Paul Chambers

Cookin' with the Miles Davis Quintet

Miles Davis · 1957

In two marathon sessions in May and October 1956, MilesMiles Davisマイルス・デイヴィス recorded enough material for four Prestige albums in two days. He was about to move to Columbia — fulfilling a contract obligation — but what remained was some of the most essential jazz ever captured.

— Kind of Blue: The Making of the Miles Davis Masterpiece, Ashley Kahn, 2000

Kind of Blue

Miles Davis · 1959

Kind of BlueKind of BlueMiles Davis · 1959 (1959) was recorded almost entirely at sight. MilesMiles Davisマイルス・デイヴィス showed musicians only the skeletal structures beforehand — no one knew what they were playing until the day. Bill EvansBill Evansビル・エヴァンス's liner notes defined how to hear the record.

— Kind of Blue: The Making of the Miles Davis Masterpiece, Ashley Kahn, 2000

Cookin' with the Miles Davis Quintet

Miles Davis · 1957

Bass on Top

Paul Chambers · 1957

Paul ChambersPaul Chambersポール・チェンバース was called for nearly every important Blue Note session in the late 1950s. His triangle with Red GarlandRed Garlandレッド・ガーランド and Philly Joe JonesPhilly Joe Jonesフィリー・ジョー・ジョーンズ defined the hard bop rhythm section. Coltrane named one of his most famous compositions 'Mr. P.C.' after him.

Cookin' with the Miles Davis Quintet

Miles Davis · 1957

In just two days (May and October 1956), Miles DavisMiles Davisマイルス・デイヴィス's quintet marathon-recorded four albums including Cookin' with the Miles Davis QuintetCookin' with the Miles Davis QuintetMiles Davis · 1957. Squeezed between his Prestige contract ending and his Columbia move, those sessions became hard bop's reference point.

— Kind of Blue: The Making of the Miles Davis Masterpiece, Ashley Kahn, 2000

Blue Train (1957) was John ColtraneJohn Coltraneジョン・コルトレーン's sole Blue Note album. With a three-horn front line including Lee MorganLee Morganリー・モーガン and Curtis FullerCurtis Fullerカーティス・フラー, it captured his hard-bop side just before he systematized "sheets of sound."

— Blue Note Records: The Biography, Richard Cook, 2003

Kind of Blue

Miles Davis · 1959

Paul ChambersPaul Chambersポール・チェンバース was a pioneer of arco (bowed) bass in modern jazz. The famous fourths motif that opens 'So What' on Kind of BlueKind of BlueMiles Davis · 1959 is a brief duet between Chambers and Bill Evans on piano — helping to inaugurate modal jazz when Chambers was just 24.

— Paul Chambers, Wikipedia, 2024

Giant Steps

John Coltrane · 1960

John ColtraneJohn Coltraneジョン・コルトレーン dedicated the blues 'Mr. P.C.' on his 1959 album Giant StepsGiant StepsJohn Coltrane · 1960 to Paul ChambersPaul Chambersポール・チェンバース. The tune was both a tribute to a peerless bassist and a thank-you to a comrade from the Miles Davis quintet years.

— John Coltrane: His Life and Music, Lewis Porter, 1998

From 1958 to 1962, Jimmy CobbJimmy Cobbジミー・コブ was Miles DavisMiles Davisマイルス・デイヴィス's regular drummer. After the quintet dissolved, he formed the Wynton Kelly Trio with Wynton KellyWynton Kellyウィントン・ケリー and Paul ChambersPaul Chambersポール・チェンバース, carrying on the standard for hard-bop rhythm sections.

— So What: The Life of Miles Davis, John Szwed, 2002

After Miles DavisMiles Davisマイルス・デイヴィス's quintet dissolved, Wynton KellyWynton Kellyウィントン・ケリー formed the Wynton Kelly Trio with Paul ChambersPaul Chambersポール・チェンバース and Jimmy CobbJimmy Cobbジミー・コブ. As the rhythm section on Wes Montgomery's 1965 Smokin' at the Half Note, they left a defining model of the hard-bop trio.

