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Double Bass What is your favorite solo bass recording?

PostBop

PostBop

Mar 19, 2011
61
1
NJ
#1
What is your favorite solo bass recording?

I'm hoping to find some new music by appreciating your favorites. Doesn't matter what genre. I have only one cd of solo bass, so you can see I'm in need of some more! By default, my favorite is the only one I have:

One's All - Dave Holland
 
#2
Miroslav Vitous - Emergence
Steve Hunter - Night People
Renaud Garcia Fons - Legendes
Edgar Meyer - Cello Suites
Stefano Scodanibbio - Voyage that never ends
Francois Rabbath - In a sentimental mood (or any of his CDs)

Those are some bass-only recordings.

Some mixed albums include:

Wood and Downright Upright by Brian Bromberg
Pretty much anything by Eberhard Weber or Dave Friesen

If you can locate those, youd be set for a while over a number of genres.
 
#6
I have Dave's earlier solo record, EMERALD TEARS and Gary Peacock's DECEMBER POEMS but they're both on vinyl, so I haven't listened to them in a LONG time. I'm listening mostly to duo recordings lately-
Miroslav Vitous & Jan Garbarek - ATMOS
Rufus Reid and Michael Moore (some nice arco by both)
Peter Ind and Rufus Reid
 
#7
Ed Fuqua said:
I have Dave's earlier solo record, EMERALD TEARS and Gary Peacock's DECEMBER POEMS but they're both on vinyl, so I haven't listened to them in a LONG time. I'm listening mostly to duo recordings lately-
Miroslav Vitous & Jan Garbarek - ATMOS
Rufus Reid and Michael Moore (some nice arco by both)
Peter Ind and Rufus Reid
Click to expand...

Have 'em all! Emerald Tears is still a great album, but it on CD!
 
#8
Ed Fuqua said:
I have Dave's earlier solo record, EMERALD TEARS and Gary Peacock's DECEMBER POEMS but they're both on vinyl, so I haven't listened to them in a LONG time. I'm listening mostly to duo recordings lately-
Miroslav Vitous & Jan Garbarek - ATMOS
Rufus Reid and Michael Moore (some nice arco by both)
Peter Ind and Rufus Reid
Click to expand...

i was listening to ATMOS this morning and Miroslav's playing is so immediate. Really inspiring playing!
 
#10
I have an album of John Ebinger playing Frank Proto. It is not necessarily my favorite, but it opens up the ears nicely.

Paul Chambers Bass on Top is cool. He and Kenny Burrell on Chasin' the Bird is fun.

I like Dan Berglund's solo on I Mean You on EST's Monk album. Really tasteful, not too showy, just clean.

Ray Brown Trio Live at Starbucks is a very nice album overall. Also This One's for Blanton, Ray and Duke, is a special album.

Miroslav Vitous, Infinite Search is awesome. The Freedom Jazz Dance track is great.

I really like Edgar Meyer's original compositions on the Bottesini Concerto Album.

Manfred Bruendl's Silent Bass is pretty cool.

Claudia Quintet's Semi-Formal is amazing. I love that album.

Some of this is not necessarily bass solo driven, but the playing overall great and worth a listen.
 
#11
Eugene Levinson's recording of the Franck Sonata is pretty amazing. It's on either "The Art of E.L" vol 1 or 2, can't remember which; both discs have some awesome vintage Levinson (Soviet Union recordings and 1984 Franck Sonata recording).

+1 on Edgar Meyer's Bach and Bottesini. I used to have a bootleg of a performance Meyer did at Aspen Festival when he won the concerto competition around 1980. He took a very different approach to Bottesini than with his recent commercial recording. He used a lovely, full vibrato, and much more sustain in the bow. I had the recording on MiniDisc, but the when my MiniDisc player started acting weird, it somehow corrupted that MD, no longer works :( I'm sure some one out there has it, though.

Also, another classical solo bass album, that disc Ed Barker did with Arpeggione Sonata is fantastic, the Schubert is gorgeous.
 
#12
Rufus Reid and Michael Moore - Alone Together....Just when I think I've been sucked into enough inane TB threads one like this comes along and I find out about a recording I'd never heard of by players I love.

Dave Holland's One's All is something I got when it came out in the early 90's and still regularly listen to. Like Bach and Monk it has a cleansing of the soul effect on me.
 
#15
red_on_red said:
Definitely. It's a manifesto for the creative sonic possibilities in the instrument - got me thinking for sure.
Click to expand...

Recently a Kowald disc entitled "Was Da Ist (Live) 2000" was included in the FMP celebratory boxset and is also available individually. Has anyone heard this? any comments? i saw Kowald play a solo set in DC around this time (late 1999/early 2000), which was very memorable.
 
#16
meandering said:
Recently a Kowald disc entitled "Was Da Ist (Live) 2000" was included in the FMP celebratory boxset and is also available individually. Has anyone heard this? any comments? i saw Kowald play a solo set in DC around this time (late 1999/early 2000), which was very memorable.
Click to expand...

It is incredible. Was Da Ist still stands as the best for me. Camouflage by Barre Phillips and "Handicaps" by Maarten Van Retgren Altena are other top picks.
 

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