Bilbo

I have so lost my mojo. I look at these every month and nothing...

Haslip is in Ronnie's in a couple of weeks with Mike Stern, I think.

Yellowjackets do that, a couple of 'singles' amongst the more demanding stuff. Been that was since the first album with Robben Ford on it.

I dropped a b******k. This is the bass part to the track 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' from the 2017 Django Bates album, 'Saluting Sergeant Pepper' with the Frankfurt Radio Big Band. There is no way to post the tune itself on here and the only way to hear it is to buy the album. Sorry! https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/sgt-peppers-lonely-hearts-club-band-django-bates/

A new player on here, this is the Felix Pastorius bass line for the Bob Mintzer tune, 'I Knew His Father' from the 2013 Yellowjackets album, 'A Rise In The Road'. Shades of Weather Report. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/i-knew-his-father-yellowjackets/

That's 200 transcriptions since I re-started everything on January 11th. Next big target, the 1000 🤪

An old favourite of mine, this is the bass part to the Sting tune 'They Dance Alone' from the 1987 album, 'Nothing Like The Sun'. It was Sting himself who played the double bass on this tune (Tracy Wormworth was the bass player on the tour). Pretty easy read until it gets to the last section but that is easy enough to play as it is standard samba groove. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/they-dance-alone-gueco-solo-sting/

Another Hiromi Trio Project part, this is the complete Anthony Jackson performance of the tune 'Temptation' from the 2011 'Voice' album. Fairly accessible but you will need a low B to play the chart as is (if you haven't, just transpose the low notes up an octave). https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/temptation-hiromi-uehara/

A simple one this evening, for new readers. This is the Ugonna Okegwo bass part for the tune 'You Don't Know What Love Is' from the 1994 Leon Parker album, 'Above And Below'. It is a simple part that mostly repeats the same phrase rhythmically throughout but changes in line with the root notes of the chords of the tune. A simple exercise in note recognition. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/you-dont-know-what-love-is-leon-parker/

A request off Talkbass, this is the complete Marc Johnson performance of the tune 'Faith In You' from that same 1998 John album, 'Sound Of Summer Running'. Lovely line that evidences Johnson's subtle creativity really well. Not a chopsy chart, just constantly evolving lines. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/faith-in-you-marc-johnson/

The evidence supports that, absolutely. Pino, Lee Sklar, Will Lee, Charlie Haden, Steve Swallow, even Marcus. All these guys have massive CVs whereas the Jeff Berlins, Hadrien Fraud, Michael Manrings etc crowd are much more limited in their catalogues. Who gets the Steely Dan gigs etc? Always the solid guys.

It's absolutely brilliant in terms of creative walking bass. Veal is massively underrated because he is not noted as a flashy soloist but he is, for me, one of the greatest Jazz players of his era. Solid as a rock and drenched in the Blues.

It's a blues in F. F7, Bb7 F7 / Bb7 / F7 D7 Gm7 C7 F7 / I don't normally do chords as the purpose of the transcriptions is to promote reading not learning theory. There are people/websites out there that do all that better than I can. I'm just dumb enough to sit there for hours transcribing details that no-one else can be bothered to look for.

This one took me days - a bit of a roast. I think it would have been easier had I not Moised it! The bass sounds better in the original mix. The is the Reginald Veal bass part to the tune 'Blutain' from the 1996 Branford Marsalis Trio album, 'The Dark Keys' (was it really 30 years ago?). Veal's part is stunningly creative whilst retaining the core aspects of swing, sounding simultanously fresh and ancient. Jeff Watts is incredible also. A great album that is highly recommended. I wish I could have done these transcriptions 30 years ago. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/blutain-branford-marsalis/

I always used to smile when I saw early photos of Pat Metheny playing his Gibson Es175. He suffered a broken strap button early on in his career and did a temporary fix with a toothbrush. It stayed like that for decades.

I am working on a long complicated Branford Marsalis tune and needed some respite so I have put together this transcription of the Adalberto Cevasco bass part for the tune 'Milonga Del Angel' from the 2010 Astor Piazzolla release 'Piazzolla En Suite'. An easy read but a lovely piece. You can't have enough Piazzolla. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/milonga-del-angel-astor-piazzolla/

i have bit more space now, Dave, so I will try and make sense of it for you. A head refers to the tune's melody. If you take something like the Wynton Marsalis tune on the website called 'Play The Blues And Go', the head is the first 44 bars. In reality, it is and 8-bar intro followed by 3x12 bar heads repeated (first piano only, second and third with horns). After that it is just a band playing fairly conventional 12-bar blues. A head chart would just have the 12 bar tune with something like 'solo over a C blues'. A 'chorus', in this case, is 12 bars i.e. once around the chord sequence. Sounds complicated written down like that but it's simple enough once you understand the principle. It then translates to any tune however simple or complicated. Many of the tunes on the website are of this type; round and round the same chord sequence with someone soloing over the songs changes.

This is a head chart. It contains only the melody and the chords. Everything else, you are expected to know e.g. how to play a walking bass line over those changes (chord sequence), how to voice the chords on a piano or guitar, how to solo over those changes, what chords and scales work, how to start the tune, how to end it etc. My charts tell you exactly what was played on a recording. These head charts are as much an aide memoir as anything and are a guide to get you all working together on the same tune. They are useless if you don't know what is required of you. https://images.app.goo.gl/ftUV6PMZp2r4f8cH6

I appreciate that, BB. I had a good session yesterday reading charts I did a while back and it makes such a difference to just keep doing it, over and over and over again. No other way.

Another solo guitar piece, a tune called 'Ubi Sunt' from the 2017 Ralph Towner album 'My Foolish Heart'. A pretty little tune and perfectly playable by anyone with the least amount of guitar chops. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/ubi-sunt-ralph-towner/

I was practising reading today and came across this one that I did ages ago but neglected to put it on the website. It is the complete Richard Bona part for the tune 'Avenue B' from the 2003 Mike Stern Album, 'These Times'. Not massively challenging but a nice tune to test your progress on. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/avenue-b-mike-stern/

Lovely and an uplifting story. Thanks for sharing.

Do you need another bass (as well as, not instead of)? Most of us do.

I have it quite bad but, as my relationship with really loud music is minimal, I have put it down to my diabetes so there isn't a lot I can do about it. It's just there. Not debilitating but I do find myself occasionally wondering what real silence sounds like as opposed to the silence that goes 'WEEEEEEEEEEEEE......'

Something really special - no chops, just beautiful bass playing on a beautiful tune. This is the complete Jay Anderson bass part to the stunning 'Walking By Flashlight' from the 2015 Maria Schneider Orchestra album, 'The Thompson Fields'. I saw this band at Cadogan Hall some years ago and it sticks with me as one of the most exceptional evenings of music that I have ever witnessed. Thanks to my old friend Paul Hornsby for turning my on to this lady's work. It's not hard to play but I challenge anyone to match this performance. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/walking-by-flashlight-maria-schneider/