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| Web Master: Visual Planets | |||||||||
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| Photo by: Beverly Tharp | |||||||||
| "Bassist Chuck Metcalf plays his instrument with the facility of a guitarist." | |||||||||
| --Le Soliel, 5/9/80, Dakar, Senegal, Africa | |||||||||
| Bassist-composer
Chuck Metcalf’s music-teacher parents started him on violin and piano
in elementary school. To his mother’s dismay, by age 12 he was playing
boogie-woogie instead of Mozart, so by age 15 was encouraged to take
up the bass. That year the first bebop records—and Charlie Parker particularly—captured
his soul. Moving from Pasadena to Seattle to live with his father that
year, he played bass in high-school until going away to college at the
University of Washington where he found a thriving, informal jazz scene.
That led to his doing gigs in the many clubs of the time as detailed
in Paul deBarros' "Jackson Street After Hours". There he met
and/or played with future jazz stars such as Quincy Jones, Ernestine
Anderson, Buddy Catlett, and Ray Charles. |
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During
the 50’s Metcalf started a family and worked as an architect, but continued
working as a bassist on weekends. Then in the 60’s he decided that his
love of jazz trumped all other considerations and devoted himself to
playing jazz bass full time, which he has done ever since. He toured
with Anita O’Day, Joe Venuti, and others. Moving to San Francisco in
1972 he was active in the jazz scene there, and recorded on Mark Murphy’s
"Stolen Moments" album before leaving for New York in 1979. While in
New York he toured half of 1980 with Dexter Gordon. Returning to Seattle,
he toured with Ernestine Anderson and Bert Wilson before going to Holland
to immerse himself in the Dutch jazz scene. Returning to Seattle in
1985, he toured and recorded with Bert Wilson, toured with Jim Pepper,
Frank Morgan, and his own quartet. |
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| In
1989 Metcalf released his first CD on Dan Greenblatt’s Bopware label.
Entitled "Elsie Street", it features George Cables on piano and Metcalf’s
compositions. It was followed in 1991 by a piano-less octet recording,
"Help Is Coming". Both CDs won the Earshot Jazz Best NW Recording
award. Bert Wilson has produced several CDs on his FMO label that
feature Metcalf’s playing.
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Returning
to the Bay Area in the mid-90s, Metcalf once again found a receptive
environment for his talents among the many world-class resident artists
constituting the Bay Area jazz scene. In 2004, seeking to document a
few more of his many compositions, he released a new CD, "Thinking
of You", on Lyrichromatic Records. |
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Since
October 2003, Metcalf has performed (along with pianist David Udolf)
every Thursday with the Mark Stock trio at Prima in Walnut Creek. The
trio is presently (early 2007) in the studio recording songs for a CD
release later in the year. |
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