You can lean on chromatic notes for 20 choruses and people won’t really notice. That’s why bass players do it so often. On most gigs nobody will really care, and you might even get called back. But your lines start to sound like Flight of the Bumblebee, and the chromaticism is carrying you through every tune.
Quick answer
Israel Crosby isn’t even starting with chromaticism on Cheek to Cheek. He’s spreading out the intervals so the bass line can breathe, and on a 1-6-2-5 he starts on the major seventh instead of the root to create space. He only uses chromaticism when it counts, and he balances the wider intervals with closer ones.
Israel Crosby deliberately didn’t do this. His walking line on Ahmad Jamal’s live 1958 recording of Cheek to Cheek is number two in my series of ten classic bass lines you should know, and it shows you the other way. I consider Crosby the heavyweight champion of jazz bass lines. His bass lines would sound modern even if they were being played today.
When should you use chromaticism in a walking bass line?
We know chromaticism works, and it’s important to use it some of the time. You just don’t have to use it incessantly. Crosby was a master of using it only at the right time. He was like Bach in that way. He only used chromaticism when it counted.
That’s even more interesting when you think about when he came up, because everyone leaned on it then. I love the great John Kirby, one of the founding fathers of jazz bass playing, but he was overly chromatic and overly simple. Jimmie Blanton was incredible, and he fell prey to it too. Crosby was the same generation as those guys, but he was the first to really create organized, beautiful, melodic bass lines in concise two-bar phrases, with the chromatic and intervallic parts divided perfectly.
I’m not against chromaticism. I’m against the overuse of chromaticism.
Cole Davis
Listen to the first two bars. There’s already such a sense of space. The intervals are spaced out perfectly, and that lets the bass line breathe. He isn’t even starting with chromaticism. He’s starting by spreading out the intervals.
What happens when you start a bar on the seventh?
I love the next two bars. Harmonically, it’s literally just a 1-6-2-5. But Crosby starts on the major seventh and goes to the root on beat two. Why start there? To create space. When you start on the root, there are a lot of options. When you start on the seventh, you’re creating a jumping-off point for the rest of the bar to be an interesting melody and an interesting shape.
Then he does the same thing in the next bar, starting on the ninth. Over the D minor 7 he plays E to F, nine to three. It’s the same shape as the seven to one in the bar before. You might actually hear that in a solo, just sped up into eighth notes instead of quarter notes. He’s creating space so the bass line can become a melody in itself.
Ahmad Jamal was one of the first jazz masters to really leave a noticeable amount of space, and in that space is where Crosby played these magnificent lines.
So the first four bars are a melody. What makes them a melody? The intervals take you on a journey. When you think of a great melody, the intervals are spaced in such a way that they create breath. I live in New York City, and one of my favorite things to do is go to the Met Opera. What I love about opera is that the melodies have so much contour, and there’s so much space between the intervals that the melody can tell a story. Crosby is doing the same thing here.
It goes back to where jazz melodies come from. Jazz relies heavily on rhythm, but its melodies come from European classical music, and classical music, especially French classical music, is all about conveying emotion through intervals. Bars four through eight of this line sound like they come straight out of a classical piece. The rhythm is undeniable, though. He’s playing totally in the pocket. It’s a bass line, but it’s a melody too, because of how organized and beautiful it is.
Practice: balance wide intervals with close ones
This line is a clear example of building a bass line with wider intervals. What Crosby does perfectly is balance the wider intervals with closer ones. He isn’t doing jumps that make it sound like MIDI. He’s doing just enough, the same way Ron Carter uses just enough chromaticism. Here are the moves I point out in his line, to try in your own:
- Start on the seventh. On the first chord, play the major seventh on beat one and the root on beat two.
- Repeat the shape on the ninth. On the minor 7 chord in the next bar, play the ninth to the third, the way Crosby plays E to F on D minor 7.
- Space it out before you go chromatic. Start your phrases by spreading out the intervals, and save the chromatic notes for when they count.
- Do just enough. If the jumps start to sound mechanical, bring in some closer intervals.
I put a whole ii-V-I together the Crosby way, with the intervals spread out, in walking bass over a ii-V-I. For more on how he made bass lines sound like melodies, see my page on Israel Crosby’s bass style.
What’s in the transcription
The full transcription is Crosby’s Cheek to Cheek line as a PDF score, with a 13-minute video lesson where I go through the full bass line a few bars at a time and break down how he balances chromatic and intervallic lines.
Next time you reach for a chromatic walk-up out of habit, start the bar on the seventh instead and hear how much room it gives you.
Go deeper
Israel Crosby: Cheek to Cheek
How to sound melodic without leaning on chromatic notes, from the heavyweight champion of jazz bass lines.
FAQ
Who plays bass on Ahmad Jamal’s Cheek to Cheek?
Israel Crosby, on Ahmad Jamal’s live 1958 recording of Cheek to Cheek. I consider him the heavyweight champion of jazz bass lines. His bass lines would sound modern even if they were being played today, and anybody who walks a bass line well, in my view, is influenced by him.
What is an intervallic bass line?
One where the notes are spread out instead of moving by half step or whole step. I use intervallic to mean an interval of a third or wider. Crosby’s Cheek to Cheek line is a clear example of using those wider intervals, and he balances them with closer intervals so it never sounds like MIDI.
How do wider intervals make a bass line sound melodic?
The intervals are what make it melodic. Melody comes from the intervals taking you on a journey and creating a sense of breath and space. Jazz melodies come from European classical music, which is all about conveying emotion through intervals. Crosby still plays totally in the pocket, but his line is a melody because of how organized and beautiful it is.
How did Ahmad Jamal use space?
Ahmad Jamal was one of the first jazz masters to really leave a noticeable amount of space, and in that space is where Israel Crosby played these magnificent lines. On Cheek to Cheek, Crosby creates space in the bass line too, so the bass line can become a melody in itself.
