Ray Brown is the father of contemporary jazz bass. I had the fortune of seeing Ray with the original L.A. Four (Laurindo Almeida [gtr], Bud Shank [ww], and Shelly Mann [perc]) when I was an undergraduate music major at San Diego State University. They played at Montezuma Center for a packed crowd. All of them monster readers, they got off during one of the pieces, stopped, and stated something to the fact that "you paid good money for the seats, we're going to do this again and do it right." The crowd was grateful.

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Alright, another of my recent finds. While in Argentina during August of 2004 I found an fusion album titled Barrio Funk which immediately peaked my interest. The leader of this band of musicians is the bassist, Alejandro Giusti. I suggest you take a listen if you get a chance - but albums are hard to find outside Argentina. I plan on getting more when I'm next in Buenos Aires! Unfortunately, his website seems to be inactive. Times have been tough since the collapse of the Argentine economy a few years ago.

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I just saw McBride with the 2003 incarnation of the Pat Metheny Trio. The trio (Pat Metheny [gtr], and Antonio Sanchez [perc]) was "on" for the evening and played exquisitely (even if the sound system at the Phillips Center for the Performing Arts sounded covered, without definition). McBride held his own in this trio of consummate jazz musicians only really opening up towards the end with a funky solo that used some processing on his acoustic bass (he didn't pick up his electric ax all night). I was able to meet the trio at the end of the evening's concert and found McBride to be extremely gracious and personable.

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I first saw Kim when he was with Spyro Gyra at the 1985 Playboy Jazz Festival at the Hollywood Bowl. Up to that point, he was only known to me as a member of Jay Beckenstein's back-up band (yeah, right). After Kim mesmerized the audience with the solo bass opening to his "Bob Goes to the Store," I was hooked. Kim is with the Rippingtons (Russ Freeman's group) now and also has several solo projects.

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