Bob Cranshaw

Melbourne R. "Bob" Cranshaw (born December 10, 1932, in Evanston, Illinois) is an American jazz bassist. His career spans the heyday of Blue Note Records to his recent involvement with the Musicians Union. He is perhaps best known for his long association with Sonny Rollins. Cranshaw has been in Rollins's working band on and off for almost five decades, starting with the 1962 album The Bridge.

Biography
Some of Cranshaw's best-known performances include on Lee Morgan's The Sidewinder and Grant Green's Idle Moments. Cranshaw also served as the sole session bassist to Sesame Street and The Electric Company songwriter and composer Joe Raposo, and played bass guitar on all songs, tracks, buttons and cues recorded by the Children's Television Workshop during Raposo's tenure.

Although he lacks the name recognition of other bassists, Cranshaw has performed and recorded with a wide range of leading jazz artists, including Ella Fitzgerald, Dexter Gordon, Grant Green, Coleman Hawkins, Jimmy Heath, Joe Henderson, Johnny Hodges, Freddie Hubbard, Bobby Hutcherson, J. J. Johnson, Jackie McLean, Hank Mobley, Thelonious Monk, James Moody, Lee Morgan, Wes Montgomery, Oscar Peterson, Buddy Rich, George Shearing, Wayne Shorter, Horace Silver, Shirley Scott, Stanley Turrentine, McCoy Tyner, Sonny Rollins, George Benson, and Joe Williams.

Along with Wes Montgomery's brother Monk, Cranshaw was among the early jazz bassists to trade his upright bass for an electric bass. He was criticized for this by jazz purists, although he was forced to switch by a back injury incurred in a serious auto accident.

Throughout his long and distinguished career he has also performed on hundreds of television shows and film and television scores. He appears on The Blue Note Story, a 90-minute documentary of the famed jazz label.

Cranshaw was also a founding member of the short-lived MJT + 3 (Modern Jazz Two) that included Frank Strozier on alto saxophone, Harold Mabern on piano, Willie Thomas on trumpet, and Walter Perkins on drums. The Chicago-based group produced several albums, a number for Vee-Jay Records. Another vintage Cranshaw jam, 1964's Blue Flames, featuring Shirley Scott, Stanley Turrentine and Otis Finch, was recorded for Prestige Records. Cranshaw also played live shows for tap dancer Maurice Hines, along with friend and drummer Paul Goldberg.

As sideman
With Nat Adderley With Gene Ammons With Jaki Byard With Johnny Coles With Sonny Criss With Frank Foster With Dexter Gordon With Grant Green With Barry Harris With Eddie Harris With Joe Henderson With Maurice Hines With Bobby Hutcherson With Milt Jackson With Eric Kloss With Yusef Lateef With Johnny Lytle With Junior Mance With Jack McDuff With Jackie McLean With Grachan Moncur III With Wes Montgomery With James Moody With Lee Morgan With Oliver Nelson With Duke Pearson With Houston Person With Sonny Red With Max Roach With Sonny Rollins With Lalo Schifrin With Shirley Scott With Horace Silver With Paul Simon With Billy Taylor With Bobby Timmons With Stanley Turrentine With Cedar Walton '''With Jack Wilson With Kai Winding With The Young Lions
 * Sayin' Somethin' (1966, Atlantic)
 * Gene Ammons and Friends at Montreux (Prestige, 1973)
 * Out Front! (Prestige, 1964)
 * Little Johnny C (Blue Note, 1963)
 * Up, Up and Away (Prestige, 1967)
 * The Beat Goes On! (Prestige, 1968)
 * Manhattan Fever (Blue Note, 1968)
 * Gettin' Around (Blue Note, 1965)
 * Clubhouse (1965 - released 1979, Blue Note)
 * Idle Moments (1963, Blue Note)
 * Matador (1964, Blue Note)
 * Chasin' the Bird (Riverside, 1962)
 * Luminescence! (Prestige, 1967)
 * Cool Sax from Hollywood to Broadway (Columbia, 1964)
 * Inner Urge (1964, Blue Note)
 * Maurice Hines: To Nat "King" Cole With Love (2005, Arbors Records)
 * The Kicker (1963 - released 1999, Blue Note)
 * Happenings (1966, Blue Note)
 * Milt Jackson Quintet Live at the Village Gate (Riverside, 1963)
 * In a New Setting (Limelight, 1964)
 * Milt Jackson and the Hip String Quartet (Verve, 1968)
 * We're Goin' Up (Prestige, 1967)
 * Sky Shadows (Prestige, 1968)
 * The Blue Yusef Lateef (Atlantic, 1968)
 * The Village Caller! (Riverside, 1963)
 * The Loop (Tuba, 1965)
 * Junior's Blues (Riverside, 1962)
 * Magnetic Feel (Cadet, 1975)
 * Right Now! (1965, Blue Note)
 * Evolution (1963, Blue Note)
 * Movin' Wes (1964, Verve Records)
 * Bumpin' (1965, Verve)
 * Moody and the Brass Figures (Milestone, 1966)
 * Don't Look Away Now! (Prestige, 1969)
 * The Sidewinder (1964, Blue Note)
 * Oliver Nelson Plays Michelle (Impulse!, 1966)
 * Hush! (1962)
 * Wahoo! (1964)
 * Honeybuns (1965)
 * Prairie Dog (1966)
 * Introducing Duke Pearson's Big Band (1967)
 * The Phantom (1968)
 * Now Hear This (1968)
 * How Insensitive (1969)
 * It Could Only Happen with You (1970)
 * Chocomotive (Prestige, 1967)
 * Blue Odyssey (Prestige, 1968)
 * Breezing (Jazzland, 1960)
 * Max Roach + 4 on the Chicago Scene (Emarcy, 1958)
 * The Bridge (1962, RCA)
 * Our Man in Jazz (1962, RCA Victor)
 * Sonny Meets Hawk! (1963, RCA Victor)
 * The Cutting Edge (1974, Milestone)
 * This Is What I Do (2000, Milestone)
 * Sonny, Please (2006, EmArcy)
 * Once a Thief and Other Themes (Verve, 1965)
 * Great Scott!! (Impulse!, 1964)
 * Queen of the Organ (Impulse!, 1964)
 * Latin Shadows (Impulse!, 1965)
 * Soul Song (Atlantic, 1968)
 * Serenade to a Soul Sister (1968, Blue Note)
 * There Goes Rhymin' Simon (1973, Columbia)
 * Impromptu (Mercury, 1962)
 * Do You Know the Way? (1968, Milestone)
 * Hustlin' (1964, Blue Note)
 * Easy Walker (1966, Blue Note)
 * The Spoiler (1966, Blue Note)
 * The Electric Boogaloo Song (Prestige, 1969)
 * Easterly Winds (1967, Blue Note)
 * The Incredible Kai Winding Trombones (1960, Impulse!)
 * The Young Lions (1960, Vee-Jay Records)