After seeing him play w/the Dizzy Gillespie big band, on a classic video from the mid 1940s, when he(Brown)was either 17 or 18, displaying his skills at that point, and considering all of the bass players in jazz who came afterwards, I called him for years afterwards, the "FATHER OF MODERN JAZZ BASS PLAYING"-and then I found out about Jimmy Blanton(another genius on the upright bass), who preceded Ray Brown by about 5 to 7 years...in any case they are both, in my opinion, to be regarded as the fathers of modern jazz bass playing. And dig his slapping ability-wow! It's truly phenomenal!(+ see below) The closest I've seen of anyone in modern times that would come close, would've been Stanley Clarke, when he played the upright bass, at a concert in about 2005 or so, and he didn't play it with the finesse that Brown displays here in this video. And it was also after so many years of not playing in that manner, that he(Clarke)finally learned to play like that(slapping style). It reminded me of funk great/phenomenon Louis Johnson, who when first seeing him in the early 1980s, said I(or anyone else of our generation apparently)had never seen anyone play a bass(guitar)like that-and now I see that he(Johnson), may have somehow gotten his technique, from these great masters(Blanton, Brown and Braud) who preceded him by decades. On the other hand, Johnson may not have gotten his phenomenal technique from these masters(and did Stanley get his technique from Johnson, or go back and get it from these pioneering masters?), because Johnson once said he got his style to a degree from watching the Spanish flamenco guitarists of the L.A. region, I guess-but if Johnson did get his style from the early upright masters, they had a considerable amount of influence on his playing style. (+)If you think I don't know what I'm talking about, I started playing electric bass guitar about 45 years ago, and then the upright about 23 years ago-and I've never seen anyone play an upright the way Ray Brown did here, at between 2:20 and 2:27 of this video-I've seen others play the slapping style on the upright, but it's all lame, compared to what he does here in this video; I've never seen anything like it, not to this day-not on the upright, and didn't know he was capable of playing in such manner until I saw this video today; he truly was a gifted and phenomenal bass player! 2-9-23.
Truly a MASTER! Wished I had him as a teacher! I see why Christian McBride respected him. 😌🎶👍🏾
MASTER!!! You don't have to play loud to swing!!! The amazing sound of Ray brown
After seeing him play w/the Dizzy Gillespie big band, on a classic video from the mid 1940s, when he(Brown)was either 17 or 18, displaying his skills at that point, and considering all of the bass players in jazz who came afterwards, I called him for years afterwards, the "FATHER OF MODERN JAZZ BASS PLAYING"-and then I found out about Jimmy Blanton(another genius on the upright bass), who preceded Ray Brown by about 5 to 7 years...in any case they are both, in my opinion, to be regarded as the fathers of modern jazz bass playing.
And dig his slapping ability-wow! It's truly phenomenal!(+ see below) The closest I've seen of anyone in modern times that would come close, would've been Stanley Clarke, when he played the upright bass, at a concert in about 2005 or so, and he didn't play it with the finesse that Brown displays here in this video. And it was also after so many years of not playing in that manner, that he(Clarke)finally learned to play like that(slapping style). It reminded me of funk great/phenomenon Louis Johnson, who when first seeing him in the early 1980s, said I(or anyone else of our generation apparently)had never seen anyone play a bass(guitar)like that-and now I see that he(Johnson), may have somehow gotten his technique, from these great masters(Blanton, Brown and Braud) who preceded him by decades.
On the other hand, Johnson may not have gotten his phenomenal technique from these masters(and did Stanley get his technique from Johnson, or go back and get it from these pioneering masters?), because Johnson once said he got his style to a degree from watching the Spanish flamenco guitarists of the L.A. region, I guess-but if Johnson did get his style from the early upright masters, they had a considerable amount of influence on his playing style.
(+)If you think I don't know what I'm talking about, I started playing electric bass guitar about 45 years ago, and then the upright about 23 years ago-and I've never seen anyone play an upright the way Ray Brown did here, at between 2:20 and 2:27 of this video-I've seen others play the slapping style on the upright, but it's all lame, compared to what he does here in this video; I've never seen anything like it, not to this day-not on the upright, and didn't know he was capable of playing in such manner until I saw this video today; he truly was a gifted and phenomenal bass player! 2-9-23.
I met Ray Brown at a gig in Seattle. Amazing musician and a true gentleman.
Wow, that sounded like Oscars Trio!!
Kinda reminded me of Vince Guaraldi’s band.
We now call that slapping the bass.
Bottesini?