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The Greatest Jazz Bass Line Bracket

Reader vote

Sixteen jazz bass lines in one bracket, from Paul Chambers on So What to Jaco Pastorius on Teen Town. Cole’s own pick for the greatest ever, Israel Crosby on But Not for Me, starts as a 9 seed. You vote, one matchup at a time, until one line is left.

  • Round 1 · Oct 10 to 18
  • Round 2 · Oct 19 to 25
  • Semifinals · Oct 26 to Nov 1
  • Final · Nov 2 to 8

Round 1 is open. Voting closes Sunday, October 18 at 11:59 PM Eastern.

Vote now

Round 1: vote now

Voting closes Sunday, October 18 at 11:59 PM Eastern.

Matchup 1

1Seed 1 · Upright bass

So What

Paul Chambers

Miles Davis · Kind of Blue · 1959

Paul Chambers plays the melody on the opening track of Kind of Blue, and each of his phrases gets a two-note "amen" answer, from the piano at first. Putting the theme on the bass is what makes the piece unusual.

Learn the lineCole’s breakdown

16Seed 16 · Upright bass

Giant Steps

Peter Washington

One For All · Blueslike · 2004

Cole hears most Giant Steps lines fall back on roots, but Peter Washington plays a third, then a fifth, in his first bar, then mixes in fourths, fifths and chromatic notes so each bar does something different. His point: the changes are really just two-fives, so the chromatic moves you'd use on Autumn Leaves work here too.

Learn the lineCole’s breakdown

Matchup 2

8Seed 8 · Upright bass

Bags' Groove

Percy Heath

Miles Davis · Bags' Groove · 1957

Under Miles Davis, Milt Jackson, Thelonious Monk and Kenny Clarke, Percy Heath plays a two-feel that leaves the root off beat one in bars 3 and 4, and his four-bar phrases rhyme. Cole calls it the greatest two-feel of all time.

Learn the lineCole’s breakdown

9Seed 9 · Upright bass

But Not for Me

Israel Crosby

Ahmad Jamal · At the Pershing: But Not for Me · 1958

Ethan Iverson hears an esoteric bass line that's notably high in register, and Israel Crosby cadences on beat four, where beat one is the usual spot. Cole considers it the greatest jazz bass line ever played, and says his whole approach to teaching walking bass grew out of it.

Learn the lineCole’s breakdown

Matchup 3

5Seed 5 · Upright bass

Jack the Bear

Jimmie Blanton

Duke Ellington · Victor 26536 (78 rpm single) · 1940

Ellington's orchestra recorded Jack the Bear in Chicago in 1940 as Jimmie Blanton's feature piece, and Victor's own ledgers note his solo. Writers credit Blanton with expanding the bass from a simple timekeeper into a solo voice.

Learn the lineCole’s breakdown

12Seed 12 · Upright bass

The Intrepid Fox

Ron Carter

Freddie Hubbard · Red Clay · 1970

Ron Carter opens Freddie Hubbard's tune over a C minor intro and splits it into clear two-bar phrases, each one closing with a cadence from beat four to beat one, even where no chord change is written. He moves the second phrase up an octave so it echoes the first.

Learn the lineCole’s breakdown

Matchup 4

4Seed 4 · Upright bass

Resolution (A Love Supreme, Part II)

Jimmy Garrison

John Coltrane · A Love Supreme · 1965

The second part of A Love Supreme begins with a short Jimmy Garrison bass solo that opens on double stops. Cole's point about it: it's all fourths, and fourths aren't easy to play even on an instrument tuned in fourths.

Learn the introCole’s breakdown

13Seed 13 · Electric bass

Night Passage

Jaco Pastorius

Weather Report · Night Passage · 1980

Joe Zawinul improvised the bass part, wrote it out and mailed it to Jaco, who said it took him about a week to work out the fingering. Cole hears Jaco walking and playing a funk groove at the same time.

Learn the lineCole’s breakdown

Matchup 5

6Seed 6 · Electric bass

Havona

Jaco Pastorius

Weather Report · Heavy Weather · 1977

Jaco's own tune closes Heavy Weather, and Down Beat's Neil Tesser singled out its particularly lyrical and flighty bass solo. Drummer Alex Acuña said everything on it was improvised in the moment, with almost no overdubs.

Learn the soloCole’s breakdown

11Seed 11 · Upright bass

You Must Believe in Spring

Eddie Gomez

Bill Evans · You Must Believe in Spring · 1981

Cole calls it the greatest upright bass solo of all time: Eddie Gomez starts with the melody itself and keeps returning to it as he varies it. It's from his last album with Bill Evans, after eleven years in the trio.

Learn the soloCole’s breakdown

Matchup 6

3Seed 3 · Upright bass

Poinciana

Israel Crosby

Ahmad Jamal · At the Pershing: But Not for Me · 1958

Ahmad Jamal plays the song straight over Israel Crosby and Vernel Fournier's funky groove, and Ethan Iverson doubts any piano trio record before it opened on a funky bass line. Ted Gioia wrote that Crosby skips down the neck of the bass like a child running home from school.

Learn the lineCole’s breakdown

14Seed 14 · Upright bass

Passion Dance

Ron Carter

McCoy Tyner · The Real McCoy · 1967

McCoy Tyner's opener sits on an F drone, then a B-flat drone, so Ron Carter has to keep a line moving over one chord for bar after bar. By Cole's count he plays the chord only about 40% of the time and spends the rest creating movement, including three Es over F7sus in the first two bars.

Learn the lineCole’s breakdown

Matchup 7

7Seed 7 · Upright bass

Have You Met Miss Jones?

