Ray Brown – Bass This is the 800th transcription that I have posted on here and who better to honour that the great Ray Brown. My research into Paul Chambers revealed that RB and PC used to hand out when Brown was in Detroit when PC was a kid. Who better to mentor than arguably…

Reginald Veal – Bass This is absolutely enthralling. Playing ballads sensitively can be a very tame affair for the bass player and there are loads of examples on here where the player is playing almost nothing but root notes on the first beat of the bar. This version of ‘When It’s Sleepy Time Down South’…

Anthony Jackson – Contrabass Guitar Actually, I am not entirely sure that this is a six-string bass as there are no notes below the bottom E of a four string and, if I am not mistaken, at this point, AJ was still transitioning to the big six. I don’t know but there are about 7…

Mike Metheny – flugelhorn/Pat Metheny – guitar This one was a request from someone on Talkbass – ‘do you do solos that aren’t bass’? There are a few on here , one of the earliest was Gerry Mulligan’s ‘Song For Strayhorn’ and there is some Miles and Wynton Marsalis amongst a small number of others…

Carlos Enriquez – Bass Carlos Henriquez’s musical journey began in the vibrant borough of the Bronx, New York, where he first drew breath in 1979. His affinity for music became evident from an early age as he immersed himself in its world. As the chords of opportunity sounded, he embraced the guitar during his formative…

Reginald Veal – Bass I love Reginald Veal. He is one of those players who can go unnoticed in these days of slapping and tapping shock troops but, as I have said do many times on here, this guy’s playing is deep, not just tonally but soulful and profound. It’s like every note has the…

Reginald Veal – Bass Another from the Marsalis canon, Reginald Veal plays a mixed pizzicato and arco part on this simple waltz from the Marsalis album, ‘In This House, On This Morning’ from 1994. I don;t think this is as strong a piece as ‘Citi Movement’ but it has it’s moments. This is another exercise…

Reginald Veal – Bass I have packed all my cds up for a move and had not had access to this recording for a while but it pooped into my head when I was looking at some other Marsalis records. The album ‘Citi Movement’ came out in 1992 when Wynton Marsalis was at the top…

Jeff Berlin – Bass A stonking album from 2005 featuring Dennis Chambers, Jeff Berlin, Dregs keyboard player T. Lavitz and guitarist David Fiuczynski. The record is chock full of that tight fusion that a lot of players were doing around this time and the chart evidences the intensity of the performance. It’s not as hard…

Dwayne Dolphin – Bass Dolphin first picked up the electric bass at age 10, switching from guitar because the sound of it was too high and it hurt his ears. By the age of 15, he was playing locally in Pittsburgh. One Friday during high school, one of his teachers gave him Miles Davis’s album Kind of…