— Smokin' at the Half Note, Wikipedia, 1965

'Round About Midnight

Miles Davis · 1957

Kind of Blue

Miles Davis · 1959

Milestones

Miles Davis · 1958

Cookin' with the Miles Davis Quintet

Miles Davis · 1957

ChambersPaul Chambersポール・チェンバース appears on 14 albums — from 'Round About Midnight'Round About MidnightMiles Davis · 1957 through MilestonesMilestonesMiles Davis · 1958 to Kind of BlueKind of BlueMiles Davis · 1959, the bassist who anchored Miles's late-1950s era.

Kind of Blue

Miles Davis · 1959

Kelly Blue

Wynton Kelly · 1959

Giant Steps

John Coltrane · 1960

Blue Spring

Kenny Dorham Septet Featuring Cannonball Adderley · 1959

Wynton Kelly, Paul Chambers and Jimmy Cobb played as one of the great piano trios. But the bond ran deeper than the bandstand: when Chambers died in 1969, Cobb recalled, Kelly sank into heavy drinking — he had loved Paul — and Kelly himself was gone by 1971.

— Statement stmt-jimmy-cobb-on-paul-chambers-2

Deciphering the Message

Makaya McCraven · 2021

In the Beginning

Woody Shaw · 1965

Ron Carter is remembered as the bass of Miles Davis's classic quintet. But shortly before he took that chair, he recalls, he filled in for one night at the Half Note when Paul Chambers fell ill — the man about to inherit the seat quietly covering the one leaving it.

— Statement stmt-ron-carter-on-paul-chambers

Deciphering the Message

Makaya McCraven · 2021

Live-Evil

Miles Davis · 1971

In the Beginning

Woody Shaw · 1965

E.S.P.

Miles Davis · 1965

Ron Carter — now the most-recorded bassist in jazz — was an Eastman student with a 1950 Ford. After a Rochester gig, Miles Davis, Red Garland and Paul Chambers had no ride to the station, so he packed them into the car and drove them there. The future master was just the kid with wheels.

— Statement stmt-ron-carter-on-paul-chambers-2

Deciphering the Message

Makaya McCraven · 2021

Bass on Top

Paul Chambers · 1957

Interplay For 2 Trumpets And 2 Tenors

Idrees Sulieman, Webster Young, John Coltrane, Bobby Jaspar With Mal Waldron, Kenny Burrell, Paul Chambers, Art Taylor · 1957

The Soft Land Of Make Believe

Frank Minion · 1960

Paul Chambers's name is stamped on a mountain of hard-bop sessions, the immovable anchor of the music. Yet when Kenny Burrell chose him for his 1956 debut as a leader, the reason was almost anticlimactic: "Paul was my student." In Detroit, the definitive bass had been the guitarist's pupil.

— Statement stmt-kenny-burrell-on-paul-chambers

Then you get to Paul [Chambers], which is another genius, when you get to Paul.

Recalling the trio he formed with Wynton Kelly and Paul Chambers after leaving Miles Davis.

I think he claimed that happened maybe after Paul died, that he was - he liked Paul so much, he started - he used to drink a lot.

Asked when Wynton Kelly's health declined, Cobb traces it to the period after Chambers's death.

As a matter of fact, I think I may have played one night for Paul at the Half Note when he was sick.

Recalling the period when Miles Davis's rhythm section was leaving, just before Carter himself joined the band.

During the course of the evening conversation after the concert, Miles and Red Garland and Paul had no way to get to the train station from the concert. I had a 1950 Ford, and so I piled them in my car and took them to the train station.

As a senior at Eastman, Carter drove the Miles Davis band to the train station after a concert in Rochester.

I chose Tommy and Paul, 'cause Paul was my protege, I don't know if I told you about that.

Asked who picked the musicians for his first Blue Note album in 1956.