Go hear a bass player walk an F blues in a club in New York City and you’ll hear one lick over and over: one, six, three, five, or one, three, six, five. That all started with Israel Crosby. If you’re digging into Israel Crosby’s bass style, that lick is a good place to begin. His lines were beautiful and interesting even though, for the most part, they dealt only with the right notes.
Quick answer
He took elements of classical music, like strong voice leading and counterpoint, and put them in his bass lines. He changed the order of notes, used the six and the nine, and spaced out his intervals so the line could breathe. His fills don’t sound like fills. They sound like melodies.
I consider Israel Crosby the great grandmaster of bass lines, and all of my students know I talk about him excessively. His beat four cadence has its own post, Israel Crosby bass lines: steal his beat four cadence. This page covers more of his style, with the Crosby lessons and transcriptions in the library.
Where did the one, three, six, five lick come from?
On Ahmad Jamal’s “But Not for Me,” Crosby is referencing the original, which is a six chord, C major six. So instead of one, three, five, seven, he plays one, six, three, five. He invented this lick, and now we play it all the time. If you check out the early renditions of these songs, the movie renditions or the Broadway renditions, they’re full of six chords. Israel Crosby realized this, and that’s why he gave us this lick.
He was really the first person to use these colors in his bass lines, and he used the six and the nine all the time. In my walking drills, one, three, six, five is drill number one, and it works over every kind of chord. Try it today on the C minor 7 that opens “Autumn Leaves,” then on an A minor 7 flat 5. It’s so simple.
How does Crosby make a bass line sound like a melody?
He took a lot of elements of classical music, like strong voice leading and counterpoint, and included them in his bass lines. On Ahmad Jamal’s “Poinciana,” he’s playing so melodically, and the rhythms are so locked in, that it doesn’t sound like he’s just filling. “Poinciana” gets played a lot at jam sessions, and at one spot the bass player always imitates what the pianist is playing. Crosby doesn’t. He plays a counterpoint to the piano instead of a unison.
His fills don’t sound like fills. They sound like melodies.
Cole Davis
He chose to play mostly intervallically, and it works because he’s changing the register. Paul Chambers was more flowy, more stream of consciousness. Crosby was the exact opposite: very organized, very melodic, with distinct, clear two-bar phrases. On one of his lines he separates the intervals in such a way that it creates a melody. If that were the theme to a Prokofiev symphony, I’d say, wow, that’s an amazing melody. And it’s just this dude’s bass line.
How does Crosby keep “Poinciana” fresh every chorus?
He lays the bass line down, then introduces another rhythm with each chorus. A lot of us think laying down the same bass line over and over is how we keep the groove, but the really great bass players vary the same bass line. The great studio electric players add new information in each chorus, and Crosby was doing it years before. At one point he’s playing neither the roots nor the melody, but something in the middle register against what the pianist is doing. And one rhythm he keeps coming back to is the rhythm of the ride cymbal, so the swing is there even though he isn’t playing quarter notes.
His influence crossed over, too. I consider him the great grandmaster of bass lines, to the extent that his line on “Poinciana” influenced James Jamerson’s line on Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On.”
How can you build a line in Crosby’s style?
When you listen to great masters like Crosby, what you’re actually hearing is the breath in the bass line, and they get it from spacing. On “But Not for Me,” the notes are either spaced out beautifully in an intervallic line or moving fluidly in a chromatic one. Try this over a blues:
- Start with his lick. Play one, three, six, five on the first chord, then try it as one, six, three, five.
- Answer in another register. Play two bars down in half position, then answer them with two bars in another register, the way he does on “But Not for Me.”
- Change it up before it gets boring. After a few bars of spaced-out intervals, play a chromatic bar. Do one thing for too long and the line gets boring.
- Add a rhythm each chorus. Keep the line, but bring in one new rhythm every time around, the way he does on “Poinciana.”
It isn’t the ideas themselves. It’s the mathematical concept within those ideas. Crosby did crossword puzzles and he was a math genius, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that he was also a genius of bass lines. Making a beautiful bass line from the 1-3-5-7 comes from him, and it was Ron Carter who showed an entire generation how to do it in a really advanced way. If you’re newer to walking, start with my guide to walking bass lines.
Records to start with
- Ahmad Jamal, At the Pershing. Recorded in 1958: “But Not for Me,” which I consider the greatest jazz bass line ever played, and “Poinciana.”
- “You or No One.” Kind of an obscure tune, but the bass line will blow your mind.
- His recordings with Benny Goodman. You can really hear his understanding of the two-beat.
Israel Crosby lessons and transcriptions
- The Genius of Israel Crosby: Three Bass Lines. “But Not for Me,” “You or No One” and a line that sounds like a symphony theme, in a 25-minute deep dive.
- Israel Crosby: Poinciana. The complete transcription, and how he changes the line every chorus without losing the groove.
- Israel Crosby: Cheek to Cheek. How to sound melodic without leaning on chromatic notes.
- Israel Crosby: But Not for Me. His walking line on the tune, the one I consider the greatest jazz bass line ever played.
- Walking on Electric Bass: Part 2. For electric players: the same right-note vocabulary Crosby used under the Ahmad Jamal Trio, worked through an F blues and “Autumn Leaves.”
Play one, three, six, five on the first chord of the next tune you walk, and listen to how much interest that six adds.
Go deeper
The Genius of Israel Crosby: Three Bass Lines
A 25-minute deep dive into three Crosby lines, including But Not for Me and You or No One.
FAQ
What is the Israel Crosby lick?
It’s one, three, six, five, or one, six, three, five. On “But Not for Me” he’s referencing the original six chord, so instead of one, three, five, seven, he plays one, six, three, five. He invented this lick, and now you’ll hear it every time a bass player walks an F blues in a New York club. It works over every kind of chord.
Who did Israel Crosby play with?
He was the bass player in the Ahmad Jamal Trio, where you hear him on “But Not for Me” and “Poinciana,” and you can also hear him play with Benny Goodman. Ahmad Jamal’s band was so inside New Orleans music, especially Vernel Fournier, who was from New Orleans, and Crosby was a master of that style even though he grew up in Chicago.
When was Israel Crosby born?
He was born in 1919, much earlier than a lot of the great bass players we listen to. Ray Brown, Ron Carter and Percy Heath all loved and respected him, and he was really the first one to play bass like this. Make no mistake, he was probably the most influential bass player in terms of bass lines.
Did Israel Crosby play chromatic bass lines?
Mostly he didn’t. He chose to play mostly intervallically, and it works because he’s changing the register. For the most part his lines dealt with the right notes. He was just very clever in the way he organized them. On “But Not for Me,” after bars that are spaced out perfectly, he plays a chromatic bass line in bar four, because once you do something for too long, it gets boring.
Was Israel Crosby good at math?
He did crossword puzzles and he was a math genius. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that somebody who did crossword puzzles every day was also a genius of bass lines. With bass lines, it isn’t the ideas themselves. It’s the mathematical concept within those ideas, the way the different types of bass lines are organized.
