Bilbo

Is Dave Goodier still in Bristol? He is a nice player.

Great replies above. My perspective is, it depends on how well you know the material. I do gigs every week with a whole range of artists who bring varying levels of expectation to each gig. If I get called to solo on a blues, I am in the zone and am playing entirely my own ideas executed by ear etc. If I am playing rhtyhm changes at 320 bpm, like I was last week with Simon Spillett, I am using a much higher degree of muscle memory interspersed with bullshit. If I am on a ballad I don't know with a range of complex harmonies, I am invariably crashing and burning It's all of the above. Some of my solos are strong, some are weak and some are total trainwrecks. Improvisation is, by definition, a high risk undertaking and you are going to be unhappy with what you do most of the time. It's the thrill of the chase as much as it is the winning. I cannot, for instance, do anything meaningful with Giant Steps. Too fast, too complex for my little ears. I know some very competent players who can get through it but who feel the same; it's maths not music. Then you hear someone like Chris Potter do it and you think 'I am a w*****'.

I know Steve Swallow carries an amp but hires cabs. I think that is one practice. Most people who play at my venue bring their own but I guess it depends on distance, the nature of the gear etc.

Came across these at Mum's last Saturday. They were taken by a friend of mine at the Ebbw Vale Garden Festival in the early 1990s. Or was it Live at Pompeii? [URL=http://s283.photobucket.com/user/bilbo230763/media/Ebbw%20Vale%20Garden%20Festival%20001_zpsvn9bkfgb.jpg.html][IMG]http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk287/bilbo230763/Ebbw%20Vale%20Garden%20Festival%20001_zpsvn9bkfgb.jpg[/IMG][/URL] [URL=http://s283.photobucket.com/user/bilbo230763/media/001_zpsxdmk8ur8.jpg.html][IMG]http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk287/bilbo230763/001_zpsxdmk8ur8.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

A great songwriter and lyricist who, like many great artists, gets remembered for his look and his 'pop' hits. I don't have any of his stuff but that Alone Again Naturally lyric is really deep. Ian Shaw has recorded a stunning version of it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8UbNFnYWw8

Saw them at Bristol Colston Hall in 1836. Great band (it wasn't Pino on bass but I cannot remember who it was)

No such thing as an illegitimate technique. It's all about the music. If you can make a musical noise using any part of the body (easy, tiger), it's legitimate. You can argue whether there is a more efficient means etc but legitimacy is always a moot point. Anything else is missing the point.

Depends how you play it. 'St Thomas' is a Sonny Rollins composition and the original was a calypso that eventually went into a swing groove after Max Roach's drum solo (3.51). You can do whatever you want with it. That's the whole point. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UA2XIWZxMKM There are also solo sax versions like this one from Branford Marsalis (I love this one - tried transcribing it for bass but it got too hard) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QC8Bmf_KRA

I don't see it a 'learning to play the fretless' as much as 'playing the fretless'. A fretless is just a fretted bass without frets. It is not a 'new' instrument. A guitarist who plays six string doesn't need to 'learn' how to play 12 string. You need to explore the potential of a new voice but 'learning to play the fretless' is setting up a psychological barrier that isn't there.

When I started playing gigs, I was a plectrum player in a heavy metal band. I went off it entirely for about two decades and never used a plectrum on bass, preferring finger style. As I have been playing Jazz on double bass a lot for the last few years, the pick was reserved entirely for guitar. I studied Al DiMeola's picking technique and got pretty sharp on guitar as a result but I never used it on bass. My wife recently bought me one of those ridiculously good Harley Benton seven string basses, however, and, for some reason, I started playing it with a pick straight off the bat. This video was shot the second time I have played it and the first time I had played it through an amp. I find it a interesting concept, a kind of Steve Swallow meets Jim Hall vibe. I have been practicing Bach Cello Suites on it with a pick and it sounds really clean. I am actually enjoying the accurate intonation, having played fretless and, later, double bass pretty much exclusively for decades!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6AHkcNO0bg

There is something about a Ric.....

[URL=http://s283.photobucket.com/user/bilbo230763/media/Simon%20Spillett%20Quartetcolour_zpsthm8hq2e.jpg.html][IMG]http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk287/bilbo230763/Simon%20Spillett%20Quartetcolour_zpsthm8hq2e.jpg[/IMG][/URL] [URL=http://s283.photobucket.com/user/bilbo230763/media/Hurley%20and%20palmer%20Three_zpsno34epga.jpg.html][IMG]http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk287/bilbo230763/Hurley%20and%20palmer%20Three_zpsno34epga.jpg[/IMG][/URL] [URL=http://s283.photobucket.com/user/bilbo230763/media/Looking%20up%20at%20Spillett_zpsguwrmplm.jpg.html][IMG]http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk287/bilbo230763/Looking%20up%20at%20Spillett_zpsguwrmplm.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

The B in the melody defines the chord type just as much as the C root. It HAS to be a Cminmaj7. Real books are great but are seldom completely reliable.

Voted.

I used to do my work at home to Brand X when I was in art college. 1982-3.

Phew! One vote. My public adores me!

Look, Dad. I thought we had an agreement......

I picked up a heavy music stand last Sunday and the top bit dropped off onto aside of my double bass, putting a very tea crack in it. Being a hollow instrument with it's sound generated by the resonance of the instrument as a whole, this appeared devastating. I picked it up, played it, realised that it didn't effect the sound and immediately lost all anxiety. I will get it repaired in time but, as long as the instrument 'works', I am not remotely bothered by cosmetic scarring. It's not important.

Nothing wrong with the story but the conclusion is nonsense. Too much theory cannot stifle creativity any more than knowing too many words can make you a bad writer. Knowledge of every single musicological fact will not make you able to write great music. Nor will it prevent you from doing so.

[quote name='sprocketflup' timestamp='1453026498' post='2955570'] That's fine Bilbo, as long as you understand that lots of people don't give a rats arse for your opinion, respected forum moderator or not. Haters gonna hate. Fcuk 'em and feed 'em rice. [/quote] Absolutely 😃

[quote name='Truckstop' timestamp='1453051145' post='2955966'] Bass always sounds better 10m away from the amp! [/quote] +1 I think bass always sounds different depending where you are in the room

I have played in two. A Kool and the Gang gig which I only did two rehearsals for and a Brit Pop girls gig I even got as far as gigging with. I just can't do it and think it is lame as fcuk. I don't give a rat's arse whether others like it, learn from it or make money from it, my own thoughts are well known. It's not for me, as a player or spectator (never seen one).

Agreed 100% but I have come to realise that being better does not mean playing better music or getting more gigs so agonising over minutiae is something I no longer do.

I am a promoter. Www.jazzeast.vpweb.co.uk When an artist appears, they get an agreed fee. The sidemen get an agreed fee. I get nothing. Not all promotion has a profit motive. Sometimes it is simply about advocacy and avoiding a loss.