Bilbo

Shameless plug for an old friend This month I downloaded the Osian Roberts/Steve Fishwick CD 'With Cedar Walton'. I knew Osian in Cardiff when he was about 14/15 and he was great then (he played at my wedding) but he has gone on to become a great UK based tenor saxophonist. I think he won some sort of Daily Telegraph Young Jazz Musician award but can't be sure (it doesn't matter anyway). This Cd was recorded with Walton and Peter Washington (bass) and has a great 50s hard bop feel to it. Great writing and great playing. Check it out if you get a chance.

[quote name='blamelouis' post='1079193' date='Jan 5 2011, 09:25 PM']Thats a great track Bilbo i'll have to get that off Itunes .[/quote] Its off his 'The Proper Angle' cd.

[quote name='lowdown' post='1079059' date='Jan 5 2011, 07:40 PM']Just seen this...[Wrong spelling in the post title by the way ] R.I.P[/quote] Thanks for that, Garry. I used to live near Farnborough and called him Charles Farnborough for years before I 'noticed' my error. Fixed.

Nobody got anything to say? Disappointing

At first it was Chris Squire, Geddy Lee, Steve Harris and Jack Bruce. As fusion started to reveal its treasures to me, it was Jaco, Jeff Berlin, Percy Jones and Jimmy Johnson Then it was Marc Johnson, Dave Holland, Miroslav Vitous & Steve Swallow Now? Reginald Veal, Milt Hinton, Steve Rodby, Israel Cachao Lopez, Charlie Haden and Paul Chambers. Also Edgar Meyer. I have come to learn, after 30 years of playing, that flash playing is not necessarily where the music is. It is in the relationship between the bass and all the other voices at play. There is section of Porgy and Bess called 'Buzzard Song' where Paul Chambers plays a unison part alongside tuba player Bill Barber (2.24 - 4.00). It is not hard to play, in a contemporary sense, but the pairing of Chambers and Barber for this line is wonderfully musical choice by arranger Gil Evans. When I listen to it, I hear the notes not the bass/tuba. The rest of teh Gil Evans/Miles Davis canon shows Chambers exceptional musicality without featuring him in a single solo/grandstanding setting. Same with Steve Rodby. Lots of Pat Metheny stuff woudl not work without him but he never solos. That is what I have come to love in the bass; its ability to contribute essential elements to the best music the world has ever heard without anyone ever actually noticing.

Having a record out is no indicator of quality. If these guys are so hot, why are they spending their time at open mic nights? If I may say so, and I do so with absolute respect, your self talk is atrocious You are talking yourself into believing everyone else is wonderfully talented and you are s***. If your singer songwriter friend is as good as you say he is, why would he work with you if you couldn't cut it? You need to trust that he knows what he wants from you and that, as he doesn't kick you into touch, you must be delivering at at least an acceptable level. Give yourself a break. Its not paranoia; its low self esteem. Trust me; they are MANY guys out there that can't play for toffee who are making a living at it. Don't keep beating yourself up.

You need to understand that learning a musical instrument is an incremental thing and that you can't learn it all at once. Your list of things to do is only the start and there are a million other things you will need to deal with as time goes on. My adivce? Simple. Learn to read music - so much will come from that and it will save you time later on.

This John Giblin track sold me my Wal [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClCvm4eAT38&feature=related"]April[/url] It wasn't until later that I realised it was the tune, not the sound, that moved me.

Its a piece of wood. Never been one for anthropomorphising

Teaching using Jamerson. Bit of a narrow field in my view. It doesn't begin or end with Jamerson....

News is coming in of the death of bassist Charles Famborough at the age of 61. Fambrough was a member of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers during the early 1980s. He also played with Grover Washington, Jr., Freddie Hubbard, Airto Moreira, and Shirley Scott to name only a few. Great player with a huge sound. There are a few solo cds out there by him which are all strong. [url="http://jazztruth.blogspot.com/2011/01/upright-citizen-rip-charles-fambrough.html"]Charles Fambrough tribute[/url] Something nice to listen to here. [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSVJXNe7eA4"]Charles Fambrough - Don Quixote[/url]

Jumbo frets is a condition peculiar to elephants borne in captivity. They know something is amiss but can't remember what.... this mental state causes anxiety and excessive sweating.

[quote name='daz' post='1074278' date='Jan 1 2011, 12:10 PM']1) The Jazz scale.[/quote] Which one is that then?

Its unconventional as a stand alone technique but many use it as part of their repertoire of getting sounds out of the bass. The nearer the bridge the tighter and brighter the sound, the nearer the neck the warmer and more rounded the tone. If you want that warmth and less definition, then go for it.

The quality of George Michael's vocal talent became known to me when he appeared on that Freddie Mercury tribute Queen did in 1992 singing Somebody to Love, 39 and These Are The Days Of Our Lives. He was head and shoulders above the rest of the singers (even Annie Lennox) and I remember there was talk of him joining Queen. Great singer. As for Deon Estus, I have no idea....... And Wham? They sucked I don't care if Dave Holland and Charles Mingus shared the bass duties, they still sucked :lol:

Wot a t*t. I have gigged solely with a fretless since 1986. Maybe I'm delusional.....

