Is it too soon to ponder over which stand up bassists have the sufficient skills to take on the mantle of the late and great Danny Thompson. Through his playing I was able to learn to love the organic beauty of the sinuous precision he played with, eventually ridding myself of my childish prejudice of the instrument, which similarly tarnished trumpet and clarinet, both of which I also much admire.
I can’t comment on the jazzier climes of DT’s play, as I know him best for his folk; I came in late, around his work with namesake Richard, before ploughing back to Nick Drake, Pentangle and John Martyn. Along the way I enjoyed what he could add to Transatlantic Sessions, to EBTG, to Blue Rose Code and to William Tyler.
There are a few lyrical folk tinged double bassists I admire. Jon Thorne is one, Ben Nichols another. But the best of the lot is James Lindsay. In Breabach as his main gig, he is also the in demand player for just about any Scot solo artist needing a bassist, as well as adding bass to innumerable albums by neo-trad bands who don’t normally use bass otherwise, the likes of Rura.
He is also a member of Staran, an occasional grouping of some of the cream of the fluid Glasgow folk-jazz interface. I’ll include a vid below.
But my reason for writing: who is your favourite acoustic bassist or the one you consider the best, and the one up for Danny’s crown?
Sir Danny’s crown?
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Different genre but Linda May Han Oh is my current favourite bass player.
Neville Malcolm, Amy Baldwin, Alec Dankworth, Flo Moore.
All of these very good jazz players but none of them as versatile as St. Danny.
I don’t currently know of anyone on these shores that really fits that bill. Esperanza Spalding (USA) probably could if she wanted to.
I don’t know whether this is technically brilliant but it is fucking exciting when you see them play it live:
Ali Friend (Red Snapper and previously of Clayhill / Beth Orton) has always reminded me of Danny’s sound and vibe whenever I have seen and heard him wield his stand-up double bass live.
And in a completely different genre, Lee Rocker is a rockabilly monster slapper.
Your description made me wonder if he may have provided the mellifluous bass on Kathryn Williams’ Little Black Numbers. But it wasn’t, that was a Jonny Bridgewood.
Coincidentally, Kathryn Williams made an appearance on stage last month with Ali Friend and Ted Barnes for a celebration of Clayhill’s music in honour of Gavin Clark. Beth Orton also turned up to sing a song. Clayhill toured with Kathryn in the mid-‘00s.
These are all truly excellent bass players – but, as I suggested on another thread, none of them seem to have the breadth to play in any genre and do a stand-up job. I assume it was Danny’s sessions background that gave him the chops and experience to basically play anything…I’m not sure that the comparisons are fair, because the opportunity to gain that breadth of experience doesn’t seem to be available any more.
However, I’m with Mike_H – Ms Spaulding could probably fit the bill if she chose to…
She seems to be more interesting in singing than playing bass, lately.
Unless I’m missing stuff she’s playing on.
More power to her, I suppose – but, on balance, I’d rather hear her playing her bass…
Just remembered a fella, John Lester, who supported Gretchen Peters on one of her early tours, circa 2002. Solo with his big old stand up bass. A light touch and versatile. He has since issued a not bad set of covers, entitled “Jazz?”, the question mark to emphasis the not usually jazz of the songs covered.
Here’s a live version of one:
She had Conor McCreanor most of the times I saw her.