Red Callender
Acoustic Bass
About
Red Callender was an American jazz bassist and tuba player whose career spanned more than fifty years, from his 1937 recording debut with Louis Armstrong through the early 1990s. Based in Los Angeles, he became one of the most prolific session musicians in American music history, recording with an extraordinary range of artists including Charlie Parker, Art Tatum, Nat King Cole, Dexter Gordon, and Erroll Garner. He was a charter member of The Wrecking Crew, the legendary collective of L.A. studio musicians who shaped the sound of popular music from the 1960s onward. Callender was also one of the first African American musicians to break the color barrier in Hollywood's commercial recording studios and television production. A pioneer of the tuba as a modern jazz solo instrument, he co-wrote the 1959 top-ten hit "Primrose Lane" and mentored a young Charles Mingus, teaching him the fundamentals of bass.
Trivia
Callender's first bass cost him fifteen dollars, purchased from a schoolmate at his New Jersey music school. He co-wrote "Primrose Lane," which became a top-ten hit in 1959 and later served as the theme song for the ABC television series "The Smith Family" starring Henry Fonda. When asked about the song late in life, his characteristically wry response was simply: "Don't remind me."
Early Life
Born George Sylvester Callender on March 6, 1916, in Haynesville, Virginia, Red inherited his red hair, freckles, and light-brown eyes from his Barbadian father, earning the nickname that stuck for life. From age three he was captivated by radio broadcasts of bands led by Coon-Sanders and Earl Hines. After his family relocated to Atlantic City, New Jersey, he enrolled at a music school in Bordentown, where he studied under Professor Alexander Valentine, a veteran of the James Reese Europe band. Valentine drilled him in theory, harmony, and composition. Callender progressed from peck horn to tuba and bought his first bass from a schoolmate for fifteen dollars, practicing from four each morning. During summers he toured the Jersey shore with a band led by Banjo Bernie. After graduating he moved with his parents to New York, immersing himself in Harlem's jazz scene and studying classical bass with Herman Reinshagen.
Red Callender Solos
1947
Acoustic Bass solo - This Is Always - 1947
4/4 ballad in E♭ major at 71 BPM
Acoustic Bass solo - Cool Blues - 1947
4/4 swing in C major at 163 BPM