Steve Gilmore (musician)

Steven Dirk Gilmore (born January 21, 1943, Trenton, New Jersey) is an American jazz double-bassist raised in the Philadelphia area. Steve attended a high school music program, and was gigging with local musicians when he was 14 years old. Upon high school graduation, and after a year of business college, Steve attended the Advanced School of Contemporary Music run by the Oscar Peterson Trio in Toronto where he studied with the bassist Ray Brown.

Steve then played gigs in the Catskill and Pocono mountains before moving to Miami in 1967. At that point he was able to land a job with Flip Phillips and eventually Ira Sullivan for two years, along the way playing with musicians as Joe Diorio and Vince Maggio.

Upon his return to the New York City area in 1971, Steve teamed up with drummer Bill Goodwin. Together they formed the nucleus for several bands including Mose Allison, the National Jazz Ensemble, Tom Waits, and eventually Phil woods band with whom he remained for 40 plus years.

In the 1970 and 1980s Steve also performed on a regular basis with Al Cohn / Zoot Simms, the Thad Jones - Mel Lewis Orchestra, Richie Cole, John Coates Jr., and Dave Frishberg. In 1990 Steve also began associations with Dave Leibman, Susanna McCorkle, Carol Sloane, Tony Bennett, Jim Hall, and Bill Charlap.

Gilmore picked up bass when he was twelve years old and played locally in Philadelphia as a teenager. At age 17 he enrolled at the Advanced School of Contemporary Music, run by Oscar Peterson, and later in the 1960s played with Ira Sullivan and the Baker's Dozen Big Band. He joined Flip Phillips's group in 1967 and remained with Phillips until 1971, after which he worked with Al Cohn and Zoot Sims, Mose Allison, The Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra, Phil Woods, Richie Cole, and the National Jazz Ensemble. In the 1980s he played with John Coates Jr., Meredith D'Ambrosio, Dave Frishberg, Hal Galper, Tom Harrell, and Toshiko Akiyoshi, as well as with Woods; he and Woods would remain collaborators into the 1990s. In 1988 he began working with Dave Liebman, with whom he would work intermittently through the late 1990s. Other associations in the 1990s included Carol Sloane, Susannah McCorkle, Bill Charlap, and Jim Hall.