[78-L] Use of double bass in dance bands

[Rodger Holtin]

There is a record that chronicles the shift to pizzicato bass from arco bass (and, by extension, tuba etc):
 “Slappin' The Bass” -  (Harry de Costa, Fred Phillips) – 
Ted Weems & His Orch, vr Parker Gibbs; April 3, 1930 - Victor 22411
Bass played arco/pizz by "Country Joe" Washburn.
 
Fortunately this was 1930 and it was still in vogue to sing the verse:
“There’s a great big instrument 
you hear in every band
It used to be played with a bow 
but now it’s played by hand” 
 
Obviously the transition was well along for deCosta and Phillips to get it down in song.  
 
The answer to the question of who drove the switch from tuba etc. to pizz bass fiddle is certainly an amalgam of bassists and arrangers/leaders.  Yes, Pops Foster would be in the list, as would Wellman Braud, John Kirby, Stanley Dennis (tuba/sb for swing trailblazer Casa Loma), Harry Goodman (also tuba/sb for Pollack etc wherever brother Benny was), Harry Barth, tuba and bass for Ted Lewis) and Al Armer, who actually preceded Steve Brown with Whiteman (“When Day Is Done” “Wistful and Blue,” for instance.)  I’m guessing Armer had heard Brown’s Goldkettes.
 
I must credit Joe Washburn, (I assume the arranger was Joe Haymes) and Weems because not only did they talk the talk with that record, they walked the walk with dozens of other records and they really did leave a shellac trail of the change.  Washburn played tuba on the early Weems records, switched to bass – and then went back to tuba to play trad/Dixie/fun with Spike, Ingle and others.  I love everything I’ve ever heard from Joe.
 
Ultimately, I do believe Brown’s influence perhaps to be the most major one in the story of the transition.  Remember he played (albeit phonographically silent) for NORK, but especially important are his Goldkette Bix-era sides as that band was revered by everybody, black and white, and that influence was only strengthened with the move to Whiteman – everybody listened to everything he played, even if they did not particularly revere all of it.

 
Rodger

For Best Results use Vic...Pop's Double Bass Bow Rosin.

.

--- On Wed, 10/31/12, Andrew Evans <andrew.evans at sfr.fr> wrote:


From: Andrew Evans <andrew.evans at sfr.fr>
Subject: Re: [78-L] Use of double bass in dance bands
To: 78-l at klickitat.78online.com
Date: Wednesday, October 31, 2012, 7:25 PM


Fascinating stuff, this thread.

Some corroboration from the present: the Palast Orchester, based in Berlin
and still playing regularly in the style of Weimar Germany, has a bassist
(Bernd Hugo Dieterich, according to Wikipedia) who doubles on string bass
and sousaphone. I'm fairly sure I've seen him on German television playing a
tuba, too, and as far as I know the fingering's the same for both
instruments. Not that I could even lift either of them, far less get a note
out it.

And a tentative answer to John's question below: was it not Pops Foster who
was the first to make the  shift from arco to pizzicato? Not sure where I
read this, and am in the wrong continent to check my sources, but my guess
it would have been with the Luis Russell band, before 1930. He, too, also
played the tuba, of course.

Andrew, in Buellton CA, where it's about 25F warmer than in Luxembourg


Message: 11
Date: Wed, 31 Oct 2012 09:27:24 -0700 (PDT)
From: George Anglin <packardmarmon1940 at sbcglobal.net>
Subject: Re: [78-L] Use of double bass in dance bands
To: 78-L Mail List <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
Message-ID:
    <1351700844.81510.YahooMailClassic at web181003.mail.ne1.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

Great thread. Check out Paul Whiteman's recording "Just A Memory" on Victor
20881. Almost sounds like he's using two string bass instruments being
bowed, or maybe a combination of bowed string bass and tuba together. Also
Whiteman's recording of "Lover" on victor 24283, with lots of bowed bass.
Again are there more than one bass instrument being used or a combination of
tuba and bowed string bass? Ideas welcomed. Packard Marmon.

--- On Tue, 10/30/12, John Wright <vintage at jabw.demon.co.uk> wrote:

From: John Wright <vintage at jabw.demon.co.uk>
Subject: Re: [78-L] Use of double bass in dance bands
To: 78-l at klickitat.78online.com
Date: Tuesday, October 30, 2012, 1:21 PM

Interesting thread on the string bass, I probably haven't caught every
message, but glad that someone, Rodger, mentioned that the instrument can be
bowed or plucked. The jazz preference has usually been to pluck but there
are early recordings where bowing is heard. Apologies if I missed this in
the discussion, but where/when/who? led the development of dance band and
jazz playing to favour plucking?


John Wright

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