Harry Babasin

Harry Babasin ( born March 19, 1921 in Dallas, Texas, † 21 May 1988 in Los Angeles ) was an American jazz bassist and cellist.

Life and work

Harry Babasin visited the North State College, later played with Jimmy Giuffre and Herb Ellis, with various orchestras in the Midwest of the U.S. and then came to New York. There he worked in the 1940s with Gene Krupa, Boyd Raeburn and Charlie Barnet. 1945 moved Babasin to California, where he played again with Raeburn, then with Benny Goodman and Woody Herman in 1948. In the 1950s he worked primarily in Hollywood for radio, TV and film productions. In 1956 he founded the Jazz Combo Jazz Pickers; In 1959, he was short with Harry James, then to play again with Charlie Barnet and Phil Moody (1963).

Babasin was the first who applied the pizzicato playing on the jazz cello in a disk recording ( Dodo Marmarosa 1947). This technique was then taken over by his colleague Oscar Pettiford. Babasin appeared in 1952 at the Inglewood Jam Session Charlie Parker and Chet Baker and also made ​​recordings by with Laurindo Almeida, Bob Enevoldsen, Herbie Harper, Barney Kessel, Lou Levy, Bud Shank, Lucky Thompson and Sonny Criss and played cello duets with Oscar Pettiford. He participated in the film A Song Is Born by Howard Hawks (1948 ). In the 1960s and 1970s, it was quiet around Harry Babasin. He had his last public appearance in New York at the side of the pianist John Banister (of which he had nicknamed the bear ) in 1985.

Disco printing specifications

• Benny Goodman: The Complete 1947-1949 Small Group Sessions ( Blue Moon )
• Boyd Raeburn: Boyd Meets Stravinsky ( Savoy, 1945-47 )
• Sonny Criss: California Boppin ' ( Fresh Sound Records, 1947)
• Jimmy Giuffre: Trio Live (contains Harry & His Orchestra Babasin the pieces: Four Brothers, When You're Smiling ( January 1948 ) with Hal McKusick, Jimmy Giuffre )
• Dexter Gordon & Wardell Grey: All Stars - The Hunt ( Savoiy, 1947)
• Charlie Parker, Chet Baker Inglewood Jam ( Fresh Sound, 1952)
• Pete Rugolo: Adventures In Rhythm, Introducing Pete Rugolo, Rugolomania (all Fresh Sound Rec, 1954)
• Bud Shank: Jazz In Hollywood ( OJC, 1954)