(b Pittsburgh, Oct 13, 1926; d Indianapolis, IN, July 2, 2002). American double bass player. He first played piano and took up bass in junior high school: “I wanted to be a trombone player, but the school didn’t provide one and my folks couldn’t afford one” (Lewis and Lewis, 1993). After graduating from high school in 1944 he toured with lesser-known bands. Late the following year he went to New York and immediately began rehearsing with the quintet of Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker, which included Bud Powell and Max Roach (soon replaced respectively by Al Haig and Stan Levey, and with the addition of Milt Jackson). He toured to California with Gillespie early in 1946, took part in a number of early bop recordings, returned east in Gillespie’s group, and played in Gillespie’s big band (1946–7). He also sat in with a Jazz at the Philharmonic group while with Gillespie in ...