Paul Chambers – Bass I haven’t posted anything from my man for a long while and just though that this deserved a look. The tune ‘Blue In Green’ is often credited to Miles Davis but the Jazz cognoscenti are generally of one mind in believing that it was a Bill Evans composition as it sounds…

Steve Harris – Bass I can’t believe I have got this far without any Steve Harris! I was around to see the inception of Iron Maiden and was, in my own small way, a part of the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal which, arguably, Maiden fronted. The first time I actually saw the band…

Jorge Roeder – Bass Another tune from Roeder’s solo bass album, ‘El Suelo Mio’ (Google translates this as ‘my floor’), this is a drone piece called ‘Bounce’. The whole thing revolves around a D drone and I think Roeder has detuned his low E string to a D in order to pull it off (I…

Dave Holland – Bass One of the most remarkable thing about the great players (on all instruments) is how many of them continually reinvent themselves throughout their decades long careers. Everyone knows about the Miles Davis legends around the BeBop – Classic Quintets – Electric Miles sequence that suggested Miles was the progenitor of everything…

Unknown Session Guy (or Girl) – Bass Another one I heard on a one – off gig I did with Essex singer, Helen Abbey, one that I had not heard until I was in my late 50s. It’s an obscure Lennon and McCartney tune that the dynamic due wrote for Cilla Black in the 1960s.…

Bob Lang – Bass Yes, I know this has also been credited to at least three other bass players including John Paul Jones but, after 45 seconds of extensive research, I came to the conclusion that it was Lang. Please don’t fill my inbox with ‘no, it was….’ messages as I don’t really care. I…

Will Lee – Bass Another of the ever-striking Bob Mintzer Big Band charts, this one featuring the Will Lee bass part to ‘Truth Spoken Here’ from the 2015 live album, ‘Get Up’. This is an interesting chart and it does that simple thing that all the great players do which is to hold down a…

Reginald Veal – Bass I am really proud of this one but it comes with a health warning. This is my interpretation of the complete Reginald Veal bass performance of the Gershwin tune ‘Embraceable You’ recorded live at Dizzy’s Club in New York on December 27th 2013. The performance was captured on video so the…

Steve Coleman, Julian Priester and Kenny Wheeler This is a very short transcription of the three horn unison part in the closing 40 seconds or so of the tune ‘Celebration’ from the 1985 Dave Holland Quintet album, ‘Seeds Of Time’. I think this was my favourite quintet line-up in a string of favourites; Dave Holland,…

Kermit Driscoll – Bass I have always enjoyed Kermit Driscoll’s playing and had the pleasure of hearing him live when he appeared in the U.K. with the Frisell Trio playing the music to a three Buster Keaton films! I vividly remember how much his live sound sounded like his recorded sound. It still amazes me…