Leonard Smalls

I know a number of bass players who think that's all there is to bass playing!

This enormous Wal needs a good spanking... And it gets a sound one from about 2 minutes on!

I'm a Youth-man!

It rewards repeated listening! Once I'd got Mr Tacuma's style it opened all sorts of bass possibilities for me; as teachers all you need is him, Bootsy and either Lemmy, Les Claypool or Bob Trujillo.. Talking of whom:

Probably this:

Depends entirely on context! I've got 3 different songs that rely on either open A or D string ringing to provide a drone to a high melody. As for an open E, it's the basis of most folks slap technique!

Normally I can't be doing with him at all... His music seems moany and generally lacking in any sort of groove. However, I liked him on Later - for the 1st time ever! It was neither miserable or groove-less! Also enjoyed Easy Life, but not Muse's Elbow tribute act.

Popped into my local last night and found an amazing band playing in the bar... Who knows how they got there, or why they were playing in a pub in Powys that doesn't normally do music, all I know is that they played beautifully for 2 hours. I'm not normally a prog man, but these guys might have turned me: http://www.skyarchitect.com/ I'd urge anybody on Northampton or nearby to check them tonight (7th), or if you're in Wolverhampton, tomorrow. They're worth it!

I wouldn't change to in-ear monitoring, but otherwise I'd swap to something like an older Warwick Thumb, going into a Line 6 Helix Floor as pre-amp and FX, then a pair of Crown XLS 1502 bridged into Markbass 102 and 115, with crossovers set at HP 100Hz and LP 300Hz respectively, unless only using one cab for small gigs... Won't need 2100W then! The left over couple of grand would go on hookers and coke, obviously.

Been going for a while, very funky, very jazzy, very rocky, very everything!

I used to use my huge Yamaha folded horn with Precision Devices 15" speaker together with Marshall bass amp as a sub to augment some Richard Allen RA11s with Leak valve amps...

Some oldies like these would fit the bill! I've got their big brother, the 66 series 2 and they're the dog's... https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Celestion-Ditton-44-Speakers-/253895374369

It's gone mad, I tell you!

I'd be happy to give bass players looking to join, or even to found, a 16 Choke Start tribute band tips on: a) playing far too many notes b) the best camo trousers based on price, weight, price and comfort c) stopping the guitarist and drummer fighting about what is, isn't or should be politically correct d) trying to educate said guitarist and drummer into The Funk, The Whole Funk And Nothing But The Funk

Aye... Our band decided before our 1st gig that we'd all wear similar clothes (basically the urban commando look). I turned up with camos, boots, the lot. Suitable, I felt, for a protest sort of band with songs like "Fight The System" Singer wore a Stussy t shirt with jeans (he said "but I like them!" with no irony at all in wearing a corporate logo!), drummer wore shorts and metal band tshirt stretched over his belly - his excuse was that he'd be too hot in anything else; I pointed out that camo shorts are available, and that I'd specifically gone and bought stuff according to what we'd decided! So no unified band image - we were just another band on the circuit looking the same as all the others.

Different short answer; yes. The Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music have been assessing technicality for many, many years: https://us.abrsm.org/en/our-exams/ The above is the syllabus for piano exams up to grade 8 (I got as far as grade 7 about 40 years ago!). Unfortunately, they don't seem to do a bass exam so we'll never know what respective grades "The Chain" and "Schooldays" are!

Nowt killed rock'n'roll... Because rock'n'roll is an idea, an attitude; just because there's not much of it in "the charts" mean nothing. The charts aren't really the charts anymore, not like when I were a lad - people find music in a thousand different ways and just because some of us old fools on a bass forum can't find new rock'n'roll doesn't mean it's dead. It just means it's changed, or not. Either way, moaning about it is much the same as saying "it's not as good as when I was young". If you're interested, go out and find it! Otherwise just stay in remembering the good old days, and how the youth don't respect anything any more, and how you could leave your door open etc...

Some bass playing here!

Shed's alright but the trainers clash with the bass. 😜

Id say it sort of is! But only sort of, in that it's a jazzy feel in what is basically a pop song. But then so is anything by Frank Sinatra, or Mr Bubbles et al; similarly, as far as I'm concerned anything that's got all the parts written and played exactly the same every time isn't really jazz - it's almost pastiche. For me, real jazz is an improvisation developing from a theme, where what's important isn't the theme but the interplay between the musicians and what actually happens once the theme is finished. It's about the music that's inside the musician coming out, rather than a musician playing notes as they're written. No reason why the theme can't be written, and rehearsing it is probably a good thing to, but the overall piece should be something new every time. Which is why jazz has always been music that pushes boundaries; it's not the tuxedo-ed dinner jazz types doing this - they're often basically covers bands (not that there's anything wrong with that - you've got to make a living!) but if someone wasn't making new music there'd be less to cover! This is why most people don't really like real jazz - it's challenging and isn't always an easy listen; most folks want a nice tune, and if they can tap their feet to it that's a bonus. So here's some jazz - looks like Jamaaladeen may have the notes for the initial theme (unless he's checking his Facebook) but it's what develops after the initial playing around the theme that counts..

Back in the early 90s my old punk-funk band's manager had managed to get 3 record label scouts to come and see one of our shows; we'd been favourably reviewed already in Sounds, Melody Maker and the NME, and had a small but crazed following... About an hour before the gig a friend of the keyboardist offered us all some pills, saying it'd improve our playing and stage show no end. So we foolishly took 3 or 4 each. We all became very wide-eyed and manic, and thirsty. So after at least 6 pints each we jumped onto the stage, all of us feeling like heroes despite our gritted teeth and heart rate of 250bpm. So we proceeded to play all of our songs at that sort of speed as well, though not with any accuracy or even at the same tempo as each other. We jumped about, postured like rock-gods and made possibly the worst racket any band this side of Lost Virgins From Outer Space had ever produced, much to the dismay of the crowd of 200+. Luckily the set ended a lot more quickly than it normally would, and we all went off to congratulate ourselves on our triumph, while awaiting the record company scouts who would be about to enter the business' biggest ever bidding war. Funnily enough we never heard from the scouts again, and it took nearly a year to build up any sort of audience! Needless to say, we never drank more than a pint before a gig after that, and the keyboardist's mate was banned.

You can't beat The Funk... But there's so much to choose from!

That's what my dad would have said! As far as he was concerned, jazz was Sidney Bechet, King Oliver, Jack Teagarden etc. And he loved Chris Barber... I quite like a bit of kicking trad jazz as well.

So is this, but borrows much more from Ornette Coleman's harmolodic musings than Herbie's relatively straight-ahead grooves.