Bilbo

Wayne Shorter - Footprints Live Michael Brecker - Michael Brecker, Don't Try This At Home or Pilgrimage

Gil Goldstein - now there's a talent 'Zebracoast' is a great cd and it introduced me to Carles Benavent, a great plectrum wielding giant of nuevo flamenco bass playing and to nuevo flamenco in general. Goldstien also did the arrangements for Mike Brecker's 'Wide Angles' cd (I think he got a grammy for it). Has worked with Pat Metheny, Jaco Pastorius, Pat Martino, Billy Cobham, and Lee Konitz. In l981 Gil started performing with the Gil Evans Orchestra. With Gil Evans as his mentor, Goldstein began developing his own arranging craft, eventually writing for artists including Milton Nasciemento, Randy Brecker, Pat Metheny, Wallace Roney, David Sanborn, Al Jarreau, and in 2003, winning a Grammy Award for his work with Michael Brecker. Check him out if you can (there's loads of stuff on Youtube).

Recommended - Shadows & Light - Joni Mitchell - great songwriting and great performances (Jaco) Suntan - Michel Camilo Trio - its what a six string bass is for (Anthony Jackson) Bright Size Life - Pat Metheny (Jaco) Abercrombie, Johnson, Erskine - John Abercrombie Trio Live (Marc Johnson) Conference of the Birds - Dave Holland Miles Smiles - MIels Davis (Ron Carter) Rejoicing - Pat Metheny (Charlie Haden and Billy Higgins - lush!) Grasshopper - Wayne Johnson (Jimmy Johnson - no relation) Allan Holdsworth - Road Games (Jeff Berlin - the height of his career) Morrocan Roll - Brand X (Percy Jones NOT doing Jaco) I could go and (and probably will)

Your preferences are already stated so don't get too hung up on these but you should have a listen to people like, even if its only the once: Percy Jones - Brand X - jazz-rock/fusion but some interesting ways of using a fretless bass. Some ideas may be transferable to your own thing so worth checking out. John Giblin - also played with Brand X but also did some Simple Minds and other more mainstream stuff. Mo Foster - English session player who has his own thing - great tone. Dill Katz - another Britsh fusioneer Steve Bailey - 6-string fretless Jack Bruce (post Cream) uses a fretless Warwick bass guitar. Sean Malone played a fretless bass on the technical death metal band Cynic's sole album "Focus." Rick Danko (of The Band) used a fretless bass in early recordings Steve DiGiorgio (one of the few fretless bassists in the metal scene) usually plays a five string fretless bass. Mick Karn (former bassist of Japan and avantgarde musician) used fretless bass guitar since the late 1970s. Very interesting but very stylised Tony Levin - bass player with Peter Gabriel and King Crimson Alain Caron - UZEB - great technique but a bit soulless Pino Palladino, a session bassist, has developed a fretless bass method. Jeroen Paul Thesseling, fretless bassist, plays microtonal world music using six-string fretless Warwick basses. John Myung, (bassist for Dream Theater). Garry Gary Beers, (bassist for INXS). Josh Ansley, (former bassist of Catch 22) is well known for his innovative fretless bass styles. Colin Edwin, (bassist for Porcupine Tree). Bunny Brunel used a fretless bass on a PBS special concert with Chick Corea, Gary Burton, Al Jarreau Victor Wooten uses a custom five-string fretless bass on several of his own songs as well as several Bela Fleck and the Flecktones songs. Paul Simonon from The Clash used a fretless Fender Precision Bass in 1981, during the period of their Sandinista! album. and, of course, Bakithi Kumalo, who has performed and recorded with Paul Simon (Graceland CD) and others. Oh - and me.

Absolutely - its just a practice thing; getting familiar with the chord changes and then incorporating the harmonic details into the rhythmic phrasing of the funk genre (or, more accurately, the other way around). One of the secrets is understanding the phrasing of chords (on the beat or off etc). That will figure heavily in your funkification decisions! ('funkification' - I have just invented a new word and I LIKE it!!)

Thanks for doing that, Pete. There's plenty more where that came from!! Feedback from the band leader was positive and I have no doubt that you will be hearing from him again soon. I had to dep that one out because I had been called for a jazz gig at One Great George Street in Westminster (opposite Parliament Square). Trio with Carl Hudson (Boston, Colchester and now London) on piano and Alex Best from Ipswich on drums. Best jazz gig I have done is a long time - great swing, lots of listening. Great sounding room (wood panelling, carpets, high ceiling);and everyone playing at the top of their game. The result was greater than the sum of its parts. Jazz heaven! Its nice to get back to where the passion is!

[quote name='OldGit' post='168937' date='Apr 3 2008, 11:02 AM']What I'm really talking about here is when someone says "play something for us" and you reach for the bass ...[/quote] S'never happened! I don't think people are that interested.

I'm kinda with Jakesbass on this one. I think featuring the bass is perfectly acceptable if that is what the gig requires but I always shy away from it at weddings etc because no-one is interested and it just interupts the 'groove' of the evening (watch them dancers clear the floor!). Bass solos often bore bass players (see any one of 1,000 posts here) but the rest of the listening public are even less inclined to listen to us feature. I think the two/four bar fill when the band leader introduces the players (if that happens) is all that is even remotely advisable. In my experience, the best way to 'feature' the bass is to let it do what it does best; underpin a killer groove. I am on course to do 100 gigs this year and know that its not my solos that get me the calls, its my time.

