Bilbo

A bit of light relief, this is the John Paul Jones bass part for the tune 'When The Levee Breaks' from the untitled album known to us all as Led Zeppelin IV (1971). Great stuff and very easy to play (note: I think a lot of it is on an 8-string so there are ambiguities in terms of specific details but this chart will get you through it if you every have to dep for JPJ at short notice). https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/when-the-levee-breaks-led-zeppelin/

58 Jeff Berlin transcriptions up there now. I once learned Dixie but didn't write it down, sadly. I struggle with the chordal stuff, both hearing it and in writing it down. I love that Beethoven improvisation he does on line but am more than a little intimidated by it.

It's been a while but here is some more Jeff Berlin. This time, it is the complete bass part for the tune 'Fu Bu Ki' from the 1988 Kazumi Watanabe album, 'Spice Of Life Too'. It's mostly alternating bars of 9:8 and 5:4 so 'break a leg'! https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/fu-bu-ki-kazumi-watanabe/

Easy to transcribe, not so easy to read. Funk in 11:8, this is the Percy Jones bass part for 'Princess And The Frog' from the 1976 Nova album, 'Vimana'. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/princess-and-the-frog-nova/

This one is a slippery little sucker and I am not convinced about bars 118-121. This is the Gary Willis bass part for the tune 'Ivy Towers' from the 1985 Tribal tech album, 'Spears'. Don't you wish you could write stuff like this? An interesting point, though. I was in awe of Willis at that point in my life but I can play this now. It is a through written piece - no solos. Fascinating ideas across the piece, though. It is a tough read but brilliant fun once you can get under the thing. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/ivy-towers-tribal-tech/

A head only bass part, this is the Robert Hurst part to the head of 'A Foggy Day (in London Town)'. the Wynton Marsalis tune I posted a couple of weeks ago. I tried to do the whole line but was defeated by the technology. One of the problems with Sibelius software that I cannot seem to get around is that it will not allow you to write a triplet across a bar line. This is rarely an issue but it becomes problematic when a player plays 3 against 4 across a bar line or, in this case, 4 against 3 across a bar line. I have managed this in the past by changing one bar to 5:4 and the next to 3:4 but, in this case, during the trumpet solo, Hurst is doing something I have never heard before in all my years; playing 4 against 3 whilst the rest of the band continues playing in 4. In short, Sibelius says he can’t do that! Well, get this, he did. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/a-foggy-day-in-london-town-wynton-marsalis/

Something a little lighter today but beautiful nevertheless. Mike Rutherford's bass part for the tune 'Many Too Many' from the 1978 Genesis album, 'And Then There Were Three'. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/many-too-many-genesis/

552 hits yesterday. 119 today. The averages are up though.

The last of the Patitucci/Grusin charts, this is the tune 'Something's Coming' from the 1997 Grusin recording 'West Side Story'. That was a heavy couple of days but I really enjoy this recording and playing these parts gives me such a buzz. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/somethings-coming-dave-grusin/

'The Jet Song' from that same recording. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/the-jet-song-dave-grusin/

I loved that track. The octave divider was THE Pino sound of that era. Pino comes from Cardiff where I started my Jazz playing but I am pretty sure he had already left when I started playing there. I ate at his family's restaurant once but never met or saw him play. Laurence Cottle and Percy Jones were fairly local to there also (Swansea and Llandrindod Wells, I believe).

61. I struggle to find people interested and able to play the kinds of music I love but, even so, I love the gigs, large or small. I don't see the point of playing without performing live with other people. I know musicians who never gig. Doesn't make sense to me at all. There is the social aspect of the playing that is welcome part of it but, mostly, I just want to play music as much as I can. Money is not really a consideration. The music is what matters

Nothing much else to do at the moment, my friend. Here is the complete bass part for 'Somewhere' from that Grusin album. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/somewhere-dave-grusin/

Bloody hell. Over 500 views today.

Nearly there. Patitucci's bass part on 'One Hand, One Heart' from the same 'West Side Story' recording. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/one-hand-one-heart-dave-grusin/

Only five more to go. This is the tune 'Maria' from the Dave Grusin 'West Side Story' recording - I love the transition from ballad to swing but watch the tempos as they are clearly directed in the studio by someone conducting. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/maria-dave-grusin/

And here we have Patitucci's complete bass part for the tune 'Tonight' from the same album. Listen to Gloria Estafan's phrasing and then go back and listen to Patitucci's. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/tonight-dave-grusin/

An easy win from the 'West Side Story', the tune 'I Feel Pretty' is essentially a duet between Grusin and flautist, Dave Valentin but there is a 90 second montuno groove in 6:4 at the 1:34 mark that is fun. Not massively difficult to play but, as with the 7:8 sections in 'America', you need to internalise the count and then it makes sense. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/i-feel-pretty-dave-grusin/

Great fun. Some nice stuff going on there.

Everyone everywhere speaks English because we can't speak anything else. I can't even speak Welsh and I am a Welshman.

I post everything on there already, Dave, so they should know about it already. Maybe the Russians or Chinese have discovered it!!

I am so excited to get this one down at last. This is the complete John Patitucci performance of the Leonard Bernstein tune 'America' as performed by Dave Grusin for the 1997 'West Side Story' album. A stunning recording that I hope to get to transcribe in its entirety (this is the longest piece so the rest should be easy enough). Coming in ay 8:20, there is a lot to take in but, stick with it. The bulk of the piece is in 7:8 but, once you get inside the groove, the reading gets easier. The logic seems to present itself as you internalise the rhythm. Great stuff. The fact that the harmony is relatively stable helps massively too. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/america-dave-grusin/

Yeah - but they aren't allowed the internet in prison.

Something weird has happened today. My website has averaged around 130-150 hits a day from about 40-50 people but today it has had 400+ hits from 330 people. Did someone mention it on TV somewhere 😆

A brilliantly fresh arrangement of Tito Puente's #Oye Como Va, this Hans Glawischnig bass part comer from the 2004 album by percussionist Paolo Meijas, 'Mi Tambor'. Some really creative ideas in here showing us what great musicians can do with 'standards' by completely reworking them. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/oye-como-va-paolo-meijas/