Bilbo

I am looking to insure a bass I am selling here when I send it. Seemed logical to me.

[quote name='Pete Academy' post='815946' date='Apr 23 2010, 11:13 AM']There was once a time when the likes of Weather Report and Return To Forever played arena-style gigs.[/quote] True, but these were often as support bands or at festivals and not as headliners. Neverthelss, as you say, they had sufficient appeal to appear at pretty mainstream popular music events. Miles Davis used to do things at the Filmore's but only supporting people like Sly & The Family Stone etc (much to the chagrin of the dark prince).

Need to send a bass but need to insure it in transit. Courier only covers it to £100. Anyone done it?

Its all a lot more complicated than many of these posts imply. Jazz is not as popular as pop music, end of. We all get that. However, the fact that pop music is more popular is generally because it is there, it has a presence all over the media. Whenever you do jazz gigs, people who ask for requests usually ask for one of the top 10: Moondance, Take 5, Fever, Girl From Ipanema, Music To Watch Girls By, Sway - the Rat Pack stuff - all of which were hit singles. Jazz has, at various points in its history, had a massive social presence but changes in the industry have changed the way people use music. Early on in the history of popular music, the only music everyone heard was live. No recordings, no discos, no clubs, no radio. Every house had a piano and someone nearby who could play it; either that or they had a player piano. More interestingly, when radio started to become popular, the music heard was always played live. If you were listening to the radio in LA, some musicians in New York were playing it and earning money. More to the point, most of this live music was instrumental as vocalists could not compete with volume of most instruments. When recording became possible, it took a few more years before people would clock the fact that you could multi track things and mix a voice louder than the band. So the singer moved to the front of the band. The number of bands reduced dramatically as the recorded singers started to monpolise the airwaves and people started to play records at functions instead of use live bands. Bring in the guitar/electric bass and we have a new threat/opportunity. It can be played by someone running around like a luntaic. Unlike a double bass, trombone, trumpet, vibraphone etc, it is easy to play a three chord guitar song whilst jumping around like a fool. Try playing Lush Life when the guitar is hung around your knees and on fire. Now throw in video - now people have to be abel to dance as well as play - tough call on a double bass player. Jazz is a lot less visual and lacks the element of spectacle that defines most of what we hear/see today. The problem is that music is absorbed by osmosis and we like what we are familiar with and, today, that means video as much as it does music. Noone hears jazz enough to learn to like it. One factor is that radio and tv can't cope with anything more than 3 and a half minutes long. Thats not even long enough to allow the introduction for Jaco' s Liberty City to build to a climax let alone for the main themes of the piece to develop. Songs nowadays are mostly created to sound familiar. Nothing 'new' is allowed to pollute the airways - that applies to most genres: jazz, classcial, folk, country - it all starts as avant garde, moves into the mainstream, fades into obscurity then enjoys a 'neo-classical' period before fading into a minority interest. It happens to every genre. Every generation needs its rebels. The fact that the songs of rebellion are the same in almost everyway to those of the previous generation is irrelevant. The industry continually reinvents its anti-heroes: Jerry Lee Lewis, Jimi Hendrix, The Who, Iggy Pop, Johnny Rotten, NWA, Eminem, Marilyn Manson etc etc - all saying 'it sucks, we are the future'!! Its got nothing to do with the quality of the product or its objective merits but its all to do with the way in which the media, in the widest sense, uses its. Kids like to be angry and to find a voice for that anger but its not about aesthetic quality. Bill Frissel makes some of the most far out guitar music around (more radical than anything Joe Satriani ever did) but he is on dozens of movie soundtrakcs because it works in that setting. Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people will have heard him and not known. Does he get his work played on mainstream radio or tv? No. Why? Because he is ugly. Does he get the next film gig. Yes. Jazz has a place and moves people even when they don't know it. Mike Stern writes beautiful ballads - gorgeous melodies. Same with Pat Metheny - totally accessible stuff. Biggest selling LP on ECM? - Keith Jarrett's 'Koln Concert' - solo piano - who'd have thought it? Dave Brubeck's biggest hit is in 5:4 FFS!!. I play a regular gig where the entire set is sung in Portuguese. Goes down a storm with English audiences - we even have them singing along in a foreign language! People can take it when they hear it - they just never hear it anymore. Unless they are the sort of person who goes looking under rocks to see what's there. But, fundamentally, what makes a great jazz tune is what makes a great pop tune. Does it move you? If it doesn't. ditch it. 'I Wanna Dance With Somebody' don't do it for me even if Matt Garrsison is on bass! To be fair, I don't really like Matt Garrrison's stuff either. Good rock, bad rock, good jazz, bad jazz. Its all subjective but nothing to d owit inate accessibilty and everything to do with conditioning. Besides, jazz is better. It just is

From Holland's first solo LP (plastic, round things with a hole in).. some interesting use of double stops and 5:4 time but both readable and playable. Really interesting recording made in 1973 - the so-called dark years for jazz......

