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Jimmie Blanton was born on October 5, 1918, in Chattanooga, Tennessee. (His death certificate says 1919, but the 1930 census points to 1918.)
His mother was a pianist who led bands there, and he grew up playing in them. He started on violin and switched to bass at Tennessee State. Then he left school to play full time in St. Louis.
In October 1939 Duke Ellington’s band came to St. Louis. Ellington heard Blanton at the after-hours sessions in town and hired him on the spot.
Two years in Duke Ellington’s band
Within weeks Ellington was making records that were just the two of them, piano and bass. About a year later they cut more: “Pitter Panther Patter.” “Mr. J.B. Blues.”
Before those records, a bass solo in jazz was a rarity, usually a short break. Blanton played lines the way a horn player would, and they sounded like the song instead of thumping along under the band. Ellington even gave him a feature, and you can learn how to play Blanton’s part on Jack the Bear in tune.
He got about two years in the band. In 1941 he came down with tuberculosis, and by the end of the year he’d had to leave. He died on July 30, 1942. He was 23.
Think about what he had to work with. No YouTube. No app with every scale in every key. He had his ears, the bands he came up in, and the chords of the tune.
Every upright player who’s ever taken a solo owes that kid something.
We’ve got a thousand times more information than Blanton ever had, and most of us solo worse than he did at 21.
Where a scale for every chord leaves you
Here’s how a lot of bass players get ready to solo. Learn the tune. Look up the right scale for every chord: Dorian over the minor 7, Mixolydian over the dominant. Run them up and down until they’re under your fingers. Show up feeling prepared.
Then the solo comes around, and knowing the right scale doesn’t help at all. Seven notes per chord, all of them technically correct, and no idea which ones actually matter. So you guess, the solo comes out sounding like a scale exercise, and you go home and learn more scales.
You can walk bass lines all night long, and the moment it’s your turn to solo, you tense up and try to survive.
Fewer notes per chord, and knowing which ones
The way out is fewer notes per chord, and knowing exactly why those are the ones. That’s closer to what Blanton had: the chord and his ears.
If you want somewhere to start, I lay out the first step in how to solo on upright bass: take the bass line you already play and start taking notes away.
If what you want is another book of scales, this isn’t it. If you want what Blanton had, pick one chord tonight and find the few notes on it that actually matter.
Go deeper
Jimmie Blanton: Jack the Bear
Ellington wrote Jack the Bear for Jimmie Blanton. Here’s how to play his part in tune and swinging, with every fingering and string written in.
