Bilbo

These kinds of lists provoke discussion. For that reason, I am all for them. They are a bit harmless fun.

Weird thing is, I am half way through a novel. I picked it up lunchtime and, two pages in, there is the word 'lugubrious'. Three times in one day? Who'd have thought it?

I redrafted the sentence and then forgot to delete the word I moved. 😆 I have just edited it again.

This one was a bit of light relief for me but it's gorgeous! This is Dave Holland's complete performance of the tune 'The Color Of Iris' from the 2013 'Prism' album. Beautiful. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/the-color-of-iris-dave-holland/

I have been working on a tough one for the last few days. Not so much tough to play as tough to write down because there are essentially three voices which need to be moving differently which, in turn, requires significantly more time transcribing. How piano engravers work is beyond me.

You are very welcome, TS. And thank you.

I posted a corrected version of The Abingdon Chasp. It was a lot tougher than I thought as there are so many tempo changes, weird time changes and a lot of sections where Berlin is playing long chains of the same note but on and off the beat/pushing and pulling across changing bar lengths and changing octaves. In some ways, it only matters if you are trying to write it down. If you were performing it, it would be a matter of personal choice - it matters only that you keep it moving and changing.

I write the dots out. I learn it.

Just redoing 'The Abingdon Chasp' from Bruford's 'One Of A Kind'. Having to completely rewrite. At least it shows I have learned a lot in the few years since I did it last time! 🥴

I used a Phil Jones Bass Double Four which sounds great with bass or guitar but between £325 and £395 it's approaching the price you would be thinking of paying for gig ready gear. These reviews are really useful and I wish I could have seen something like it before I got the PJB.

I was going through some of the charts today and found that there are so many errors I wanted to cry, especially as a lot of the charts that were on here prior to my suspending operations were no longer available as Sibelius charts and only as pdfs. Today, however, after puzzling over it for years, I have finally worked out how to use the photoscore facility and to generate an editable Sibelius file from a pdf. Today I revisited a Jeff Berlin chart 'All The Greats' which has a couple of sections that were in completely the wrong key to the other parts of the chart. I think it is now correct. What this means is that, any time I find an error on a older chart (and there are many), I can potentially correct the error without having to start the whole chart from scratch.

Ask and ye shall receive - Tim Esau's bass part for '1312 Overture' from the 'The Road Of Bones' album. Top drawer stuff. Heavy read due to the tempo, the density of the part of the part and the changing time signatures but not as difficult as it first appears (I looked at The Road Of Bones track, Dave, but there a few parts where the mix is too dense to catch the detail - I will try again with the Moises software another time - it's a great album). I just remembered, I saw these guys at The Granary in Bristol in the 1980s https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/1312-overture-iq/

I am glad I watched it but won't watch it again. They were a remarkable band with some incredible if slightly deviant energy. A Punk sensibility before Punk was a thing but I never liked Punk either so that's why they never hold my attention for long. Moon has ADHD written all over him. A band that was greater than the sum of it's already incredible parts. I respect them but don't really like them. I can see why many do, though.

Road of Bones is a favourite of mine although I haven't heard it in a while. I will have a look at it.

A nostalgia trip today, this is the Graeme Murray bass part to 'Arrive Alive (Eyes In The Night)' from the 1984 Pallas album, 'The Sentinel'. Just a thumping bass part with enough odd time signatures to justify the 'neo-Prog' title (these guys were running in the same circles as Marillion, IQ, Pendragon, Solstice and Twelfth Night et al). Happy days. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/arrive-alive-eyes-in-the-night-pallas/

You knew I would, didn't you? Dave Brown's bass part from the same tune, 'Oye Como Va' from the 1970 Santana record 'Abraxas'. Probably the version most of us heard first. It's also the easiest to read and to play. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/oye-como-va-santana/

Sorry, not read the whole thread but most of the gigs I do are deps. In short, you turn up with an ireal book and make music by having a collective insight into what you are there to achieve. It's done by a knowledge of tunes, obviously, but also of idioms, certain groove types, predictable figures, instinct, nods, winks, eye contact, chord charts, dots and little bit of luck and fairy magic. You won't be able to busk Bohemian Rhapsody but there are a million songs that you can put together at the drop of a hat. I remember one gig with a singer a drummer I had never met and a guitar player I worked with often. Before the first note, our chats revealed that I didn't know a single tune they were going to do. As we approached the stage, I was listening to the first tune on my phone, much to the singer and drummer's alarm. We knocked it out of the park and it was one of the best gigs they had ever done. It's a mix of knowledge, competence and intuition. I have done hundreds of gigs like this (it has got to the point where a single rehearsal is actually inhibiting). It doesn't always work (but it is usually 'good enough' but, when it works, it can inspiring.

Another version of 'Oye Como Va', this one features Jay Anderson on the Bob Mintzer version from the 1998 album, 'Latin In Manhattan'. Readable and closer to the original than the Paolo Meijas/Hans Glawischnig version I posted a few weeks ago. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/oye-como-va-bob-mintzer/

Easy but gorgeous, this is the Chris Thomas bass part for the tune 'Spiritual Awakening' from the 1990 Marcus Roberts album, 'Deep In The Shed'. Listen to the trombone solo. It is my favourite solo in all Jazz - and it's one chorus long. If this doesn't move you, you are already dead. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/spiritual-awakening-marcus-roberts/

Impressive, Chris. That's a hell of a piece of work. Did you work out the chords yourself (I really struggle with that)?

Got hold of that World Trio recording, Chris. Lovely to hear Holland so exposed.

Another one from the Tribal Tech 'Spears' album, this is Gary Willis's bass part for the tune 'Island City Shuttle. Lots of weird bar lengths. Remeber, when you writing it down, you are recording what you are hearing not what the tune actually IS. The performance is what matters not the dots. So, if you disagree with my take on the differing bar lengths it doesn't make it wrong. It just means I have grouped it in a different way. It's the noise you make when you are playing it, not the dots themselves. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/island-city-shuttle-tribal-tech/

What confuses me is, if everyone loses their job to some sort of AI based tech, who will be able to earn enough to buy the products produced by these companies? Seems incongruous to me.

I have never seen that recording before, Chris. I will see if I can get hold of it. Thanks for that!

Fascinating and terrifying at the same time. Cheapens everything, doesn't it?