Bilbo

Jazz Waltzes A Child Is Born (Thad Jones) Afro Blue (Mongo Santamaria) Alice In Wonderland (Sammy Fain) All Blues (Miles Davis) Baubles, Bangles, & Beads (Robert Wright) Beatrice (Sam Rivers Quartet) Besame Mucho (Wes Montgomery), 1963 Black Narcissus (Joe Henderson) Blue Daniel (Frank Rosalino) Bluesette (Toots Thielemans) Elsa (Earl Zinders) Emily (Bill Evans) Footprints (Wayne Shorter) (debatable whether an actual waltz) Full House (Wes Montgomery) How My Heart Sings! (Bill Evans) from How My Heart Sings!, 1962 Hello Young Lovers (Wes Montgomery) The Inch Worm (Frank Loesser) It Ain't Necessarily So (George Gershwin) from Porgy and Bess) Jitterbug Waltz (Fats Waller) Last Tango in Paris (Gato Barbieri) My Favorite Things (associated with John Coltrane) Skating In Central Park (John Lewis) Some Day My Prince Will Come (associated with Miles Davis) Summer In Central Park (Horace Silver) Tenderly (Walter Gross) Three Views Of A Secret (Jaco Pastorius) Three Wishes (Donald Byrd) Ugly Beauty (Thelonious Monk) Up Jumped Spring (Freddie Hubbard) from Born To Be Blue, 1981 Waltz for Debby (Bill Evans) Valse Hot (Sonny Rollins) Very Early (Bill Evans) from Moonbeams, 1962 West Coast Blues (Wes Montgomery) from Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery, 1969 Windows (Chick Corea) I have no idea what defines a 'quickstep' and most of the audiences I play to wouldn't know either so I will defer to others!

Supporting Kool and the Gang at the Hammersmith Apollo. Session in 1981 for Tommy Vance's Friday Rock Show again at Maida Vale. National Lottery Live in 1994 Gigs with Stan Sultzman and Iain Ballamy (I was playing with his Dad quite regularly at the time) Outdoor gig in Berkshire supporting an Orchestra and fireworks. 4,000 people - I don't kid myself that they were there for us but at least they stayed !! The day when guitarist John Paricelli told a friend (who he didn't know knew me) 'He plays so good but still has a life (he had heard I wasn't a pro)'. Let me know I was doing ok. First professional CD release: 3 tracks on Andy Fernbach's 'Blues In a Hotel Room' But, most of all, those little gigs where everything goes right, the music is as good as it can be and I played like a musician!

[quote name='Pete Academy' post='642386' date='Nov 1 2009, 10:43 AM']Errr...don't tell Bilbo, but we're making a DVD. It was filmed at the Stables in Milton Keynes and recorded on 24-track audio.[/quote] I already know. I wish you well with it.

Several times. I always fond that tv work is so over rehearsed that it is almost impossible to be nervous because, by the time you are actually being filmed, you are bored out of your head! Played live on the National Lottery programme when Anthea Turner was doing it. 15 million watching, apparently. Must have run it a dozen times before we went live so it was like falling off a log. Some other tv work for Welsh tv, Brecon Jazz Festival, odds and sods. I don't get nervous; I worked out years ago that I would have to catch fire for people to notice what I was doing.

I would love to do Fiddler but, as it is a d/b part, I am unlikely to get that call.. I have done several others: Annie, Little Shop of Horrors, Grease, Noel Coward reviews, Songs from the Shows, Pantomimes etc. I find the charts are normally fairly accessible and those that are hard to read because of odd classical notation are seldom hard enough to throw anyone with a good ear. (although 'Who Will Buy', from Oliver, is a nightmare!). If you have the charts in advance, you should be fine.

[quote name='AM1' post='640038' date='Oct 29 2009, 01:42 PM']Pentatonic scales. Do them religiously every day, not for hours though, little and often. Try it - you'll be astounded. Worked amazingly for me and I'm a chick with small hands/weak pinkies.[/quote] I would urge caution here - you can easily lock yourself into pattern playing like this and start playing with your hands not your ears and your mind. I know I am generalising (I do that a lot) but pentatonics are, to me, scales with all of the interesting bits removed!

[quote name='Craigmartini' post='638279' date='Oct 27 2009, 06:24 PM']No one likes to be around someone who bitches about everything.[/quote] Now THAT's where I went wrong!

Yeah - go see Jake. He'll sort you out. Felixstowe is also only a half hour away from you (by helicopter )

Exercises away from your bass are pretty meaningless, mate. You actually had the required strength in your fingers when you were 3. Its the effiicent use of muscles that matters not strength (I like to think of it as grace not power - liek a ballet dancer vs a weightlifter). The only exercises worth doing to improve finger dexterity are those that involve you doing the thing you need the dexterity for; playing the bass. You need to play things that are not confortable until they become comfortable. Then you are progressing. It takes time and there are no short cuts.

[quote name='Low End Bee' post='639774' date='Oct 29 2009, 09:50 AM']I didn't say there was anything wrong with self indulgence Bilbo. Hell I bet at least 99.9% of us on here are.[/quote] My point exactly!

[quote name='Low End Bee' post='638877' date='Oct 28 2009, 10:42 AM']That's 'cause they were! [/quote] What is more self indulgent? A guitarist playing what were generally fairly melodic solos or a singer telling us whats wrong in their relationships, politics or religion? Poetry! Now THAT's self indulgent!

