!!! :D
 
#12
A lady in the audience last night gave me a copy of the Monty Alexander trio CD entitled "Full Steam Ahead", with Ray Brown. Like most Monty albums, I have a hard time getting through it in one sitting, there's just so much piano. But Ray is just unstoppable, like a f***in' freight train. Unbelievable bass sound.

It features a hilarious over-top-version of "Satisfaction".
 
#13
BassGreaser said:
Mingus is one of my fave jazz bassist! He's just out there....but I PC is on the top of my list. The first time I heard his sound I thought he was using steel strings. THen I learned he used guts. To me PC has the best old school Upright jazz sounds ever!!! :D
Click to expand...

Actually Paul did change to steel strings on of the last albums he recorded with Teddy Edwards- "Nothin" But The Truth!" Prestige 7518 LP. (1967).

I was chatting with the late Teddy after his gig at Standford
Univ in July 7 '02 and he mentioned that to me. Nice guy too-
and got him to autograph my album- "Good Gravy" Contemporary M3592. :D

Wish I had a digital camera at that time so I could of taken a photo with him. :(
 
#15
I would like to thank you for all of the suggestions.

The sad thing is a lot of the CD you suggested or either very expensive or hard to find.

I have bought CDs with Mingus, Paul Chambers and Scott Lafaro. I will listen to them for a little while, a then load my credit card with some others !

If I may contribute, my must-have jazz CD's are :

Holly Cole trio, Don't smoke in bed, with David Piltch on bass. Well, basically, I have all of their albums but this one is the very best. The bass lines are simple, but amazing in the same time. Did I mention it is an audiophile recording ?

Jazz at the Pawnshop 1 & 2, speaking of audiophile recording, this is one of the best recordings ever. No compression, no eq, minimal number of mikes.... There is a lot of I-IV-V forms, but these guys are all amazing, Georg Riedel on the bass is great too. Don't miss their version of Take Five. (Nice bass line in 5/4 !) You can find it on eBay.

I'll only recommend these two, but don't miss them !
 
#16
I would like to thank you for all of the suggestions. (QUOTE)

The sad thing is a lot of the CD you suggested or either very expensive or hard to find. (QUOTE)


Thank you too. Unfortunately you 're right!!
The domestic cds (US) are cheaper in comparision to the JA imports tho'. Sometimes the Spanish Cds are good buy-
Fresh Sounds - Re- issues for example.

I collect the LPs which are even more expensive than either of
the two combined at times. (I 'm Vinyl addict with poorman's
budget having audiophile taste.) have 3 basses to feed :( )

I like the vinyl better than CD's for its sound (my taste).
And makes most cd prices seem reasonable to me.( except the new JA imports .And low maintenance too. (Lps take up lot room, have to stored & cleaned properly, etc, as compared to the cd). A vinyl addicts' dilemma. :(

There was a forum while ago on outrageous Lp's prices where some of us were shocked & amazed at prices of the original Lps.
Sam, and others including myself were commenting on them.
Especially if you compare the current cd price to the original Lp winning price on Ebay for certain BN albums.

Dennis

And another source is www.KCSM.org / web /radio station in the Bay Area. They' re 24 hour college station that broadcasts
only jazz. There's lots of variety to listen to and lot of it I
don't care too- but they do give a bigger exposure to everything.
My favorite DJ's are Sunny Buxton on Sat mornings (he's gots lots of interesting stories about the greats
like: Oscar Pettiford or Paul Chambers, or whoever's cds he playing.
And Mike Vermin- He plays more the obscure recordings of the
greats. His hours tend change a lot as he's the sub for the
other DJ's.)
 
#17
Try subscribing to a service such as "Rhapsody". For $9.95 a month I can stream anything from their site. They don't have evrything, but they have a lot. A service like that is amazing for just checking out so many recordings without paying 10-15 bucks each. You can pay extra to download the tunes, but streaming them is fine for me. It has been a great way to hear more players. It's also great when I'm trying to write an arrangement for a tune. I can search for a specific tune, and find dozens of versions. I listen to them and get ideas for how I want to play them.
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back