Bob Cranshaw

Born: December 10, 1932

Bob Cranshaw has been the bassist of choice for Sonny Rollins since 1959. Their forty-seven-year collaboration is the subject of a new video on Sonny's website, ��Bob Cranshaw and Sonny Rollins, The First Gig." Created by Bret Primack, it features interviews with both Rollins and Cranshaw . Exclusive performance footage includes excerpts from The Sonny Rollins Group in Concert back in April in California. The content is also available as an MP3 download. Born December 10, 1932, the Evanston, Illinois native started on drums and piano before switching to the tuba and bass in high school. He was a founding member of Walter Perkins' MJT +3 band in 1957 and it was Perkins who recommended Bob to Sonny as a replacement bassist for a gig at the first Playboy Jazz Festival in Chicago in 1959. Bob Cranshaw's discography is nothing short of amazing

Gravity and Resurgence: The Many Dimensions of Dexter Gordon

by Arthur R George
February 6, 2025

Long Tall Dexter; swinger, bebopper, saxophone balladeer; acting the dissipated genius expatriate who was not unlike himself in the movie Round Midnight; his dressed-up persona “Society Red;" the laconic elder statesman of his later years. Dexter Gordon is all those things, but more than a kaleidoscope of caricatures. Those who trace their lineages through ...

Classic Bobby Hutcherson Blue Note Sessions 1963 �C 1970

By Bobby Hutcherson

Label: Mosaic Records
Released: 2024
Track listing:

Disc One:
The Kicker
1. If Ever I Would Leave You (A) 10:32
(A.J. Lerner-F. Lowe)
2. Mirrors (A) 6:51
(Joe Chambers)
3. For Duke P.(A) 7:53
(Bobby Hutcherson)
4. The Kicker (A) 6:05
(Joe Henderson)
5. Step Lightly (A) 14:17
(Joe Henderson)
6. Bedouin (A) 8:11
(Duke Pearson)
Dialogue
7. Catta (B) 7:15
(Andrew Hill)
8. Idle While (B) 6:35)
(Joe Chambers)
9. Les Noirs Marchant (B) 6:35
(Andrew Hill)

Disc Two:
1. Dialogue (B) 9:58
(Joe Chambers)
2. Ghetto Lights (B) 6:12
(Andrew Hill)
3. Jasper (B) 8:27
(Andrew Hill)
Components
4. Components (C) 6:23
(Bobby Hutcherson)
5. Tranquility (C) 5:01
(Bobby Hutcherson)
6. Little B��s Poem (C) 5:08
(Bobby Hutcherson)
7. West 22nd Street Theme (C) 4:42
(Bobby Hutcherson)
8. Movement (C) 7:29
(Joe Chambers)
9. Juba Dance (C) 5:21
(Joe Chambers)
10. Air (C) 4:45
(Joe Chambers)
11. Pastoral (C) 2:02
(Joe Chambers)
12. West 22nd Street Theme (alt tk) (C) 5:42
(Bobby Hutcherson)

Disc Three
Happenings
1. Aquarian Moon (D) 7:50
(Bobby Hutcherson)
2. Bouquet (D) 8:00
(Bobby Hutcherson)
3. Rojo (D) 6:00
(Bobby Hutcherson)
4. Maiden Voyage (D) 5:45
(Herbie Hancock)
5. Head Start (D) 5:15
(Bobby Hutcherson)
6. When You Are Near (D) 3:50
(Bobby Hutcherson)
7. The Omen (D) 7:00
(Bobby Hutcherson)
8. Aquarian Moon (alt tk) (D) 10:28
(Bobby Hutcherson)
9. Bouquet (alt tk) (D) 8:15
(Bobby Hutcherson)
10. Rojo (alt tk) (D) 6:49
(Bobby Hutcherson)

Disc Four
Stick-Up!
1. Una Muy Bonita (E) 6:24
(Ornette Coleman)
2. 8/4 Beat (E) 6:56
(Bobby Hutcherson)
3. Summer Nights (E) 6:55
(Bobby Hutcherson)
4. Black Circle (E) 6:54
(Bobby Hutcherson)
5. Verse (E) 9:29
(Bobby Hutcherson)
6. Blues Mind Matter (E) 3:31
(Bobby Hutcherson)
7. Una Muy Bonita (alt tk) (E) 6:09
(Ornette Coleman)
8. Black Circle (alt tk) (E) 7:30
(Bobby Hutcherson)
9. Verse (alt tk) (E) 8:02
(Bobby Hutcherson)
Oblique
10. Subtle Neptune (F) 8:33
(Bobby Hutcherson)

