Jimmy Blanton – pioneering jazz bassist

Herb Jeffries sings in 1941 with Jimmy Blanton on bass and Duke Ellington peeking out from behind.

Enrique Quique Fabrega has been posting jazz bassists from A to Z on the Bass Blogs FB group. The other day, he shared Jimmy Blanton. I only just got to read up on him and listen to the track he shared, and wow, I love his sound. This is what he posted (the middle 2 paragraphs are from Wikipedia):

Jazz bassists from A to Z. Beginning with letter B we have the legendary Double-Bass jazz Master Blanton(Jimmy).Jimmy Blanton was the Father of the Double-Bass as a Solo instrument!!! There is virtually NO bass player that hasn’t study Blanton solos, compositions, technique and voice on the instrument. All bass players today are in DEBT with Mr. Jimmy Blanton. Blanton IS the first true master of the jazz Double-Bass. Blanton is credited with being the originator of more complex pizzicato and arco bass solos in a jazz context than previous bassists. 

Born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Blanton originally learned to play the violin, but took up the bass while at Tennessee State University, performing with the Tennessee State Collegians from 1936 to 1937, and during the vacations with Fate Marable. After leaving university to play full-time in St Louis with the Jeter-Pillars Orchestra (with whom he made his first recordings), he joined Duke Ellington’s band in 1939. 

Though he stayed with Ellington for only two years, Blanton made an incalculable contribution in changing the way the double bass was used in jazz. Previously the double bass was rarely used to play anything but quarter notes in ensemble or solos but by soloing on the bass more in a ‘horn like’ fashion, Blanton began sliding into eighth- and sixteenth-note runs, introducing melodic and harmonic ideas that were totally new to jazz bass playing. His virtuosity put him in a different class from his predecessors, making him the first true master of the jazz bass and demonstrating the instrument’s unsuspected potential as a solo instrument. Ellington put Blanton front-and-center on the bandstand nightly, unheard of for a bassist at the time. Such was his importance to Ellington’s band at the time, together with the tenor saxophonist Ben Webster _ Verve Records , that it became known as the Blanton–Webster band. Blanton also recorded a series of bass and piano duets with Ellington and played in the “small group” sessions led by Barney Bigard, Rex Stewart, Johnny Hodges , and Cootie Williams in 1940-41. 

In this video we have a Great Jazz Duet between Duke Ellington – Verve Records and Jimmy Blanton performing Pitter Panther Patter.Enjoy!.

And here’s the track:

Duke Ellington, Jimmy Blanton – Pitter Panther Patter

I was trying to play some of what he’s doing, as an ear-training exercise, and I have to say, its amazing. Unlike some of the other stuff I listen to, the bass is very clear and audible, so listening closely actually does let me pick up on what he’s playing. However – I’m nowhere near that fluid in actually playing.

I like what its causing me to do though. I’m listening, trying to find notes, and trying to place them in a major or minor scale framework so I can more easily figure out where other notes are (unless I’m doing it wrong, the pieces I picked out are mostly minor, btw).

On a sad note, the Wiki entry ends with this:

In 1941, Blanton was diagnosed with tuberculosis, cutting short his tenure with Ellington. His last recording session was cut on September 26, 1941 in Hollywood. Blanton died the following year after retiring to a sanatorium in California, aged 23.

So, his playing was cut short, just like Jaco Pastorius, Cliff Burton and Roger Patterson‘s. R.I.P.

• Jimmy Blanton on jazz.com
• Jimmy Blanton on Allmusic
• Remembering Jimmy Blanton on All About Jazz
• Jimmy Blanton on Bass Players United