List of jazz bassists


This list of jazz bassists includes performers of the double bass and since the 1950s, and particularly in the jazz subgenre of jazz fusion which developed in the 1970s, electric bass players.
bassist Charles Mingus was also an influential bandleader and composer whose musical interests spanned from bebop to free jazz.
The most influential jazz double bassists from the 1940s and 1950s include bassist Jimmy Blanton ; Oscar Pettiford , who is considered by bassists and musicologists to be the first bebop bassist and the transitional link from the swing era to bebop. Ray Brown, known for backing a number of beboppers, including alto virtuoso Charlie Parker; Milt Hinton and George Duvivier who are the two most recorded bassists in jazz history, their respective careers spanning many eras and genres; a singular creative force was Wilbur Ware legendary bassist with Monk and others, hard bop bassist Ron Carter ; and Paul Chambers, a member of the Miles Davis Quintet.
bassist Jaco Pastorius was known for his expressive fretless electric bass playing.
In the experimental post 1960s eras, which saw the development of free jazz and jazz-rock fusion, some of the influential bassists included Charles Mingus and free jazz and post-bop bassist Charlie Haden.
In the post-1970s era of jazz-rock fusion, the electric bass became an important jazz instrument; virtuoso Stanley Clarke played both the double bass and the electric bass. Fusion performer Jaco Pastorius contributed to the development of a new approach to the fretless electric bass, adding a creative use of harmonics and chords, both while a member of the band Weather Report and in his solo recordings.
In the 1990s and 2000s, one of the new "young lions" for jazz bass was Christian McBride.
In mid to late 2000s, another new "young lion" for jazz bass emerged Miles Mosley a member of the acclaimed Los Angeles collective, the West Coast Get Down.
For double bass players in other styles of music, such as Blues and Folk, see the List of double bassists in popular music.

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and Victor Wooten together at the Stockholm Jazz Fest July 19, 2009

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in NYC, pictured here in June 1977. He played with the Modern Jazz Quartet and also worked with Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Wes Montgomery and Thelonious Monk.
at Vossajazz 2014, known for his work with artists like Jon Eberson, Karl Seglem, Gisle Torvik, and within Eple Trio

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worked with Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, McCoy Tyner, Frank Sinatra, Aretha Franklin, Grover Washington Jr....

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