bassace

Did anyone see the documentary on BBC Two last night. 2 hours of pure gold - at least up to the Quintet. Amazing quantity of good archive film and a great story of his life and loves. And the music was excellent, the double bass sound, particularly Paul Chambers, superb. Get it on catchup; you won’t be disappointed.

The band I play in has played one day a week continuously for the past fifty years. Must be quite a record. Last Tuesday our gate was 21, due very much to virus fears. So next Tue will be our last for the foreseeable, or until the virus goes away. Very sad but sensible.

Is that where the dog licks his balls? I get that sort of reaction when I play a solo.

Do you know, in sixty years of gigs- in the thousands - I can’t remember any fibs, carve ups, rollovers, whatever. Sure, there was one gig in the early days when our skiffle group didn’t get the £2.10 (pre dec) fee but that was because I didn’t have the balls to ask for it. I’ve waited months to be paid by a well known Berkshire worthy and there’s the relatively insignificant hall acoustics thing. But I have always been treated fairly and honourably by clients and fellow musicians alike. Is it because they’re jazzers, I wonder

‘You’ll like the acoustics in this hall’

My GAS has come to an end. I’ve tried a lot and sold a lot. I now go everywhere with a Puma 500 and I have another one for spare which lives under the passenger seat.

I know some drummers who play like that ☹️

Or anything by Oscar Peterson with Ray Brown on bass. Jazz and walking in its purest form.

Picture the scene: 1962 at Butlins Minehead. We were a four piece and a female singer, married to the guitarist with a small child. We’d won a local talent contest and won a week’s holiday with some work thrown in. Going pro was discussed but I just couldn’t see it. But the others did quite well - writing songs, Hollies, Elvis included, session work, building studios and high end audio. The small child grew up to join Dire Straits. So a very talented lot. But for me there wasn’t a successful outcome that my engineer-wired brain could envisage. So I settled down to a humdrum life of work while the others prospered in music. Any regrets? No, not really; I’ve enjoyed playing the bass for sixty years, in fact I’ve got two gigs this week. I’ve always said that music is a great hobby but not the best way to earn a comfortable living. For most of us, that is.

Happy Shiny People!

Have a good one, you lucky fella!

I saw a bass @ £350,000 at T&G Martins a couple of years ago. I’m sure it’s a killer orchestral bass but didn’t particularly pizz well - at least with the strings it had on. This Martin Concert I previously mentioned was bought by a fellow bass player who I took to see what T&G had on offer. He liked it a lot and I agree it’s a nice instrument. He’s now fallen on ill health and has mentioned that he wants to unload his bass stuff, although he’s still looking forward to recovering well enough to go out on drums and guitar! I don’t want to be too insensitive and go in with both feet so I’ll need a little time before I mention his Martin again. Patience.

It’s udder crap.

They weren’t whizzed, they were whizzed. What’s wrong with whizzed in grown up company FFS?

A load of whizzed people in a room.

I’ll make enquiries and PM you.

I became a teenager in the mid fifties and there was a lot of dross about, it was called dance music. But there were some jewels that stood out. Fats Domino playing My Blue Heaven. That Scotty Moore solo in Elvis’s Blue Suede Shoes. And I was playing Twist and Shout before the Beatles recorded it. But it was mainly jazz back then.

In jazz it probably doesn’t matter quite so much, it’s your ability to play that counts. But there are some very good young bands forming and no way would I get a look in with them. Rightly too.

Sounds Inc were quite busy in those days. They backed Jerry Lee Lewis in Reading in ‘63.

Great stuff, PJ. I’ve been in a few very good bands in my long playing career but the great majority of my gigs have been freelance, arranged on the phone. You will find that you’ll learn quite quickly simply by playing as often as you can. A whole world of music is out there, mostly tunes you’ve never heard of before but which you’ll find surprisingly easy to play. You’ll need to know your ‘navigation’ ie chorus length and structure but this will come. And iReal Pro is your friend because not only will it give you the chords to play over but has a very useful transposing facility. So when someone calls a strange key - singer?- you can find it with a touch of the screen. Good luck, and enjoy!

The man who failed to earth?