Bob Cranshaw: 1932-2016

Bob Cranshaw: RIP

Doc Wendell pays tribute to the incredible Bob Cranshaw who died this past week. Cranshaw was one of those affable people and rock-solid musicians who never drew attention to himself. In the early sixties, he became, along with Ron Carter and Richard Davis, a Blue Note regular in the bass chair, after the incredible reigns of Paul Chambers and Butch Warren. His playing in any situation was at once unobtrusive and indispensible to the overall impact of the music. The fact that he was Sonny Rollins’s bassist sporadically from 1962 until his death in 2016 tells the story.

-Michael Cuscuna