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Bilbo

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Everything posted by Bilbo

  1. Bilbo
    592 hits on the website yesterday!
  2. Bilbo
    Another easy one, this chart is one of the easiest reads on the website. This is not a celebration of the playing capabilities of Andy Gonzalez (who is a monster presence on the Latin Jazz scene) but a simple performance exercise for the developing reader. Technically only 13 bars long, the chart is two eight bar sections in C minor which repeat four times and three time respectively before ending on the root. Straight quarter-notes throughout. It is included here to evidence how reading, even at this level, can help even the most rudimentary reader generate a performance of something exquisite and beautiful. It would also be nice to think that it could introduce some of the world’s bass players to the heart rending music of Astor Piazzolla. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/tango-apasionado-prologue-astor-piazzolla/
  3. Bilbo
    Chris Childs was from Cardiff wasn't he? I think I saw him at the Four Bars Inn once. Played a Status?
  4. Bilbo
    My four were always Jaco, Percy Jones, Jeff Berlin and Jimmy Johnson. Then Dave Holland, Ron Carter, Marc Johnson, Charlie Haden, Paul Chambers, Martin Brierley, John Giblin, Geddy Lee, Chris Squire, Steve Harris, Anthony Jackson, John Patitucci, Dudley Phillips, Renaud Garcia-Fons and a few dozen other people.
  5. Bilbo
    Meeeeeee! https://open.spotify.com/track/0OwG2EaLAfUVqideTIqXbi?si=904ea3d9abf84de7 https://open.spotify.com/track/1NmTxPc7S2WjGy8hYWwgBj?si=1043423995c74a2c
  6. Bilbo
    A massively important piece for me, this transcription is nothing more than the themes from Ravel's Bolero. In September, 1974, the week I started at Croesyceiliog Comprehensive School in Cwmbran, Monmouthsire, they took us into a newly built music suite and played us two films on an old fashioned movie style projector. One was the Walt Disney film of 'Peter And The Wolf' by Prokofiev and the other was Ravel's 'Bolero'. I remember, as an 11 year old, being absolutely enthralled. I ran home to tell my Mum about it and was beside myself when she was able to reach into her own record collection (these were the days when people only had about 12 albums each) and produced a copy of the recording. I wore it out playing it again and again and again. I still love it today, nearly 47 years later. The transcription consists the main themes which repeat four times on an AABB format before closing on an AB with a tag ending. It is transcribed for 5 string (low Eb and Db) but I think you could play it 8va if you haven't got a fiver). Bolero – Maurice Ravel – Bilbo's Bass Bites (bilbosbassbites.co.uk)
  7. Bilbo
    I don't have a problem with the music in Heavy Metal and all of it's spinoffs but I do have a problem with the posturing which gets more and more cliched as the years pass. I long ago learned that this approach is for young people who express themselves in ways that reflect the zeitgeist of the day and in ways that suggest only a limited perspective on the historical/cultural context in which things take place. In short, I am not the audience they are seeking to appeal to. Motorhead, Zep, Deep Purple, The Who, Iron Butterfly, Mahavishnu Orchestra - they have all been accused of being too heavy, too fast and too loud. It's all 'kin marvellous.
  8. Bilbo
    Lawrence of Arabia (2/8) Movie CLIP - Ali's Well (1962) HD - YouTube
  9. Bilbo
    'Three Nighter', another tune off the 1985 Passport Jazz album, 'Champion' by Jeff Berlin. I didn't transcribe the bass behind the guitar solo as it would have taken too long and have been pretty much unreadable but I have included the seque into the next section. Aside from the odd bar, the whole chart is pretty accessible. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/three-nighter-jeff-berlin/ PS there are now 40 Jeff Berlin transcriptions on there.....:)
  10. Bilbo
    Another Jeff Berlin tune (is that 39?). From his 1985 aolo album 'Champions'', this is my version of the bass part to the power ballad, 'What I Know Now'. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/what-i-know-now-jeff-berlin/
  11. Bilbo
    I have been working on my reading during lockdown and have also been working on reading guitar dots. The difference it has made to my playing is immeasurable. I know my way around a guitar neck much more now and my chops have tightened up. It has forced me to play things that would not have occurred to me had I relied solely upon my ears. As Dodge says, it's an enhancement not a alternative.
