Buddy Catlett

The incredibly solid bassist Buddy Catlett continues to be going strong because the later ’50s, appearing on a lot more than 100 jazz recordings. He’s also a multi-instrumentalist stemming from his research as a kid on clarinet and saxophone, abilities he held up throughout his profession. In 1996 he tricked discographer Tom Lord into considering there have been two different men named Pal Catlett, one a bassist as well as the various other a horn blower. It really is of course in the previous axe that artist, delivered George Adam Catlett, is most beneficial known. Features of his documenting profession on bass consist of an purchase of “Cocktails for just two” using the Louis Armstrong music group in which a lot of the theme is usually sipped like a bass single. Catlett was from the music moments in several various areas of america. Seattle numbers prominently in his biography — this is where he began monitoring music and a spot to which he came back over and over, participating for example within an ’80s collaborative ensemble with Clarence Acox known as the Roadside Attraction Big Music group. Flash forwards another twenty years and he’d be using jazz big rings in Seattle. He also was just as much a fixture in the Denver jazz picture in the past due ’50s being a good day’s view from the Rockies in the length. Within the mile-high town he proved helpful in a residence music group for the place whose playbill of best jazz stars caused the local tempo section. Catlett supported greats such as for example tenor saxophonist Ben Webster and vocalist Anita O’Day, and also chased tempos using the maniacal Sonny Stitt. However among Catlett’s most complicated gigs have been his first professional work playing within the saxophone section within the orchestra of Bumps Blackwell. Even vibraphonist Cal Tjader, successful using a Latin groove, employed Catlett being a bassist in 1959. That prominent display caught the eye of Quincy Jones and Catlett became bassist for the revue Jones was fronting on tour over the Western european continent, the Totally free and Easy Revue. The Jones connection also provided possibilities for Catlett to extend his muscle tissues as today’s jazz bassist; As implied by these association with Satchmo, Catlett’s stylistic capability is often misinterpreted as limited by his first inspirations, traditional jazz veterans of solidity across the bass lines of Oscar Pettiford or Jimmy Blanton. Within the Jones big music group, the bassist’s tempo section partner was drummer Stu Martin, afterwards to get prominence in the United kingdom avant-garde picture. Both play superbly on the 1960 little group program fronted by trombonist Curtis Fuller. A more recent release including Catlett may be the Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra’s SRJO Live from 2002.