Selecting representative recordings of bass players is an especially tough task, given the relative scarcity of recordings of bassists as leaders, but the Ralf Enoch/Horst Hohenböken Jazz-Club series has come up with a fascinating anthology from PolyGram's archives. Although there are some unavoidably glaring omissions due to ties with other labels -- Jimmy Blanton, Milt Hinton, Scott LaFaro, Charlie Haden, for example (Christian McBride wasn't on the scene yet in 1989) -- the collection still makes its way from the nifty Slam Stewart hum-scat swing of "Beyond the Blue Horizon" (1944) through the mainstream '50s and closing with the emergence of Jaco Pastorius and Stanley Clarke in the jazz-rock '70s. "Prayer for Passive Resistance" is an exciting example of Charles Mingus' sudden shifts of tempos; Percy Heath is shown off effectively on the MJQ's "The Golden Striker." Oscar Pettiford's solid, booming sense of time in Tal Farlow's "Blues In the Closet," Ray Brown's self-explanatory "Solo for Unaccompanied Bass," and Clarke's spellbinding "Bass Folk Song" are standout tracks. Other bassists anchoring their bands here are Chubby Jackson, Eddie Safranski, Paul Chambers, Red Mitchell, Sam Jones, Ron Carter, Niels-Henning Orsted-Pedersen and Richard Davis. ~ Richard S. Ginell, All Music Guide