Lonnie Plaxico


Lonnie Plaxico is an American jazz double bassist.
WWW lonnieplaxico.com

Biography

Plaxico was born in Chicago, into a musical family, and started playing the bass at the age of twelve, turning professional at fourteen. His first recording was with his family's band, and by the time he was twenty he had moved to New York City, where he had stints playing with Chet Baker, Dexter Gordon, Sonny Stitt, Junior Cook, and Hank Jones. He won the Louis Armstrong Jazz Award in 1978.
Plaxico first came to public attention through his work with the Wynton Marsalis group in 1982, though his first regular attachment was with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, with whom he recorded twelve albums.
In the mid-1980s Plaxico joined the M-Base collective and played on the debut-releases of Steve Coleman, Cassandra Wilson and Greg Osby. On Wilson's recordings he appeared regularly ever since and is the musical director and first bassist of her tour band for more than 15 years.
In 1986 Jack DeJohnette reformed his Special Edition and engaged beside guitarist Mick Goodrick the M-Base saxophonists Greg Osby and Gary Thomas and Plaxico on bass. The band existed until 1993, after three albums with pianist Michael Cain replacing Goodrick on the last.
Plaxico has also performed and recorded with a wide range of artists, including Dizzy Gillespie, David Murray, Alice Coltrane, Stanley Turrentine, Andrew Hill, Joe Sample, Abbey Lincoln, Bill Cosby, Lonnie Liston Smith, Ravi Coltrane, Scott Tixier, Barbara Dennerlein, Helen Sung and Nina Vidal.

Discography

As leader

  • 1989: Plaxico
  • 1990: Iridescence
  • 1992: Short Takes
  • 1993: With All Your Heart
  • 2000: Emergence
  • 2001: Mélange
  • 2002: Live at the 5:01 Jazz Bar
  • 2003: Rhythm and Soul
  • 2004: Live at Jazz Standard
  • 2006: So Alive
  • 2006: West Side Stories
  • 2007: Live at the Zinc Bar NYC
  • 2009: ''Ancestral Devotion''

As sideman

With Art Blakey and the Jazz MessengersAurex Jazz Festival New York Scene Blue Night Live at Sweet Basil Live at Kimball's Live at Ronnie Scott's Hard Champion Farewell New Year's Eve at Sweet Basil Dr. Jeckyle - Live at Sweet Basil Vol. 2
With Cecil Brooks IIIThe Collective Smokin' Jazz
With Steve ColemanMotherland Pulse
With Cassandra WilsonPoint of View Blue Skies Jumpworld Blue Light 'til Dawn New Moon Daughter Rendezvous also with Jacky TerrassonTraveling Miles Loverly Coming Forth by Day 5 Original Albums
With Greg OsbyGreg Osby and Sound Theatre Mindgames Season of Renewal Zero
With Jack DeJohnette's Special EditionIrresistible Forces Audio-Visualscapes Earthwalk
With Ron JacksonA Guitar Thing You Thinking of You
With Don ByronTuskegee Experiments Ivey-Divey
With others