PAUL CHAMBERS

Paul Laurence Dunbar Chambers, Jr. (April 22, 1935 – January 4, 1969) was one of the most influential jazz bassists of the 20th century. A prominent figure in many rhythm sections during the 1950s and 1960s, his importance in the development of jazz bass can be measured not only by the length and breadth of his work in this short period but also his impeccable time, intonation, and virtuosic improvisations.

Biography

Born in Pittsburgh on April 22, 1935, Chambers was raised in Detroit where he studied music. He entered music when he and several schoolmates took up music and the baritone horn became his assignment. 

Later he took up the tuba. "I got along pretty well, but it's quite a job to carry it around in those long parades, and I didn't like the instrument that much." Chambers became a string bassist around 1949 in Detroit, where he had been living for a while since the death of his mother.

His formal bass training got going in earnest in 1952, when he began taking lessons with a bassist in the Detroit Symphony. Paul did some classical work himself, with a group called the Detroit String Band that was, in effect, a rehearsal symphony orchestra. Studying at Cass Tech. off and on from 1952 to 1955, he played in Cass' own symphony, and in various other student groups, one of which had him blowing baritone sax. By the time he left for New York at the invitation of Paul Quinichette, he had absorbed a working knowledge of many instruments.

Playing his first gig at one of the little bars in the Hastings Street area, he was soon doing club jobs with Thad Jones, Barry Harris and others who have since effected the Detroit-New York junction.

From 1954 on through 1955, he gained significance touring with such musicians as Bennie Green, Paul Quinichette, George Wallington, J. J. Johnson and Kai Winding. In 1955 he joined the Miles Davis quintet, staying on with the group until 1963 and appearing on the 1959 classic Miles Davis album Kind of Blue. One of Paul's most noted performances was on that album's first cut, "So What," which opens with a brief duet with pianist Bill Evans.

Possessing one of the most immediately recognizable bass playing sounds and styles, Paul Chambers played bass in the Miles Davis quintets and sextets from the mid-'50s through the early '60s. From 1963 until 1966 Chambers played often with the Wynton Kelly trio, also freelancing as a sidemen for other important names in jazz all throughout his career.

Over his lifetime Paul Chambers developed addictions to both alcohol and heroin. On January 4, 1969 he died of tuberculosis at the premature age of 33.

Influence

The role of the jazz bass player was largely a metronomic assignment until, in 1939, Jimmy Blanton in the Duke Ellington band, transformed the entire scene.

Paul Chambers is a prominent entry in the list of bass players since Blanton who have contributed to extending the role of the instrument in jazz. Others include Charles Mingus, Scott LaFaro, Ron Carter, Gary Peacock, Slam Stewart, Ray Brown, Red Mitchell, and Percy Heath.

Paul was about 15 when he started to listen to "Bird" and Bud Powell, his first jazz influences. Oscar Pettiford and Ray Brown, the first bassists he admired, were followed in his book by Percy Heath, Milt Hinton and Wendell Marshall for their rhythm section work, Charles Mingus and George Duvivier for their technical powers and for their efforts in broadening the scope of jazz bass. Blanton, of course, was his all-time favorite, the perennial poll winner in his ballot.

His accompaniment and solos with Davis and other leaders remain distinctive and influential. He and Slam Stewart were among the first jazz bassists to perform arco or bowed features.

Paul Chambers played on a great many albums during the period he was active including such landmark albums as John Coltrane's Giant Steps and Miles Davis' Kind of Blue. Many musicians wrote songs dedicated to Paul. John Coltrane's song "Mr. P.C." is named after Chambers. Tommy Flanagan wrote "Big Paul", which was performed on the John Coltrane and Kenny Burrell Prestige 1958 LP. Max Roach wrote a drum solo called "Five For Paul", on his 1977 "impossible to find" drum solo LP recorded in Japan. Sonny Rollins wrote a song called "Paul's Pal" for him as well, and finally, long time fellow bandmate with Miles Davis, pianist Red Garland wrote the tune "The P.C. Blues", which is probably the most notable of the songs dedicated to him.

---------------

"Paul Chambers was a great genius of the bass. He was incredible, you know. Some of the things he did weren't really touched by anybody. Just things that he could do, nobody really knew what it was he was doing. He was fantastic."

--Herbie Hancock

The role of the jazz bass player was largely a metronomic assignment until, in 1939, Jimmy Blanton's flight through time and space, when he alighted in the Duke Ellington airport, transformed the entire scene. Since that time scores of talented men have put hundreds of fingers to work proving that Blanton was right; that the bass is capable of melodic invention and rhythmic variety unknown before his day. 

