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Good to hear you’re back!

I think we've probably exhausted that seam now, yes!

One of my favourites soul basslines is from a Omar track, nice find!

Can I humbly suggest we think of something other than every permutation of his Meaty Goodness now?

Such a fitting video reply!

Moat Loaf

Meat Laaf?

You are right - fundamentally, the bassline is not a bassline, but a series of riffs and fills. I did actually try to play Bar 11 and needed to work out a different fingering to accommodate all the notes - by my reckoning, that's a 2 octave range, in a bar made up of 8th and 16th notes, with double-stops. I like your implied advice about basslines needing to have rhythmic or melodic repetition. I can work with that.

I second that emulsion - Smokey Robinson

There were some very good players there when I was there, and I recall the jazz pianist Howard Riley (who I've just learned died this year too) had a jazz workshop in the afternoon. I used to sit in and occasionally attempt to play (yeah I was crap )

1) What's the tempo? - 78 BPM (according to the Tap Tempo on my metronome) 2) Is there some pattern that repeats itself over the parts? Good question - you are making me think. So, no repetitions that I can see or hear. Bars 5, 24, 43 and 62 cover the start of each verse, four bars over the chords D, Bm, Em and A. 2a) I am not able to see anything like that, yet, but most likely I should play it through first. 3) Done by a machine (see the first notes in bar 15)? Oh yes! So, a D and an E - two note a tone apart, that sound pretty muddy in that register - and it is hard to play. 3a) How does it sound straight from the computer? It works as a bassline - it is technically correct. However, it seems unnecessarily busy and noodley. As if a bedroom-player learnt some Jaco licks, and is trying to fit them all in. No real feel for how the line supports the band, but instead, a bass solo. 4) What kind of band is playing? Bass plus Drummer, Keys, guitar, vox, cello, flute. 4a) Is it even possible to go up high if there are keys close by? Soundwise it may be feasible to stay in the half and first position. Instinctively, I don't want to be ranging from the low B to a high E om the G string. So, I will stay low. 5) I think (this is my very biased opinion) that bass should be rhythmic instrument in modern music. Yes. Very biased, but very correct! I can't play the written line - if I could, I wouldn't be in a scratch church band playing carols! So, I think that I need to include a few riffs and pentatonic noodles, a couple of octave jumps, and waggle my head a bit. Instant funky, when you've ordered your bass player from Temu . . .

I always think rhythm first, note second 👍

Some more Bob Mintzer, have a crack at the Will Lee bass part from the tune 'Truth Spoken Here' from the 2013 Live Bob Mintzer Big Band album 'Get Up'! Meaty as ever with a lovely Fender Jazz growl. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/truth-spoken-here-bob-mintzer-big-band/

Meat Loan.

Instant red flag for me right there. Yes, it's hard to read/play, because a human wouldn't come up with some of those ideas (bar 11!). The main thing is not the unnecesary complexity, more that it lacks musicality - as @itu said above, there's no discernable bassline for the listener (or even the bass player) to latch onto as it lacks rhythmic or melodic repetition. My advice would be to ask the MD for a chord chart and do your own thing, starting with the bare minimum of accompaniment - people (and machines, it seems) often think that 'funky' = make it as busy as possible, but that's rarely the case.

UPDATE: Well, after the March 2025 Outlaws reunion gigs (ridiculously successful), Sam has returned for Dec 27th. The Wharf awarded us NYE as soon as he said he was coming back, and it sold out pretty much instantly. Decided I needed to get the Yellow Little (sorry, but it really is a dim name for a Bronco Knock off...) sounding better. Already plays really well. Had a small-pots P loom from wiremaster @KiOgon, got a cheap Musiclily rails humbucker. Put 'em altogether, and BOOM, away we go. A bit of context to these gigs: both the earlier ones and the upcoming NYE and Jan 10th at the Wharf are really because Sam has to come back to see his Dad, who is losing a battle with Parkinsons. The family came last time. This time, Sam's alone and the gigs will help in some way to offset the cost of an Oz/UK return ticket at the most expensive time of year. I need to go practice!

Second time we've played at the Crown in Rugeley. Parking is a bit dodgy, and our singer had to get from Worcester up the M6 on a Friday evening so he was a bit late. It's rather cramped there but we squeezed in a bit better than last time. That's just before we started, when the singer broke his first string of the night (final score: three). Audience reaction was the same as the first time we played here - we'd be playing a song, there would be quite a few people reacting to it or singing along, then at the end of the song absolutely no applause (apart from drummer's wife and guitarist's girlfriend). And no calls for more at the end, and we're not one of those bands who insist on playing the encores, so we didn't. Everyone was very friendly though, and one of the bouncers was very complimentary. A little incident did occur - towards the end of the second set, nearing the end of a song, I noticed a woman at the back of the room (which wasn't very far away) in some sort of physical distress, and the man she was with got an inhaler out for her. Our guitarist's girlfriend is a nurse and I was going to point her at the woman, but she noticed her just as we reached the end of the song and went over to check on her. Apparently she reeked of fags and had had a fair bit to drink, so she rather brought it on herself (I think it's reasonably clear which "she" is which). Edit to add: Sei Flamboyant 5 -> M-Vave wireless -> Zoom MS-60B+ -> Tecamp Puma 900 -> GR Bass AT212, Caravelle memory foam trainers (and thermal non-slip socks).

Hi there, and welcome to the nicest, most inclusive forum I've ever been part of.

Fender, you shameless bastards people.