Happy birthday to the innovative bassist Oscar Pettiford, born Sept. 30, 1922, and gone in 1960 at the tragically young age of 37 (viral infection). Here his is in 1959, playing his composition "The Gentle Art of Love."
via @YouTube
via @YouTube
Pettiford often gets overlooked -- he's namechecked perhaps but not often studied. When folks think about the development of the bass they often go from Blanton to Ray Brown, maybe a quick sidestep for Mingus, and then on to Paul Chambers. But Oscar is critical.
He was on the scene a little before Brown, and O.P. was the first to grasp the chromatic language of Bird and Dizzy and their rhythmic phrasing. He really played bebop. Ray is right in there too of course. But no Oscar, no PC -- and no Ron Carter.
Coda: Oscar grew up in Minneapolis and my father was from St. Paul. My dad used to hear O.P. around town with the Pettiford family band and others. Then when my dad was in the army during WWII, he saw Oscar play on 52nd St. and told him, "You're guy from St. Paul!"
Coda 2: To bring today's thread into cosmic alignment with yesterday's ruminations on the best records produced by Creed Taylor, don't overlook this beauty by O.P.'s big band, taped in 1956. Arrangements by Gigi Gryce and Lucky Thompson.
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