Hey Bob. What are you running for your HI-FI these days?
A little off-topic, Doc, but relevant I guess if we're talking about listing to upright bass recordings...
CD player: Ayre D-1xe (also happens to be a world class DVD player)
Pre: Ayre K-1xe
Amp: Ayre V-3
Speakers: Aerial 10T
cables: Cardas Golden Cross (including most power cords)
power: two dedicated circuits with isolated grounds, a couple of Richard Gray Power Company conditioners
various acoustic treatments, some purchased, some designed/built myself
The Ayre components were actually acquired over the course of 8-10 years, a few years between each, and the CD/DVD and preamp were sent back for upgrades a couple of times. It's, uhmm, a pretty nice setup.
Now then, the music is what really matters. I'll have to approach this in installments, since it looks like I have about 900 jazz CDs... Here are some of the easy ones to start with.
Dave Holland has been my favorite bassist for more than a decade, as well as a great composer and bandleader. To get a good sense of all that, try Dave Holland Quintet/Extended Play Live at Birdland. 2 disc set recorded (live :-) in 2003, with a great bunch of musicians who had been playing together for years. Terrific sound, not much audience intrusion, much of the time you could believe it was an excellent studio recording. Great music and performances throughout, one of my favorite recordings of the last few years.
In a duet setting (with piano), Milcho Leviev and Dave Holland/Up & Down. Recorded live in Tokyo 1987, on the MA Recordings label. Anything on this label is pretty much guaranteed to be sonically outstanding (I just wish they had a larger catalog). Fabulous playing by both these guys, sound is about as good and natural as it gets. I can't recommend this highly enough.
If you just want Holland playing bass in your living room, his solo album Ones All would work. This one is thoughtful, introspective, a very intimate recording - I suppose you have to be in the mood for it, but if you are, then it really does sound like he's right there in the room. I could go on about Holland indefinitely, I have tons of his stuff.
Charlie Haden: yes, Beyond the Missouri Sky came to mind almost immediately (I still seem to be filing that one under Metheny, but it's a toss up). In a piano duet setting, Charlie Haden & Kenny Barron/Night and the City is a terrific live recording, great sound, beautiful music, sort of late-night nightclub stuff. My guess is many of you here would also enjoy Charlie Haden & Hank Jones/Steal Away, subtitled spirituals, hymns, and folk songs.
Of course there is tons of Haden (some more accessible than others), and I pulled out a few others to review but for emphasis on bass those three are a great start (and I assume I still get the extra credit points since the bassist shares the title credit, right?).
For our friend Stanley, if you haven't yet then you really must check out the first two Return to Forever albums - I still think this is some of Stanley's best work ever. The first one, self-titled Return to Forever, has some lengthy upright solos, nice stuff. You've probably heard him play some of this stuff since, but perhaps (depending on your taste) never quite as well.
Light as a Feather is described by some as one of those perfect albums, and his playing is fantastic throughout, though even more notably for being one of the instruments on equal footing. (By the way, he apparently plays electric and upright on both of these recordings, but I have to admit that it's sometimes hard to tell... if anyone can clarify that for me, I'd appreciate it.)
The Rite of Strings has good, and prominent, upright sound, though I find it a little boring and tend to listen to it as background music.
I've sort of lost touch with Christian McBride, but was a big fan in his early sideman years. The first one that came to mind was Joe Henderson/Lush Life, The Music of Billy Strayhorn, which opens with a beautiful duet of Henderson and McBride, though McBride is solid throughout. (When I saw Henderson live shortly after this, I was disappointed McBride wasn't on the bill - but Larry Grenadier did not disappoint in the slightest.) And while we're at it, Joe Henderson/So Near, So Far - Musings for Miles has my friend Holland on bass, plus John Scofield and Al Foster, all very tasteful stuff.
I'm a huge fan of Patricia Barber (pianist, vocalist, composer), and I'm surprised her long time bassist, Michael Arnopol, isn't better known. He's not flashy, but I always feel like playing after hearing him, and the sound quality on Barber's recordings is always top-notch. Really, you should just buy all of them, it's too hard to pick one. But since we're looking for prominent upright work, on Cafe Blue she covers Ode to Billy Joe, with just voice, someone doing fingersnaps, and Arnopol on bass - I use this for evaluating my system and room acoustics. Just for fun, on A Distortion of Love, Marc Johnson happens to be the bassist and they do a sweet version of My Girl. The story here is that between songs, Marc was noodling the bass line to it for practice, and they sent someone out to pick up the sheet music so they could record it.
Or you could go with Companion, a live recording (with Barber on organ rather than usual piano), with several covers, including The Beat Goes On, Use Me (Bill Withers), and even Black Magic Woman. Lots of tasteful bass work throughout, more solos and stuff than usual.
Despite all these odd covers (and they really do work), she is truly a first class jazz musician and composer, and for that sake my first three choices would be Verse, or Live: A Fortnight in France, or Modern Cool (which includes Light My Fire and She's a Lady!). Her latest, Mythologies, is again excellent and pushing in some new directions, but I wouldn't choose it for upright bass.
Let's see, what next? I generally stay away from recordings by Brian Bromberg under his own name (I guess I lose extra credit points here...), though I find Wood to be a fun album, all upright, well-recorded and definitely prominent. I somewhat regret that I relented and bought Wood II... but he has done some outstanding work as a straight-ahead sideman, a great example being Alan Broadbent/You and the Night and the Music. Another high quality recording, great playing by the trio, and very fine work including numerous solos by Bromberg.
It's not that hard to find Ray Brown recordings that sound great - try anything on either the Concord or Telarc labels. And don't forget the classic Sonny Rollins/Way Out West. If you just can't get enough upright, I think he has at least two Super Bass recordings (I only have a couple of tracks on a bonus disc, but they are fun).
Glen Moore does some interesting stuff. I have all three volumes of the group called MOKAVE, some of which might be a little out there depending on your tastes, but these are AudioQuest recordings, great sound. I think Vol. 3 is my least favorite, I'd probably start with Vo. 1, but I really enjoy all of them. (Heads up: in case you're inspired to play, it might be helpful to know that he tunes his upright - built in 1715 - as CADC.) However, I haven't listened to his solo Dragonneti's Dream in a few years, which suggests it wasn't a favorite.
For Scott LaFaro, I might choose Bill Evans Trio/Sunday at the Village Vanguard just slightly over Waltz for Debby, but that's a tough call. The safer bet would be to pick up the 3 disc The Complete Village Vanguard Recordings, 1961 to get both of those and more, with an outstanding remastering job on Riverside.
I think I need a break here. I'll review a little and see what I can come up with for guys such as Gary Peacock, Vitous, Eddie Gomez, Cecil McBee, George Mraz, the list just goes on and on... and maybe a few more obscure but deserving players.
-Bob
