Leroy Vinnegar

[Hardbopjazz]

Who can tell me more about this bass player?

[Upright Bill]

Start here Leroy Vinnegar.

[John L]

Leroy V. could WALK!

[sheldonm]

He's from Indianapolis!

[Dr. Rat]

He adds just the needed dose of earthiness to many a West Coast recording.

[couw]

I am playing his Jazz's Great Walker (VeeJay) at this very moment. The opening track "doing that thing (double stopping)" is absolutely lovely.

[Hardbopjazz]

I believe he also played with the Doors.

[brownie]

Love Leroy Vinnegar's contribution to 'I've Got The World on a String' on the Serge Chaloff 'Blue Serge' Capitol date. That session must have really been an incredible one! Vinnegar also contributed mightily to dozens of other great albums...

[wesbed]

Leroy plays on the Carmell Jones Select. He plays on the Brass Bag session.

[mikeweil]

He did countless West Coast studio dates, jazz and non-jazz. His big sound is featured on many Contemporary sessions (most available as OJC, inluding two as a leader).

His sound was the biggest!!! Only Jimmy Bond had a comparably big sound in California.

[king ubu]

Love Leroy Vinnegar's contribution to 'I've Got The World on a String' on the Serge Chaloff 'Blue Serge' Capitol date. That session must have really been an incredible one! Vinnegar also contributed mightily to dozens of other great albums...

YEAH! I love that album - the whole group sounds SOOOO good!

Vinnegar is up there with the great ones of that era (Chambers, Watkins etc).

Wonder what the Coltrane band would have sounded had he been able to get Vinnegar (I don't remember where I read about that, but I do remember I did )

ubu

[mikeweil]

These are the covers of his dates as a leader.

[mikeweil]

Wonder what the Coltrane band would have sounded had he been able to get Vinnegar (I don't remember where I read about that, but I do remember I did )

I wonder, too !!! The Coltrane books I have do not mention Vinegar. Seems to me it would have been a lot less adventurous. For me, Reggie Workman was the man, rather than the (great) Jimmy Garrison.

[Dave James]

Leroy was a huge presence on the Portland Oregon jazz scene for the last few years of his life. He was in poor health, on oxygen almost all the time, but still manged to play around town with great regularity. Needless to say, he had a huge influence on the local jazz community. I saw him several times and, as the saying goes, he never missed a beat. Just a monster player...solid as a rock. I read somewhere (maybe in his obituary) that he'd been involved in something like 800 recordings. I know that seems like a lot, but for whatever reason, that number sticks in my mind. Seeing him and Jessica Williams together was a real treat, let me tell you. And, as has been mentioned previously, he was the bass player on one of my all-time favorites, Chaloff's "Blue Serge." It doesn't get any better than that.

Up over and out.

[Late]

Leroy Walks Again

Good album for the post-holiday comedown.

[soulpope]

9 hours ago, Late said:

Leroy Walks Again

Good album for the post-holiday comedown.

It's always good to make a walk 😎 ....

[Late]

9 hours ago, soulpope said:

It's always good to make a walk 😎 ....

Good for one's health! 👍

This edition of the album is apparently its first stereo issue—"in association with" Contemporary Records, who released the album in mono. 

I always forget it's Gerald Wilson on trumpet on this record. 🤭

18 hours ago, Late said:

Leroy Walks Again

Original Australian cover. I've often wondered why different markets decide to alter the original cover art (or use different artwork altogether).

[Brad]

Especially after eating a lot when you’re as tight as a fiddle. 

[Gheorghe]

It´s strange how little we knew about him here in Viena. When I started there was not much being talked about him.

The first time I read his name was in an interview Miles Davis gave where he said about Ornette Coleman: "Everything was ok when he played with Don Cherrly, Billy Higgins and LEROY VINNEGAR".
I thought "wait a minute......, who is Leroy Vinnegar". We had so many OC stuff with Cherry and Higgins, but it was Charlie Haden on bass or Scott LaFaro or David Izenzon. Later I saw that their must have been an earlier disc of OC where Vinnegar played bass. So, was he OC´s man before OC really became famous ? 

[mikeweil]

16 hours ago, Gheorghe said:

So, was he OC´s man before OC really became famous ? 

If so, there are no recordings. On the two Contemporary LPs it was Don Payne, Red Mitchell, or Percy Heath. Maybe Vinnegar was on a gig that Miles heard live in California, or he mixed him up with another bass player. Higgins and Vinnegar were teamed on so many sessions .....

Edited December 28, 2022 by mikeweil

[Gheorghe]

6 hours ago, mikeweil said:

If so, there are no recordings. On the two Contemporary LPs it was Don Payne, Red Mitchell, or Percy Heath. Maybe Vinnegar was on a gig that Miles heard live in California, or he mixed him up with another bass player. Higgins and Vinnegar were teamed on so many sessions .....

Oh I see. Yes .... now as you said it, the pre - Haden bassist on record was Red Mitchell. Percy Heath, I think is on a Don Cherry - John Coltrane LP that has some Ornette Coleman compositions on it (maybe "The Blessing"). 
So what Miles Davis said really could have been from a live gig he heard, since he must have been in California in the fifties if Art Pepper recorded there with Miles´ Rhythm Section, and this maybe was in L.A. and yeah, maybe Miles had heard them. He was hip enough to dig some of this then "new music" , later he dissed Ornette mostly for his trying to play the trumpet, and called him "a selfish guy" ....