Bilbo

Been working with Cubase Se for years now and feel no urge to up-grade. It records stuff. What more do we want from our machines!!?

I did a transcription off Gary Willis's Bent Cd (was it It's Only Music? It wasa waltz). Not heard No Sweat, I don't think. Probably not Jazz anyway and mostly that fusion muck ;)I downloaded 5 Coltrane cds on Monday; 36 tracks of Cotrane magic (I am on a Jimmy Garrison buzz at the moment).

I just bought the Deluxe version of A Love Supreme by John Coltrane which features the original LP (I had it on cassette, hence the 'ugrade'), the only live recording ever made and a version recorded with two basses and an additional tenor sax (Art Davis bass and Archie Shepp on tenor). Massive value for money and one of the absolutely greatest recordings ever made. Another recommendation and available at bargain basement prices on Amazon Marketplace.

I got my Wal before 5s and 6s were de rigeur. I dipped my toe in with Staus Energy 6 and a similar 5 but didn't see any major benefits for the music I prefer to play. In fact, the only gig I did that needed a low B was cheesy pop and I didn't really like the gig (it was a good band, just the material was a bit bland and the MD wanted to make it blander (I said he wanted to stamp his lack of personality all over the music' ). After that episode, I've never really seen the point, much as I love AJ, Patitucci, Jimmy Johnson etc. I woudl liek to own a Fodera ANJ Presentation before I die (because it's there) but can't see it happening anytime soon. In the meantime, I am happy with what I have.

I only use a 4 string electric and a 5 string double because that is all I have and I have no GAS for anything else. I can see why people want 5s and 6s but I have no real use for them (I have ownded both but they hung on the wall gathering dust). For a long time now, for me, it has been about the music not the bass and my relationship with the instrument has changed as a result. I consequently don't drool over new gear and don't really play musics where a low B or high C (i.e. the top 5 notes) are that relevant.

[quote name='yamahabass' timestamp='1346971552' post='1795655'] i think is a Miles Davis tune, dont have the music at hand so cant see who wrote this..... [/quote] Tadd Dameron

It's a useful read and I can confirm that you will revisit the ideas Green espouses for years to come.

When you think about it, it was no wonder I left the band!!!

The image didn't say 'bebop head' to me so it forced me to think outside the box. I didn't want to do anything 'pretty' because that was not how I saw the image. I went for a minor feel but every time I tried to add any harmonic movement, I lost the connection between the piece and the image it is supposed to represent. In my head, the drone creates the tension, the voices are meant to represent the dead corpses in the water and the melody line is simply the thoughts and feelings of whoever is viewing of the scene. Not particularly sophisticated but I didn't have a great deal of time.

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v55g-5slQCs"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v55g-5slQCs[/url]

I did one! I was thinking ambient and ended up with this recording of 19 basses (18 playing the same note) and voices. The production is a bit 'low-brow' but I was not inclinded to spend too long on it because it is crap! It reminds me a bit of Bo Hannson! The working to an image thing was a new thing for me and an interesting challege. Great fun. [url="http://soundcloud.com/robert-palmer-1/the-dead-marshes"]http://soundcloud.co...he-dead-marshes[/url] I am not expecting a Grammy

Sell a kidney and do both (www.kidneys4u.com) Seriously, though, I love the idea that owners of old instruments are merely 'temporary custodians' and have a duty to do the right thing. We will soon start seeing electric players starting to have the same dilemmas as their basses reach 50- 60 -70 years old etc (My Wal is 26 this year, a baby compared to yours but gettin older every day), Good to see it working out.

Actually, I think of the two things as the same part on a chart and learn what I play with the bass and what I play against it (like the r/h and l/h on a piano). The only time I struggle is singing three beats when I am playing four on the bass (or vice versa). Fortunately, that is rare.

Ya just gotta do it. Again and again and again and again until you get it right.

I did a trio last night with two guitarists from Essex; Andy WAtson and Simon Hurley. Absolutely beautiful and, for me, one of the most musical gigs I have done on double bass since I got it. I got a good sound and these two guys are musicality personified so I was in heaven. Was ablet o move up to thumb position without losing impetus or depth of tone etc. Really gave me space to [i]play[/i]. What was really lovely, though, was the revelation in passing that Andy went to Leeds to study music in the early 1970s and was very close friends with a guy called Dick Hamer, the sax player who gave me my first jazz gigs in Cardiff in the late 1980s. They had lost touch and I can now connect them up. How cool is that?

Originals bands need music stands too! It's hard enough to play my s*** without having to [i]remember[/i] it as well

Ellington wrote his own book, Strayhorn, Mulligan, Parker/Gillespie, Mingus etc etc. All the best artists mostly write their own stuff whilst most of the chessy dross is factory produced. Gotta tell you something. (To be frank; I love composing etc so much I can't see why people wouldn't want to do it. More to the point, I am not very good at it but it's not the kill, it's the thrill of the chase!! They more I try, the better the tunes get. I don't think it is any harder than learning to play the bass; you jsut have to keep practising).

I had his Criminal Record and I think my brother had the others you have listed (I have certainly heard them a lot somewhere). Rock/Prog Music was a lot more interesting then than it has been 'post Punk'. I like what Punk stood for but the music it spawned has been 'kin terrible I haven't really looked at the Spock's Beard/modern Prog bands so maybe I should. There is just so much good jazz out there.

I bought my Wal Custom fretless in 1986 for £749 and could sell it today for about £2,500 or even more? But I wouldn't. http://basschat.co.uk/topic/21583-1986-wal-custom-fretless/

So what you are saying is that tunes that people don't know go down well even though they don't know them? I have to say that is my experience too. I see no reason to play other people's stuff other than as a path to quick gigging without having to write anything. If musos across the board worked as hard on the craft of composition/song writing as they seem to do on 'stagecraft', costunes and Swedish chuffin' accents, they may have material that is as good as or even better than the covers they play. And they can get royalties! I've got a go now; I have a gig.

I regularly perform songs I don't know without any rehearsal and no charts; just 'one, two, three, four... it's in G'. Its amazing how much you can pick up in real time if you keep your ears open; including stops, arrangement etc. I guess it depends on whether you need the performances to be accurate to the nth degree or whether 'good enough' is good enough. Watching the guitar players hands (unless he is playing a cavaquino which is not tuned like a guitar and confuses the ass off me) often prevents any major trainwrecks. I find most songs are 'of a type' and you kind of get a feel for things over the years. Which Rush tune? Some are easy, other really difficult.

[quote name='mep' timestamp='1346933656' post='1794964'] We quiet often do covers of covers, so what does that make us? [/quote] Factory workers...

Arse - elbow. You just know.

Paul Harwood - Mahagoany Rush The monster that is Kenneth "Spider" Sinnaeve (Kim Mitchell, Red Rider) Mike Tilka - Max Webster Dave Myles - also Max Webster Joel Quarrington is also Canadian (classical double bass player)