Bass Lines

Bass player Coleridge Goode recalls his Jamaican childhood, his arrival in Britain in the 1930s and the lively wartime London club scene. He recounts his career including working with the Ray Ellington Quartet of Goon Show fame and his long association with altoist Joe Harriott, the brilliant but tragic pioneer of European free jazz. Goode recorded with Django Reinhardt, Stéphane Grappelli, Ray Nance, George Shearing and other jazz stars. Always among the innovators, he has helped blend jazz with Indian music, serial compositions, choral works and poetry. In this book he tells candidly of the challenges and rewards of the jazz life as well as the destructive aspects he has seen – especially racial discrimination and drugs. A contributor to many of the most exciting jazz developments of the past half century, Coleridge Goode is a thoughtful witness to a fascinating part of jazz history. 'The story of a man's resilience as well as an artist's ingenuity, of Goode's steely determination to find his place in a society in a state of flux and play music that was both in and out of step with its shifting demographics.' — Independent on Sunday. 'Rich with anecdotes and one man's observations on the music he loves.' — Jazz Review