Oscar Pettiford is the man generally assumed to have inherited the Blanton mantle, though Ray Brown, Red Mitchell, Percy Heath and a few more have exhibited formidable prowess and extraordinary heights of inspiration. And now, to join the handful of giants of whom one can speak in the same breath as these few, the inner jazz circle has welcomed Paul Chambers. 

Among other achievements Chambers can claim to be the first jazzman to earn dual reknown as an arco and pizzicato bass soloist. Born in Pittsburgh April 22, 1935, he entered music through a windy side entrance when he and several schoolmates were fingered to take up music and the baritone horn became his assignement. Later he took up the tuba. "I got along pretty well, but it's quite a job to carry it around in those long parades, and I didn't like the instrument that much." (Besides, you can't bow a tuba.) So Paul became a string bassist, around 1949 in Detroit, where he had been living for a while since the death of his mother. 

Playing his first gig at one of the little bars in the Hastings Street area, he was soon doing club jobs with Thad Jones, Barry Harris and others who have since effected the Detroit-New York junction. His formal bass training got going in earnest in 1952, when he began taking lessons with a bassist in the Detroit Symphony. Paul did some "classical" work himself, with a group called the Detroit String Band that was, in effect, a rehearsal symphony orchestra. Studying at Cass Tech. off and on from 1952 to '55 he played in Cass' own symphony, and in various other student groups, one of which had him blowing baritone sax. By the time he left for New York at the invitation of Paul Quinichette, he had absorbed a working knowledge of several armfuls of instruments. 

The Quinichette job was Paul's first time on the road. Since then he has worked with Benny Green's combo; at the Bohemia in New York with George Wallington's quintet; at the Embers and Birdland with Joe Roland; and on several jobs with the since-split trombone twins, J.J. Johnson and Kai Winding. For the past 18 months most of his working hours have been devoted to the furnishing of a solid understructure for Miles Davis, and it was with the help of two colleagues from Miles' combo ( John Coltrane and Philly Joe Jones ) that the present LP gained much of its power and conviction. 

Paul was about 15 when he started to listen to Bird and Bud, his forst jazz influences. Oscar Pettiford and Ray Brown, the first bassists he admired, were followed in his book by Percy Heath, Milt Hinton and Wendell Marshall for their rhythm section work, Charles Mingus and George Duvivier for their technical powers and for their efforts in broadening the scope of jazz bass. Blanton, of course, is his all-time favorite, the perennial poll winner in his ballot. 

Speaking of polls, a review of the last Downbeat critics' referendum shows that Paul won in the New Star bassist category by a comfortable margin with 85 points. It may not be long before Pittsburgh and Detroit start a fight about which city can claim Paul Chambers as a hometown boy. He's a valuable enough man on anyone's team to generate just such a squabble and these sides, I'm sure you'll agree, offer the most eloquent evidence to date. 

--LEONARD FEATHER, from the liner notes,
Whims Of Chambers, Blue Note

---------------

Paul Chambers was born in Pittsburgh in 1935, and grew up in Detroit, where he became part of the city's growing jazz scene. He moved to New York, where he played in the J.J. Johnson - Kai Winding quintet. He joined Miles Davis' first legendary quintet (along with John Coltrane, "Philly" Joe Jones, and Red Garland) at the age of 20. As the bass player, he complimented Jones pefectly on fast songs and played just well on ballads. After "Slam" Stewart, he was one of the first bassists given the chance to solo, and in doing so, he introduced bebop phrasing to the bass.

Chambers made four albums as a leader. In addition, he recorded with many musicians including Coltrane, Cannonball Adderly, Solly Rollins, Bud Powell, Freddie Hubbard, and Donald Byrd.  

After leaving Davis' group, he continued working with the pianist who replaced Garland in Davis' group, Wynton Kelly, and he did freelance work in New York.  

Chambers holds the unique distinction, along with Coltrane and Wynton Kelly, of participating on two of the most important albums in jazz history: Coltrane's Giant Steps and Davis' Kind of Blue. Both albums are radically different in style--a testement to Chambers' ability. As a matter of fact, the song Mr. P.C. on Giant Steps was written for Chambers (P.C. = Paul Chambers). Coltrane said about him, "[Chambers is] one of the greatest bass players in jazz. His playing is beyond what I could say about it. The bass is such an important instrument, andhas so much to do with a group and a soloist can best function that I feel very fortunate to have had him on this [recording] date and to have been able to work with him in Miles' band so long."