  12. Bilbo
    We'll see
  13. Bilbo
    Chris Squire's bass part for the tune, 'Into The Lens' from the 1980 album, 'Drama'. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/into-the-lens-yes/
  14. Bilbo
    A bass head chart for the tune Play from the 1999 Mike Stern album, 'Play'. The bass player on the tune is Lincoln Goines but the chart is a written part so doesn't really feature Goines in any meaningful sense - his playing on the recording is great though (the form is a C Minor Blues) Play – Mike Stern – Bilbo's Bass Bites (bilbosbassbites.co.uk)
  15. Bilbo
    The trouble with the bass in Jazz is nobody knows what it does until it stops doing it.
  16. Bilbo
    Big band bass charts can be notorioulsy lame; R357, R357, R357 and so on. It can sound terrible so you draw upon you own knowledge and experience to add layers of interest.
  17. Bilbo
    You don't have to choose. Do you think Marcus Miller can't jam? Can't improvise? Steve Vai? Steve Morse? Anthony Jackson? Paul Chambers? Jeff Berlin? Jaco Pastorius? Transcribing directly onto the bass is not transcribing. Transcribing is writing down. I am not attacking the basic premise of your video but I think there are as many pitfalls in learning by ear as there are in reading. The first is memory capacity. I have learned thousands of tunes and solos and licks over the years. Can I remember them all? Can I f*** 🤣. I find reading enhances my capacities to perform immeasurably and I don't recognise the negative image of the disciplines presented here. It makes learning so much quicker once you have a handle on it. It's not all about reading on a gig. I do regular Jazz gigs with visiting artists and often the charts are chord charts but with odd passages written in. You never get to see them in advance. Being able to pick things up by ear gets you so far but, if you aren't match fit reading-wise, it can go t*ts up very quickly. This was one chart I got put in front of me. The whole thing works perfectly easily as a chord chart until 4:21 - then your ears aren't going to help.
  18. Bilbo
    Another one of my own. A transcription of my bass performance on the tune 'Que Vale La Pena' from the Albino Cubana CD 'Dime Tu'. A bit of practice reading Latin grooves where the emphasis is on the fourth beat rather than the first. Que Vale La Pena – Albino Cubana – Bilbo's Bass Bites (bilbosbassbites.co.uk)
  19. Bilbo
    Rubens Sabino's bass part for the tune 'Soy Loco Por Ti America' from Gilberto Gil's 1997 album of the same name. A great exercise for finding a way into the discipline of Latin bass, where the emphasis is on the fourth beat of the bar rather than the first. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/soy-loco-por-ti-america-gilberto-gil/
  20. Bilbo
    A bit of fun today. I have transcribed the Steve Howe version of Vivaldi's Concerto in D Major 2nd Movement for both guitar and bass - it can be played in first position or up an octave - just play the whole chart 8va. Guitar and bass charts are available here. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/vivaldi-concerto-in-dmaj-2nd-movement-steve-howe/
  21. Bilbo
    It's a line I have never been able to make groove since I heard it as a flexi disc on the cover of Guitar Player in the 80s.
  22. Bilbo
    A bass part by Genesis keyboard player, Tony Banks, this is the dots for the title tune from the 1979 concept album 'A Curious Feeling'. An old favourite of mine, the bass part is easy to perform and relatively easy to read cold. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/a-curious-feeling-tony-banks/
  23. Bilbo
    I have various albums with slivers of rap on them; Blues Traveller (Business As Usual), Rush, Ozomatli, The Fugees/Lauryn Hill and some others I can't remember the names of but, no, it leaves me cold. It all sounds like bad, schoolboy poetry put to dreadfully unimaginative music to me.
  24. Bilbo
    I was thinking about this question when I was out driving last night. My ipod told me the answer. Classical music from full orchestra (Holst, Rimsky-Korsakov, Howard Shore, Elgar) to string quartets (Bartok) to solo piano (Beethoven) to Prog Rock, Jazz (Ellington to Coltrane to Fusion to William Parker and Free Jazz), to Heavy Rock/Metal, to a whole gamut of Latin/Latin Jazz. I reckon that eclectic enough!
  25. Bilbo
    From the same Scofield LP, this is Darryl's part to the tune 'Techno'. A much tougher nut to crack. Techno – John Scofield – Bilbo's Bass Bites (bilbosbassbites.co.uk)
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