I think one of the greatest things that come with learning any musical instrument is that you get exposed to new artists. For someone discovering jazz, this is incredibly enjoyable part of the journey. With each artist, you feel almost like you're going for a fun adventure, but not too much commitment - kind of like sitting down for a one-shot game of D&D.
This week, my jazz double bass teacher has set me towards discovering Paul Chambers. He played with the greats of his time, including Mile Davis. I started with Yesterdays, and was quickly surprised - is he using a bow? Turns out, he is known for playing solos arco, which in my limited listening experience isn't common. And I really like this! That thick, rumbling bowed sound of the double bass against the piano gave me the chills.
Next, I picked On Green Dolphin Street, which featured him, Bill Evans and Philly Joe Jones. Here, we're back in familiar landscapes with Chambers walking the bass. This is about the time when I wish I knew better on how to analyse what I hear and break down the magic but well, not yet. But I glance at a few transcriptions and see something about how notes from the chords are permutated, and in some cases the chords are presented without their root notes!
And it's back to a nice arco solo at the end of I See Your Face Before Me, starting at 6:27 of the nearly 10 minute track. At the risk of sounding repetitive, I'm going to say I really dig how this sounds. It's really one of the things I enjoyed this year as well when I picked up the double bass - the other option to make sound using a bow opens up a whole new realm of practice and experience. But I had the naive assumption that pizz is basically jazz and arco is classical... guess not!