Ain't no solo recital like a bass solo recital. It can be a sprawling mass of noodly lines or it can be a sumptuous soundfest, alternating between arco and pizzicato sounds. For that reason, here are two solo bass albums by two consistently strong bassists in modern jazz, each forging an individual path on the instrument which nevertheless keep the roots of that path in their playing. Following them is an album where the bassist and his partner in arms get into several deep discussions.
Stephan Crump
Rocket Love
(Papillon) www.stephancrump.com
Bassist Stephan Crump's c.v. could fill this entire space; some of the more significant parts include the Vijay Iyer Trio and Sextet, his Rosetta Trio and the Borderlands Trio with Kris Davis and Eric McPherson. In person, he's a physical player, becoming one with his instrument as the music develops. Anyone who has seen him in action, seemingly electrified by the sounds he produces, would expect that a solo bass album will be a pretty active experience.
Rocket Love didn't start out as yet another pandemic byproduct, though the quarantine did contribute to it. Crump had already planned to launch a subscription series of solo recordings in February 2020 that would produce a monthly release of one original and one standard. Within a month, he had plenty of time to devote to the project.
The album begins and ends - a coda notwithstanding - with "Lament (Part I)" and "Lament (Part II)" the only tracks that feature overdubbed bass parts. While slow and heavy, the bowed instruments create a rich sound that might be lamenting but which still sounds beautiful in the process.
Four of the eleven tracks are covers. The title track comes from Stevie Wonder, one of Crump's first musical loves. While it's naturally stripped down in this setting (the original was a little overdressed with slick strings), Crump maintains the song's catchiness, singing along and emphasizing the off-beats of the groove.
The presences of off-beat hooks continues in some of the originals. "Groove for Stacey Abrams" goes beyond a simple riff with a funky melody that does indeed sound groovy. "Enough" alternates between rhythmic tapping on the bass's bridge and a slinky melody. A bowed quarter-note rhythm takes root halfway through "Whoof" that feels infectious in its simplicity and rich delivery.
Crump takes some interesting liberties with a few of the other non-originals. Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn's "Isfahan," originally slow and deliberate, feels brisk in his hands while Thelonious Monk's "Pannonica" gets stretched out and slowed down a bit. "It Never Entered My Mind" is taken pretty naturally, to ensure the lyrical quality of the ballad comes through.
Michael Bisio
Inimitable
(Mung Music) mungmusic.bandcamp.com/album/inimitable
Unlike Crump, Michael Bisio dipped his toe into the solo bass setting with Travel Music, a 2010 performance released in 2020. As a long-standing member of Matthew Shipp's trio, Bisio's performances with the pianist take off immediately, adding a framework to the array of chords and lines, with the occasional whacks at open strings adding some enthusiastic punctuation to the sounds. The moments during a set where Shipp takes a break are just as exciting as the duo or trio moments, because it puts Bisio's strong tone and blend of delicate and heavy playing in the foreground.
Inimitable begins boldly with "Quintessence," a 15-minute manifesto of sorts that blooms from a simple line into an elaborate oratory that keeps flowing the entire time. Some of the tracks focus on specific techniques of the instrument but they don't simply lapse into technical displays. "New One" features some arco work, beginning with harmonic scrapes and moving rapidly through the whole range of the instrument. "Small Things Interrupted" gets a lot of mileage by simply hammering on the neck of the bass like it's a percussion instrument, while "Henry's Theme" is plucked, with a line that sounds like an extended soliloquy due to the way it uses the space between phrases to emphasize its bends and twists. "Renew One" features both an exquisite bowed melody to begin and some plucked lines with sustained vibrato.
The album includes two non-originals. John Coltrane's "Wise One" was originally a pensive ballad of sorts, but Bisio avoids a ponderous mood here, moving forward at a steady pace, with a brief double stop section that could be a tribute to Trane's longtime bassist Jimmy Garrison. "I Fall In Love Too Easily" comes as the biggest surprise, a set-closing standard which posits that, for all of his work playing free and wild, Bisio knows how to dust off an old standard and make it personal.
While the sound of one instrument can be spare, it never limits the opportunity to unfurl some beautiful melodies, and both of these albums offer strong proof.
Michael Bisio & Matthew Shipp
Flow of Everything
(Fundacja Słuchaj) www.fsrecords.net
Matthew Shipp has a new piano trio album coming out next month on ESP. But before the ears get caught up in that album, it felt like a good time - and this, a good spot - to check out Flow of Everything, a series of duets with his right hand man, Mr. Bisio.
Hearing opener "Flow" in close proximity with Inimitable, it's tempting to wonder if Shipp is taking on the role of accompanist to the bassist. Naturally, that's overthinking it. All writing credits on the album are given to both players, presuming that everything was created on the spot. But Shipp begins with some heavy chords, while Bisio leaps around behind him, in contrast, proving that the focus can shift between the two instrumentalists.
Last year, Shipp's Codebreaker album found the pianist moving in a more meditative direction than his past work, and that feeling continues here, where Bisio moves along with him. "Go-Flow" contains one the best examples, and a new high mark in the duo's work: Shipp thoughtfully picks out a chord sequence, thinking about a ballad. Meanwhile Bisio's bass sings harmonies in the background. The brief "Everything" is a more compact version of this concept, but "Go-Flow" is the one that must be heard, arguably the most delicate thing they've recorded so far.
"Of Everything" presents another new wrinkle for the duo: their take on a hard bop blues, complete with a funky piano line, some walking bass and some Monk-like trills, that latter which repeats itself a tad too often, though. (A quick one of these Monk-isms popped up earlier in "Flow," disappearing before it had a chance to wear out.) While the format might have been implied at the outset, it's not clear how close the duo sticks to it. But the melodies they explore maintain the sense of fun they seem to be having, so structure be damned.
Hearing this reminds me of how much I miss seeing these guys in person. Hopefully that long hiatus will come to an end soon.
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