Essiet Okon Essiet

Essiet Okon Essiet is one of the most in-demand bassists in the hard-bop tradition, prized for a deep, propulsive sound that has anchored the rhythm sections of many of the music's leading figures. Born in 1956 in Omaha, Nebraska to Nigerian parents, he took up the violin as a boy before switching to bass as a teenager in Portland, Oregon. He came to wide notice in Bobby Watson's group Horizon and served as the last bassist in Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, playing with Blakey until the drummer's death in 1990. Over the following decades he recorded and toured with Abdullah Ibrahim, Freddie Hubbard, Cedar Walton, Benny Golson, Kenny Barron, and Kurt Elling, among many others. He also leads IBO, a project named for a Nigerian people that weaves West African rhythms into a jazz setting.