Peter Ind

British bass player Peter Ind became a professional musician in his early twenties, and made his way to the United States by working in the house band on the Queen Mary for three years beginning in 1949; he settled in New York City in 1951. Ind taught music and performed and recorded with pianist and composer Lennie Tristano and Tristano’s disciple alto saxophonist Lee Konitz, with whom Ind worked regularly between 1954 and 1957. He adopted a certain style of playing while working with Tristano and the musicians who played with him, sometimes described as “cool.” These players created quite elaborate melodies, their improvisations were sometimes influenced as much by Bach as by jazz giant Charlie Parker. As a bassist in this group, he had to develop a very even approach, keep time perfectly without any kind of hysterical showmanship, and understand how to create an inventively moving harmonic bottom for the many variations, substitutions, and permutations of the chord changes the soloists would come up with. Ind didn’t stick to this style of playing, however. He performed with drummer and bandleader Buddy Rich, a with an extremely opposite musical conception. He also performed and recorded with hard bop players such as tenor saxophonist Booker Ervin and the dark-hued, brooding pianist Mal Waldron. Once again, in great contrast to Waldron, Ind recorded an album with guitarist Slim Gaillard, who didn’t seem to be able to play it straight for a minute. Ind always had an interest in the recording process that rivaled his activities as a bassist. His first move was to buy a simple single-track tape machine in 1953. By 1957, he had laid out the moolah for much more state-of-the-art equipment and was one of the first engineers to record live jazz in stereo. Many recordings were made in Ind’s New York loft in the ’50s and early ’60s, and included sessions with tenor saxophonist Zoot Sims, baritone saxophonist Gerry Mulligan, and dynamic trumpeter Booker Little. Ind set up his own recording studio in 1957 and started his own label, Wave, four years later. This established him as one of the earlier jazz musicians to realize that self-determination was the only way he would be able to release projects of his own choosing. One of the first projects he assembled for this new label was the album Looking Out, which featured bass solos plus duos with guitarist Joe Puma and drummer Dick Scott, as well as tracks recorded with a trio and a quartet. Ind was an early experimenter in the process of overdubbing or multi-tracking, as well as manipulating the speed of a recording. That he was fooling around with such techniques in the ’50s is impressive enough, but he was also doing it in the context of jazz, a genre which did not involve itself in studio processes such as this until well into the studio-crazy psychedelic rock era, at least 15 years after Ind. Of course at the time, he was criticized by jazz purists. He claims to have created the very first set of rhythm tracks to be recorded apart from a soloist, taped together with drummer Jeff Morton. These were in turn used by Lennie Tristano for his now-legendary recordings for Atlantic, including Descent in the Maelstrom. Ind also worked as a sound engineer for labels such as Atlantic, Verve, Bethlehem, and Warwick. Ind relocated to Big Sur, California from in 1963 and stayed for three years. During this period, he began focusing on full performances as a soloist. He presented both live concerts and radio broadcasts of his unaccompanied bass music. Eventually, he recorded several solo bass albums, including one consisting solely of walking basslines for players to improvise over. In 1965, he again played with Konitz and another Tristano disciple, tenor saxophonist Warne Marsh. Ind returned to England and continued to perform, teach, and manage his label. Activities with Konitz and Marsh continued, including tours in 1975 and 1976. In 1984, he began another chapter in his activities. He opened his own club, Bass Clef, in London; for a time, it was one of the city’s most popular jazz clubs. Musicians also liked it, as one of Bass Clef’s features was having decent dressing rooms for the players. The club also provided accommodations for touring acts. Tax problems were attributed to be the single biggest cause of the Bass Clef’s demise, and there was even a legendary extension granted when the tax inspector called onto the case turned out to be a jazz fan. Ind continued to focus on recording projects and his label. Peter Ind died on August 20, 2021 at the age of 93. ~ Eugene Chadbourne