- Ron Carter
Ron Carter is an American jazz double-bassist. His unique sound and great swing have made him a long sought after studio man — his appearances on over 3,500 albums make him one of the most-recorded bassists in jazz history, along with Milt Hinton, Ray Brown and Leroy Vinniger. He also has a large body of classical recorded work as well. - Ray Brown
Raymond Matthews Brown (October 13 1926-July 2 2002) was an American jazz double bassist. 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. - Charlie Haden
Charles Edward Haden (born August 6, 1937) is a jazz double bassist, probably best known for his long association with saxophonist Ornette Coleman. Haden is also known for his signature lyrical bass lines and is one of the most respected jazz bassists and jazz composers today. - Edgar Meyer
Edgar Meyer (born November 24, 1960) is a prominent contemporary bassist. His styles include classical, bluegrass, newgrass, and jazz. Meyer has worked as a session musician in Nashville, part of various chamber groups, a composer, and an arranger. - Danny Thompson
Daniel Henry Edward 'Danny' Thompson (born 4 April 1939) is an English double bass player. He has had a long musical career playing with a large variety of other musicians, particularly Richard Thompson (no relation) and John Martyn, but including many others: at various times has for example played with Roy Orbison, Freddie and the Dreamers, Tubby Hayes, Ronnie Scott, Tom Paxton, Donovan and Kate Bush. For five years, he was a member of Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated, … - Gary Karr
Gary Karr (b. November 20, 1941), is an American classical double bassist virtuoso, and teacher. He is the first ever full-time careerist double-bassist. - Stanley Clarke
Stanley Clarke (born 30 June 1951) is an American musician and composer known for his innovative and influential work on double bass and bass guitar as well as his numerous film and television scores. - John Patitucci
John Patitucci (born December 22, 1959) is an American jazz double bass and electric bass player, specializing in post-bop, jazz fusion and Brazilian jazz. - William Parker
William Parker (b. Bronx, New York City, New York, January 10, 1952) is an American free jazz double bassist. As a bassist, Parker is possessed of a formidable technique, albeit an unconventional one. Unlike a great many jazz bassists, Parker was not formally trained as a classical player, though he did study with Jimmy Garrison, Richard Davis, and Wilbur Ware and learned the tradition. Parker is one of few jazz bassists who regularly plays arco. - Scott Lafaro
Rocco Scott LaFaro was an influential jazz bassist. Born in Newark, New Jersey, LaFaro grew up in a musical family (his father played in many big bands). He started on piano while in elementary school, began on the bass clarinet in Junior High School, changing to tenor saxophone when he entered High School. He only took up the double bass the summer before he entered college, since learning a string instrument was required for music majors. - Rufus Reid
Rufus Reid (b. February 10, 1944 in Atlanta, Georgia) is an American jazz bassist, educator, and composer. He lives in the New York area. - Barry Guy
Barry John Guy (born April 22, 1947) is a British composer and double bass player. His range of interests encompasses early music, contemporary composition, jazz and improvisation, and he has worked with a wide variety of orchestras in the UK and Europe. He also taught at Guildhall School of Music. Born in London, Guy came to the fore as an improvising bassist as a member of a trio with pianist Howard Riley and drummer Tony Oxley. - Steve Swallow
Steve Swallow (b. October 4, 1940) is a jazz bass guitarist and composer born in Fair Lawn, New Jersey. As a child, Swallow studied piano and trumpet before turning to the double bass at age 14. While attending a prep school, he began trying his hand in jazz improvisation. In 1960 he left Yale, where he was studying composition, and settled in New York City, playing at the time in Jimmy Giuffre's trio along with Paul Bley. - Marc Johnson
Marc Johnson, born in Omaha, Nebraska on 21 October 1953, is an American jazz bassist, composer and bandleader. Schooled at University of North Texas along with Lyle Mays, Johnson toured with Woody Herman's Thundering Herd in the late 1970s. After a year, the 25-year old Johnson was hired by Bill Evans in 1978, and remained in Evans's trio until the pianist's death in 1980. Johnson's first record under his own name for ECM, recorded in 1985, was "Bass Desires", … - Giovanni Bottesini
Giovanni Bottesini (December 22, 1821 - July 7, 1889) was a Romantic composer, conductor, and a double bass virtuoso. - Luigi Boccherini
Luigi Rodolfo Boccherini (February 19, 1743 - May 28, 1805) was a classical era composer and cellist from Italy, whose music retained a courtly and galante style while he matured somewhat apart from the major European musical centers. Boccherini is mostly known for one particular minuet from his String Quintet in E, Op. 13, No. 5, and the Cello Concerto in B flat major (G 482). - Eddie Gomez
