Biography
Bob Cranshaw (December 10, 1932 - November 2, 2016) was an American jazz bassist.
Born Melbourne R. Cranshaw in Evanston, Illinois, USA, his career spans the heyday of Blue Note Records to his recent involvement with the Musicians Union. He is perhaps best known for his long association with Sonny Rollins. Cranshaw has been in Rollins's working band on and off for over five decades, starting with a live appearance at the 1959 Playboy jazz festival in Chicago and on record with the 1962 album The Bridge.
Some of Cranshaw's best-known performances include on Lee Morgan's The Sidewinder and Grant Green's Idle Moments. Cranshaw also served as the sole session bassist to Sesame Street and The Electric Company songwriter and composer Joe Raposo, and played bass guitar on all songs, tracks, buttons and cues recorded by the Children's Television Workshop during Raposo's tenure. In addition, he was the bass player for Saturday Night Live from 1975 to 1980 and musical director and bassist for Dick Cavett's talk show in the early 1980s. He has played in pit orchestras for numerous Broadway shows including Jesus Christ Superstar, Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music, Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band: The Musical and many more. He has done innumerable recording dates for television shows, films and jingles. He is among the most frequently recorded bassists in history.
Cranshaw has performed and recorded with a wide range of leading jazz artists, including Tony Bennett, Ella Fitzgerald, Dexter Gordon, Grant Green, Coleman Hawkins, Jimmy Heath, Joe Henderson, Johnny Hodges, Freddie Hubbard, Bobby Hutcherson, J. J. Johnson, Peggy Lee, Jackie McLean, Carmen McRae, Hank Mobley, Thelonious Monk, James Moody, Lee Morgan, Wes Montgomery, Oscar Peterson, Buddy Rich, George Shearing, Wayne Shorter, Horace Silver, Shirley Scott, Stanley Turrentine, McCoy Tyner, Sonny Rollins, George Benson, Milt Jackson and Joe Williams. Outside of the jazz genre, he has recorded or performed with a wide variety of artists including Judy Collins, Gregory Hines, Maurice Hines, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Frank Sinatra and countless others.
Along with Wes Montgomery's brother Monk, Cranshaw was among the early jazz bassists to trade his upright bass for an electric bass. He was criticized for this by jazz purists, although he was forced to switch by a back injury incurred in a serious auto accident.
Throughout his long and distinguished career he has also performed on hundreds of television shows and film and television scores. He appears on The Blue Note Story, a 90-minute documentary of the jazz label.
Cranshaw was also a founding member of the short-lived MJT + 3 (Modern Jazz Two) that included Frank Strozier on alto saxophone, Harold Mabern on piano, Willie Thomas on trumpet, and Walter Perkins on drums. The Chicago-based group produced several albums, a number for Vee-Jay Records. Another vintage Cranshaw jam, 1964's Blue Flames, featuring Shirley Scott, Stanley Turrentine and Otis Finch, was recorded for Prestige Records. Cranshaw also played live shows for tap dancer Maurice Hines, along with friend and drummer Paul Goldberg.
Since the 1990s he has worked for the musicians union in New York City as an advocate for the rights of jazz musicians. He has fought for better pension plans for jazz musicians, to make sure they or their widows received the royalties owed them and for other related issues. Because of his work in television, film and on Broadway, Cranshaw was compensated financially in a way that many jazz musicians were not. He has credited his involvement in the union as his way of trying to insure that his fellow jazz musicians receive the same treatment and financial compensation that he did because of his work in other genres and in other media.
