Leonard Smalls

Movin' and Groovin' - Redds and the Boys

In a degrees of separation brush with greatness, my mother is a piano teacher... Her first teacher was the German pianist Emil von Sauer, who had been a pupil of Franz Liszt!

Talking of TV appearances, I managed to get 2 tracks from our home-recorded demo on the telly. One was background on a John Craven's Newsround piece about raves (!) and the other was on Crimewatch as the music playing at a party while someone got murdered. Fame!!!

Talking of Stu Hamm you can see how he stacks up against some other bass players in this ultimate widdle-fest! For me he's nowhere near the best in this group - top 3 for me (apart from Stan) are Bunny Brunel, Billy Sheehan and Jimmy Johnson - none of whom do slappyclappy stuff...

Indeed! There's jazz and there's jazz... 😁 I know that in certain jazz circles (i.e. the more acoustic end) electric bass (or anything electric!) is either kind of frowned on or not acknowledged as being suitable for use in "proper" jazz. Use of one demotes the music to "fusion" and not worthy of attention by "serious" jazzers. I had recent experience of this when I asked a local jazz promoter if he would be putting on any more electric jazz or fusion gigs. His reply, dripping with condescension, was "You’re clearly an authority, perhaps one might suggest attending one of our sessions, we’d certainly appreciate your opinion...then perhaps you’d have a better understanding of our Jazz performances!". With a reply like that I wouldn't feel like I was welcome at any of their sessions - all of them (for the last 3 years at least) have been quite straight head "traditional" (not trad!) with brass, piano, double bass and drums with Julian Siegel perhaps being the most "out there". No electric anything... And none were really in any way swinging, none were really about groove, which is what I want in any music, from punk to Vivaldi!

It strikes me that the bass players most BCers don't get is the ones wot play a bit jazzy... The usual criticisms are "no musicality or feel" but I reckon much of that dislike is due to a hatred of jazz! The bass players I find over-rated are those who simply lay down the bottom end with minimal flourishes - in other words are basic bass-players allowing the rest of the players to be the actual musicians 😁 Calling Mr. McCartney!!

Back in the early 90s when I was a trainee boom-swinger I worked on "Keeping Up Appearances". I found I got on very well with the late Geoffrey Hughes and after a few whiskies in the hotel bar we'd go and play on a couple of acoustic guitars, him strumming and warbling, me just using the bottom 4 strings. Gawd help anyone listening!

Sticking with quirky instrumentals, and staying away from jazz (for the moment), early indie-new-wave pioneers featuring Andy Warren on bass:

I done one! Remembering the Babycham ad with a bit of jazzyfunkyrock... Bass is the trusty Wal with a touch of chorus. Guitars are a strat through various Helix programmes. Horns courtesy of Loopcloud, and drums programmed in EZ Drummer. All rolled in a spot of Neutron 3 and Ozone 9.

Here's a slightly crazed instrumental, featuring micro-tonal guitar by The Fuze!

We've got a run of 4 consecutive gigs coming up - Heart of Anarchy with last Tree Squad in Hereford (poster previous page) on 27th April, Guttercrush Festival 5th May in Wellington near Telford (no poster yet!), Soap Girls in Nottingham (poster above) 11th May and newly booked with OG Punks, the Samples in Malvern 20th April:

Orgasm Addict - The Buzzcocks

I've chatted with a few people over the years about a mutual love of P Funk... Firstly, Flea - we shared a "hand rolled cigarette" after I'd blagged my way into an after show party at the Astoria. And Lenny Henry - I arranged to have lunch in the BBC bar with a mate, who brought Lenny with him. They were working on a sitcom together.

I was in a band in the early 80s in Leeds called Dredd and the Badass Weeds... We were kind of ramshackle, and played extended funk-metal and occasionally reggae jams for up to 3 hours if we could get away with it... We broke up when most of us finished at university - some members went on to far greater things. Keith and Jez went on to form MDMA, and later, Utah Saints with lots of chart success. Chris moved back to the US, met up with his old mate Henry and they became the Rollins Band Chris even went on to play with Bowie! And he got me to meet one of my bass heroes, Melvin Gibbs, when I met the Rollinses for lunch in, of all places, the BBC canteen. Our singer, Andy, went on to sing for probably the best of the Madchester bands - New Fast Automatic Daffodils. Our other guitarist - another Andy - still plays with Cassandra Complex who are huge in Germany. And our occasional keyboard player, Jay with the famous mum (Clare Rayner), went on to appear lots on telly eating fancy dinners. The Weeds are still an occasional entity - our long-anticipated debut album is due sometime in the next decade.

Our furthest east gig coming up in May, we'll have to dig out our skimpy mankinis and practice bending over backwards... First time even visiting Nottingham for me!

They're playing at Rebellion 3rd August...

Early electrofunk

Go-Go

A bit of Turkish/US fusion to add to your list!

You did well! When I was in student accommodation halls we had 3 shared toilets on the corridor with 6 student rooms. I put a speaker in the toilet next to my room, and we'd worked out that it was possible to lock the door from the outside. So when someone new went in there we'd secure the door, get Foetus "333" or similar ready at full volume and as soon as they'd started to ablute we'd turn the light off and whack the horrible "music" on. Nobody lasted as long as a minute before screaming for mercy!

Slightly worrying stuff you don't want on full blast while trapped in a student toilet with the lights off:

Kraftwerk-influenced New-Wave Electro:

My goth choices would be even older school! Deutscher Girls: Arguably: And as an alternative

Harmolodic jazz and its offshoots: Heaviest! https://jamaaladeentacuma.bandcamp.com/album/dreamscape Still with Jamaaladeen on bass, widdly wobbly and wonktastic! James Blood, George Adams, Amin Ali and George Adams - Phalanx