Born: May 29, 1923 Primary Instrument: Bass, acoustic
The Senator” Eugene Wright, an American jazz bassist, best known for his work as a member of The Dave Brubeck Quartet, in particular on the group's most famous album Time Out (1959), with pianist Brubeck, drummer Joe Morello and saxophonist Paul Desmond.
Wright, nicknamed “The Senator”, had played with the Lonnie Simmons group, and led his own band, the Dukes of Swing, but his big break came when he was recruited by Dave Brubeck. He had a very solid, Kansas-city style, theoretically at odds with, but in practice an important component of, Brubeck's cool, mannered jazz.
Best known for his steady, concise contributions to the Dave Brubeck quartet for a decade in the '50s and '60s, Eugene Wright was a dependable, never flamboyant bassist. He was mostly self-taught on bass, but took a few lessons late in his career from Paul Gregory.
Wright studied cornet in high school. He led a 16-piece band, The Dukes of Swing, in the mid and late '40s. Wright played with Gene Ammons, Count Basie and Arnett Cobb in the late '40s and early '50s, then worked with Buddy DeFranco from 1952 to 1955, touring Europe with him.
He played in the Red Norvo trio in 1955, and toured Australia with it. Wright was featured in a film short with Charlie Barnet, then joined Brubeck in 1958 and remained until 1968. He led his own ensemble on a tour of Black colleges in 1969 and 1970, then played with Monty Alexander's trio from 1971 to 1974.
Wright worked in television studios and did film soundtrack work as well as play in clubs during the '70s. He also did private teaching, and became head of the advisory board in the jazz division of the International Society of Bassists, and head of the University of Cincinnati's jazz department.
Though he has no sessions of his own as a leader, Wright can be heard on numerous Brubeck CD reissues, as well as on sessions by Paul Desmond.
(1950)
Jazz at Oberlin
(1953)
Jazz at the College of the Pacific
(1953)
Jazz Goes to College
(1954)
Brubeck Time
(1955)
Jazz: Red Hot and Cool
(1955)
Brubeck Plays Brubeck
(1956)
Jazz Impressions of the USA
(1956)
Dave Digs Disney
(1957)
Jazz Impressions of Eurasia
(1958)
Newport 1958
Gone With the Wind
(1959)
Time Out
(1959)
Bernstein Plays Brubeck Plays Bernstein
(1960)
Brubeck and Rushing
(1960)
Time Further Out
(1961)
The Real Ambassadors
(1962)
Countdown-Time in Outer Space
(1962)
At Carnegie Hall
(1963)
Time Changes
(1963)
Jazz Impressions of Japan
(1964)
Jazz Impressions of New York
(1964)
Angel Eyes
(1965)
My Favorite Things
(1965)
Dave Brubeck's Greatest Hits
(1966)
Time In
(1966)
Anything Goes
(1966)
Bravo! Brubeck!
(1967)
The Last Time We Saw Paris
(1967)
Compadres
(1968)
Blues Roots
(1969)
Live at the Berlin Philharmonie
(1970)
The Last Set at Newport
(1971)
We're All Together Again for the First Time
(1973)
Two Generations of Brubeck
(1973)
Brubeck & Desmond 1975: the Duets
DBQ 25th Anniversary Reunion
(1976)
The New Brubeck Quartet Live at Montreux
(1978)
Back Home
(1979)
Tritonis
(1980)
Paper Moon
(1982)
Concord on a Summer Night
(1982)
For Iola
(1984)
Blue Rondo
(1987)
Moscow Night
(1987)
The Great Concerts
(1988)
Quiet As the Moon
(1991)
Late Night Brubeck
(1994)
Just You, Just Me
(1994)
The 40th Anniversary Tour of the U.K.
(1999)
One Alone
(2000)
Park Avenue South
(2003)
Oscar & Eugene Wright
(1990)
African Breezelive at the Money Tree
(2010)
by Eugene Senator Wright
Rude Old Man
(2008)
by Paul Desmond;Jim Hall;Connie Kay;Eugene Wright
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