Edgar "Eddie" Gomez (born October 4, 1944) is a Puerto Rican jazz Double bassist born in Santurce, Puerto Rico, perhaps most notable for his work done with the Bill Evans trio from 1966 to 1977. Gomez emigrated with his family at a young age to the United States of America and grew up in New York. He started on double bass in the New York City school system at the age of eleven and at age thirteen went to the "New York City High School of Music and Art". - Mark Dresser
Mark Dresser (b. 1952) is an American virtuoso double bass player and composer. He has performed and recorded with many of the luminaries of "new" jazz composition and improvisation. For ten years he performed with the Anthony Braxton Quartet, as well as diverse groups led by Ray Anderson, Tim Berne, Anthony Davis, Gerry Hemingway, John Zorn, and others. He has made over sixty recordings. He has received grants from New York Foundation for the Arts and Meet the Composer, … - Richard Davis
Richard Davis (born April 15, 1930) is an American double bass player who has been a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison since 1977, after establishing himself for twenty-three years in New York City. He teaches bass, jazz history, and improvisation. In the course of his career he hayuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuus worked no where but was still splaying his instruments in both the classical field and as a jazz bassist all over the world, … - Milt Hinton
Milt Hinton born Milton John Hilton (Vicksburg, Mississippi, June 23, 1910; d. Queens, New York, December 19, 2000), "the dean of jazz bass players," was an American jazz double bassist. Milt Hinton is one of the greatest jazz bassists to ever live. He has been nicknamed "The Judge" for his outstanding musical ability. Milt was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi, on June 23, 1910. He lived in Vicksburg until the age of eleven when he moved to Chicago, Illinois. - Joshua Redman
Joshua Redman (born February 1, 1969) is a prominent American Neo-bop jazz saxophonist who records for Nonesuch Records. Redman, who is both African American and Jewish American, was born in Berkeley, California, to the late jazz saxophonist Dewey Redman and his wife, Renee Shedroff. He graduated from Berkeley High School, class of 1986. In 1991 he graduated summa cum laude from Harvard University, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa Society. - Reggie Workman
Reginald "Reggie" Workman (born June 26, 1937 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American avant-garde jazz and hard bop double bassist. He was a member of jazz groups led by Gigi Gryce, Roy Haynes and Red Garland. In 1961, Workman joined the John Coltrane Quartet, replacing Steve Davis. He was present for the saxophonist's legendary "Live at the Village Vanguard" sessions, and also appeared with a second bassist (Art Davis) on the 1961 album, "Ole Coltrane". - Ed Thigpen
Edmund Leonard (Ed) Thigpen (born December 28, 1930) is an American jazz drummer born in Chicago, Illinois, perhaps best-known for his work with the Oscar Peterson trio from 1959-1965. Thigpen also performed with the Billy Taylor trio from 1956-1959. Ed's father, Ben, was a drummer who played with Andy Kirk for sixteen years during the 1930s and 1940s. Ed was raised in Los Angeles, California and attended "Thomas Jefferson High School", … - Jimmy Garrison
Jimmy Garrison (March 3, 1933 - April 7, 1976) was an American jazz double bassist best known for his long association with John Coltrane from 1961 - 1967. He formally joined Coltrane's quartet in 1962 as a replacement for Reggie Workman and appears on many Coltrane recordings, including "A Love Supreme", & "My Favorite Things". During live performances of music by John Coltrane's group, … - Gavin Bryars
Richard Gavin Bryars (born 1943) is an English composer and double bassist. He has been active in (or has produced works in) many varied styles of music, including jazz, free improvisation, minimalism, experimental music, avant-garde, neoclassicism, and ambient. - Ben Allison
Ben Allison (c. 1966) is an American jazz double bassist and composer born in New Haven, Connecticut. He performs with the groups Peace Pipe, New Quartet, Medicine Wheel, the Kush Trio, and the Herbie Nichols Project (which he co-leads with pianist Frank Kimbrough). At the age of 25 he formed the Jazz Composers Collective, a New York City nonprofit organization, serving as that organization's Artistic Director and Composer-in-Residence. - Buster Williams
Charles Anthony Williams (born April 17, 1942 in Camden, New Jersey) is an American jazz bassist. Williams has gained prestige among jazz musicians as a solid supportive player. Since the early 1960s, he has made subtle swing, a precise rhythm and superb technique the landmark of his playing. He started his professional career in Philadelphia with Jimmy Heath, then played and recorded with the Gene Ammons/Sonny Stitt quintet (1960-61). - Percy Heath
Percy Heath, (April 30, 1923 - April 28, 2005), was a jazz musician, most famous for his 40+ years as the double bass player for the Modern Jazz Quartet (MJQ). He is the brother of tenor saxophonist Jimmy Heath and drummer Tootie Heath, with whom he formed the Heath Brothers in 1975. Heath also worked with Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, and Thelonious Monk. At the age of 81, he released his first album as bandleader through the Daddy Jazz label. - Nicholas Payton
