risingson

[quote name='bluesparky' post='411553' date='Feb 16 2009, 10:34 PM']I'm going to stick my neck out and say that i've made a point of not reading any of the above posts, comments or discussions so i could leave my own opinion without being influenced by anything anyone else has had to say. Personally, yes, i do love listening to Jaco, his first solo album is one of my favourite all time CD's. When i first starting playing i listened to it relentlessly and played a couple of his / weather report tracks in bands and loved it. Some of his stuff he's played on is too "out there" for me, i just don't get it, but his playing has always remained an influence on me. I've worn out CD's listening to Heavy weather, word of mouth, birthday concert the famous joni mitchell live concert and Jaco Pastorius the album. The highlight is the chorus riff on "come on, come over", awesome - that's exactly how i want to play, funky, fun and to the point. I use that riff as a warm up everytime i practice. The book by bill milkowski is a great read too, very well written and a good insight into his life. Sorry if i'm repeating what anyone else has said..[/quote] Nice post I agree with everything. I think people generally get too caught up in how technical Jaco was, but I think that's really missing the point of him altogether. From what I can personally gather from his playing an interviews is that (for the most) he maintained a strong melodic approach to bass playing and music, intertwining this style with an often fast paced jazz playing (the term 'fusion' often gets tossed around at this juncture but I kind of resent it). I guess that could be confused with technicality but at the end of the day, that's just Jaco

Hendrix, Johnny Marr (The Smiths), Larry Carlton, Kevin Shields, Hiram Bullock, Johnny Greenwood, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Jon Herrington, John Frusciante (back in the day), John Mayer spring to mind. The likes of Steve Vai's music and playing leaves me cold, feels very souless and not really the sort of playing I admire. Just my opinion, like

Cheers matey for the kind words, where abouts are you from?

[quote]I wonder what he'd have done with Waterfront , had Simple Minds asked him to help out? Would he have had enough humility to realise the bassline was already perfect for the song or would he have felt compelled to do more??[/quote] That's a good point but do you ever think that Jaco could have been put in that position? That wasn't Jaco's selling point, if you wanted someone like that then hiring Jaco over someone like Chuck Rainey or a decent session musician would have been insane... sort of like asking for trouble.

Hi guys, I've really been enjoying some of the music people have posted in this section so I thought I might take this chance to show you how I make my money! This is my band, we're called Biker Groove (no laughing... I hate the name as much as everyone else!). Feedback and stuff would be great, I haven't really had any opinions from fellow bassists yet! [url="http://www.fastersound.co.uk/groove.html"]http://www.fastersound.co.uk/groove.html[/url] [url="http://www.myspace.com/bikergroove"]http://www.myspace.com/bikergroove[/url] Cheers, Liam

Jaco could do funk and then some. The breakdown in Opus Pocus = funktacular.

[quote]There is a guitarist (forget who - I'll have to go & hunt him out) who plays not only the E bit also the A with his thumb: a country or possibly blues guy, plays in DADGAD a lot & therefore has 4th chords under his thumb (whilst he noodles with his other fingers: perhaps he plays jazz?)[/quote] Don't know if anyone's a fan but John Mayer is a regular practitioner of this when playing acoustic stuff!

Except it's really not guitar playing. It's bass playing.

I know what you mean about the thumb thing because recently I've been doing a bit for effect (it's way more common for guitar players to do it if they're playing complicated chords and need a root note on their E string) but it's not an effective way to fret a note in my opinion, for the simple reason that the contact between your thumb and the string produces a different sound than properly fretting the string with your index finger would, for example. It's not really normal practice. I've seen Marcus Miller do it when he plays 'Power', but because he's gotten his left hand technique up, he can utilise the technique a little more dispassionately. I'd practice not doing it first before choosing to use it in future. Hope that helps EDIT: I forgot to mention, you might find if you keep fretting notes with your left hand thumb that you encounter wrist strain as well, which is definitely something to be avoided!

