Harry Babasin

Vocation

American jazz bassist nicknamed "The Bear." He attended North Texas State University. Among the many noted jazz alumni of the school were Jimmy Giuffre and Herb Ellis, each of whom he played with in the early 1940s. He appeared in A Song Is Born, one of many jazz stars to play roles in the film. His quartet with Laurindo Almeida, Roy Harte and Bud Shank, was an early experiment blending Brazilian music and jazz. Their 1954 10" discs are predecessors to the bossa nova explosion of the late 1950s and early 1960s. In 1947, Babasin recorded the first cello solos known in jazz music, with the Dodo Marmarosa Trio. In order to do so, he tuned his strings in fourths, later adding a bass player. In the mid-1950s, he put together his own ensemble, Harry Babasin & the Jazzpickers, who played regularly at the Purple Onion in Hollywood and released three albums. He supported Bob Hope on USO tours. In the 1970s he and Harte initiated the Los Angeles Theaseum, a jazz archive and preservation society. Babasin's last tour was in 1985. He died of emphysema on 21 May 1988 in Los Angeles, having participated in possibly as many as 1,500 recordings. Link to Wikipedia biography