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Bassist
Julian Euell is one of the excellent players who came up studying modern jazz at New York City's Third Street Settlement House in the second half of the '40s. He might not be the first name to be dropped when jazz buffs begin a discussion of rhythm section players, but that type of patter is trumped by the fact that
Charles Mingus -- one of the greatest bass players in the genre's history -- was a big fan of
Euell. The
Euell career starts off impressively with the bassist backing up brilliant players such as tenor saxophonist
Sonny Rollins and alto saxophonist
Jackie McLean, sometimes in the company of drummer
Art Taylor. But
Euell also soon began a kind of on-again, off-again relationship with professional music that continued through his life, leaving the ranks of the gigging from 1949 through 1952 for a steady post office job.
He was also involved in music only part-time during some sections of the '50s, receiving a sociology degree from Columbia University during this decade as well as working as a counselor in Newark, NJ, youth programs. The former interest highly influenced his son, also named
Julian Euell, who eventually became a sociology professor at Cornell University. Still, the bassist had time to play on great records and gigs in the '50s as well as to study with
Mingus himself. In the late '50s
Euell was active with two great pianists,
Mal Waldron and
Randy Weston, creating modern jazz that the bassist told critic and biographer
Leonard Feather represented a high point in his career. ~ Eugene Chadbourne