Obscure or Underrated Bassists

[mikeweil]

One of my underrated favourites is Earl May, whom most may know from his participation on an early Coltrane Prestige session (but even the CD reissue does not include the alternate take of the Blues tune):

What really opened up my ears for his playing was this Mickey Tucker album:

Edited May 12, 2024 by mikeweil

[soulpope]

5 minutes ago, mikeweil said:

One of my underrated favourites is Earl May, whom most may know from his participation on an early Coltrane Prestige session .... What really opened up my ears for his playing was this Mickey Tucker album:

Agreed .... btw and Mickey Tucker candidate for a "Underrated Pianists" thread 😎 ....

[optatio]

2 hours ago, soulpope said:

Agreed .... btw and Mickey Tucker candidate for a "Underrated Pianists" thread 😎 ....

👍 - saw Mickey Tucker with the Jazztet in Vienne/France 1982, July 9.

Line up: Art Farmer (tp), Benny Golson (ts), Curtis Fuller (tb), Mickey Tucker (p), Ray Drummond (b), Albert Heath (dr).

[JSngry]

John Lamb.

[Peter Friedman]

Two bass players from Scandavavia I have been listening to for a long time.

Mads Vinding

Jesper Lundgaard 

[JSngry]

BIlly Taylor

[Stevie Mclean]

6 minutes ago, JSngry said:

BIlly Taylor

Tommy Williams!

[optatio]

Reggie Johnson and Ronnie Boykins on 'Marion Brown Quartet. ESP - DISK' 1022 [1965]

[mhatta]

On 5/11/2024 at 4:52 PM, soulpope said:

Johann (aka Hans)- Anton Rettenbacher 😇😎 .... and agreement reg Aladar Pege .... 

Oh, now I see.  Thanks!

[Chuck Nessa]

Mchaka Uba

Edited May 13, 2024 by Chuck Nessa

[Gheorghe]

18 hours ago, optatio said:

I remember Jack Gregg, he was often in Göttingen, Gunter Hampel's hometown. Here is a photo from the Göttingen venue 'Blue Note' in 1976 with Allan Praskin (fl) and Joe Pentzlin (p).

Jack Gregg recorded 9 albums with Gunter Hampel and 5 albums with Marion Brown - Marion was also often here in our town.

hah, Allan hasn´t changed much ! 

I have played with him for decades and I think if I only would have met him in 1976 and the second time right now, I still would have recognized him: Now he´s 75 and still looks ultra hip, still long hair and so, and so great playin´. The 3 gigs I had with him about 3 weeks ago, it was heaven on earth, especially the 3rd day. 

My own compositon "Blues for Allan" ( Alessa Records, ALR 1131) is dedicated to his very personal style of playing, I´d recommend it to all who love Allan. 

Edited May 13, 2024 by Gheorghe

[soulpope]

1 hour ago, Chuck Nessa said:

Mchaka Uba

Know him via a Maurice McIntyre platter on Delmark from the late 60's .... any further infos available on him .... ?

[Chuck Nessa]

10 hours ago, soulpope said:

Know him via a Maurice McIntyre platter on Delmark from the late 60's .... any further infos available on him .... ?

This one -

[soulpope]

2 minutes ago, Chuck Nessa said:

This one -

Thnx for the hint ....

[Stevie Mclean]

Eddie Khan.

[clifford_thornton]

On 5/13/2024 at 1:04 PM, Chuck Nessa said:

This one -

beautiful CD.

[soulpope]

Jean-Jacques Avenel .... what a superb bassplayer .... and underrated for sure ....

[optatio]

Allan Praskin (as) and Jack Gregg (b) at 'Blue Note' in Göttingen 1976. We hope to find the recording – see photo!

[soulpope]

8 minutes ago, optatio said:

Allan Praskin (as) and Jack Gregg (b) at 'Blue Note' in Göttingen 1976. We hope to find the recording – see photo!

👌👍 ....

[Peter Friedman]

Herman Wright

Ray McKinney

Both from Detroit and less well known than their colleagues

Paul Chambers and Doug Watkins

[soulpope]

http://solodoublebass.blogspot.com/

For further inspiration ....

[soulpope]

Arild Andersen .... definitely underrated ....

[soulpope]

Roberto Miranda .... underrated ....

[colinmce]

On 4/30/2024 at 12:26 AM, soulpope said:

Kash Killion .... stumbled over him via Anthony Ortega "Afternoon In Paris" (hatOLOGY) .... played recurringly with Sun Ra Orchestra ....

He mostly plays cello and appears on several excellent recordings by Joel Futterman and Paul Murphy.

[colinmce]

A few off the top of my head:

Reggie Johnson
Vattel Cherry 
Motoharu Yoshizawa
John Lockwood
Ed Schuller
Jay Oliver
Doug Matthews
Earl Freeman
Lisle Ellis
Russell Thorne
Chuck Domanico
Alexander Frangenheim
Kiyoshi Tokunaga
Hans Schneider

These folks are maybe just outside the bounds of both obscurity and underratedness, but I will still throw in 3 of my pantheon bassists: 

Sirone
Alan Silva
Buschi Niebergall