May 19, Bass Day!

Don Sickler: May 19 is an important "Bass Day" as you will see. This year, first of all, it's Cecil McBee's 89th birthday: please check out five of his marvelous compositions from his "Unspoken" album.

On May 19, 1957, Paul Chambers recorded his Paul Chambers Quintet album: bass players will now have the opportunity to check out his complete bass lines PLUS bass solos from this recording of his compositions Beauteous and The Hand Of Love.

I did a quick look to see what's already up on jazzleadsheets from May 19, and immediately found bassist Percy Heath on "When Farmer Met Gryce", and bassist Al McKibbon with composer/pianist Freddie Redd.

Then I started looking for recordings done on May 19 in my publishing files along with recordings that were made by Rudy Van Gelder in his Hackensack and Englewood Cliffs studios as well as his remote recordings. I'm now determined to create a separate Bassist May 19 page. So far my research has found the following bassists recording music we are involved with on May 19: More Percy Heath, Charles Mingus, Tommy Potter, more Paul Chambers, Gene Taylor, Ron Carter, George Duvivier, Bob Cranshaw, Steve Swallow, George Mraz, Jimmy Woode and the list goes on.

Also, check out Daryl Johns' amazing "Tribute to Paul Chambers," multiple bass arrangements by myself, recorded by Rudy in Englewood Cliffs, with a fun video of Daryl as he recorded Tempo di Max, at a "Max Roach" tempo.

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