I used to do an exercise where, starting on the 12th fret of the G string, I placed my fingers, one per fret, on the 12th - 15th fret. I then played the notes under my left hand fingers in the order 1234 I then skipped to the D, then A then E strings, playing the same pattern, 1234 I then move to the 11th fret and repeat, then 10th and so on down to the 1st fret. I then repeat the exercise with the left hand fingers playing 3124, 1423, 2143, 4132 and other variations, all starting on 12th fret and working down to 1st. Then, to make it really hard, play it on the g, then A, then D then E string, incorporating the string skips into the pattern You can do it with a metronome to help timing issues but don't tell Jeff and increase the speed gradually over time . If you get into a rhythm, its actually quite zen like.

Heavier strings are generally believed to provide more overtones and sound subjectively 'better' (fuller, warmer, more sophisticated etc). String height has an impact on this as well but, in general terms there is an equation between heaviness of strings/tone vs playability. The compromise is a personal thing. A general example is that rock guitarists tend to use lighter strings (.09 guage on the high E) for speed/shredding whereas jazz guitarists use 0.12s or 0.13s for tone. Bass strings are so much heavier that the differences between guages are greater but the principles are the same, heavier string better tone, lighter string easier to play. The optimum equation is personal and established through experimentation over time. I hace 0.45 guage (G) Rotosound Solo Bass on my Wal and have long since found that to be my 'best fit'. I tried 0.40s but found the tone to be lacking. My guitars are all 0.12s.

[quote name='Rayman' post='638030' date='Oct 27 2009, 03:28 PM']Selling stuff you don't actually have in stock is out of order in my opinion.[/quote] Most furniture shops sell you stuff that hasn't even been MADE yet so you can't really criticise music retailers for engaging in what is effectively normal practice in the retail sector (for reference, the 'make it to order' business model means that considerably less storage space is required). Or do you actually believe that GAK have all of that stuff in their Brighton shop?

Anthony Jackson only ever plays sitting down and he ROCKS!

Get some different gigs. If the whole thing hinges on standing up, it can't be that interesting

It'll make it worse After 23 years of pretty much dedicated fretless playing, when I play fretted I get what for me is an inordinate amount of fret buzz and the whole thing, to my ears, sounds dead. This may be a subjective thing and a reflection of my preferences but I guess that, if you continue to play the fretted bass regularly, this woudl be avoided. I agree with Doddy, tho'. It should improve your ears.

[quote name='Golchen' post='638766' date='Oct 28 2009, 08:43 AM']no other set of musicians seems to have this curious attitude whereby they want to put-down virtuosos of their chosen instrument. I'm not criticising anyone here, it's just an observation.[/quote] I get your point, G, but I guess that bass players are in a unique position in that the role of their instrument is traditionally supportive. As virtuosity tends to lend itself to solo flights of fantasy, it requires a conceptual shift that many are reluctant to make. I think the reasons for this are complex and may include a reluctance to engage with the 'new' vocabulary required to 'keep up' with these virtuoso players but, as I said, there are few other instruments that are so locked into a role as the bass. Interesting point: I grew up a prog. fan in the early to mid-70s and one of the criticisms levied at prog and rock in general came from the 'anti-guitar hero' sensibilities of the Punk/New Wave movement. Guitarists were as culpable as anyone and criticised Steve Howe, Steve Hackett, Richie Blackmore, Leslie West etc etc as 'self indulgent.

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I agree totally. I think there is a necessary process when you explore the potential of the instrument in the hands of those masters but, ultimately, it IS about the music and great technique is of limited interest in the long run. I have long since lost the whole bass album/bass magazine/GAS/gear obsession perspective and started listening to the music. I still love virtuosity but not as an end in itself. I think some of the players listed as early favourites have still made some beautiful music, in spite of their reputations as shredmeisters. Jaco's 'Word Of Mouth' CD is full of great music (i.e. not bass focussed) and I love Stanley Clarke on those first 2/3 Return to Forever album. But it is great playing in the context of great music rather than great playing full stop. I have said elsewhere here that its one of the reasons I don't really enjoy James Jamerson: great player but I don't really like that Motown stuff he is playing those great lines on. Jeff Berlin is another one: great player but I just don't like the music he makes. I find that studying music and not musicians also takes you away from technique/acrobatics and back towards the noises we are all making. Most bass CDs are like movies with great special effects and no plot. You're just growing up, mate

Jakesbass is a pro and there are several others. Me? I eat.

Both - ES will play until 2 a.m.. ToP will probably finish earlier? Are they both London venues?

75 tracks of Coltrane for £10 - if I didn't have most of them....... [url="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Blue-Train-John-Coltrane/dp/tracks/B0014WSX2K/ref=dp_tracks_all_1#disc_1"]http://www.amazon.co.uk/Blue-Train-John-Co...ks_all_1#disc_1[/url]

[quote name='Rich' post='636833' date='Oct 26 2009, 12:38 PM']What, you? surely not! :lol:[/quote] I know. It looks bad, doesn't it? I just think that so much of what this business is about is shallow posturing and not 'the real deal'. It therefore looks like I am dissing everything when I am actually a great supporter and staunch advocate of great music, whatever form it takes. I actually think I am tBBC in sheep's clothing.... I mean, Steve Harris? Ok, if you're 13!

Its the sound that matters not the weight. I went down the lighterweight route and just couldn't live with the compromise in the sound and went back to humping my Eden combo. I actually got around some of the weight issues with some planning and thought. Sound, sound, sound!!