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Paul Chambers Archives

Miles Davis Box Set Features Newly Released Live Music with Jazz Bass Greats
New Albums

Miles Davis Box Set Features Newly Released Live Music with Jazz Bass Greats

Almost four hours of previously unreleased live music by legendary jazz trumpeter/composer Miles Davis and the musicians he chose to play with over the course of 20 years are featured on Miles Davis at Newport 1955-1975: The Bootleg Series Vol. 4. The four-CD collection includes performances by Davis and his bands from 1955, 1958, 1966, 1967, 1969, 1971, 1973, and...

Bass Players to Know: Paul Chambers
Bass Players To Know

Bass Players to Know: Paul Chambers

Name any genre of music and certain bass players immediately come to mind. Rock and roll? Paul McCartney. Blues? Willie Dixon. Funk? Larry Graham. They are the ones who stick out as paving the way, defining the roll of the instrument in that particular music, and creating those classic lines that we can’t help but listen to, learn, and hope...

Mr. P.C.: The Life and Music of Paul Chambers Book Now Available
News

Mr. P.C.: The Life and Music of Paul Chambers Book Now Available

Author Rob Palmer gets into the world of one of jazz’s greatest bassists in his new book entitled Mr. P.C.: The Life and Music of Paul Chambers, which is out now from Equinox Publishing Limited. The 416-page hardback biography uses literary sources as well as family and friend interviews to capture Chambers’ story from his birth in Pittsburgh to his...

The Music of Paul Chambers (Volume 1)
Sheet Music & Instruction

The Music of Paul Chambers (Volume 1)

Author Mikko Nurmi’s The Music of Paul Chambers (Volume 1) is a new book offering a comprehensive look at the style of one of the great jazz bassists, Paul Chambers. Through the use of full transcriptions of Chambers’ work, Nurmi includes insights through analysis and theory, as well as related exercises. “It may be helpful just to see what someone...

Tale of the Fingers: An In-Depth Look at the Paul Chambers Tune
Columns

Tale of the Fingers: An In-Depth Look at the Paul Chambers Tune

Editor’s note: help us welcome Keith White as a new contributor on No Treble. I was checking out Mark Saltman’s column, in which he reviews the melody in Paul Chamber’s tune “Tale of the Fingers”. This is a notable melody, so I decided to analyze the tune’s structure and melody as a follow up to Mark’s great column. First, let’s...

Bottoms Up: Another Look at Paul Chambers – “Tale of The Fingers”
Bottoms Up

Bottoms Up: Another Look at Paul Chambers – “Tale of The Fingers”

This is your friendly neighborhood bass columnist bringing you the second half of a look at Mr. Paul Chambers (or for short, “Mr. P.C.”) I hope you got a chance to play through “Mopp Shoe Blues” from last time, and try a bit of Chambers’ solo. As I said last time, this is one of Chambers’ tunes he played pizzicato...

Bottoms Up: Breaking Down Paul Chambers’ “Mopp Shoe Blues”
Bottoms Up

Bottoms Up: Breaking Down Paul Chambers’ “Mopp Shoe Blues”

Today I’d like to talk about another historical great who I’m sure is familiar to many, Mr. Paul Chambers (1935-1969). I think I have a treat for some folks who already know about him: a transcription of a tune called “Mopp Shoe Blues” off the record First Bassman. “P.C.”, as he is commonly known in many circles, was born in...

Bass Day Jam: Mr. P.C.
Bass Videos

Bass Day Jam: Mr. P.C.

Twelve years ago, bassists John Patitucci, Tony Levin, Oteil Burbridge, Billy Sheehan, Reggie Washington and Dave Pomeroy got together to perform John Coltrane’s “Mr. P.C.” Of course, Mr. P.C. is Mr. Paul Chambers, the bassist who performed and recorded with Coltrane and Miles Davis.