Good "Standard" Jazz electric bass players

[Bilbo]

Playing metronomically will not swing and many electric bass players are particularly 'on the beat' and, consequently, don't swing (in my early days as a jazzer, I was criticised (behind my back) because my timing was 'too perfect'. Took me a little while to figure that out but the guy (Rob Smith, Cardiff's Heavy Quartet) was right. The nature of a double bass tone, the fact that it gets louder before it gets quieter, is certainly refelcted at least a little in fretless bass playing but, fundamentally, it is a distinctive element of the acoustic instrument that is specific to what defines swing. Anything that detracts from that will undermine the swing. There is a great track on Coltrane's 'Giant Steps' cd, called 'Countdown' where Coltrane plays a duet with Elvin Jones. Paul Chambers comes in at around 1.52 and WHAM! THAT is what the double bass does!

As for not being able to hear the double bass; that is an intersting point in itself. Miles Davis once said 'noone knows what the double bass does but everyone misses it when it is not there'. Its presence', with very few exceptions, is not the same as an electric bass which tends to be more to the fore; brighter and louder. Steve Swallow's playing tends to get lost in the same way in the sense that it is a part of the ensemble sound not a seperate element. I guess its like the double basses in a orchestra; you only know they are there because the sound gets heavier.

[Bilbo]

I just heard Jeff Berlin's 'High Standards' CD, a collection of jazz standards.

I gotta say, it's a shocker on every level

[tinyd]

I have to say that I'm broadly with Bilbo on this. The kick drum in "straight ahead" jazz doesn't act as timekeeper like it tends to in other genres - the walking bass line (along with the ride cymbal) does this, and the 'thump' that you get from DB just does a better job of defining the rhythm IMO.