Discography
As sideman
With Pepper Adams
Plays the Compositions of Charlie Mingus (Workshop, 1964)
With Nat Adderley
Little Big Horn! (Riverside, 1963)
Sayin' Somethin' (Atlantic, 1966)
With Mose Allison
Hello There, Universe (Atlantic, 1970)
With Gene Ammons
Gene Ammons and Friends at Montreux (Prestige, 1973)
With George Benson
Goodies (Verve, 1968)
With Paul Bley
BeBopBeBopBeBopBeBop (SteepleChase, 1990)
With Jaki Byard
Out Front! (Prestige, 1964)
With Donald Byrd
Up with Donald Byrd (Verve, 1964)
I'm Tryin' to Get Home (Blue Note, 1965)
With Johnny Coles
Little Johnny C (Blue Note, 1963)
With Hank Crawford
Wildflower (Kudu, 1973)
With Sonny Criss
Up, Up and Away (Prestige, 1967)
The Beat Goes On! (Prestige, 1968)
Rockin' in Rhythm (Prestige, 1969)
With Frank Foster
Manhattan Fever (Blue Note, 1968)
With Dexter Gordon
Gettin' Around (Blue Note, 1965)
Clubhouse (Rec. 1965; Blue Note, 1979)
With Grant Green
Idle Moments (Blue Note, 1963)
Matador (Blue Note, 1964)
With Friedrich Gulda
Ineffable (Columbia, 1965)
With Slide Hampton
Explosion! The Sound of Slide Hampton (Atlantic, 1962)
With Barry Harris
Chasin' the Bird (Riverside, 1962)
Luminescence! (Prestige, 1967)
With Eddie Harris
Cool Sax from Hollywood to Broadway (Columbia, 1964)
With Hampton Hawes
Playin' in the Yard (Prestige, 1973)
With Jimmy Heath
The Gap Sealer (Cobblestone, 1972)
Love and Understanding (Muse, 1973)
With Joe Henderson
Inner Urge (Blue Note, 1964)
With Maurice Hines
To Nat "King" Cole with Love (Arbors, 2005)
With Johnny Hodges
Joe's Blues (Verve, 1965) with Wild Bill Davis
With Bobby Hutcherson
The Kicker (Rec. 1963; Blue Note, 1999)
Happenings (Blue Note, 1966)
With Milt Jackson
Milt Jackson Quintet Live at the Village Gate (Riverside, 1963)
In a New Setting (Limelight, 1964)
Milt Jackson and the Hip String Quartet (Verve, 1968)
With Willis Jackson
West Africa (Muse, 1973)
Headed and Gutted (Muse, 1974)
With J. J. Johnson
J.J.! (RCA Victor, 1964)
With Clifford Jordan
Soul Fountain (Vortex, 1966 )
With Eric Kloss
We're Goin' Up (Prestige, 1967)
Sky Shadows (Prestige, 1968)
With Yusef Lateef
The Blue Yusef Lateef (Atlantic, 1968)
With Johnny Lytle
The Village Caller! (Riverside, 1963)
The Loop (Tuba, 1965)
People & Love (Milestone, 1972)
With Junior Mance
Junior's Blues (Riverside, 1962)
That Lovin' Feelin' (Milestone, 1972)
With Jack McDuff
Magnetic Feel (Cadet, 1975)
With Jackie McLean
Right Now! (Blue Note, 1965)
With Carmen McRae
Sings Lover Man and Other Billie Holiday Classics (Columbia, 1962)
With MJT + 3
Walter Perkins' MJT + 3 (Vee-Jay, 1959)
Make Everybody Happy (Vee-Jay, 1960)
MJT + 3 (Vee-Jay, 1960)
Message from Walton Steet (Rec. 1960; Koch Jazz, 2000)
With Hank Mobley
A Caddy for Daddy (Blue Note, 1966)
Hi Voltage (Blue Note, 1967)
Reach Out! (Blue Note, 1968)
With Grachan Moncur III
Evolution (Blue Note, 1963)
With Wes Montgomery
Movin' Wes (Verve, 1964)
Bumpin' (Verve, 1965)
With James Moody
Moody and the Brass Figures (Milestone, 1966)
Don't Look Away Now! (Prestige, 1969)
With Lee Morgan
Take Twelve (Jazzland, 1962)
The Sidewinder (Blue Note, 1964)