Nicholas Payton (born September 26, 1973) is a Neo-bop jazz trumpet player from New Orleans, Louisiana. The son of bassist and sousaphonist Walter Payton, he took up the trumpet at the age of four and by the time he was nine he was playing in the Young Tuxedo Brass Band alongside his father. Encouraged by Wynton Marsalis, who was himself involved in New Orleans' jazz and brass band music in his youth, … - Peter Brötzmann
Peter Brötzmann is a German free jazz saxophonist and clarinetist. Brötzmann is among the most important European free jazz musicians. His rough, lyrical timbre is easily recognized on his many recordings. He studied painting in Wuppertal and was involved with the Fluxus movement, but grew dissatisfied with art galleries and exhibitions. He has not abandoned his art training, however: Brötzmann has designed most of his own album covers. - Jimmy Giuffre
James Peter Giuffre (born in Dallas, Texas, April 26, 1921) is an American jazz composer, arranger and saxophone and clarinet player. Giuffre first became known as an arranger for Woody Herman's big band, for which he wrote the celebrated "Four Brothers" (1947). He would continue to write creative, unusual arrangements throughout his career. Giuffre was a member of Shorty Rogers's groups before going solo. Giuffre played clarinet, as well as tenor and baritone saxophones, … - Franco Petracchi
Franco Petracchi (born September, 1937) is a famous Italian double bass player soloist and teacher. He is a native of Pistoia and the author of "Simplified Higher Technique". In his method, he introduces some conventions to playing in the thumb-position. He uses names chromatic, semi-chromatic and diatonic for different hand positions. He plays a Gaetano Rossi bass, which is unusually large for a soloist. - Mark Helias
Mark Helias (born October 1, 1950) is an American jazz double bass player and composer born in New Brunswick, New Jersey. He did not begin playing the double bass until the age of 20, graduating from Yale University School of Music with a Masters degree in 1976. He has also studied at Rutgers University. He teaches at Sarah Lawrence College, The New School, and SIM (School for Improvised Music). Helias has performed with a wide variety of musicians, including Ray Anderson, … - Arild Andersen
Arild Andersen is a Norwegian bass player. Born in Lillestrøm, Norway, he started out as a member of the Jan Garbarek Quartet (1967-1973), with Terje Rypdal and Jon Christensen. In the same period he also worked with the Norwegian singer Karin Krog and played in the rhythm section for visiting American musicians including Phil Woods, Dexter Gordon, Hampton Hawes, Johnny Griffin, Sonny Rollins, and Chick Corea. - Robert Smith
Robert James Smith, is a guitarist, vocalist and songwriter, and has been the lead singer of British post-punk band The Cure since its founding in 1976. NY Rock calls him "pop culture’s unkempt poster child of doom and gloom", and describes his songs as "somber introspection over lush, brooding guitars" Smith is a multi-instrumentalist and can play 6- and 12-string guitars; 4- and 6-string bass guitars; double bass; keyboards; and violins. - Roni Size
Roni Size (born Ryan Williams), came to national prominence in 1997 as the founder and leader of Reprazent, a drum and bass collective. That year they won the Mercury Prize for their album, "New Forms". Size grew up in the Bristol suburb of St. Andrews and cites reggae as one of his early influences. Size was expelled from school at the age of 16 and started attending house parties run by Bristol mavericks the Wild Bunch (later Massive Attack). - Joel Quarrington
Joel Quarrington (born January 15, 1955), is a Canadian double bass player and soloist. He was born in Toronto, and began playing the double bass at the age of eleven in order to complete a bluegrass trio with his brothers, Paul Quarrington and Tony Quarrington. At the age of thirteen, he began to study with Thomas Monohan, who was at the time the principal bassist of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. He also studied under Peter Madgett, who is still a member of the TSO. - François Rabbath
François Rabbath is a contemporary French double-bass player, soloist, and composer. He was born into a family of musicians but his only instruction came from a book written by a Parisian bassist Edouard Nanny. In 1955 he went to Paris, hoping to meet Nanny, who had died before he arrived, but he continued to study, and in 1964 recorded for the first time. Rabbath's greatest influence was in the field of bass pedagogy. - Palle Danielsson
Palle Danielsson (born October 15, 1946) is a Swedish jazz double bassist born in Stockholm, Sweden, perhaps most notable for his work done with Keith Jarrett from 1974 to 1979, becoming a member of his European quartet for that period. Danielsson's childhood was an especially musical one, his first instrument was the harmonica which he started playing at the age of two. By age eight he was playing violin, which he continued to play and study for roughly five years. - Lee Rocker
Lee Rocker (born August 3, 1961 in Long Island, New York) is a rockabilly double bass player. He is best known for his time as a member of the The Stray Cats. He is now a solo musician.
|
| |