This work explores the musical, creative and artistic contributions of 15 leading jazz bassists of the Fifties. A chapter on each one offers a timeline as well as biographical information detailing the unfolding of the player¿s artistic development and professional career. More than mere history, the book reveals the how¿s and why¿s behind each one¿s lasting stylistic achievements via in-depth analysis of a handful of his top recorded tracks. Taken in total, the analyses of 70 such tracks spotlight the very best jazz bass music of the period. No chapter is complete without the author¿s comprehensive listing of each bassist¿s greatest performances. Among the artists profiled are big-name bassists Oscar Pettiford, Ray Brown, Milt Hinton, Paul Chambers, Leroy Vinnegar, Red Mitchell and Charles Mingus as well as bassists deserving of wider recognition: Eddie Safranski, George Duvivier, Doug Watkins, Sam Jones, Wendell Marshall, Jimmy Woode, Joe Benjamin and Arvell Shaw. Appendices cover listings of jazz bassist influences; alternate recorded versions of the same tune for comparison purposes; a table of varied paths to career success taken by the book¿s four most successful bassists; and categorization of 177 jazz bassists by style from the Twenties to the present. Though focusing on bass artists and their music, this book is an invaluable resource of jazz background for all devoted jazz listeners seeking to expand their appreciation and enjoyment of the art. For the bassist, it identifies and dissects little-known recorded gems as key to understanding the elements of superior performance.