Bilbo

I have had this 29 years now. It's 30 next March.

Any time practising is useful. Jazz gigs without drummers used to fill me with dread. Now I prefer them.

I am sitting here listening to Swallow (with Carla Bley and Andy Sheppard) and he makes me want to get a five string fretted bass (E-C) and play like Jim Hall.

I finf Ornette to be one of those artists who produced some absolutely sublime material interspersed with some which is all but unlistenable! "Kathelin Gray", a track of his Song X LP with Pat Metheny is deep stuff. What is unquestionable was his vision and his commitment to his own artistry. One of the greats.

Did a gig in a theatre last night. Apparently it was built in 1905. I think that was also the last time it was cleaned.

Don't worry. It will appear at your door in a massive box that you will easily be able to lift into your living space so you can unpack it (the box was big enough for me to stand in and I am 6'1"). Double basses aren't heavy, they are just big/unweildy. They tend to come with the bridge collapsed so you have to set it up yourself (line it up with the notches in the f-holes. It's easy; takes two minutes and no tools are required). You will be playing it within ten minutes of the door kocking. Enjoy.

Mike is a monster. He has played with Billy Cobham, Trilok Gurtu, John McLaughlin, Django Bates, Iain Ballamy and many more. His own trio with his brother, called MGM until they were threatened with litigation, were interesting (I saw them supporting Bill Bruford's Earthworks in the 1990s). And a nice guy to talk to also, very approachable.

I cannot comment on the issue of suitability for arco as I don't really use the technique but I can say that Gedo-Musik's service is exceptional.

Techno - John Scofield (Darryl Jones)

[quote name='lurksalot' timestamp='1433792573' post='2794048'] And further I would say that the pieces that I put up and like the best ,tend to get more listens , one thing that does happen though, is that when I play a tune on soundcloud then it plays another straight after , and invariably it picks one from your playlist Rob [/quote] Result!!!

My point was simply that people do listen.

I just wanted to comment on the fact that my piece has been listened to 49 times since I posted it last week. I have friends who are professional tv/film composers whose sound cloud pieces have 7 or 8 listens. Most of my stuff gets listened to a couple of hundred times! Power to the Basschat Composition Challenge!!

Thanks, Pops x

Steve Reich meets King Crimson https://soundcloud.com/robert-palmer-1/the-daughter-didnt-oughta

[quote name='EliasMooseblaster' timestamp='1433512297' post='2791732'] Does Jazz have a pioneering electric bassist? My obvious suggestion would be Monk Montgomery, but then I really can't think of very many bass guitarists who play 'true' Jazz! (i.e., as opposed to some flavour of Jazz-influenced Fusion/Funk) [/quote] Exactly. What defines pioneering? I would suggest Steve Swallow.

I just read up on this and the whole thing is summed up in one sentence: 'The key signature is not the same as the key' A key signature is not the same as a [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Key_%28music%29"]key[/url]; key signatures are merely notational devices. They are convenient principally for [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diatonic"]diatonic[/url] or [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonality"]tonal[/url] music. Reducing the number of accidentals is their objective but, outside of very simple musics, it will never eliminate the need for them. Writing a piece that is in a melodic minor key, you could use the Major key a third higher or the minor key a third lower and both would have the same number of accidentals. Neither is wrong.

Helpful stuff. Thank you for the link (why ddn't I think to go there - I guess it is because my music computer is not linked to the internet)?

Jaco is barely a Jazz player at all. He does make a contribution to Jazz on one level but is nowhere near hardcore and it would be wrong to call him a pioneer in Jazz. Fusion, yes absolutely. Funk maybe. 'Electric bass' definitely. In Jazz terms, however, he is certainly not a pioneer in any real sense. You would need to look at double bass players for that. The received wisdom says guys like John Kirby (first band leading bassist), Walter Page/Wellman Braud (started 'walking' with Ellington), Slam Stewart (early bowing solos), Jimmy Blanton (first 'soloist' in a mainstream band), Ray Brown, Oscar Pettiford, \\\\\\\red Callender, Charles Mingus, Paul Chambers then guys like Gary Peacock, Scott LaFaro, Charlile Haden (Free Jazz). Jazz bass without Jaco wouldn't look much different whilst pop without Jamerson would be unrecognisable.

Let it go, bro. Let it go.

I was having this problem again last night. Fortunately it was a bass VST so I can revisit it with a real bass without any problem but it remains annoying. Strangely, it seems to happen only with some software. Whenever I use my Miroslav Philharmonik, it all works ok but if I use a Halion player loaded with soiund files, it all gets a bit unstable and things chage unilaterally without notice, I was using an edirol orchestral VST last night and, whenever I changed a patch to marimba, if I stopped the track and started it again, the marimba turned into tympany because tympani was the default for that channel.

13/15. Didn't get the cadence and the 6:8 note.

[quote name='ras52' timestamp='1433320083' post='2789967'] Just call it 13/8, you jazz-progger you! [/quote] It's an approach. Seriously, it's a bitch to read.

I put something together last night that I think is a credible starting point, Just need to see where it goes. It alternates between bars of 3:4 and 7:8. Yummy!!

Is it April 1st?

Listen to Percy Jones. It's all in there. Slinding octaves is nice on a fretless. Because you are playing the same note but not exactly in tune (as it would be on a fretted bass), it has a lovely chorusing effect. You can actually play the higher note slightly flat on purpose to create the effect. I have to say, though, as a fretless player for nearly 30 years, I don't play with 'fretless effects', I just play bass. It is surprising how many of the tricks you are describing can sound derivative. I guess it's how and where you use them.