More than a player's manual this book portrays jazz bass as a vital element of 20th century American music. Citing examples from key recordings in the jazz canon the book defines the essence of the musical contributions made by more than 70 important jazz bassists including Ray Brown Eddie Gomez Charles Mingus Milt Hinton and many others. Bassists get expert guidance on mastering proper technique practice methods and improvisation plus new insight into the theoretical and conceptual aspects of jazz. The companion online audio features bass plus rhythm section which allows readers to hear technical examples from the book presented in slow and fast versions. It also offers play-along tracks of typical chord progressions and song forms and written notation samples.