This 3-CD, 79-track compilation is a long overdue celebration of the role that the string bass, with its bottom-heavy rhythms and resounding syncopations, has had in the development of small group jazz and string band music, as well as Western swing and the blues. Side-trips are also taken into jug band, calypso, Caribbean, gospel, Creole, hokum and Hawaiian styles, demonstrating just why, by the early 30s, the stand-up bass had replaced the less propulsive tuba in most bands’ rhythm sections. Its air-filling slaps, plucks, bows, pops and snaps blended better.
Compiled by musicologist Dick Spottswood, the first two discs run chronologically. The first spotlights unsung virtuosos such as Steve Brown and Thelma Terry, alongside the more well-known Pops Foster and John Kirby. Disc Two is more of the same, covering 1931-41. Spottswood deservedly indulges himself on Disc Three, devoting it to William Manuel Johnson, who died in 1972, aged 100. We hear his brilliant bass work and lively vocal asides in a variety of late 20s tracks, from backing blues singers Chippie Hill and Tampa Red, to a m
