Double Bass Sax, piano & bass

[basss]

I have a jazz gig coming up with this instrumentation and I am looking for inspiration. Any recommendations for what to listen to?

I should add that we're coming from bop/post bop but enjoy more modern ecm-ish stuff too

 

[mtto]

“Alone Together”
Lee Konitz, Brad Mehldau, Charlie Haden.

 

[basss]

Thanks forgot about that one! I'm actually going through hey Charlie Hayden phase right now

 

[turf3]

No string bass, but check out Lee Konitz and Hal Gapler "Windows".

 

[Ed Fuqua]

I’d say the only thing to try to avoid are those heads that leave a lot of space for drum fills, although if somebody has ideas for a drummer less trio arrangement, hey bob’s your uncle.
But pretty much anything works.

Some folks who do something similar

 

[damonsmith]

The primary source for this is the Jimmy Giuffre 3, specifically with Paul Bley & Steve Swallow. It is some of the most innovative music ever and deserves to be right there with Ornette & Cecil Taylor!

 

[garrett2]

The primary source for this is the Jimmy Giuffre 3, specifically with Paul Bley & Steve Swallow. It is some of the most innovative music ever and deserves to be right there with Ornette & Cecil Taylor!

Couldn't agree more. Freefall is wild, and Giuffre plays with rare beauty. When I saw Mark Turner play the music of Braxton a few weeks ago I kept thinking he reminded me of someone in some of his lines and I realized it was Giuffre .His playing on this Carla Bley tune is so lovely.

 

[damonsmith]

As far as ECM there are two albums by this monumental trio:

 

[Sean Riddle]

Mike McGinnis did a great album with Art Lande and Steve Swallow a couple years ago that I quite love. Yes it’s Swallow on electric, but it’s great music in this instrumentation.

 

[basss]

All great suggestions, thanks. Sean, yours reminded me of Carla Bley's recent albums with Andy Sheppard and Steve Swallow, which are beautiful.

 

[damonsmith]

Swallow on electric still has plenty of information for us and no one knows this format better than him. There are some later Jimmy Giuffre 3 trio albums with him on electric. They are not as ground breaking as the early ones, however the quality is very high.

Mike McGinnis did a great album with Art Lande and Steve Swallow a couple years ago that I quite love. Yes it’s Swallow on electric, but it’s great music in this instrumentation.

All great suggestions, thanks. Sean, yours reminded me of Carla Bley's recent albums with Andy Sheppard and Steve Swallow, which are beautiful.

 

[Sean Riddle]

Swallow on electric still has plenty of information for us and no one knows this format better than him. There are some later Jimmy Giuffre 3 trio albums with him on electric. They are not as ground breaking as the early ones, however the quality is very high.

I’ve been researching Carla Bley for a grad school class and have thus also gone on a deep dive of Swallow’s work. I do agree, Swallow playing electric has so much good information we can all learn from. It’s gotten me also playing electric bass with a pick and I get why he uses it. He uses it like a bow and it gets better intonation out of an electric bass. I need to check out the later Giuffre trios too.