The moment you happen to hear a musical sound that makes your jaw drop is often as important as the sound itself. I first heard Barre Phillips, the double-bass genius and master improviser, who has died aged 90, on a French-released solo recording called Basse Barre in about 1970.
To a young jazz fan who had until then assumed that a jazz bassist’s job was to roam harmoniously around the chord-changes, add the occasional apposite solo, and launch a thumping groove when a band turned the heat up, hearing Phillips’ originality brought realisations that had never occurred to me before.