Disc Five
1. ��Til Then (F) 4:44
(Bobby Hutcherson)
2. My Joy (F) 7:11
(Bobby Hutcherson)
3. Theme From ��Blow Up�� (F) 8:16
(Herbie Hancock)
4. Oblique (F) 7:20
(Joe Chambers)
5. Bi-sectional (F) 5:07
(Joe Chambers)
Patterns
6. Effi (G) 7:07
(Stanley Cowell)
7. Irina (G) 7:20
(Joe Chambers
8. Nocturnal (G) 4:12
(Joe Chambers)
9. Patterns (G) 5:54
(Joe Chambers)
10. A Time To Go (G) 5:44
(James Spaulding)
11. Ankara (G) 6:24
(Joe Chambers)
12. Patterns (alt tk) (G) 6:00
(Joe Chambers)

Disc Six
Total Eclipse
1. Herzog (H) 6:32
(Bobby Hutcherson)
2. Total Eclipse (H) 8:52
(Bobby Hutcherson)
3. Matrix (H) 6:45
(Chick Corea)
4. Same Shame (H) 9:25
(Bobby Hutcherson)
5. Pompeian (H) 8:50
(Bobby Hutcherson)
Spiral
6. Ruth (I) 7:50
(Joe Chambers)
7. The Wedding March (I) 3:52
(Stanley Cowell)
8. Poor People��s March (I) 6:15
(Harold Land)
9. Spiral (I) 6:13
(Joe Chambers)
10. Visions (I) 3:49
(Bobby Hutcherson)
11. Photon In A Paper World (I) 6:49
(Stanley Cowell)
Medina
12. Comes Spring (J) 3:20
(Bobby Hutcherson)

Disc Seven
1. Avis (J) 6:41
(Bobby Hutcherson)
2. Dave��s Chant (J) 5:16
(Stanley Cowell)
3. Orientale (J) 5:51
(Stanley Cowell)
4. Medina (J) 10:55
(Joe Chambers)
5. Ungano (J) 8:02
(Joe Chambers)
San Francisco
6. Goin�� Down South (K) 7:01
(Joe Sample)
7. Prints Tie (K) 7:22
(Bobby Hutcherson)
8. Jazz (K) 5:21
(Joe Sample)
9. Ummh (K) 7:42
(Bobby Hutcherson)
10. Procession (K) 5:40
(Bobby Hutcherson)
11. A Night In Barcelona (K) 7:20
(Harold Land)

Carmen McRae

by Carol Sloane
August 23, 2023

It was in the early 1960's. I had by that time lived in New York's Greenwich Village for a couple of years, and went to hear Carmen McRae when she made an appearance at one of the holy shrines of jazz located in my neighborhood, a club with a relaxed, friendly atmosphere and great Italian food. ...

Jazz Musician of the Day: Bob Cranshaw

December 10, 2022

All About Jazz is celebrating Bob Cranshaw's birthday today! Bob Cranshaw has been the bassist of choice for Sonny Rollins since 1959. Their forty-seven-year collaboration is the subject of a new video on Sonny's website, ��Bob Cranshaw and Sonny Rollins, The First Gig." Created by Bret Primack, it features interviews with both Rollins and Cranshaw . ...

Introducing Bassist Adi Meyerson

by Sanford Josephson
November 3, 2022

As a teenager in Israel, Adi Meyerson played the electric bass and was “into fusion and rock, listening to Jaco (Pastorius) and stuff. I was about 17, and I think it was a family friend who gave me a bunch of Sonny Rollins albums. I kinda listened to them and was like, 'What's that? How do ...

Horace Silver: His Only Mistake Was To Smile

by Chris May
August 29, 2022

In his sleeve note for the audio restored Horace Silver album Live New York Revisited (ezz-thetics, 2022), British writer Brian Morton cut to the chase. “[Silver]'s only mistake," he wrote, “was to smile while he was playing... a challenge to the notion that jazz should be deadly serious and played with a pained rictus."

Sonny Rollins: Ten Colossal Albums

by Chris May
April 6, 2022

The history of modern jazz is a short one, but even so there are few musicians whose careers began in the bop era and who are still with us in 2022. Drummer Roy Haynes is one. Tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins is another. Both players recorded with trumpeter Fats Navarro and pianist Bud Powell in 1949.

The Complete Joe Henderson Blue Note Studio Sessions

By Joe Henderson

Label: Mosaic Records
Released: 2021

Hard Bop: Ten Essential Live Albums

by Chris May
December 2, 2021

"Fire! That's what people want. Music is supposed to wash away the dust of everyday life. You're supposed to make them turn around, pat their feet. That's what jazz is about. Play with fire. Play from the heart, not from your brain. You got to know how to make the two meet." So ...