Unfortunately, Chambers lived a hedonistic, self-serving lifestyle similar to Charlie Parker, and died at the age of 33.

Discography

As a leader

Chambers' Music (Aladdin/Jazz West, 1956)
Whims Of Chambers (Blue Note, 1956)
Paul Chambers Quintet (Blue Note, 1957)
Bass on Top (Blue Note, 1957)
Go (Vee-Jay, 1959)
1st Bassman (Vee-Jay, 1960)
High Step (Blue Note, 1956) (w/John Coltrane)
The East/West Controversy (Xanadu, 1957) (w/Hampton Hawes)
We Three (Prestige/New Jazz, 1958) (w/Roy Haynes & Phineas Newborn)
Ease It (Charly/Affinity, 1959) (w/Julian "Cannonball" Adderley)
Just Friends (Charly/Le Jazz, 1959) (w/Julian "Cannonball" Adderley)

As sideman

Julian "Cannonball" Adderley
Julian "Cannonball" Adderley (EmArcy, 1955)
Cannonball Adderley Quintet In Chicago (Mercury, 1959)
Cannonball Takes Charge (Riverside, 1959)
Cannonball and Coltrane (Phillips, 1965)

Nat Adderley
Introducing Nat Adderley (Mercury/Wing, 1955); reissued as Them Adderleys (Limelight, 1966)
Naturally! (Jazzland, 1961)

Toshiko Akiyoshi
The Toshiko Trio (Storyville, 1956)
Toshiko Mariano and her Big Band (Vee-Jay, 1964)

Lorez Alexandria
Alexandria The Great (Impulse!, 1964)

Chet Baker
Chet (Riverside, 1959)

Tina Brooks
Back To The Tracks (Blue Note, 1960)

Kenny Burrell
Kenny Burrell (Blue Note, 1956)
John Jenkins With Kenny Burrell (Blue Note, 1957)
Kenny Burrell & John Coltrane (Prestige, 1958)

Sonny Clark
Sonny's Crib (Blue Note, 1957)
Sonny Clark Trio (Blue Note, 1957)
Cool Struttin' (Blue Note, 1958)
Blues In The Night (Blue Note, 1958)
My Conception (Blue Note, 1959)

Jimmy Cleveland
Introducing Jimmy Cleveland And His All Stars (EmArcy, 1955)

John Coltrane
Blue Train (Blue Note, 1957)
Coltrane (Prestige, 1957)
Bahia (Prestige, 1958)
Black Pearls (Prestige, 1958)
Lush Life (Prestige, 1958)
Settin' The Pace (Prestige, 1958)
Traneing In (Prestige, 1958)
Soultrane (Prestige, 1958)
Stardust (Prestige, 1958)
The Believer (Prestige, 1958)
The Last Trane (Prestige, 1958)
(w/Milt Jackson) Bags and Trane (Atlantic, 1960)
Giant Steps (Atlantic, 1960)
(w/Julian "Cannonball" Adderley) Cannonball and Coltrane (Phillips, 1965)

Miles Davis
Miles (Prestige, 1955)
'Round About Midnight (Columbia, 1955)
Cookin' (Prestige, 1956)
Relaxin' (Prestige, 1956)
Steamin' (Prestige, 1956)
Workin' (Prestige, 1956)
Collectors' Items (Prestige, 1956)
Miles Ahead (Columbia, 1957)
Milestones (Columbia, 1958)
Porgy and Bess (Columbia, 1958)
Kind of Blue (Columbia, 1959)
Sketches of Spain (Columbia, 1960)
Someday My Prince Will Come (Columbia, 1961)
Quiet Nights (Columbia, 1962)

Kenny Dorham
Blue Spring (Riverside, 1959)
Quiet Kenny (Prestige, 1959)
Whistle Stop (Blue Note, 1961)

Kenny Drew
Kenny Drew Trio (Riverside, 1956)

Bill Evans
On Green Dolphin Street (Riverside, 1959)

Gil Evans
Gil Evans & Ten (Prestige, 1957)
The Complete Pacific Jazz Sessions' (Pacific Jazz, 1958)
The Individualism of Gil Evans (Verve, 1964)

Curtis Fuller
Curtis Fuller with Red Garland (Prestige, 1957)
Curtis Fuller Jazztette with Benny Golson (Savoy, 1959)

Red Garland
A Garland of Red (Prestige, 1956)
Dig It! (Prestige, 1957)
Groovy (Prestige, 1957)
Red Garland Revisited! (Prestige, 1957)
Red Garland's Piano (Prestige, 1957)
P.C. Blues (Prestige, 1957)
Can't See For Lookin' (Prestige, 1958)
It's a Blue World (Prestige, 1958)
Manteca (Prestige, 1958)
All Kinds of Weather (Prestige, 1959)

