Gibson Ripper Bass

 

Arvell Shaw was best known for his long association with Louis Armstrong. The bassist first worked with him in 1945, and made the position his own.

He was one of the few players retained when Armstrong eventually disbanded the large group in favour of a septet, Louis Armstrong and The All-Stars, in the wake of successful concerts at Carnegie Hall and Town Hall in New York in 1947. 

The bassist played with Armstrong regularly for the rest of his career, including the trumpeter’s last appearance at the Waldorf Astoria in New York a few days before his death in 1971. He played on all his recordings from 1945 on, and appeared with him in seven films, including The Glenn Miller Story (1953) and High Society (1956).

He also worked with a range of other notable jazz leaders. They included Benny Goodman, Teddy Wilson, Sidney Bechet, Coleman Hawkins, Barney Bigard, Earl Hines, Wild Bill Davison, Buddy Tate, Dorothy Donegan and Lionel Hampton, among others.

He was much in demand as a freelance musician in New York, and played in the pit bands for the Broadway shows Bubbling Brown Sugar and Ain't Misbehavin' in the late 70s and early 80s (presumably this was when he used the Ripper).