Two for me. One was from a Cardiff sax/flute/guitar/drums player called Lee Goodall (and, yes, he excelled at all of them - I think flute was his first instrument and he is priimarily known as a sax player) who, when drumming in a Quartet I was playing with, explained to me the concept of playing ahead of, on, and behind the beat. Lee used to live in New York and has played with Will Lee and Anthony Jackson (playing with me must have been such a come down!!). Second was a trumpet player called Paul Tungay (Paul was Tom Jones' first trumpter and had also played in Ronnie Scott's big band in the 1960s) who drew attention to a timing defecit in my playing (I played in Paul's band for a couple of years - I couldn't do a gig once so he called Roy Babbington in to dep ). Whenever I played a fill, I would focus on the fill and miss the downbeat. He suggested I change my focus and ensure that I made the downbeat as that was an essential part of the groove whereas the fills, whilst adding colour, were peripheral to the core performance. Its a simple change of perspective but it made me a better player from that day on. I have actually found that focussing on the downbeat actually tightens up the fills as it forces you to play the subdivisions more accurately. Particularly useful in Latin music where the 'downbeat' is not the first beat of the bar.

I get a Double Bass, Wal (softcase) and Eden Metro combo (along with music stand, guitar stand, extension cable and two bags of fake books/charts/leads etc) into the back of my Suzuki Jimny.

[quote name='flyfisher' post='1071573' date='Dec 29 2010, 11:29 AM']That's a good example of the confusion surrounding this whole issue. On the one hand music is legally free and on the other it has to be paid for. Basically the public has the choice of either buying music or listening to it for free. Given that both options are seemingly perfectly legal, it's a wonder that anyone buys music at all these days.[/quote] I for one find listening to music on a PC uncomfortable. Sitting there for hours looking at Spotify or Youtube does not appeal to me one bit (and the sound on the Tube is not great.

[quote name='Vibrating G String' post='1070680' date='Dec 28 2010, 12:20 AM']Both of the above examples are examples of cognitive dissonance. You want to steal but don't want to be a thief so a construct is created that makes your stealing noble.[/quote] All offenders do this, whether it is stealing, domestic violence, child abuse, rape or murder. Its the way they (and we) feel ok about ourselves and the choices we make. Illegal downloading is just that; illegal. It is theft. I don't do it routinely anymore (did the usual as a kid) although I will admit to having accessed a few 1950s deleted jazz recordings without paying for them simply because there is, to my knowledge, no way of getting hold of the recordings commerically. If I need to learn a track, I buy it as a cd or downlaod or access it on Spotify or Youtube. I have mixed feelings about the PRS thing. I understand the need for artists and companies to maximise revenue but I am equally aware of the complex relationship between products and customers. How many of us see a film or tv programme on tv for nothing and then go out and buy the dvd? The transmission was paid for by the BBC (Inc PRS) etc, we received it initially for free but then, as we liked it, chose to part with our hard earned in order to secure a copy. What is the difference between that and hearing a cd/download at a friends place/in a shop etc and then buying a copy? Do we need a PRS licience if we have a private party and play cds for people to dance to/to create atmosphere? My comparison is with shoplifting in supermarkets. In the old days, goods were put behind a counter and you had to be served to get whatever it was you were looking for. Friendly but labour intensive. Now goods are lined up in massive open plan warehouses so the customer selects what he wants and takes it to the checkout. Fewer staff required but shoplifting becomes a problem. The business decision is that it is more cost effective to tolerate the shoplifting and put prices up to counter the losses than it is to employ more staff to ensure goods don't go walkabout. Is downloading the same? Are the profit margins on selling a product that only exists in a virtual sense (i.e. reduced production/distribution costs) so great that it is worth losing a few hundred thousand downloads as a 'loss leader'? The technology exists to 'lock' the data and prevent copying but they don't employ it because customers don't like it (because the WANT to copy it from cd to ipod to pc to iphone etc). It is still theft but the industry wears it as its profit margins are better that if they simply reverted to the production of a product like a cd. Either way, copying things you don't pay for and distributing them, whatever the motive, is theft. PS I have had a PRS lady turn up at a gig I did and write down every tune we played. I spoke to her at length afterwards (she was very pleasant) and she told me how it worked. Good job as I had to tell her the names of all of the tunes we had played because they were all Brazillian and had titles in Portugese .

Len Skeat has been a stalwart on the British Jazz scene since the 1950s, initially with the Ted Heath Band. He has played with big names such as (off Wikipedia) Mel Tormé, Ben Webster, Billy Eckstine, Lionel Hampton, Scott Hamilton, Helen Merrill, Lou Rawls, Harry Edison, Denny Wright, Digby Fairweather, Spike Robinson, Eddie Lockjaw Davis, Stephane Grappelli, Dick Morrissey, Charly Antolini, Bill Watrous and Randy Sandke. He was also a member of the Eddie Thompson Trio and Charly Antolini's Jazz Power. Len is a monster player and has been forever.

I have just rediscovered Slonimskys' Thesaurus of scales and patterns. Hours of fun!! And with a bow!!!

Very credible and creditable. AM hearing Dave Greenslade's Pentateuch of the Cosmogony mixed up with Eddie Jobson's Zinc and a tad of Genesis.

I can play something I wouldn't ordinarily like for a very short period but can't do it often. One tune I don't like is one thing, one evening playing music I don't like is possible but, much more and I get frustrated and end up in a space that is not condusive to good music making. The caveat to that is that I like a wide range of music and, if it is done well, can enjoy most stuff. I regret to say, however, that a lot of music performed in the region I work in is not performed particularly well and playing music I don't like badly is not a good place for me to be and it is that which I seek to avoid where I can.