Bilbo

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It is about balance, surely. I can get off on a very straight bass line on the occasional tune but, all night? No chance. Some of it is personality; I just cannot do the straight eighths thing all night and stay interested in the gig. I could do it for one gig or a couple maybe but, after that, I would loose my enthusiasm for the music being played and, eventually, walk away. Yes, of course it is about the song but, if all of the songs 'require' that kind of bass line, I am going to quickly come to dislike the lack of contrast in the songs as much as I do the lack of interest in the basslines !!!

Last night, I found another mp3 I hadn't listened to since the gig (months ago). That was also better than I remember. I guess, as a player, you are hearing what it isn't whereas, as a listener, you are just hearing what it is. I get the difference between analysis and creativity but, when you are playing, you have to analyse your sound etc, surely, in order to ensure it is the best it can be? Maybe we should have soundchecked a bit longer (always difficult in an open bar). I think it was the sound more than anything. I hold the view that the swing is in the sound as much as anything and, if that isn't right..... Anyway, I get to do it all again this Sunday. With Art Themen.

I think there is a lot to be said for trying different fingerings etc. For years, I struggled with the main bass riff on Tubular Bells (the one behind the developing list of instruments). I could play it but is felt clunky. I saw Oldfield playing it on a documentary recently and realised my problem wasn't the line, it was my fingering choice. I picked up a bass and could play it immediately, without the hiccups. Some fingering patterns just flow better on some lines.

Love it.

Not at all. The drummer is the best I know and I love playing with him.

In order to learn diffiult passages, I play them again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again.

I did a gig last night with some great players, really top drawer, and, to my ears, it wasn't swinging at all. Nothing I did would make it work for me and I hated the gig. The audience was happy, the other musicians were up-beat but, for me, it was a bummer. I listened back to a recording I made of the gig (1st set) this morning and its fine; not the best gig ever or anything but the basics are certainly all there and it swings just fine. What was that all about?

Played with a monstrously good vibes player last night; Lewis Wright from the band Emprical. Also in the gig was Kevin Flanagan, probably the best tenor player in Eastern region (he is from the US/Boston) and Russ Morgan who has played with everyone in the UK and is, himself, more than exceptional. Three great, great players. And I played like a tit. Actually, listening back to my Zoom recording of the gig, it wasn't as bad as I thought, but, on the night, I wasn't feeling it at all. My sound was crap, I couldn't get the level right, nothing I did with the amp or the pre-amp seemed to improve anything etc etc.

Where to did you play them? I would love to try a six.

And no-one matches Joni. Sublime. [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKQSlH-LLTQ"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKQSlH-LLTQ[/url]

I have a love-hate relationship with Diana Krall but this is lovely. [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=it1NaXrIN9I"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=it1NaXrIN9I[/url]

The massively under-rated Janis Siegel. [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAtJXSodaDQ"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAtJXSodaDQ[/url]

[quote name='bobbass4k' timestamp='1389497979' post='2334869'] If you like time signatures you're in for a treat, at last count there was 13 of the things. [/quote] On purpose or by accident?

Chris Potter - The Sirens

Oh and my favourite simple is best line 'Ladies Night In Buffalo' by Dave Lee Roth (Billy Sheehan keeping his powder dry).

So many to choose from. Try 'Are You Going With Me' (Travels), 'Slip Away' (Letter From Home), Last Train Home' (Still LIfe), 'Spring Ain't Here' (LFH)

The collected works of Steve Rodby (Pat Metheny Group).

I think that is the point. Some arranger can spend four times the time it takes the writer to put the song together and to make it presentable and then the songwriter gets all the kudos. SOme songs seem to fall from the ether (I have done them in 30 minutes from conception to recorded) whilst others are agonised over for weeks months or even years. But they all have the same 'market' value. There is a lot of luck involved, I think (althought the harder we work at it, the luckier we get).

The issue is that the writer of a song, say Morrison and Moondance (assuming he wrote it ), gets his royalties not only from his version but every other version. Now for Moondance that is 1,000s of versions. But for a tune like, say, that Wet Wet Wet thing that went mental (I feel it in my fingers, la la la). The original was mildly successful and went awaty whilst the remake was massively massive. And yet the original songwriter gets the lion's share of the royalties. PS I really don't care about any of this

I always wanted to play a stadium/arena. The biggest audience I ever performed in front of was at the most 4,000 (one of those orchestra with fireworks events on the grounds of a stately home). I just wondered what it would be like to play to ont of those massive crowds. Not likely to happen now (its a real result if jazz audiences reach triple figures). I'll live.

I get that the song is the thing but there are so many examples of songs that are dead in the water until some producer, arranger whatever breaths new life into it. The catalyst gets very little, the writer of the song gets everything. Doesn't seem fair.

The Impossible Gentlemen - Play The Game. Steve Swallow, Adamm Nussbaum, Gwilym Simcock and the astonishing Mike Walker. What a band! What a tune! What a performance! Energy, ideas, swing. Monster! It is on Spotify - go!! Now!!

Can't watch the video here but it has often struck me as peculiar that the songwriter gets so much in the way of royalties compared to other 'stakeholders' in the process. There are some great songs that have become massive hits but, without the arranger, producer, musicians, performer, even the video director etc the 'song' can a bit something and nothing. I head some old Hoagy Carmichael tunes once, performed as he intended, and they were pretty crap really; the band was weak, the performances lame etc. And yet, years of re-arrangements through hundreds of fresh ears, voices, instrumentalists and they are classics. I get that the 'idea' is the important part but, actually, is it the [i]only[/i] important part?

[quote name='BetaFunk' timestamp='1389218615' post='2331630'] You're not paying attention Bilbo. I posted that before Christmas especially for you! [/quote] I cannot always see the videos posted here as I look at Basschat primarily in work and on a Kindle HD, neither of which allows me to even see the embedded videos let alone watch them. Thanks for thinking of me.