Bilbo

How is THAT in any way cool? Looks like something you'd sit on to milk Daisy!

My first amp was a Carlsboro Cobra 60W - piece of junk.

Nothing crazy, agroupuk, just practice. One finger after the other and repeat 1,000,000 times and you'll have it. It's not rocket science, just incremental. No easy fix, just time.

Looks like a bug splat to me Not my cup of tea but its 'original'!!

My first ever gig was Gillan at Cardiff Top Rank on the Glory Road tour supported by White Spirit (inc Janick Gers on guitar) and a band called Quartz. Remember when the bands used to do 30 date UK tours in the little clubs with support bands like Diamond Head and Trust and Rose Tattoo? I used to see some quality stuff then. Now the name bands all do 4 nights at Brimingham NEC, Wembley Arena, Manchester Apollo and sod all else. Shame for the little people who can't afford £100 for a night out. Rock On!!

Try sight singing - learning to read music without an instrument and using your voice. Its hard but you can get skills that will make you the most employable bloke in Gloucester (!!??)

So he has good days and bad. Me too (grrrr!!)

Great - are they playing any jazz on it this time?

[quote name='mcgraham' post='301034' date='Oct 7 2008, 09:05 AM']I wouldn't say it shows a lack of critical awareness if you are a listener, but I reckon that's not what you meant anyway.[/quote] Sorry, Mark, but that WAS what I meant! I think liking everything shows a complete lack of taste!! Now wait for the fireworks!

[quote name='4000' post='300759' date='Oct 6 2008, 07:45 PM']I love a lot of pop music. I love a lot of rock. I love a lot of jazz. In fact I like most of everything. It's all music. To pigeonhole is ultimately pointless. There are tracks I don't like, some artists I don't like (please stand up Mr Hucknall, Boyzone and those other post-Boyzone guys I've thankfully temporarily forgotten the name of), but there is no genre I don't like. I love ABBA. I love Motorhead. I love Yes and Matt Garrison. I love Public Enemy and the Beastie Boys. I love the Chilis and Bow Wow Wow. I love Basie & Ellington. I love Faithless, Manowar (yes, Manowar!!!), 30 Seconds to Mars and Bob Marley. I love the Stranglers and the Damned, Simon & Garfunkel and James Taylor, Paco De Lucia, Bach, heck I love Thomas Newman, John Williams, James Brown...I think you get the picture. As for pop music, even leaving bands like ABBA out of the equation, the Primitives' "Crash" is to me as perfect a record as you'll ever hear in any genre, and that's pure pop through and through.[/quote] I play with a pianist who likes everything and she is a pain in the a***. One minute she is calling Anthropology, the next its Candyman by Christina Aquilera - idiomatic anarchy. Probelm is, a jazz drummer with a jazz kit isn't going to sound like a rock drummer with a rock kit and vice versa. Your eq is set for jazz, then you are playing pop/funk with a band that can swing but can't play funk. I can see the moral justification for liking everything but, somehow, it feels more like a lack of critical awareness.

That Evans/La Faro/Motian Vanguard LP is a great recording but what amazes me is that there is this ground-breaking, creative artistry going on but, in the background, you can hear people's cutlery clanking away as they dive into their nosebags, oblivious to what's happening in front of them! Paul Motian - now there's a real jazz drummer, one I would love to play with.... :wub:

Has anyone here heard Hal Wilner's 1992 'Weird Nightmare: Meditations on Mingus' cd? Its marvelous! Features a range of musicians from Bill Frissel to Keith Richards to Vernon Reid to Henry Threadgill and also features some 'made' instruments from Harry Partch. Stunning stuff and one that really shows the importance of the creative producer in a recording situation. It also shows the flexibility of Mingus' compositions.

Steely Dan are, for me, one of those rock bands that allows the genre to retain some self-respect; Zappa too. Intelligent, creative music both lyrically and musically. Every genre has some of these true artists. 'Katy Lied' does it for me but that live DVD from the 'Two Against Nature' tour is great. (Tom Barney, if I recall correctly).

