This list of jazz bassists includes performers of the double bass and since the 1950s, and particularly in the jazz subgenre of jazz fusion which developed in the 1970s, electric bass players.
The most influential jazz double bassists from the 1940s and 1950s include bassist Jimmy Blanton (1918–1942) (a member of the Duke Ellington band); Oscar Pettiford (1922–1960), who is considered by bassists and musicologists to be the first bebop bassist and the transitional link from the swing era to bebop. Ray Brown (1926–2002), known for backing a number of beboppers, including alto virtuoso Charlie Parker; Milt Hinton (1910–2000) and George Duvivier (1920–1985), who are the two most recorded bassists in jazz history, their respective careers spanning many eras and genres; a singular creative force was Wilbur Ware (1923–1979) legendary bassist with Monk and others, hard bop bassist Ron Carter (born 1937); and Paul Chambers (1935–1969), a member of the Miles Davis Quintet.
In the experimental post 1960s eras, which saw the development of free jazz and jazz-rock fusion, some of the influential bassists included Charles Mingus (1922–1979) and free jazz and post-bop bassist Charlie Haden (1937–2014).
In the post-1970s era of jazz-rock fusion, the electric bass became an important jazz instrument; virtuoso Stanley Clarke (born 1951) played both the double bass and the electric bass. Fusion performer Jaco Pastorius (1951–1987) contributed to the development of a new approach to the fretless electric bass, adding a creative use of harmonics and chords, both while a member of the band Weather Report and in his solo recordings.
In the 1990s and 2000s, one of the new "young lions" for jazz bass was Christian McBride (born 1972).In mid to late 2000s, another new "young lion" for jazz bass emerged: Miles Mosley (born 1980) a member of the acclaimed Los Angeles collective, the West Coast Get Down.
For double bass players in other styles of music, such as Blues and Folk, see the List of double bassists in popular music.