Pettiford's Cello Takes Center Stage
Pettiford proves the cello can swing as hard as any bass, with warmth and unexpected flexibility.
By 1955, Oscar Pettiford had already established himself as one of jazz's most inventive bassists, but Another One (1955) marks a deliberate turn toward the cello — his other voice, the one that would increasingly define his later work. This isn't a bass album with cello flourishes. The cello is the star, and Pettiford uses it to ask a simple question: what if this classical instrument could have the swing and phrasing of a jazz horn?
The recording sits at a crossroads in his thinking. He was moving away from the bebop small groups that had made his name toward something more compositional and arranged. The Bethlehem sides capture that transition — you hear the swing sensibility intact, but also a player testing the cello's range for softer tones, melodic subtlety, even playfulness. It's not the booming, percussive approach some might expect. Instead, Pettiford discovers intimacy without losing edge.
This album matters because it documents an artist refusing to be trapped by his own success. The cello work here influenced how later musicians thought about doubling and alternative voicings in jazz. For listeners, it's the place to hear Pettiford's other instrument as a serious jazz voice rather than a novelty—not his biggest statement, but a revealing one.
Who's playing
Oscar Pettiforddouble bass
Don Abneypiano
Gigi Gryceclarinet, saxophone
Donald Byrdtrumpet
Ernie Royaltrumpet
Bob Brookmeyertrombone
Osie Johnsondrums
Jerome Richardsonclarinet
Where next?
More by Oscar Pettiford
All 20 albums →
The musicians on this record
Their own records, close in time