You can but try. Just sell yourself to them and see what happens. I'm in LIPA in Liverpool which was opened by Paul MacCartney and Mark Featherstone-Witty (who opened the Brit School) and I know being part of something like that lends itself to some great opportunities. Go for it ^_^

[quote]let's face it, most of the reason she's well-known is because she's a) young, and b ) fit.[/quote] That's pretty unfair. It might just have a lot to do with the fact she's a good player. [quote]That was a terrible clip, do you think he was nervous?[/quote] I think some players just aren't suited for solo playing and fit much better in a band situation when they feel like they've got nothing to prove. Maybe he was having a bad day!

Ha, I knew I shouldn't have mentioned Carol Kaye!

She's an amazing bass player but she hasn't done herself justice by what she's said in the past concerning her part in Motown.

Pfft. Bass players aren't normal people. The mere fact I'm discussing musical dynamics on an online forum whilst I should be in Uni learning only serves as a testament to this.

... or maybe it was Carol Kaye. I should hide now

[quote]but as you may have guessed, I'm not a classical musician.[/quote] I guessed. Neither am I though... I dread to think how much worse of a tosser I might have been if I was a classical player Dynamics are important though, especially for a bass player of all people because it's such a dynamic instrument. Each to their own though, of course.

[quote]Indeed - and he was replaced, in Jeff becks touring band, by one Tal Wilkenfeld.[/quote] Love Tal's playing, she's very talented. I like Richard Bona too, he's technically incredibly gifted but he's still a bit to weird for my taste. The whole scatting/playing thing really doesn't do it for me. Jimmy Haslip on the other hand...

His solo album is amazing and completely seminal, I've spent years trying to cop licks from his tunes on that C.D. Herbie Hancock's playing on that album in particular is without question some of the best keys playing I have ever heard. It's not an easy listen though unless you've got a real affinity for jazz and that style of music. [quote]To me, it just sounds rubbish. Horrible tone. Like a toy trumpet. Also, I hate dynamics in music.[/quote] Fair enough on the tone side of things, it's hit or miss. But you hate DYNAMICS in music? That's nuts... music is by it's very nature dynamic, to not include it in your playing I think would actually require a conscious effort to do so. [quote]Without JP we would have no Michael Manring, which would have only been a good thing.[/quote] Agreed. Manring does absolutely nothing for me

[quote]Just seen the prices for the new roadworn MIM series, a joke? £969 for a Mexican Jazz???[/quote] I've got to agree there, that is INSANE money for something that I could have done with a hammer and sandpaper in about 5 minutes (if pressed). A while ago we surfed down some concrete stairs on an old telecaster copy in order to give it a relic look (with the owner's permission of course), without expending any such sum of money for the privilege...

We have used a guitar dep (a friend of ours) before who's a good player, but generally our band find it difficult replacing people even with a lot of notice is given, mostly due to the nature of a lot of our covers and their structures, which whilst in my head they're completely ingrained, might take a while for a dep to work out. I've never had to call on a dep myself, because I've never not played a gig, but generally if we are playing with a dep we'll use a less labour-intensive set that comprises of more classic tunes that we can blast through without putting much strain on anyone in the band... that way we don't have to turn down gigs/money and everyone has an easier time, including deps. I'm lucky enough to play with 5 astounding good musicians however, who are very hard to stand in for. Luckily we have few instances now where deps are required.

JJ Burnel has got such a great tone, one of my favourite rock bass tones ever... gritty as hell!

Ah great stuff! Yeh Incognito have given the UK a lot to be proud of in terms of great bass players. Randy Hope Taylor is the other obvious example... fantastic stuff!

[quote name='BigRedX' post='406611' date='Feb 11 2009, 04:45 PM']I would say that at least half the music I like these days hasn't had a bass guitar anywhere near it. Try: Styrofoam, Plus-Tech Squeezebox Kid Carpet Ladytron Aoki Takamasa & Tujiko Noriko Junior Boys Efterklang[/quote] Ladytron and Junior Boys are both great. Ladytron are also local to me and own my favourite bar in Liverpool too.

Probably one of the most misunderstood genres of music, and also probably the most listened to at the same time. The country music business is absolutely massive. These threads have been amusing and actually have generated fun convo, I'm liking it!