Recommended Listening for Walking Bass Suggestions Please.

[PatrickJ]

I'm wanting to get ahead of my New Year goal of getting on top of walking bass.

 

I've been given a lot of useful advice of how to approach getting started on playing but I wanted some recommendations of listening for inspiration.   I don't really know who the goto's of walking bass are, and what outstanding albums / tracks are out there (classic and modern).  If you have any recommendations please let me know so I can start putting together some inspirational play lists.

 

Thanks

[OliverBlackman]

1 minute ago, PatrickJ said:

I'm wanting to get ahead of my New Year goal of getting on top of walking bass.

 

I've been given a lot of useful advice of how to approach getting started on playing but I wanted some recommendations of listening for inspiration.   I don't really know who the goto's of walking bass are, and what outstanding albums / tracks are out there (classic and modern).  If you have any recommendations please let me know so I can start putting together some inspirational play lists.

 

Thanks

Ray Brown and Ron Carter are where I’ve started. Ron’s book is very good as is Joe Hubbards.

[PatrickJ]

20 minutes ago, OliverBlackman said:

Ray Brown and Ron Carter are where I’ve started. Ron’s book is very good as is Joe Hubbards.

Thanks, any suggested recordings / albums that are worth checking out?

[ambient]

Have a listen to Kind of blue by Miles Davis.

[OliverBlackman]

1 hour ago, PatrickJ said:

Thanks, any suggested recordings / albums that are worth checking out?

Night train by Oscar Peterson is a great jazz record. For learning walking basslines, I usually end up transcribing a few choruses of jazz standards so I have the chords from the real book.

[Boodang]

There's a channel on YouTube sponsored by Reverb called 'bass walk of the week' which goes thru the most famous lines and proponents off the style.. Paul Chambers, Ron Carter, Ray Brown etc.

Really useful as it not only gives you a starting point but also an explanation of how and why the particular line works.

Ed Freidland also has a great book on creating walking bass lines.

Edited December 27, 2021 by Boodang

[casapete]

When I first joined a band who did a lot of jazz and swing stuff, I remember we did ‘Walk between raindrops’ from the 1982 Donald Fagen album ‘The Nightfly’. Although only fairly short, the song is great to practice walking lines with, and I learned a lot from playing it. 

[Doddy]

The big three who I always recommend listening to are Paul Chambers, Ray Brown, and Ron Carter. But check out all of the great Jazz bassists- guys like Slam Stewart, Jimmy Blanton, Scott LaFaro, Milt Hinton, Oscar Pettiford, Charles Mingus, Jimmy Garrison.  For more modern players, have a listen at guys like John Patitucci, Christian McBride, Larry Grenadier, Chris Minh Doky. 

[tinyd]

Apart from the suggestions above, Leroy Vinnegar was a great player. The "Gerry Mulligan meets Ben Webster" album is a good place to start.

[Crawford13]

 

This would be my starting point.

[Hellzero]

Anything Be Bop from Wes Montgomery to early Miles Davis records are a great source of walking basses.

 

The names have been mentioned, but strangely Charlie Mingus has been forgotten just like NHOP (Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen)...

 

If you want some electric bass, then Alain Caron and Kyle Eastwood are amazing bass walker (nice name, I think), just like Tom Kennedy.

 

There are so many great albums, but I would recommend one in particular as it features the late extraordinary Chet Baker in a terrific mood, alongside an amazing Jean-Louis Rassinfosse on double bass and the always musical guitar chord changer Philip Catherine : Crystal Bells.

[fretmeister]

On YouTube there are loads of grade 1-4 jazz big band ensemble pieces by the Hal Leonard publishers, and the scores are shown on the screen.

 

Many tunes start pretty much as the source material and then go for a walk as they build to the end. If you can read and have a big enough screen you can sight read them right off the PC.

[SteveXFR]

If you fancy something compltely different, try some Rancid. Journey to the end of East Bay. Matt Freeman takes a lot of influence from rockabilly walking  bass lines. Goldfinger and Mighty Mighty Bosstones are also well worth checking out.

[SteveXFR]

Sorry, I meant Maxwell Murders by Rancid, not Journey to the end of East Bay.

[WishICouldWalk]

Paul Chambers is my go-to player to learn from. He plays mostly quarter notes so you get a good understanding of how to outline the changes without loads of chopsy playing to worry about. If it's triplet embellishments you want study, Ron Carter has a lot of that stuff. Reginald Workman and Jimmy Garrison are well worth checking out and also Buster Williams who played a bit with Herbie. Joe Hubbard's book is great to get you started as it's very root based and if you only ever played the principles he describes, all your band mates will be happy because they'll never get lost in the harmony. Good luck.

[paul_5]

1 hour ago, WishICouldWalk said:

Paul Chambers is my go-to player to learn from. He plays mostly quarter notes so you get a good understanding of how to outline the changes without loads of chopsy playing to worry about. If it's triplet embellishments you want study, Ron Carter has a lot of that stuff. Reginald Workman and Jimmy Garrison are well worth checking out and also Buster Williams who played a bit with Herbie. Joe Hubbard's book is great to get you started as it's very root based and if you only ever played the principles he describes, all your band mates will be happy because they'll never get lost in the harmony. Good luck.

This. I'm another exponent of the Chambers school of walking

[ambient]

A very good album to listen to is Bill Evans 

Sunday at the Village Vanguard, with Scott LaFaro on bass. It’s a strange recording with piano on one channel, and bass/drums on the other. I transcribed a whole load of tunes from that - piano as well as bass. It’s easy to hear the separate instruments.