Results for "bass, acoustic"

Palle Danielsson

Born: October 15, 1946

Double-bass player Palle Danielsson was born in 1946 and grew up in Stockholm. In a 1951 jazz magazine you could read: "The name of the youngest dance musician in Sweden is Paul Danielsson, five years old, who plays the mouth-organ and the swanee whistle. He knows 'Mocking Bird Hill' almost by heart". - Palle had performed together with his eleven-year-old sister Monica who had in turn played a boogie-woogie tune. Today Monica (Dominique) is a well-established pianist and composer.

At this early stage in his life he had no idea that he would become a musician. It wasn't until a few years later when there was a selection for admission to what was the first music school in Stockholm. His sister who studied there seemed to enjoy it very much when she sang together with her schoolmates and he thought that he would like to do the same. Palle started playing the violin but changed to the double-bass. When graduating from the school he became a student at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm in 1962 and at around the same time he started playing as a professional. He almost immediately was ranked among the very best Swedish jazz musicians and started touring with different groups. In the autumn of 1965 when he was only 19 years old, he got a job with Bill Evans at the jazz club "The Golden Circle" in Stockholm. Before the gig he had a brief meeting with Bill Evans, they played a couple of tunes and Palle was accepted. A reviewer wrote: "Danielsson is either too naive or too talented not to get automatically frightened to death". But Palle didn't think that way. Says Palle: "If you know how to ride a bike, well, then you know!"

Curtis Counce

Born: January 23, 1926

Born in Kansas City, Counce studied violin and tuba early on before settling on the string bass. He went on the road when he was 16, playing with the Nat Towles Band in Omaha. After some freelancing, Counce moved to Los Angeles in 1945, working with Johnny Otis and making his recording debut the following year with Lester Young. During the ‘50’s he was a key member of the West Coast jazz scene, recording as a sideman with Shelly Manne, Lyle Murphy, Teddy Charles, Clifford Brown, and many others. In 1956, Counce organized a quintet comprised of trumpeter Jack Sheldon, tenor saxophonist Harold Land, pianist Carl Perkins, and drummer Frank Butler

John Clayton

Born: August 20, 1952

John Clayton is a natural born multitasker. The multiple roles in which he excels—composer, arranger, conductor, producer, educator, and yes, extraordinary bassist—garner him a number of challenging assignments and commissions. With a Grammy on his shelf and eight additional nominations, artists such as Diana Krall, Paul McCartney, McCoy Tyner, Milt Jackson, Regina Carter, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Gladys Knight, Dr. John, Queen Latifah, and Charles Aznevour vie for a spot on his crowded calendar.

He began his bass career in elementary school playing in strings class, junior orchestra, high school jazz band, orchestra, and soul/R&B groups. In 1969, at the age of 16, he enrolled in bassist Ray Brown's jazz class at UCLA, beginning a close relationship that lasted more than three decades. After graduating from Indiana University's School of Music with a degree in bass performance in 1975, he toured with the Monty Alexander Trio (1975-77), the Count Basie Orchestra (1977-79), and settled in as principal bassist with the Amsterdam Philharmonic Orchestra in Amsterdam, Netherlands (1980-85). He was also a bass instructor at The Royal Conservatory, The Hague, Holland from 1980-83.

Jean-Francois Jenny-Clark

Born: July 12, 1944

Jon Burr

Born: May 22, 1953

Jon Burr has toured with Horace Silver, Stan Getz, Chet Baker, Art Farmer, Stephane Grappelli, Tony Bennett, The Manhattan Jazz Quintet and many others. He’s active as a composer, arranger and producer, active in web design and development, and as a healthy cooking advocate. Now the proprietor of arrangerforhire.com and finaleclasses.com, he's contributed extensively to the Finale, Scoring Notes, and Of Note blogs.

Monty Budwig

Born: December 26, 1929

A very valuable bassist who on the West Coast was part of a countless number of recordings sessions, Monty Budwig could always be relied upon to swing a band, take melodic solos and play the perfect note for the right situation while being content to remain in the background. Budwig played bass while in high school, gigged with Vido Musso in 1951 and then spent three years in the Air Force during which he had the opportunity to play in a military band. In 1954 he moved to Los Angeles where he eventually became a fixture in the studios and was greatly in demand for West Coast-style jazz groups. Among Budwig's many musical experiences were playing with Barney Kessel, the Red Norvo Trio (1954-55), Zoot Sims, Woody Herman's Orchestra (1955-56), Shelly Manne, Shorty Rogers, Terry Gibbs, Benny Goodman, Carmen McRae, Bud Shank, Bob Cooper, the Lighthouse All Stars in the 1980's and Ellyn Rucker. Although he appeared on many records (including a few dozen for the Concord label in the 1970's and 80's), Monty Budwig only led one record date of his own, 1978's Dig (for Concord) which included his wife Arlette McCoy on electric piano.

Paul Brusger

Born: 1959

While visiting his older brother at college, Paul Brusger heard the sounds of Charlie Parker and fell in love with the music at once. Abandoning a career in professional baseball, Brusger taught himself to play the Acoustic Bassist. On the bass, he composed his first song at the age of 21. Brusger, known as a Superb Bassist, and Shrewd Composer is an outstanding Arranger and Recording Artist, as well. He has performed and played with many Jazz Greats, including Ronnie Cuber, John Hicks, Hod O'Brien, Ira Sullivan, Dado Maroni, Valery Ponomarev, John Swana, Kenny Drew, Jr., John Hart, Idrees Sullieman, Cecil Payne, Teddy Charles, and Randy Johnston

Ray Brown

Born: October 13, 1926

Ray Brown was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and had piano lessons from the age of eight. After noticing how many pianists attended his high school, he thought of taking up the trombone, but was unable to afford one. With a vacancy in the high school jazz orchestra, he took up the double bass. A major early influence on Brown's bass playing was the bassist in the Duke Ellington band, Jimmy Blanton. As a young man Ray Brown became steadily more well known in the Pittsburgh jazz scene, with his first experiences playing in bands with the Jimmy Hinsley Sextet and the Snookum Russel band. After graduating from high school, hearing stories about the burgeoning jazz scene on 52nd Street, in New York City, he bought a one way ticket to New York. Arriving in New York at the age of twenty, he met up with Hank Jones, with whom he had previously worked, and was introduced to Dizzy Gillespie, who was looking for a bass player

Roberto Bonati

Jimmy Blanton

Born: October 5, 1918

In his short tenure with Duke Ellington, Jimmy Blanton became the first great double bass virtuoso in jazz. Blanton had both the technique and the fine tone to take this style of playing to higher levels. Blanton took the bass, which had previously been used only to keep time and lay down a basic harmonic foundation, to a new dimension where it became an instrument capable of horn-like solos. Blanton truly turned the musical world onto the possibilities of using the bass as a melodic instrument, both bowed and plucked. His uniqueness lay not only in what he played, but how he played. His influence on generations of bassists has been monumental