Artist: Butch Warren

Butch Warren was an American jazz bassist who was active during the 1950s and 1960s. 

Growing up, the Warren home was often visited by jazz musicians such as Billy Hart, Jimmy Smith, and Stuff Smith. The first time Butch Warren played bass was at home on an instrument left by Billy Taylor, who had played bass for Duke Ellington. Warren has cited Jimmy Blanton, the innovative and virtuoso bassist with Ellington from 1939 to 1941, as his most important inspiration. 

Warren began playing professionally at age 14 in a Washington, D.C. band led by his father. He later worked with other local groups, including that of Stuff Smith, as well as with altoist and bandleader Rick Henderson at the Howard Theatre. 

When he was 19, he sat in with Kenny Dorham to substitute for an absent bassist. A few days later, Dorham invited him to New York City, where he spent the next six months as a sideman at a club in Brooklyn. He appeared on his first recording in January 1960 with Dorham, saxophonist Charles Davis, pianist Tommy Flanagan, and drummer Buddy Enlow. 

Through his friendship with Sonny Clark, he recorded for Blue Note Records in 1961 on Clark's album  Leapin' and Lopin'. Alfred Lion, producer at Blue Note, hired Warren to fill the vacancy of staff bassist. During this job he played on "Watermelon Man" with  Herbie Hancock. As sideman, he also recorded with Miles Davis, Hank Mobley,  Donald Byrd,  Dexter Gordon, Joe Henderson, Jackie McLean, and Stanley Turrentine. 

His only solo effort was captured on "Butch's Blues" but he was better known as a sideman on many albums, including Dexter Gordon's ‘Go.’ 

Further information about Butch Warren is found here.

Photography credit: Fen Labalme, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons