Paul Chambers - Bass on Top
ARTIST.....: Paul Chambers
TITLE......: Bass on Top
LABEL......: Blue Note
URL........: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Chambers
RIP DATE...: Sep-26-2007
STORE DATE.: Aug-28-2007
GENRE......: Jazz
QUALITY....: VBR / 44.1Hz / Joint-Stereo
SIZE.......: 57,7 MB
Track Listing:
01 - yesterdays 05:48
02 - you'd be so nice to come home to 07:13
03 - chasin' the bird 06:15
04 - dear old stockholm 06:42
05 - the theme 06:11
06 - confessin' 04:11
07 - chamber mates 05:00
─────
41:20 min
Release Notes:
"Bass on Top" is an unique, perhaps even ambitious, album from the
blue note catalog, and while it shares some similarities to say a
Kenny Burrell album of the period, it's closest relative is the
1960 offering "Soulnik" from the other great bassist of the time:
Doug Watkins. However on "Soulnik" Watkins, who at the time
rivaled Chambers for the title of best up-and-comer (check out his
other leader date: "Watkins at Large", or his work with Donald
Byrd, particularly "Byrd in Flight", if you're interested)
employed a separate bassist so he could focus on cello. The effect
was a rhythm section driven album, that tried to show what an
ambitious bassist could do as a leader. "Soulnik" was helped by
the presence of Yusef Lateef on flute and oboe, however it's fatal
flaw was that Watkins himself neglected the bass duties in favor
of a cello he had only started playing three days prior to the
recording. Paul Chambers, on the other hand, with "Bass on Top"
avoided all the mistakes of the Watkins album (though not
consciously as "Bass on Top" was cut in 1957). Chambers does a lot
of superb bow work, however he keeps his bread and butter
abilities on the bass front and center. One of the really
interesting things going on in this album is the playing of Hank
Jones. It seems that in effect the bass and piano have switched
positions on this date. Instead of the bass accentuating the piano
work, Mr. Jones is instead comping to the sublime ever-flowing
play of Mr. Chambers, adding a languid flavor to the continuous
stream of round walking lines and bowing. The playing of Hank
Jones in the lemon running smoothly over the meat of Chambers
thick-toned bass. Add Kenny Burrell into the mix, who is wisely
contributing to the ambiance of "Bass on Top" by taking on a
firmly supporting role, as well as the unobtrusive, supportive
drumming of Art Taylor, who can really be heard to great effect on
the bonus track "Chamber Mates", and what you've got is a sound
that swings in the older sense of the word, you can feel the
spirit of Django Reinhardt floating happily in the musical-air.
Paul Chambers with "Bass on Top" created his masterpiece, a
walking round sound that is as advertised: the bass is on top, and
jazz is all the better for it.
http://www.amazon.com/Bass-Top-Paul-
Chambers/dp/B000TZUSJE/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-3232859-8826539?
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