Favorite/recommended double (upright) bass players

I put the "upright" in there to facilitate the search of the thread to some degree.

So, who are your favorite jazz double bass players (of any jazz sub-genre)? Who are the ones you would recommend? It can be one or two lists, doesn't matter. You get the gist of it. Top 5/10/100, doesn't matter; just top. I'm pretty sure quite a few of you are going to mention Chuck Mingus.


Edited by Dayvenkirq - 23 Nov 2013 at 4:05am

^ additionally to above mentioned I would recommend Eddie Gomez ( better as collaborator than solo artist) and Gary Peacock and - if you need more adventurous sound - William Parker

Edited by snobb - 23 Nov 2013 at 5:40am

Paul Chambers was the finest upright bass player for me, he had mostly perfect bass lines without pushing time and so clean, and his improvisations had alot of emotions and intonations.

There are so many great jazz bassists.

My favorites are Paul Chambers and Ron Carter.

Paul's playing gave a tremendous lift to any rhythm section. As Ron Carter said, he was "a soloist par excellence" as well. He was also one of the few who played arco (bowed) solos, Slam Stewart being another, and long before Paul came along. At times, his intonation was a wee bit off, but the "feel" made up for it.

Ron has a wonderful deep sound, and the notes seem to grow after he has plucked them. I don't know how he does that, but no doubt it has to do with a strong left hand. His own bass, which he doesn't always have with him, has a low C extension, which goes well with his deep sound.

Jazz bass started out as an oompah bass, two to the bar, usually with a brass bass. Walter Page was one of the first to play 4/4 walking bass lines, in the amazing Count Basie rhythm section. Walter played fairly simple lines, with none of the chromatic notes that the bop and later bassists used. Then, there was a major step forward, when Jimmy Blanton came along, in the Duke Ellington band. Jimmy played a lot of modern 4/4 lines and was the pioneer modern jazz bassist.

That opened the door to later name bassists, such as Oscar Pettiford, Tommy Potter, Ray Brown and Percy Heath.

Then, more and more excellent bassists appeared: Paul Chambers, Wendell Marshall, Doug Watkins, and on and on.

Let's not forget Milt Hinton, who started in the swing era and carried on into the modern era. He was probably the most recorded jazz bassist ever. And then there was Israel Crosby, who was in the great Ahmad Jamal trio.

In the 1960s, Richard Davis suddenly started to appear on just about everybody's sessions. He brought a new approach: a lot of high register notes and avant garde playing on Blue Note sessions, such as those of Andrew Hill. Yet he also played with the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis big band.

Trane  had three fine bassists, in Reggie Workman, Art Davis and Jimmy Garrison. Reggie also played with Art Blakey.

There are so many.

Scott LaFaro