Daily Dose Of Jazz…

George Duvivier was born on Aug 17, 1920 in New York City. He 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 Lucky Millinder and then with the Cab Calloway bands of the early 40s after a stint in the army. An excellent composer, George scored many tunes for those two big bands.

George was a freelance bassist for most of his life, never belonging to any one particular group for any extended period of time, but has played with some of jazz’s greatest, such as Bud Powell, Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis, and Shirley Scott.

A prolific sideman, Duvivier recorded more than 100 albums with the likes of Kenny Burrell, Gene Ammons, Mildred Anderson, Art Farmer, Jimmy Forrest, San Getz, Etta Jones, Oliver Nelson, Lalo Schifrin and Johnny Lytle among numerous others. In 1956, Duvivier played in the movie orchestra in the film, “The Benny Goodman Story”.

During the 1970s he was a member of Soprano Summit and one of his last performances was on Late Night with David Letterman in 1983, accompanying singer/songwriter Tom Waits.

Double-bassist George Duvivier died of cancer in his Manhattan home on Jul 11, 1985.

Dose A Day – Blues Away

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