Bilbo

Great piano trio gig at The Fox in Bury St Edmunds with Chris Ingham, probably Suffolk's best jazz pianist. Great sound and some great interaction, dynamics and grooves. Chris is also an author and has written books on Frank Sinatra, The Beatles and Metallica. I also played with Chris in a Quartet that afternoon when we played to 2-300 people who had gathered to watch the Christmas lights in Stowmarket get switched on. We played all that Christmas dross but the irony is, because it was not a jazz gig, despite its low key status, it was the biggest audience any of us had seen all year! Personally, I do it for the glamour.....

:lol:

[quote name='Alun' post='340579' date='Nov 29 2008, 04:24 PM']Sax player Dick Hamer? He's still about - do the odd big band gig with him. The Four Bars was a fab venue and much missed :-) Cheers Alun[/quote] Yeah, that's my man. He gave me my first ever jazz gig. Say hi when you see him (Rob Palmer - he won't know bilbo )

[quote name='steve-soar' post='340637' date='Nov 29 2008, 05:27 PM']The drummers kit has fell over.[/quote] Ain't you ever seen a drum roll?

[quote name='Clarky' post='340631' date='Nov 29 2008, 05:22 PM']Hey Bilbo just noticed that your IP name presumably includes your birthdate (23 July 1963) - this makes me exactly three days older than you. Older = wiser? Maybe not![/quote] Yeah, but I LOOK older!

At last! A picture without a fruit machine in it! [url="http://www.jazz-nights.com/SaraMitraGallery3.htm"]http://www.jazz-nights.com/SaraMitraGallery3.htm[/url] PS Have I got the smallest stack in the world?

Its weirdly nice, Jase The Cardiff scene sounds like it has changed since I was playing there ('88 - '94). The nearest I ever got to fusion was Dick Hamer's Rhythm Method, doing Crusaders and Steps Ahead coversas I recall. The Four Bars Inn - halcyon days!! You would have been around 20. Did we ever meet?

A bass is for life and not just for marriage! Welcome back.

Never mind the bass playing,who writes the charts?

[quote name='OutToPlayJazz' post='339461' date='Nov 28 2008, 11:53 AM']He means the bass bit before the vocals come in [/quote]

Not cool.

Shouldn't be up to the mob either!!

[quote name='birdy' post='339797' date='Nov 28 2008, 04:18 PM']Disagree with this. By excusing his behaviour you are in essence validating it and saying its ok because of his age etc etc. By all means forgive him but do not excuse him. Just my opinion. I agree that berating him in public will not help anyone. Steve[/quote] I am doing neither, birdy. I have worked with some nasty, vicious criminals in my time and know about the worst excesses of people. Comensurate, court based sanctions is what I do when I am not playing bass. But I know that, however resourceful some of us are, there are others amongst us who, for reasons we do not know, cannot make sense of the world as easily and, as a result, get themselves in situations that they struggle with. So tBBC was the youngest Troop Commander at 19? I think that's fantastic. But I know other people who, at that age (and a damn sight older), cut themselves with knives or stub cigarettes out on their arms in order to help themselves get through the day. We are all individuals trying to make our way in a world that throws different kinds of s*** at us all day. Sometimes we cope better than others. If we are lucky, we always cope. But sometimes, some of us don't. Understanding why people do bad things is potentially the first step to making them not do them again (sometimes they don't need to understand, they just need to stop doing them).

[quote name='BassMunkee' post='339652' date='Nov 28 2008, 02:41 PM']Snigger. You are on a cold and lonely path in The Misty Mountains. You go East. Gollum appears. "What has it got in it's pockets?" You go North.[/quote] My and Golly (as I call him) go back a long way. Apparently he hates me forever. He hasn't seen me for ages

[quote name='Adrenochrome' post='339659' date='Nov 28 2008, 02:45 PM']Bilbo, could you do less hours in your day job and do more music? It's something I wouldn't mind doing when I'm a bit older.[/quote] That's being considered as we speak but my fear is that I would lose the income and NOT spend the time doing music but keeping the house cleaning and laundry more up to date and 'doing those little jobs around the house'! If my book gets published, other doors may open!

The kid's only 19 and is in a hole he can't get out of. I couldn't find my own a*** with both hands when I was 19. Leave him alone to lick his wounds. Pathologising him will make it worse not better. He has to make peace with his own conscience before he can move on and berating him in public will only slow that process down.