Delightfulee Morgan (Blue Note, 1966)
The Gigolo (Blue Note, 1966)
With Oliver Nelson
Oliver Nelson Plays Michelle (Impulse!, 1966)
With Duke Pearson
Hush! (JazzLine, 1962)
Wahoo! (Blue Note, 1965)
Honeybuns (Atlantic, 1965)
Prairie Dog (Atlantic, 1966)
Introducing Duke Pearson's Big Band (Blue Note, 1967)
The Phantom (Blue Note, 1968)
Now Hear This (Blue Note, 1968)
How Insensitive (Blue Note, 1969)
It Could Only Happen with You (Blue Note, 1970)
With Houston Person
Chocomotive (Prestige, 1967)
Blue Odyssey (Prestige, 1968)
With Dave Pike
Jazz for the Jet Set (Atlantic, 1966)
With Sonny Red
Breezing (Jazzland, 1960)
With Max Roach
Max Roach + 4 on the Chicago Scene (EmArcy, 1958)
With Sonny Rollins
The Bridge (RCA, 1962)
What's New? (RCA Victor, 1962)
Our Man in Jazz (RCA Victor, 1962)
Sonny Meets Hawk! (RCA Victor, 1963)
Now's the Time! (RCA Victor, 1964)
The Standard Sonny Rollins (RCA Victor, 1965)
Next Album (Milestone, 1972)
Horn Culture (Milestone, 1973)
Sonny Rollins in Japan (Victor/JVC (J), 1973)
The Cutting Edge (Milestone, 1974)
Nucleus (Milestone, 1975)
No Problem (Milestone, 1981)
Reel Life (Milestone, 1982)
G-Man (Milestone, 1986)
Falling in Love with Jazz (Milestone, 1989)
Here's to the People (Milestone, 1991)
Old Flames (Milestone, 1993)
Sonny Rollins + 3 (Milestone, 1995)
Global Warming (Milestone, 1998)
This Is What I Do (Milestone, 2000)
Without a Song: The 9/11 Concert (Rec. 2001; Milestone 2005)
Sonny, Please (EmArcy, 2006)
Road Shows, Vol. 1 (Doxy, 2008)
Road Shows, Vol. 2 (Doxy/EmArcy, 2008)
With Lalo Schifrin
Once a Thief and Other Themes (Verve, 1965)
With Shirley Scott
Great Scott!! (Impulse!, 1959)
Blue Flames with Stanley Turrentine (Prestige, 1964)
Queen of the Organ (Impulse!, 1964)
Latin Shadows (Impulse!, 1965)
Soul Song (Atlantic, 1968)
With Wayne Shorter
Second Genesis (Vee-Jay, 1960)
With Horace Silver
The Cape Verdean Blues (Blue Note, 1965)
Serenade to a Soul Sister (Blue Note, 1968)
In Pursuit of the 27th Man (Blue Note, 1972)
With Paul Simon
There Goes Rhymin' Simon (Columbia, 1973)
With Billy Taylor
Impromptu (Mercury, 1962)
With Jimmy Smith
Hoochie Coochie Man (1966)
With Clark Terry and Bob Brookmeyer
Gingerbread Men (Mainstream, 1966)
With Bobby Timmons
Do You Know the Way? (Milestone, 1968)
With Stanley Turrentine
Hustlin' (Blue Note, 1964)
Joyride (Blue Note, 1965)
Rough 'n Tumble (Blue Note, 1966)
Easy Walker (Blue Note, 1966)
The Spoiler (Blue Note, 1966)
Always Something There (Blue Note, 1968)
With McCoy Tyner
Live at Newport (Impulse!, 1963)
With Harold Vick
Watch What Happens (RCA Victor, 1968)
With Cedar Walton
The Electric Boogaloo Song (Prestige, 1969)
With Joe Williams
At Newport '63 (RCA Victor, 1963)
With Gerald Wilson
New York, New Sound (Mack Avenue, 2003)
With Jack Wilson
Easterly Winds (Blue Note, 1967)
With Kai Winding
The Incredible Kai Winding Trombones (Impulse!, 1960)
Dirty Dog (Verve, 1966)
With The Young Lions
The Young Lions (Vee-Jay, 1960)
With Joe Zawinul
Money in the Pocket (Atlantic, 1967)
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