THIS MONTH
Paul Chambers
We celebrate five great -and less great! -albums on which a notable bassist appears
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The life of the late Paul Chambers was short, but his influence on double bass in the world of jazz is huge. Chambers was born in 1935, and his first musical steps included jamming on the baritone horn and the tuba. By 1949, though, he’d settled for the bass, and three years later was learning his craft with experts from the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. That wider musical appreciation was key to his understanding of the art of arrangement and instrumentation, and secured him places on tour with Bennie Green, Kai Winding, Wynton Kelly and the Miles Davis Quintet. Chambers became a sought-after session player, and worked with numerous household names including Chet Baker, Thelonious Monk, Wes Montgomery and John Coltrane. Noted for his perfect timing, gorgeous intonation and unparalleled skill with improvisation, Chambers showed generations to come the vast possibilities of the instrument. However, there was a dark cloud over the genius: sadly, Chambers was beset by addictions to heroin and alcohol, and succumbed to tuberculosis on January 4, 1969 at the cruelly young age of 33.