You hear Ray Brown’s bass line on Long Ago and Far Away and think, oh, I could have come up with that. It sounds like the bare essentials of a bass line. Then you try to play a line that simple and that clear, and you realize very quickly how difficult it is.
Quick answer
Part of what makes Ray Brown’s line on Long Ago and Far Away so great is that it’s organized so well. He played distinctly in two-bar phrases, and each one ends in a cadence. The second two bars echo the first two, so the phrases rhyme, and he sets up the modulation by playing as simply as possible.
Long Ago and Far Away is a very underrated tune by Jerome Kern, and here it’s played by the Oscar Peterson Trio, featuring, of course, Ray Brown on bass. It’s number four in my series of ten classic bass lines you should know. When you look at it, this line is very simple. So what makes it so good and so effective?
What makes a two-bar phrase in a walking bass line?
Part of what makes it so great is that it’s organized so well. Ray Brown, unlike Paul Chambers, played distinctly in two-bar phrases. And what makes something a two-bar phrase? The cadence. Ray always put cadences on his phrases.
Listen to how it starts. Going into bar three, he moves to the root, and he does it effortlessly. I love that, because it clearly signifies the end of the phrase. It sounds like a walk-down, with some intervallic content in there. It’s a simple, good bass line.
Inside those first four bars you’ve got cadences, and you’ve got a combination of chromatic and intervallic lines. It starts chromatically. Then it gets more intervallic, because there’s a third in there, which is nice. Then it ends chromatically, going to the third of the next chord. It’s a perfect phrase. Mixing chromatic and intervallic bars is one half of the Ray Brown formula for walking bass lines.
How do Ray Brown’s phrases rhyme?
The second two bars echo the first two, which is something I love. Hear how those phrases rhyme. It sounds like two lines of a poem that rhyme, almost as if he’s asking a question and then answering it.
The next four bars are equally perfect. He’s literally just doubling up the notes in the first two bars. That’s all he’s doing. Then he plays a clear 5-1 cadence. Even where he’s just walking up chromatically, it resolves, because each two-bar phrase ends in a cadence. In that spot, the chords reveal themselves and create the cadence for you.
Then the next two bars are brilliant, because he’s setting up the modulation so perfectly, and he does it by playing as simply as possible. Those are two distinct one-bar phrases. They echo and mirror each other. It’s the same principle, a bass line whose phrases echo each other, just condensed so well that it’s harder to hear. It creates the same kind of repetition and development you expect from a great solo.
He’s not afraid to say, you know what? I’m going to give you a straight 5-1 cadence. And you’re going to like it.
Cole Davis
It’s so straight down the middle. He’s not afraid to give you the obvious choice. Listen to how he played time, too. He was very forceful with the time. He wasn’t flexible the way Ron Carter was, and he didn’t give in to the drummer. There was no give and take with him. He knew he had the best time, and he wasn’t afraid to let you know. He plays his bass lines the same way, and that’s what made him the great Ray Brown.
Practice: make your phrases rhyme
This is honestly very difficult to do, even though it sounds like you could do it at home. A lot of his bass lines weren’t written out, but they drew from material he’d worked out before. He was very calculated. Here are the moves I point out in his line, to try in your own:
- End every two bars with a cadence. That’s what makes it a two-bar phrase. Land the end of each phrase somewhere clear, the way Ray moves to the root going into bar three.
- Mix chromatic and intervallic. Start a phrase chromatically, open it up with a third, then end chromatically into the third of the next chord.
- Answer yourself. Make bars three and four echo bars one and two, so the phrases rhyme like a question and an answer.
- Take the obvious choice. When a straight 5-1 cadence is there, play it.
I go deeper on his cadences, his records and the rest of my Ray Brown lessons in Ray Brown bass lines.
What’s in the transcription
The full transcription is Ray’s Long Ago and Far Away line as a PDF score, with an eight-minute video lesson where I break down the cadences, the rhyming phrases and how he sets up the modulation. It’s a great introduction to his playing and how he approached both time and harmony.
Write out eight bars tonight with a cadence every two bars, and make the second phrase answer the first.
Go deeper
Ray Brown: Long Ago and Far Away
A bass line so simple you’d think you could have written it. Then you try to play that clearly and find out how difficult it is.
FAQ
Who played bass on Long Ago and Far Away with Oscar Peterson?
Ray Brown, with the Oscar Peterson Trio. Long Ago and Far Away is a very underrated tune by Jerome Kern. When you look at Ray’s bass line, it’s actually very simple, and it’s still so good and so effective.
How is Ray Brown’s walking different from Paul Chambers’s?
Ray Brown, unlike Paul Chambers, played distinctly in two-bar phrases, and he always put cadences on those phrases. You hear that in every one of his bass lines.
How did Ray Brown play time?
He was very forceful with the time. He wasn’t flexible the way Ron Carter was, and he didn’t give in to the drummer. There was no give and take with him. He knew he had the best time, and he wasn’t afraid to let you know. He played his bass lines the same way.
Did Ray Brown write out his bass lines?
A lot of his bass lines weren’t written out, but they drew from material he’d worked out before. He was very calculated. He was so in demand in the studio that he was always making sure his bass lines were perfect, or as close to perfect as possible.
