bassace

We supported Peter Jay and the Jay Walkers and the Tornadoes at the Cheltenham Arts Ball back in (??!!). Clem Cattini was a nice guy. What is that Vox thing in the photo?

GK do an adaptor that fits on a mic stand to bring the combo up to four feet from the stage. I used one successfully with my DB for many years until things had to get louder. Right now I'm working on fitting a 10" Wizzy and amp on top of a PA stand for smaller gigs where I want to hear myself without a lot of vol. I see that the PA stand is good for 32kg. Any good for sticking a 12" combo on?

[quote name='Crazykiwi' post='354174' date='Dec 14 2008, 12:44 PM']For me? Definitely. I'll stick to my middle class pretentious ways, its what I know best. [/quote] Sorry, I can be a total prat sometimes. No hard feelings, I hope.

I remember buying a three point DB bridge; a lot of people were using them at the time. Thanks Happy Jack for the nostalgia-fest.

Probably not a lot of help, but I did a gig with a guitarist who was using a Roland Cube100 (!!?) and at the end of the evening I put my URB through it. It sounded very good for a small room. I have put out a wanted ad a while ago but no takers - anyone? PS, as I was sneaking in a new amp a few weeks ago I was met by Mrs Bassace, arms folded as Les Dawson/Nora Batty. I suppose you've got one for every day of the week, she challenged. But that's where you're wrong I confidently replied, I've only got six. SIX!!!, she replied. Doh, I fell right into the trap.

[quote name='Crazykiwi' post='347665' date='Dec 7 2008, 02:21 AM']Tonight we did a posh private wedding at a large Edward Luyten designed property in Haywards Heath.[/quote] Actually it's Edwin Lutyens, dear. A bit too posh, perhaps.

I think Linus should have it as a logical progression from his Stagg. Doesn't he live near Guildford?

Also bear in mind that the further away from the speaker - ie in the audience - the more you hear the lows and the less the highs. So in addition to getting a good tight bottom (I can't believe I said that) you still need a rig that gives a strong sound right up to the thumb position if poss. When I set up on stage I look first for something like a Fender Jazz sound - yes really! - and then I tweak the preamp to bring the sound back to URB. I don't start with a lot of boom. When I started out I used a Leak HiFi amp for many years with a custom preamp my brother built for me. I used to make my own speaker enclosures and used an 18" Goodmans. I thought it was great but looking back it must have been terrible! There was one rock band in town that had a bass enclosure so big that they put a door in the back and hung the band suits in it. Thank goodness for the 10" Wizzy.

CXL is very good but bloody heavy. I bought one through basschat but have never used it on a gig due to its weight. I'll make the effort one day and curse myself for not having used it sooner. I ran it in the garage and found it's a very nice bright speaker for upright.

I generally go the Clarus/Wizzy route as most of you guys. Sometimes a 10" Wizzy for trios and a 10"/12" together for the seven-piece. Having tried most of the popular pickups I now always use an Underwood on all my basses. My latest project is to use an ATM350 mic to front of house. Sounds really great and a true DB sound. Trouble is there is not always FoH or an adequate PA. So I'm taking my own mini PA with me. This comprises a second Clarus and a Wizzy 10 on the floor at the front of the stage. The backline simply acts as a monitor. Extra gear is one small amp and one small speaker and some extra cable - no trouble really.

[quote name='OldGit' post='340094' date='Nov 28 2008, 09:59 PM']What Ronnie Ross who played the fabo Baritone solo at the end of "Walk On The Wild Side?"[/quote] I didn't know that, although I would have played with him a few years before WOTWS. Thanks, OG

It's most unlikely you'll be invited. So, do you play regularly in a band that plays the same sort of stuff and are you super-competent? Is the venue an 'intimate' and informal one? Have you sat in with bands before, sometimes at no notice? Do you know the guys in the trio - do they know you? Do you know their repertoire? If the answer is 'yes' to all these (or most) then if you're brave you may consider contacting the main man a week in advance and asking. We have a seven piece Chicago jazz band and would not generally permit a sit in, unless of course it's one of the 'greats' in which case we often ask them if they'd do us the honour of sitting in with us! Often if we're at a jazz festival the organisers might arrange in advance for a young musician to do a few tunes with us. There's a great young trumpet player who we found this way called Jamie Brownfield . Look out for him. I remember when I was in my teens and I went into a local club and there was a pickup band with Dill Jones on piano and Ronnie Ross on sax - probably means nothing to anyone except Bilbo - and was invited to sit in for two numbers. I didn't come back down to earth for several days and there wasn't anyone in the school, village, town, universe who I didn't tell about it. So to sit in can be inspiring - if you don't f**k up!

A heartwarming Christmas story. Well done you guys.

[quote name='steve-norris' post='330123' date='Nov 16 2008, 03:17 PM']It really doesn't get any better than this. [/quote] Oh Yessssssssss! I first saw one used by the (upright) bass player with the Eric Delaney Band when we supported them in 1962 (may even have been '61) at Oxford Town Hall. I was blown away by it then. Also by a shy teenage girl singer on her first pro job with the Delaney band. Her name was Elaine Mansfield which she later changed to Elkie Brooks.

Yea, sure I've done the Kind of Blue stuff and its influence has to be acknowledged. How's this for a Saturday stirrer? There is one, just one, CD that will bring a smile to everybody's face, that even the most hardened jazz-haters will enjoy - The Atomic Mr Basie. Go try!