I am a member of a closed jazz research forum that features many of the world's leading jazz journalists and they have been recently talking about the issue of how few jazz musicians are able to make a living from only playing jazz (i.e. thay have to teach etc). With very few exceptions (Keith Jarrett, Pat Metheny etc), most musicians limp from one festival season to the next taking any gig they can in order to pay the rent. Many of them have commercial outlets and some of them are consciously making money from a commercial gig in order to fund their jazz activities. Its real world stuff. We all like the concept of the uncompromising artist who suffers for their art but, in reality, why should the greatest players in the world live like tramps in order to produce an art product that is, at best, a minority interest. Its another romantic fantasy that doesn't hold up to close inspection. Early in his career, Joe Lovano earned less thna his wife, Judy Silvano. She was the hat check girl at the Village Vanguard. One top saxophone player (top 5 in the jazz world) was once asked whether he thought it had been worth it. His response? 'No'. He went onto describe how he had had to watch his kids grow up without many of the benefits that come from a secure income: decent schools, health benefits etc. As they get older many of these guys (in the US) get ill and can't get the help they need because they have little or no medical cover and no chips to cash in (no house to sell, no insurance policies etc). A great and influential cd from 1994 is not going to get you a heart bypass. These guys are just balancing the need to make a living with the need to make good music. In truth, if you have played heavy jazz to small audiences for years, it can be a real buzz to pay dance music for a stadium full. Money aside, its good to see people get off on what you do.

[quote name='XB26354' post='814995' date='Apr 22 2010, 02:14 PM']Seriously though, I don't think the OP should have to pay unless he/she wants a professional-looking chart with chords, parts etc. that would take hours to complete. I'd be happy to do any transcriptions purely for the practice and interest![/quote] Absolutely: that's why I don't want payment. Pressure to provide perfect charts, potential problems re: taxable income, breach of contract issues blah blah blah. Its a favour for other Basschatters, not a commercial enterprise.

I have used Rotosound Solo Bass for over 24 years with no ill effects. They are groundwound (smoothed off roundwounds).

To be fair, I suspect many of us are forced into selling gear by our personal circumstances as opposed to any deficiencies on the part of the gear. I have got three guitars and 2 basses but, in order to finance a double bass and associated accessories, I am going to have to let some of them go. Nothing wrong with them, I just can't get what I want without raising capital. So my reason for selling them is, surprise, surprise, because I need the money! Nothing wrong with them as instruments, perfectly good quality kit, but, in the overall scheme of economic things, I need to prioritise. So, 'great bass' can easily apply to something we have to move.

Some wise sage (Mick Goodrick, I think) once said 'the difficulty with finding your true path lies in the realisation that you are already on it'. I have said here before that I think many of us (myself included) can be distracted by the promise of a new piece of kit when the true improvements come from applied study, practice and discipline. I guess there is a kid in all of us who still thinks that that new piece of kit will be the making of us. Its a fools errand we have all been on. I guess we all need to find a balance.

Learn to read. Its more use to you than double thumbing, two handed tapping and playing solo chordal pieces on 42 string basses. After a relatively short time. you will be able to practice things that take you out of your comfort zone and introduce new variables into you playing. It will also make you a cut above most players and very employable. Anything else is just a series of party tricks that will impress a minority and bring you no discernable benefits as a player and/or professional.

Good point: The cds the tunes are from are usually listed on the threads and most of tehm can be bought as individual tunes in itunes etc. Anything you are particularly interested in but can't find? PM me.

If anyone has any requests for transcriptions, let me know. I will do what I can, time allowing (for free - I am not in this for the bread). Be reasonable: I am NOT looking for people to dare me to transcribe impossibly difficult charts. I just want to help if I can and to advocate for the value of reading and transcription.

I have posted about 30 transcriptions here under the Theory and Technique section. SOme of them are very readable for learners (straight quarter notes etc) and they get harder and harder. Just put 'transcription' into the search tool here and there are loads available for free. With Spotify around, most of this stuff is readily acccessible even if you haven't got the recordings. PM me if you have any trouble.

[url="http://www.eden-electronics.com/"]http://www.eden-electronics.com/[/url] UK distributors: First Line Distribution Ltd. 16 Teignbridge Business Centre,Cavalier Road Heathfield Industrial Estate,Newton Abbot Devon TQ12 6TZ Uk Contact: Phone: +44 (0)1626 830336 Fax: Email: Website: www.firstlinemusic.co.uk I have always found them really helpful.

White. Cos.

[quote name='steviedee' post='813485' date='Apr 21 2010, 10:13 AM']That's really cheap I lost the rubber foot from my endpin and it poked through the material in the bag,[/quote] INteresting. Mine has a hole for the endpin already built into the material.

Steve Swallow and Janek Gwizdala are both EADGC 5 string players. Can't say I like the extended range in either direction myself - low B is tooo heavy for may tastes and I find the notes that are high on the C string are a bit too pingy!! I guess it depends on what music you are playing.

I got one on ebay a couple of weeks ago for £33 (bid not buy now) There was one on there for 99p but it had days to go.