Ray Brown

Oscar Peterson Trio · We Get Requests · 1964

Ray Brown walks it with Ed Thigpen on drums on the Oscar Peterson Trio's We Get Requests. Cole ran the track through a tempo tracker: the tempo moves every beat, from 76 to 81 to 74, and it still swings.

Learn the lineCole’s breakdown

10Seed 10 · Upright bass

Freddie Freeloader

Paul Chambers

Miles Davis · Kind of Blue · 1959

Wynton Kelly sits in for Bill Evans on the most blues-oriented number on Kind of Blue, and Paul Chambers fills the first bars of the B-flat blues with eighth notes and triplets. Cole calls it maybe the busiest B-flat blues line he's ever heard, on a record known for its simplicity.

Learn the lineCole’s breakdown

Matchup 8

2Seed 2 · Electric bass

Teen Town

Jaco Pastorius

Weather Report · Heavy Weather · 1977

Jaco wrote Teen Town, played the drums on it first and then overdubbed the bass, and his bass takes the lead instrument role. Joe Zawinul doubled the line on an Oberheim synth and said they played so well together that it sounds like one instrument.

Learn the lineCole’s breakdown

15Seed 15 · Upright bass

One Finger Snap

Charlie Haden

Kenny Barron · Wanton Spirit · 1994

On Kenny Barron's take of Herbie Hancock's tune, Charlie Haden walks four bars by the book, then leans on repeated notes and the root on beat one. Cole tells students not to repeat notes like that, and next to Barron and Roy Haynes it swings anyway.

Learn the lineCole’s breakdown

How the bracket works

Sixteen famous jazz bass lines are seeded 1 to 16 and paired the way a sports bracket is: the 1 seed plays the 16 seed, the 8 plays the 9, and so on down the list.

Each round runs for a week and closes at 11:59 PM Eastern on Sunday. The line with more votes moves on, and if a matchup ends in a tie, the higher seed moves on. The next round opens at midnight with the winners, and this page fills itself in as each round closes.

You can vote on each matchup once a day. Every card links to the Better Bass Lessons lesson on that line and to Cole Davis’s free breakdown here on the blog, so you can learn the one you vote for.

How we seeded the 16

Seeds are our call on how famous each line or its record is. Here’s the reason for each one.

  1. So What (Paul Chambers): The opening track of Kind of Blue, which the RIAA certified quintuple platinum in 2019, with the bass carrying the theme. Our call: the most recognizable bass line in jazz.
  2. Teen Town (Jaco Pastorius): Jaco's own feature on Heavy Weather, Weather Report's platinum album, with the bass as the lead voice. The best-known electric line in the field.
  3. Poinciana (Israel Crosby): The hit off At the Pershing, a record that stayed on the Billboard album chart for 107 weeks, and the bass-and-drums groove is the track.
  4. Resolution (A Love Supreme, Part II) (Jimmy Garrison): A Love Supreme is widely considered one of the greatest albums ever made, and Resolution opens on Garrison's bass.
  5. Jack the Bear (Jimmie Blanton): The 1940 record that put a bass soloist at the front of the Ellington band, two years before Blanton died at 23.
  6. Havona (Jaco Pastorius): Jaco's best-known solo, on the same platinum album as Teen Town. It's a solo rather than a line, and it still earns a top-half seed.
  7. Have You Met Miss Jones? (Ray Brown): Ray Brown on We Get Requests, one of the best-known piano trio records. The line itself is less famous than the record.
  8. Bags' Groove (Percy Heath): A famous Miles Davis session with Monk and Milt Jackson. It's a two-feel, which most listeners don't hear as a bass feature.
  9. But Not for Me (Israel Crosby): The title track of a record listed as selling more than a million copies, but less known than Poinciana. It's Cole's own pick for the greatest ever, which makes it the dark horse.
  10. Freddie Freeloader (Paul Chambers): It's on Kind of Blue, but Cole says a lot of people don't realize this line is on that record.
  11. You Must Believe in Spring (Eddie Gomez): Famous among bass players, and Bill Evans' last album with Gomez. It's a solo, not a line, so it starts lower.
  12. The Intrepid Fox (Ron Carter): Red Clay is a well-known record, but its title track's bass line gets more attention than this one.
  13. Night Passage (Jaco Pastorius): Less famous than the Heavy Weather tracks, and the part was written by Zawinul, not Jaco.
  14. Passion Dance (Ron Carter): Players know it well; casual listeners mostly don't.
  15. One Finger Snap (Charlie Haden): A 1994 trio record, so a deep cut next to the rest of the field.
  16. Giant Steps (Peter Washington): The tune is famous; this 2003 Criss Cross recording isn't.

FAQ

How do I vote?

Find a matchup in the round that's open and tap the Vote button under the line you pick. You can vote on each matchup once a day, and you see the split as soon as you vote.

When does each round close?

Every round closes at 11:59 PM Eastern on a Sunday: Round 1 on October 18, Round 2 on October 25, the semifinals on November 1 and the final on November 8, 2026. The next round opens at midnight.

What happens if a matchup ends in a tie?

The higher seed moves on.

How were the 16 lines seeded?

By how famous each line or its record is. That's our call, and the reason for every seed is in the list above.

Can I learn these lines?

Yes. Every card links to the Better Bass Lessons lesson on that line and to Cole's free breakdown here on the blog.

Are those recording years or release years?

Release years. Some were recorded earlier: Bags' Groove in 1954 and You Must Believe in Spring in 1977.

Sources

Years on the cards are release years. Every fact on this page comes from the pages below, and what Cole says about each line comes from his breakdowns on this blog and his lessons.