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Leroy Vinnegar

Leroy Vinnegar - acoustic double bass (1928 - 1999)

Regarded as the ‘Master of the Walking Bass,’ Leroy Vinnegar was a mainstay on jazz recording sessions from 1952 on where he was on over 600 dates. His signature walking bass was the foundation for his impeccable sense of swing, which has gone on to influence several generations of players.

Vinnegar was born into a musically inclined family in Indianapolis, Indiana, on July 13, 1928. His earliest musical education came from the radio, on which he listened religiously to the great bands of Duke Ellington and Count Basie. His two sisters played piano, and young Leroy thought that might be his instrument as well. “I tried my hand at piano,” he says, “and I would have been a nice piano player, had I stayed with it.” Things changed when he actually started playing with others, however. “The bass player used to leave his instrument at the house after we’d rehearse,” Vinnegar remembers, “and I just started messing with it, and the next thing you know I was playing the bass. We just got a communication going.”

When he was about 24, Vinnegar considered pursuing his muse on a grander scale. “I was getting ready to make my push,” he recalls. “I knew I had to get out of Indianapolis, so I could get my music career started. There were good musicians in Indianapolis, but I wanted to move up the ladder, so I figured I’d move to Chicago and tune up, and then I would go to New York.” That was 1952, and Vinnegar was shocked to discover that the Windy City was something far more challenging than a momentary stopover. “Little did I know Chicago was just as fast as New York,” he recollects with another hearty laugh. “I thought I would just go there and get ready for the big one. Little did I know I was walking into a lion’s den. They were there waiting for my ass.”

Vinnegar found himself to be “the tenth bass player on the totem pole” in a hierarchy of jazz bassists topped by Israel Crosby and Wilbur Ware. “When you’re new, you just have to wait your turn,” he says. But Vinnegar’s turn was not long in coming. “All the bass players were busy one week,” he remembers, “and somebody said, ‘Hey there’s a new bass player in town by the name of Leroy Vinnegar.’ ‘Well, how does he play, man?’ ‘They say he can play, you know?’ ‘Well, we ain’t heard him.’ ‘Let’s try him and see. There ain’t nobody else here we can get.’”

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10
Album Review

Shelly Manne & His Friends: Modern Jazz Performances Of Songs From My Fair Lady

Read "Modern Jazz Performances Of Songs From My Fair Lady" reviewed by Richard J Salvucci


The musical My Fair Lady (1956) is a story from another age. All things considered, it is probably best that a contemporary audience may not know the lyrics to the songs, let alone the tunes. The tale involves the efforts of an insufferable Henry Higgins to teach a Cockney lass, Eliza Doolittle, how to properly pronounce the Queen's English, BBC style. Alas, Higgins succeeds too well, only to render the fey Doolittle attractive to a rival suitor of some means. ...

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Sonny Rollins: Go West! The Contemporary Records Albums

Read "Go West! The Contemporary Records Albums" reviewed by Richard J Salvucci


Apparently, the median age of a jazz listener is in his or her mid to late 40s. So, perhaps, the representative listener was born in the mid-1970s. Sonny Rollins first recorded in 1949. The recordings reviewed here were made in the late 1950s, well before many contemporary listeners were born. While there have been ample reissues of Rollins' work, most coincided with the still-active phase of his career. Much of his work has appeared since “Skylark" on The Next Album ...

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Album Review

Leroy Vinnegar: Leroy Vinnegar Walks

Read "Leroy Vinnegar Walks" reviewed by Richard J Salvucci


Chances are good that the name of bassist Leroy Vinnegar does not ring much of a bell among contemporary audiences. He does not have the cachet of a Ray Brown or an Oscar Pettiford, two names that a lot of professional bassists will instantly recognize, along with Scott LaFaro, with whom Vinnegar all too briefly overlapped. It is a bit surprising, although no one ever claimed that Vinnegar was a revolutionary. He was clearly in the ...

3
Album Review

Art Pepper: The Return of Art Pepper

Read "The Return of Art Pepper" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey


Alto saxophonist Art Pepper's first incarceration for drugs took place between August 1954 and July 1956, a period conspicuous for Pepper's absence from the recording studio. Pepper's first recording as a leader after his release was, aptly, The Return of Art Pepper. He had been busy as a sideman for trumpeters Shorty Rogers (Big Shorty Express (RCA, 1956)) and Chet Baker (The Route (Pacific Jazz, 1956)) before entering Capitol Studios on August 5, 1956 to record the ten pieces that ...

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Album Review

Elmo Hope: Trio and Quintet

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Questo è uno dei pochi dischi di Elmo Hope in circolazione oggi in Italia. Un plauso alla Blue Note che l'aveva già pubblicato in CD (con identica copertina e stessi brani) 15 anni fa ed oggi lo riedita per il beneficio di chi se l'era perso.Dopo anni di totale oblio, lo sfortunato pianista e compositore bop ha avuto nel decennio scorso una certa rivalutazione critica ma dal pubblico jazz è ancora ampiamente ignorato.Un vero peccato, perché ...

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Album Review

Hampton Hawes: The Sermon

Read "The Sermon" reviewed by David Rickert


Hampton Hawes recorded The Sermon a few days before he was sent to prison for five years on drug charges. The session remained imprisoned for much longer, only receiving a brief release after Hawes’ death. Finally out on CD, The Sermon, as one might expect, is an album of spirituals and church hymns given the jazz treatment. This concept has been tried before, but many of these projects are too solemn and reverent, or feature less jazz than ...

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Album Review

Hampton Hawes: The Sermon

Read "The Sermon" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey


Grace under pressure... While the West Coast Jazz pianist are not was well known as their East Coast brothers. However, the West Coast did produce their share of fine pianists. Dolo Coker, Carl Perkins, and Gene Russell just to mention three. Perhaps the best of the West Coast bunch was Hampton Hawes, a sort of Bud Powell filtered through a Los Angeles sensibility. Hawes began his career backing Sonny Stitt, Dexter Gordon and Wardell Gray in the late ...

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Recording

Leroy Vinnegar: Walks Again!

Leroy Vinnegar: Walks Again!

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

Bassist Leroy Vinnegar was born in 1928 in Indianapolis, began playing professionally in 1948, became part of the Bee Hive club's house rhythm section in Chicago in 1952 and moved to Los Angeles in 1954, where he recorded for the first time with pianist Lorraine Geller and drummer Larance Marable. In L.A., Vinnegar became a prolific player in a town loaded with spectacular bassists. What helped Vinnegar stand out was his powerful walking bass style—four beats to the bar with ...

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Festival

Leroy Vinnegar Festival in Portland w/ Dave Holland ; Glen Moore/Rob Scheps , more

Leroy Vinnegar Festival in Portland w/ Dave Holland ; Glen Moore/Rob Scheps , more

Source: All About Jazz

The Leroy Vinnegar Jazz Institute at PSUpresents a week long Jazz Festival , May 3 - 8, 2004 in tribute to Leroy . The lineup includes : May 3 David Friesen May 5 Glen Moore / Rob Scheps Duo May 6 Chuck Israels with Mel Brown May 8 Dave Holland with a local 5tet All shows -- Jimmy Mak's ; Portland, Oregon . 300 NW 10th (503) 295 - 6542 , Advance tix : PSU Ticket Office ( 503) 725 ...

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Leroy Vinnegar Walks

Craft Recordings
2024

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Go West! The...

Craft Recordings
2023

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Modern Jazz...

Craft Recordings
2023

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The Sermon

Contemporary Records
2002

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How's Your Mother?...

Jazz Heritage
1998

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