Leroy Vinnegar

Leroy Vinnegar possessed a buoyant, propulsive walking-bass style that suited multiple jazz idioms, though he rarely stepped forward as a featured soloist. His busiest stretches came during the 1950s and 1960s as an in-demand freelance studio musician, followed by a stint in 1969 with Les McCann’s most commercially successful group. In those roles he anchored two landmark jazz releases: the groundbreaking 1956 My Fair Lady collaboration featuring Andre Previn and Shelly Manne, and the Eddie Harris/Les McCann soul-jazz landmark Swiss Movement from 1969.

Entirely self-taught, Vinnegar experimented briefly with piano before the bass captured his attention at their first meeting. He turned professional at age twenty and served as house bassist at Chicago’s Beehive club from 1952 to 1953. After relocating to Los Angeles in 1954, he quickly became the preferred bassist for sessions led by Stan Getz, Shorty Rogers, Chet Baker, Shelly Manne, and Serge Chaloff, among others. In 1957 he began leading his own dates, issuing a pair of Contemporary albums whose titles each incorporated the word “walks.” From 1959 onward he toured and recorded regularly with Joe Castro and Teddy Edwards while maintaining an active freelance schedule. During the early 1980s he performed on television with the Dixieland ensemble Panama Hats, supporting actor and banjoist George Segal.

A period of poor health prompted his relocation to Portland in the late 1980s, yet he continued performing through the following decade. In 1992 he resumed his recording career as a leader with another Contemporary release titled Walkin’ the Basses. Vinnegar succumbed to cardiac arrest in August 1999, depriving both the broader jazz community and Portland’s local scene of a valued presence.