[quote name='mcgraham' post='300361' date='Oct 6 2008, 11:21 AM']P.S. For jazz, does anyone else find it a little bit pretentious/infuriating/confusing when someone says they are into 'jazz', and they're simply using it to describe music that they can't think which category it fits in to? It's not heavy, it's not poppy, it sounds odd, therefore it must be jazz?[/quote] If you try and put a circle around what people think is 'jazz' someone will try to cross it. Its a very broad church.

I have no problem with the ethos of LIKING loads of stuff. I like Jazz; that's a given. But I also like Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin, The Dixie Chicks, James Taylor, Nektar, John Mayer, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Holst, Prokofiev, Genesis, Yes, It Bites, Earth, Wind & Fire, Steely Dan, Astor Piazolla, Marisa Monte, Michael Tippet, System Of A Down, Javier Navarette, Israel Kamakawiwo'ole, Flook...... But, because, like all of us, I am up to my eyeballs in life, I have to prioritise and make choices about what I go to first and last. I don't only like jazz and then hate everything else. I just like more music under the 'jazz' umbrella than I do classical, blues, HM, funk.....etc. etc... I think this hate thing doesn't come from the music's content but from the over-representation of bubblegum in the mainstream media. I was saying to my wife on Saturday, its an appalling situation when the programme on mainstream UK TV with the most admirable ethos regarding a wide range of live music of differing genres is 'Strictly Come Dancing'. Those of us who 'hate' pop music don't 'hate' it, we just view it with contempt, bred by familiarity.

I have been here before on this forum. Music is like anything else; too much of one thing and you get bored. Doesn't matter is you are talking about beans, books or music. I agree that you can find interesting things in most genres but the problem is that you can find many MORE interesting things in some genres and very few in others. If you like bird watching, would you go to Trafalager Square or the Wetlands around Norfolk? Yes, pigeons can be interesting but you wouldn't go out of your way, would you So your choice to listen to jazz is perfectly natural; it has more to excite you, to inspire you, to interest you. The stuff on mainstream radio is mostly candyfloss, bubblegum and fluff and hardly worth the effort.

s'all true. You need to read the charts geography before you start playing (with practice it takes seconds). Find the repeats, codas, sines etc so you don't get caught out (we've all done it). Also, after you have practiced a while, you will find that you don't so much read notes as bars (like you read words not letters) Keep at it - that's the only way.

Kudos to the guy- he's got his own concept and it sounds integrated and complete - not a shredfest but a musicial voice. Not something I want to explore as a player but his work is very clean and professional and he should be applauded.

I'm good. The SWR/GK hybrid is working for jazz trios and the Eden for louder gigs. The Wal is perfect for me and has been for a long time now. My only GAS would be to exchange my Status Energy Artist 6 for a 6-string fretless, just to try one out. I am working on my mind at the moment! That's far harder to change!

Have you been somewhere?

Good bits Always want to get better Always want to learn more Systematic approach to musical development Can read dots and charts Know lots of theory and learning more every day Play quietly (am aspiring to almost disappearing completely) Can slap but don’t Mostly only play fretless Can swing on an electric bass Know how to get the best sounds and textures out of my bass (of 22 years) Can and do play jazz, jazz and more jazz Can play Latin music reasonably authentically Play the music not the bass No problems with odd time signatures Won’t play ‘Canteloupe Island’ or ‘Watermelon Man’ (trust me, that’s a good thing) Will tell you what I think of your playing if you ask Will tell you my opinion on anything whether you ask for it or not Bad bits Will tell you what I think of your playing if you ask Will tell you my opinion on anything whether you ask for it or not Have not recorded much that I am proud of Almost never play original music Play far too many covers gigs Struggle with pains in my hands that can, when they are bad, undermine my otherwise credible technique Intonation can slip if I am bored (am working on that) Soloing can get a bit predicatable Only know three tunes; ‘So What, ‘Impressions’ and ‘Lush Life’ Don’t practice enough Not interested in effects Not really interested in ERBs but would welcome the opportunity to try one

When I played jazz 'live' on The National Lottery Live, I was miming to a recording of myself (as played by Carol Kaye) but the images on screen bore no relationship whatsoever with what the audience was hearing. I guess its an occupational hazard with TV work.

Or try 'Band in a Box' - costs fourpence 'apenny and will do the trick and a whole lot more besides.

Unmitigated balllcocks! Its hard enough trying to get people to like the good stuff without this s*** being allowed out. Kindly leave the stage!