Grant Green
First Session (Blue Note, 1960)

Herbie Hancock
Inventions and Dimensions (Blue Note, 1963)

Barry Harris
Bull's Eye (Fantasy, 1968)

Dexter Gordon
Dexter Calling (Blue Note, 1961)

Benny Golson
Benny Golson's New York Scene (Contemporary, 1957)
The Modern Touch (Riverside, 1958)
Groovin' With Golson (Prestige, 1959)
Turning Point (Mercury, 1962)

Johnny Griffin
A Blowing Session (Blue Note, 1957)
The Congregation (Blue Note, 1957)

Joe Henderson
Four (Verve, 1968)
Straight, No Chaser (Verve, 1968)

Freddie Hubbard
Here to Stay (Blue Note, 1962)

Milt "Bags" Jackson
Bags and Trane (Atlantic, (w/John Coltrane) 1960)
Statements (Impulse!, 1961)

John Jenkins
John Jenkins With Kenny Burrell (Blue Note, 1957)

J. J. Johnson
The Eminent J.J. Johnson, Vol. 2 (Blue Note, 1955)
Trombone For 2 (w/Kai Winding) (Columbia, 1955)
The Great Kai & J. J. (w/Kai Winding)(Impulse!, 1960)

Philly Joe Jones
Philly Joe's Beat (Atlantic, 1960)
Philly Joe Jones & Elvin Jones Together! (Atlantic, 1964)

Wynton Kelly
Piano (Riverside, 1958)
Kelly Blue (Riverside, 1959)
Kelly at Midnite (Vee-Jay, 1960)
Kelly Great (Vee-Jay, 1960)
Wynton Kelly! (Vee-Jay, 1961)
Comin' in the Back Door (Verve, 1963)

Abbey Lincoln
That's Him (Riverside, 1957)

Jackie McLean
McLean's Scene (Prestige/New Jazz, 1957)
Jackie's Bag (Blue Note, 1959)
New Soil (Blue Note, 1959)
Capuchin Swing (Blue Note, 1960)

Blue Mitchell
Out of the Blue (Riverside, 1958)

Hank Mobley
Tenor Conclave (Prestige, 1956)
Peckin' Time (w/Lee Morgan)(Blue Note, 1958)
Roll Call (Blue Note, 1960)
Soul Station (Blue Note, 1960)
Workout (Blue Note, 1961)
Another Workout (Blue Note, 1961)
The Turnaround! (Blue Note, 1965)

Thelonius Monk
Brilliant Corners (Riverside, 1956)

Lee Morgan
Volume 2: Sextet (Blue Note, 1956)
Volume 3 (Blue Note, 1957)
City Lights (Blue Note, 1957)
The Cooker (Blue Note, 1957)
Leeway (Blue Note, 1960)
Here's Lee Morgan (Vee-Jay, 1960)
Charisma (Blue Note, 1966)
The Rajah (Blue Note, 1966)

Wes Montgomery
Full House (Riverside, 1962)
Smokin' at the Half Note (Verve, 1965)
Willow Weep for Me (Verve, 1969)

Oliver Nelson
The Blues and the Abstract Truth (Impulse!, 1961)

Phineas Newborn, Jr.
A World of Piano (Contemporary, 1961)

Art Pepper
Art Pepper Meets the Rhythm Section (Contemporary, 1957)
Gettin' Together (Contemporary, 1960)

Bud Powell
Bud! (Blue Note, 1957)
The Scene Changes (Blue Note, 1958)

Ike Quebec
Blue And Sentimental (Blue Note, 1961)

Sonny Red
Out of the Blue (Blue Note, 1960)

Freddie Redd
Shades of Redd (Blue Note, 1960)
Redd's Blues (Blue Note, 1961)

Sonny Rollins
Tenor Madness (Prestige, 1956)
Sonny Rollins: Volume 2 (Blue Note, 1957)
Sound of Sonny (Riverside, 1957)

Louis Smith
Smithville (Blue Note, 1958)

Frank Strozier
Fantastic (Koch Jazz, 1960)

Art Taylor
A.T.'s Delight (Blue Note, 1960)

Clark Terry
Serenade to a Bus Seat (Riverside, 1957)

Kai Winding
The Trombone Sound (Columbia, 1955)
Trombone For 2 (w/J. J. Johnson)(Columbia, 1955)
The Great Kai & J. J. (w/J. J. Johnson)(Impulse!, 1960)