[quote name='bilbo230763' post='327620' date='Nov 12 2008, 02:19 PM'][url="http://www.jazzstandards.com/compositions/index.htm"]http://www.jazzstandards.com/compositions/index.htm[/url] Useful resource for anyone looking to know a bit more about the standards that feature so heavily in jazz.[/quote] Fascinating; I'll bookmark it. I was trying to find the chords, then realised 'lazy bugger, you can't have everything in one place' so I'll still have to dive into my Real Books etc. Incidentally, we were playing Georgia on my Mind last night with a four piece rhythm section. Bass, piano and guitar were all playing different chords and insisting each one of us was correct. Only the drummer was right. Funny how it usually happens with that tune.

[quote name='jakesbass' post='327244' date='Nov 12 2008, 01:58 AM']Ultimately your ears should be the judge of whether you are in tune as your eyes are nowhere near sensitive enough to judge from spatial awareness alone whether or not you are in tune. So IMO don't waste time training your eyes to marks, train your ears to sound.[/quote] Quite right, of course. But an occcasional reality check doesn't harm. I got one of my basses upstairs recently and carefully put three dots on the side of the fingerboard using an electronic tuner. It told me that I had been playing C on the G string about a quarter tone flat. It was a case of 'so that's where it should be!'. I got into an argument with a recording engineer some time ago who insisted that I was playing a bit out of tune. I disagreed with him until I heard the playback. So our (elderly) ears can be fallible sometimes.

Jazz, like any other art form has its individual limits of understanding. Take art itself - we can all understand a Constable and most old portraits; for some, the Impressionists may be a bit challenging. Plenty of people just about get Picasso and Dali etc. Rothko? - fewer still, and so it goes. There are several examples of modern art that I just can't begin to understand but I concede that there are people out there who do understand and enjoy those works. So it is with jazz. What's not to like about some of the early stuff, Louis Armstrong for example? Then we get into 'modern jazz' (actually 50 years old at least) much of which is readily understandable, although some of the extended solos were a bit tedious. Thelonious, Ornette, Coltrane - bit more challenging; and so it goes. There is so much in jazz and so much to learn and enjoy. There's something for everyone.

It's difficult (and a bit futile?) to try and analyse. I've been playing, mainly jazz, for 40plus years now and have never come across the expression. I'm more familiar with the expression 'swing', as in 'does it swing?'. And I'm not talking Glenn Miller here. If the music moves effortlessly along, with a momentum of its own, it's probably swinging. The pulse comes from the bass with the drums providing the ride and embellishment to the front instrument's phrasing. In jazz it helps if the pulse is slightly in front of the beat - after immersing myself in Paul Chambers and others I can't seem to play any other way. Sometimes you will get a drummer who is sympathetic, sometimes unfortunately not. There have been times when I have worked with a good drummer and I've felt a shiver up my spine. There are lots of good examples in jazz (sorry i'm not so au fait with rock, and respect to you guys). Try to catch a recording of 'Dat 'Dere by the Adderly Brothers. Just listen to pianist Bobby Timmons's solo, 'specially the second chorus. That's really swinging! PS it doesn't have to be played fast to be able to swing.

[quote name='bilbo230763' post='322784' date='Nov 5 2008, 04:43 PM']Like a great swing groove, its indefinable but, when you find it, its the BEST feeling. Its the 'magic' bit, the bit you can't buy, the bit that all the lessons you can every have and all the gear you can ever acquire won't make happen. Its the thing that some people have naturally, on the day they are born, and others spend their life making futile efforts trying to find. Its why Jeff Berlin isn't Aston 'Family Man' Barrett. Its why Steve Bailey isn't Steve Swallow. Its why Neils Henning Orsted Pederson isn't Ray Brown. Its soul. Its groove. Its the point where man and machine are operating in perfect harmony. Its why Michael Brecker and Bob Berg aren't Stan Getz and Paul Desmond. Its why Simon PHillips isn't John Bonham. Its why most people don't like jazz and why most jazz doesn't move most people. Its why Louis Armstrong is greater than Wynton Marsalis and why Slash is better than Yngwie J. Malmsteen. As Louis Armstrong once said 'if you have to ask..., you'll never know'[/quote] Ho ho ho. Don't get them started, Bilbo!

His interplay with Bill Evans, particularly on Waltz for Debby, took bass playing to a new level. Do I prefer him to the more conventional masters, such as Ray Brown? - probably not. But we don't have to judge musicians on whether they are better of worse, rather we should celebrate the diversity of playing styles that the instrument offers.

PMT in Oxford. Nice people and a short run up the M40

[quote name='Kirky' post='315179' date='Oct 26 2008, 04:44 PM']Good point - it always takes me a few seconds to adjust if I switch from bass or guitar to mandolin, for example, because of the tuning.[/quote] Respect. It would take me a lot more than a few seconds - hours, more like.

There are some bass/violin doublers out there but it doesn't come naturally simply because they are both the same, only different sizes. (double bass, I mean). Basses are tuned in fourths and violins/cellos in fifths. Ray Brown did a great LP taking the lead on pizzicato cello. I wonder whether he retuned it in fourths.

I have the greatest respect (and a small measure of envy) of any player who is a pro. Yes, sure, there may be a few who couldn't play their way out of a paper bag but the vast majority, by the number of playing hours they do and the discipline imposed by having to get it right, will be able to outplay the likes of us part-timers. As a youngster, I was playing at Butlins in '62 and we were offered a 'contract' by the MD at the place. I said at the time that I felt that music was a great hobby but a poor career. Was I right? I did well enough in building and civil engineering and I still enjoy doing two/three well-paid gigs per week, but what of the others in the band? Drummer and guitarist became big players in music electronics, Drummer also doing sessions. Trumpet player wrote songs some for Cliff, Hollies, Franki Valli; oh, and Elvis Singer did some sigtunes on TV And the singer's baby went on to join Roxy and Straits They all have happy family lives, so in this instance I was probably wrong.