Couple of things - when you hit a note and, as you say, it keeps ringing after you stop it, are you dampening the noite properly? There are several ways of doing this using your fretting or plucking hand. Are the notes that are ringing harmonics (i.e. are they on 3rd, 5th, 5th, 7th or 12th fret)? One of the aspects of playing most often neglected (IME) is the END of a note. Everyone focusses on where the notes start but forget that the LENGTH of a note is an equally important part of the process. Gary Willis has some strong views on this on his Progressive Bassics video. His whole technique is worked around the termination of a note as much as the commencement, You need to find ways of silencing a string you don't want to hear ringing - a decent teacher should be able to help you with this.

Actually, I was disappointed by this now I have seen it. Seeing someone play someone elses solo, even in this manner, is no more exciting than any other 'set piece'. He has achieved a lot by learning Coltranes GS solo (one of many, many versions he recorded) but his bass/piano trick is not really that different rhythmically from an ordinary piano player with a capable left hand. Fun tho'

I don't think its as serious as that, mate. I think a bit of genre bashing is no more sinister than banter. Most of us don't listen to what we don't like and don't really care if others don't like our tastes. No genre is universally appreciated, we all know that, and these rucks are just a bit of silliness to pass the day. I think if someone wants to make a serious point about why they like a particular band/song/genre, then that's cool. But I think most of us can tell the difference between a serious discussion and a bit of nonsense. Brie, Bacon and Cranberry Sauce baguettes from the Baker's Oven. Yummy!

Actually, niceguyhomer, I also think Glenn Miller is cheesy as f*** but, when I recently did a big band gig at a RAFA club, all these old couples got up to dance ot the stuff and I was immediately made aware that this bland music had been very important to some people at a difficult time in their lives - it made playing it as well as we could very important all of a sudden. As someone said 'beauty is in the ear of the beholder'. Enjoy your gig.

Oh alright. As its you.

Elvis = Excitement?

King of Swing (Benny Goodman)....

[quote name='bigjohn' post='168458' date='Apr 2 2008, 01:43 PM']King of Rock & Roll[/quote] Is that what you call being damned by faint praise?

You've never heard 'Ascension' then!!

Have you got an Elvis towel? Or one of those Elvis plates that get sold on the back of tv papers? Fantastic (not)!

'Giant Steps' has a certain notoriety that arises from its use of a complex set of chord changes known colloquially as 'Giant Steps changes'. The series of chords in question follow a cycle of ii-V-I changes that shift by major thirds and tritones (instead of the normal fourths and fifths etc) rendering all routine bebop cliches ineffective. In a nutshell, you can't 'fake it' over these suckers. The melody is actually quite accessible (I suggest you listen to a clip of it on Amazon or something - it starts at the top so you will hear it straight off) but the soloing takes some getting used to. Playing against these changes is widely regarded as the apex of sophisitaiction in terms of harmonic movement etc and many jazz fans, musicians and listeners alike, continue to guage a musicians core competences on their ability to make sense of them. Improvising a solo over these changes is hard. Improvising a good solo is VERY hard. Improvising a great solo - that's somewhere in the region of as tough as it gets. This piece of music is not elitist per se but rather it is arguably as far as you can go with complex harmonies in terms of be-bop and associated genres. Basically, if you want to be a jazz musician per se, you need to deal with these changes to a greater or lesser extent. I haven't heard Mikey's version (I will try to later) so cannot comment on it but I know I struggle with them and, every time the tune gets called, I regret not having worked harder or longer on them. I guess that may be one of the reasons why I play jazz in small pubs in East Anglia not in The Barbican! For the record, Coltrane didn't invent these changes, they were heard much earlier than his 1959 recording but only in obscure corners of minor tunes. 'Giant Steps' features them in a wholly integrated way that was unprecedented. For the Paul Chambers fans amongst you: had you spotted that Kind Of Blue and Giant Steps were recorded a fortnight apart - not a bad couple of weeks work, eh?

[quote name='BigBeefChief' post='168383' date='Apr 2 2008, 12:32 PM']Very clever. But what an utter sh*t piece of music. Sounds like a parody of w***-jazz.[/quote] You don't like it, then?

Elvis is proof that you can fool some of the people all of the time.

Yeah.....but its Elvis. I don't care how much you paid me. It's Elvis

For the record, I think one of the most useful ERB players (in the sense that a 5-string is an ERB) is Jimmy Johnson - he really uses the full range of his Alembic in an intergrated manner, as part of his core lines.

I have no conceptual problems with ERBs, I just haven't been moved emotionally by any music played on one. I know all the theory about chords on the higher strings/frets but, compared to the expressive potential of a guitar, the music offered by ERBists has failed to float my boat. I have a 6-string Status Energy (I think) but it stays on the wall most of the time (am considering a swap for a commensurate five). I can't seem to make it sing. But I am confident, as the instrument finds its voice, that someone will do something wonderful and make beautiful music on one of these beasts. Then us 4-string nazis will have to eat humble pie! Maybe it'll be someone here.