Artist: Al McKibbon

Al McKibbon was an American jazz double bassist, known for his work in bop, hard bop, and  Latin jazz. 

In 1947, after working with Lucky Millinder, Tab Smith, J. C. Heard, and Coleman Hawkins, he replaced Ray Brown in Dizzy Gillespie's band, in which he played until 1950. In the 1950s he recorded with the Miles Davis nonet, Earl Hines, Count Basie,  Johnny Hodges, Thelonious Monk,  Mongo Santamaria, George Shearing, Cal Tjader,  Herbie Nichols and Hawkins. McKibbon was credited with interesting Tjader in Latin music while he played in Shearing's group. 

McKibbon has always been highly regarded (among other signs of this regard, he was the bassist for the  Giants of Jazz), and continued to perform until 2004. 

In 1999, the first album in his own name, Tumbao Para Los Congueros De Mi Vida, was released.  McKibbon's second album, Black Orchid, was released in 2004 and was recorded at Icon Recording Studios, Hollywood, California. The album was Produced by Damon Martin, recorded by studio co-owner Andrew Troy and Assistant Engineer - Aaron Kaplan, 2nd Assistant Engineer - Pablo Solorzano. 'Black Orchid' was mixed by Robbie Adams. Al also wrote the Afterword to Raul Fernandez' book, Latin Jazz, part of the Smithsonian Institution's series of exhibitions on jazz. 

Photography credit: The Library of Congress, No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons

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