Coleridge Goode: Bassist and singer who played with Grappelli and Reinhardt

Standing at well over six feet tall, Coleridge Goode, who has died of a heart attack at the age of 100, was also a towering figure in the history of British jazz. He distinguished himself as one of the country's most technically gifted and melodic double bassists and singers for over 70 years. His immense talents graced bands, recording studios and venues across Europe.

Coleridge George Emerson Goode, named after the composer, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, was born into a middle-class family in Jamaica in 1914. His religious father, George Goode, who was also fond of the classics, was a part-time choirmaster and organist at the St Michael's and All Angels Church in Kingston, while his mother Hilda sang in the Kingston Parish Choir. Young Coleridge grew up in a milieu in which the works of Handel and Bach were regular features of his soundscape.

He excelled at the violin from an early age. Alongside his musical interests, he also played football and cricket and was a very good student. He nurtured the desire to become an electrical engineer, and with his father's assistance left Jamaica in 1934 to attend Glasgow's Royal Technical College, a precursor to the University of Strathclyde. Though he frequently faced racial taunts in the streets of a Scottish city unaccustomed to a black presence, he went on to graduate in electrical engineering from Glasgow University.

Discovering jazz on the radio as a student, and falling under the sway of Walter Page, Count Basie's bassist, Goode took up the bass and listened intently to Duke Ellington, Louis Jordan and Billie Holiday. He also paid close attention to the styles of bassists Leroy "Slam" Stewart and Jimmy Blanton. Coleridge was especially drawn to the unique way in which Slam sang and plucked or bowed the strings of his double bass, and this quickly became part of his style.

To his parents' disappointment, Goode abandoned his ambitions of returning to the Caribbean as an engineer. He moved to London in 1942, quickly establishing himself in some of the most sought-after venues in the West End, like the Panama Club and Caribbean Club, performing in groups with pianist Dick Katz, trumpeter Johnny Claes and guitarist Lauderic Caton.

Owing to his musical finesse and sophistication, Coleridge Goode frequently found himself surrounded by some of the most innovative jazz musicians of his day. His stint with Django Reinhardt exemplifies this: he recorded the legendary Roma guitarist's composition, "Belleville", for the Decca label in 1946, on a date which also featured the violin virtuoso Stephane Grappelli. Goode also played and recorded with the blind pianist George Shearing and drummer Ray Ellington as part of the Stephane Grappelli Quintet and with the Tito Burns Sextet.

It was in the band of another artistic innovator, the Jamaican alto saxophonist Joe Harriott, that Goode came to even more critical attention. Relating his experiences to co-author Roger Cotterell in their book, Bass Lines: A Life in Jazz (2002), Goode describes playing with Harriott as among "some of the greatest musical adventures of my life".

Goode's imaginative and luminous bass lines illuminated Harriott's fertile and path-breaking experimentations into free-form and hard-bop jazz. This is ably documented on albums such as Southern Horizons and Free Form (1960), Abstract (1962), Movement (1963) and High Spirits (1964), where Goode deftly takes care of bass duties alongside the Vincentian trumpet and flugelhorn player Shake Keane, pianist Pat Smythe, and drummers Bobby Orr and Phil Seamen.

Goode also worked extensively with Mike Garrick, memorably contributing a fine vocal in the manner of Slam Stewart to the pianist's "The Lord's Prayer" on the Jazz Praises album of 1968. This would have undoubtedly conjured up memories of growing up in the shadow of the church in Jamaica.

Coleridge was active on the jazz scene into his nineties, regularly playing in the house band at drummer Laurie Morgan's Sunday Jam sessions at the King's Head in Crouch End, north London. The bass player and educator, Gary Crosby, first met Goode in Earl's Court in 1980, when he was working across the road from a club where Goode was playing. Crosby said he was "deeply impressed not only by his technical ability, but also his immense musicality – watching him sing and bow his bass simultaneously was like having a live history lesson that harked back to the great Slam Stewart, Major Holley and Jimmy Blanton."

In 2011 Goode was honoured in the House of Commons at the Parliamentary Jazz Awards for Services to Jazz. In 2014 he celebrated his 100th birthday at a special performance organised for him as part of the annual London Jazz Festival. His wife Gertrude died in June at the age of 96. He is survived by his daughter Sandy and son James.

JOHN STEVENSON

Coleridge Goode, musician: born Jamaica 29 November 1914; married Gertrude (died 2015; one daughter, one son); died 2 October 2015.