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Obscure or Underrated Bassists


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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):

MS02ODgxLmpwZWc.jpeg

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

Ni5qcGVn.jpeg

Edited by mikeweil
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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:

Ni5qcGVn.jpeg

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

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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).

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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).

Blue Note 1976 3 (Copy).jpg

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 by Gheorghe
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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.

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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

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