George Duvivier
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George Duvivier (Aug 17, 1920 - Jul 11, 1985) was an American jazz double-bass player.
George Duvivier was an American jazz bassist with superb tone, intonation and among the most flexible in being able to play any style, speed or type of music from bop to free jazz to cool to big band to even TV scores. George was born in 1922 and took up the cello and also the violin while in high school before settling on the bass. He also learned composition and scoring before going out on the road with the Lucky Millinder and then the Cab Calloway bands of the early 40's after a stint in the army. He was an excellent composer and scored many tunes for those two big bands. George was a free lance bassist for the majority of his life, never belonging to any one particular group for any extended period of time. The closest he came to that would be as a member of the Eddie "LockJaw" Davis quartet with organist Shirley Scott and Drummer Arthur Edgehill from 1957-59.
With the exception of fellow bassists Milt Hinton and probably Ron Carter, George has played on more recordings than any one else in the history of jazz. He was approached at a party once and was asked to list all of the people that he had recorded with or backed at a live date and he told the questioner to name names and he would let them know when he named one that he had not played with. 1 hour later the questioner was still looking for a name new to George! He had a superb, strong and forceful tone to his playing and a list of luminaries he played with would take forever to list, but a small sample would be: Coleman Hawkins, Bud Powell, Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, Lucky Millinder, Stuff Smith, Jimmy Rushing, Eric Dolphy, Oliver Nelson, Jackie Paris, Shirley Scott, Jaki Byard, Manny Albam, Hank Jones, Major Holley, Benny Carter, Ben Webster, Lem Winchester, Clark Terry, Junior Mance, Honey Gordon, Sarah Vaughn, Ella Fitzgerald, Etta Jones, Nancy Wilson, Lena Horne, Paul Desmond, Joe Williams, Count Basie, Martial Solal, Don Byas, Buddy Tate, King Curtis, Jimmy Forrest, Buck Clayton, Chico Hamilton, Jim Hall, Kenny Burrell, Illinois Jacquet, Red Garland, Arnett Cobb, Johnny Hodges, Sonny Stitt, John Lewis, Milt Jackson, Red Norvo, the list could go on for some time. No one knows just how many recordings Duvivier played on but some of the more memorable ones are: A bass duel he had on fellow bassist Ron Carter's first offering called Where? in 1961 with Eric Dolphy and drummer Charlie Persip on the New Jazz label which shows the superb tone that Duvivier had at the time and an emerging Carter who kept up with him for the most part and they have it out on a track called Bass Duet. A very entertaining listen indeed and they also met up again on a 1966 Oliver Nelson Big Band LP on a track called One For Duke where they go at it in a most enjoyable way. Duvivier and Carter also teamed up again a short time earlier, this time helping out reedman Eric Dolphy on the adventurous 1961 LP called Out There, where they experimented with Free Jazz with Carter playing cello and Duvivier on bass. The result was spectacular and is worth a listen. The concept of playing two basses at the same time was not new to anyone but it is highly doubtful that any two bassists did it any better than George Duvivier and Ron Carter on the numerous times they recorded together.
George was very active during the 50's, 60's, and 70's and stayed busy recording for almost every major jazz star, he also dabbled in playing classical music. He was a superb big band scorer and also had a hobby of toy trains as he said in an early 80's Downbeat article called "Abiding George". George Duvivier is certainly in the top pantheon of bass players in the history of jazz.
George died in 1985 during the AIDS crisis and while they were rumors that he was gay it was never proven with any certantity. Regardless, the jazz world lost a superb bass player when he passed away and they are literally thousands of recordings that he participated on. For all of the record hunters out there, there is a ultra rare LP that he recorded in 1956 with pianist Martial Solal on the French Coronet label that is out there somewhere, long out of print and the only record that Duvivier recorded as a leader.