I did a great jazz gig on Wednesday and had to drive the singer there because her partner (the drummer) had to go there directly from work (teaching). Both Andi and Alex are university trained pros whilst I am a self-taught semi-pro. The conversation got round to gigs and it transpires that I do more than both of them. When I think that through, it feels good. I earn nearly £40k in my day job (+ pension, holiday and sick pay) and all the gigs I do are on top of that, some function work but mostly small group jazz. I get VERY frustrated at not being able to play, study and compose music every second of every day but that is not actually a money thing because, if I could compose what I would like to compose, its market value wouldn't necessarily generate a great deal of income. I think that point is that, if you are going to be a pro, it is like any other small business. You have to be nice to customers, smile when they are being complete t***ers, deliver the product they want when they want it. You do your accounts, offset your expenses, save your tax, do the Math. If it works (as it does for Jake), then that's fab. If it doesn't, you have decisions to make. What are you, as a small business(wo)man going to do about it?: rebrand, change your product line, train and develop, regroup? Or just sell up and go get a proper job? If you treat it as a business and offer the same commitment to it as any small businessperson should, you will see rewards. Whether they are enough is up to you. There has always been a sense that being a muso was a way to get to Oz and that the streets there were paved with gold. They are if you are lucky but only in a 'right place at the right time' 'lottery win' kind of way. In my experience, you get the breaks if you are ready for them and able to commit. In a round about way, I could have been in Feeder and had a career as a Rock god (!?) but when Grant went to London to make his fortune, I chose to stay where I was in a secure day job and get a mortgage. There are days when I wish I could be playing the O2 but I can't help remembering that Jon Lee topped himself so, whatever the glamour suggests, it can't all be roses!! Life is not about one choice and one path. We are all on several paths at once. I don't know Jake at all but, from the contact I have had with him, I think his attitude to life is great. He will be happy because it is in his nature to be. Whether he plays or teaches or both, he will be happy because he will make his decisions with integrity and conducts himself accordingly. My decision, as a musician, is to try to play music I like as much as I can. My approach to music is as an artist not as a businessman (my abilities as an artist are deeply questionable but my intent is honourable) and, for me, the music is its own reward (I got less than expenses for the jazz gig on Wednesday but it was the best gig I have done all year). How we feel about what we do is determined by a range of factors and being either pro or semi pro is actually only a tiny part of that.

[quote name='Spoombung' post='339411' date='Nov 28 2008, 11:17 AM']Ah, well, I also said I [url="http://spoombung.livejournal.com/45870.html"]have difficulties with Jazz Rock[/url]! I notice you're from Felixstowe (I'm from Ipswich) and you're probably around the same age as me - so you might remember the band '[i]Fusion[/i]' featuring the young Nick Kershaw - which I've alluded to in the above link...?[/quote] Heard of them but I have only been here about 5 years so they were well before my time. When did you leave Ipwich?

Intro to Sweet Child of Mine by Guns and Roses.

Jeff Berlin vs. Percy Jones? Couldn't listen to either of them now for more than 15 minutes (in total, not each, for the sake of clarity)! Its great bass playing and a great spectacle but emotionally flat music (back to that thing about great bass lines not making music better). Jones had a really original concept going but the music he plays just doesn't do anything for me. At all. And as for Jeff - I wanna like your stuff, mate, but where's the soul?

I'm with Jake on this one (despite being a jazz bass player who regularly gets accused of noodling over everything (grrrr))! There is no such thing as a boring bass line, just a boring song. If you and your drummer lock in and just play 180 bars of A with the greatest groove in the history of rhythm sections, trust me, you will not be bored! I have said it before here but I think the highlight of Billy Sheehan's career is 'Ladies Night In Buffalo', a straight pedal note but what a groove! All the tapping stuff all over 'Eat Em And Smile' is very athletic and head-turning but, musically, that pedal was perfect! The world is full of 'boring' bass lines that are EXACTLY the right thing for the song. An interesting bass-line won't 'make' a song (I think half of James Jamerson's best work is wasted on Motown bubblegum - polishing turds, I think they call it). What will make your lines more interesting is studying music not bass. PS you can do both at the same time!

If it needs to go by boat, I am at Felixstowe so can stand on Landguard beach where the docks are and watch the ship sail over the horizon, just to make sure no Somali pirates hijack it for its precious cargo (Evil Ted can ride shotgun). If it helps...

Had a rhythm section gig at High Barn in Great Bardfield, Essex, last night backing jazz vocalists Sarah Mitra and Andi Hopgood. Bloomin' marvelous - great sound, great players, attentive audience - one of the best gigs of 2008 (and this has been my busiest year ever). It was of those rare gigs when putting a touch of vibrato on a note actually mattered!

I guess different is not good enough!!

This is always been a contentious issue for me. I have tried several pedals on and off but, to date, I have never found one that makes the bass sound better than a bass straight through an amp. Different, yes, but not better.