George Mraz: Bottom Lines

Coming in on the tail end of an era that saw the passing of the torch from Milt Hinton and George Duvivier to Niels-Henning rsted Pedersen, George Mraz quickly assumed the mantle of “most widely recorded bassist,” not only for his work on hundreds of dates with swing and bop headliners, but also for those many appearances he made with figures on the fringe areas of avant garde and fusion. That he did all of this without abandoning his upright acoustic, however, is all the more to his credit, for his rich sound, albeit devoted to more contemporary forms of jazz, nevertheless still upholds a tradition begun many decades before his birth. Here, in the company of warm-toned, feelingful tenorman Rich Perry and the better known Cyrus Chestnut and Al Foster, Mraz offers tributes to the compositions of several of his colleagues, namely, Jaco Pastorius, Buster Williams, Ron Carter, Charles Mingus, and Steve Swallow. Also included are three Mraz originals and one by Marcus Miller.

Originally Published January 1, 1998