Cello [violoncello]

Cello [violoncello]
Anthony Barnett and Barry Kernfeld

https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.J080100
Published in print: 20 January 2002
Published online: 2003

The bass instrument of the violin family. It has four strings, normally tuned C–G–d–a, which are sounded
either with a bow (arco) or by plucking (pizzicato).

The cello was used in a proto-jazz context as early as 1916–17, when Walter Kildare recorded with Ciro’s
Club Coon Orchestra, the string band led by his brother Dan. In 1926 the instrument was heard in
recordings by Ethel Waters with Will Marion Cook’s Singing Orchestra. However, it was not used with any
frequency in jazz until the bop era of the late 1940s and 1950s, when it was taken up by a number of double
bass players, some of whom gained significant reputations on the instrument. Harry Babasin recorded
pizzicato cello solos with Dodo Marmarosa in 1947 (Bopmatism, Dial 752). Oscar Pettiford played cello in
the early to mid-1950s, and he may be heard as a soloist on recordings with Duke Ellington and as the
leader of a quartet consisting of Billy Taylor (ii), Charles Mingus, and Charlie Smith (Cello Again, 1952,
Roost 546). George Koutzen also recorded on cello with Mingus in 1952, and the following year Pettiford
and Babasin recorded together. Between 1955 and 1962 Chico Hamilton’s band featured cello, played at
first by Fred Katz and then by Nat Gershman. Another important jazz cellist was Calo Scott, heard on Vinnie
Burke’s String Jazz Quartet (1957, ABC-Para. 170), and a few years later Ron Carter used the instrument in
his work with Eric Dolphy – most notably at a quintet session led by Mal Waldron (The Quest, 1961, NJ
8269). Ray Brown, Sam Jones, Doug Watkins, and Peter Warren also occasionally doubled on cello, but this
practice among double bass players lost its impetus with Carter’s introduction of the Piccolo bass (jazz) .

From the late 1960s the cello began to be used as a solo instrument in fusions of jazz improvisation with
ethnic and classical music as well as in free jazz. Exponents include Irène Aebi (with Steve Lacy), Jean-
Charles Capon, David Baker, Diedre Murray (with Hannibal Peterson, Fred Hopkins, and Henry Threadgill),
David Darling (with Ralph Towner and Terje Rypdal), David Eyges (with Byard Lancaster and Cecil McBee),
Matt Turner, Michelle Kinney, Hank Roberts, and Ivo Perelman (who is principally a saxophonist).
Eberhard Weber doubled as a cellist during the early 1970s, but he abandoned the instrument after 1976, as
his six-string double bass allowed him to play comfortably in the cello’s range. Pre-eminent cellists are
Tristan Honsinger, who performs ferocious free improvisations; Abdul Wadud, who combines a virtuoso
classical technique with heartfelt, incisive improvisations (as heard on his unaccompanied solo album By
Myself, 1977, Bishara Music 101); Erik Friedlander, who is especially comfortable in transferring jazz
idioms to this less common jazz instrument (as heard in his work with Myra Melford’s group on her album
The Same River, Twice, 1996, Gram. 79513); the stylistically diverse Dutch player Ernst Reijseger; and the
late Tom Cora, who applied techniques of rock guitar playing to the instrument.

Page 1 of 2
Printed from Grove Music Online. Grove is a registered trademark. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an
individual user may print out a single article for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy).

Subscriber: Conservatorio Superior de Musica Manuel Castillo; date: 07 October 2022

Cello [violoncello]

Bibliography
J.-E. Berendt: Das Jazzbuch: Entwicklung und Bedeutung der Jazzmusik (Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 1953, rev. and
enlarged 5/1981 as Das grosse Jazzbuch: von New Orleans bis Jazz Rock, Eng. trans. as The Jazz Book: from New Orleans
to Fusion and Beyond, Westport, CT, 1982), 259, 296

C. White: “The Cello in Jazz,” DB, 56/2 (1989), 62

B. Shoemaker: “Cello Talk: Top Jazz Players,” Strings, no.86 (2000), 76

Page 2 of 2
Printed from Grove Music Online. Grove is a registered trademark. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an
individual user may print out a single article for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy).

Subscriber: Conservatorio Superior de Musica Manuel Castillo; date: 07 October 2022