Monty Budwig

Monty Budwig earned a reputation as an indispensable bassist whose steady presence animated countless West Coast recording sessions, always supplying the requisite swing, melodic lines, and exact pitch for any context while favoring an unobtrusive stance. He first took up the bass during high school, worked a 1951 gig beside Vido Musso, and afterward completed a three-year Air Force stint that included performances with a military band. After settling in Los Angeles in 1954, he became a regular studio presence and found steady calls from groups devoted to the West Coast jazz idiom. His wide-ranging work placed him alongside Barney Kessel, inside the Red Norvo Trio from 1954 to 1955, with Zoot Sims and Woody Herman’s Orchestra in 1955-56, and in settings led by Shelly Manne, Shorty Rogers, Terry Gibbs, Benny Goodman, Carmen McRae, Bud Shank, Bob Cooper, the Lighthouse All Stars in the 1980s, and Ellyn Rucker. Although his bass appeared on dozens of albums, among them roughly two dozen Concord releases issued in the 1970s and 1980s, Budwig led only one date under his own name—the 1978 Concord album Dig, which featured his wife Arlette McCoy on electric piano.