AdamWoodBass

Lot of love for Julian Crampton on this thread, and rightly so he's a lovely chap, met him on a gig we did supporting Acoustic Alchemy a few years ago. Monster player and a really nice guy, gave me a lot of very useful advice about the music industry. As for Jazz Funk I'm a huge fan, almost too many things to list but Herbie has always been a staple of my musical diet. More recently following the evolution of Jazz Funk being mixed with elements of hip hop and R&B I've gotten heavily into Snarky Puppy, Funky Knuckles, Roy Hardgrove, RH Factor etc.

Mine is a Legend Jazz copy in 2 tone sunburst. After I discovered Jaco (and had already bought another bass) I went to town with it by removing the scratch plate and taking all the frets out of it. I still play it when I fancy a fretless dabble.

Soooooo gutted I could make it to this last night, alas work is a demanding mistress.

The song for sure. Don't get me wrong, sometimes I can be drawn to listening to a song because of the bassline but primarily the song comes first. The bassline HAS to fit and be musically appropriate. To be honest I spend a lot of time listening to the drums and the keys in music. I figure that a good bassline is something that is subtly interesting (groove, fills, note choice, tone etc) but you could almost not pay attention to it because it fits so well with the music. Obviously you'd notice straight away if it wasn't there and the song would sound flat and dead but a good bassline is what carries the song no matter if it's a pub band who've only been playing for a few years or it's Hadrien Feraud. One of the reasons why Snarky Puppy are pretty much my favorite band is the fact that the band is led by Michael League but he doesn't really play super complex lines (even though he's more than capable after seeing him on a clinic in London). It's not a "bass player's band". Simple reason is that it's ALL about the arrangement of the music rather than 13 musicians showing off how good they are.

Hi folks Been playing for about 18 years, was pro for a while and then took a break. Looking to gig again. Preference is Funk, Soul, Blues, Jazz, R&B etc but I'm open to all sorts. Happy to work with bands and solo artists for one off projects or more committed longer term things. Based in North Manchester but have my own transport and willing to travel (within reason). Drop me a message if you're looking for someone to fill a vacancy Cheers Adam

[quote name='Cato' timestamp='1478010244' post='3165959'] Love a bit of Hiatus. Have you listened to any Flying Lotus? He has quite a similar vibe going on. [/quote] Yeah I often listen to him. My brother in law introduced me to Flying Lotus a while ago, isn't he John Coltrane's nephew or something? Very talented bloke.

Hiatus Kaiyote - By Fire Totally fallen in love with this band, playing their stuff to death at the moment.

A few times in about 18 years of playing. Mostly when I've used a heavy pick on cheap strings, also when I was learning how to slap I snapped a couple of G's. Learned the art of subtlety after that, you don't actually have to hammer the cr*p out of your bass to get an aggressive tone!

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1477662664' post='3163704'] Bass players should never come out from behind the pillar that is installed in all pubs just for that purpose. [/quote] So that's what it's for! I always suspected, never felt comfortable when people can actually see me lol!

This is all excellent news guys! I was really hoping that jams were still a thing!

Enjoyed this, added a few tracks to my playlist.

Thanks mate, I'll look in on that one.

After a frustrating google session looking for jam nights around Manchester and Liverpool I've come to the conclusion that either a) there are jam nights, they are just really badly advertised or there aren't many jam nights anymore. I'm hoping it's the former rather than the latter. I've fairly recently moved back to the North West after living in the Midlands for several years so a lot of the bands I used to play with either no longer exist or have a replacement bass player. After pretty much a 5 year break from playing semi-professionally I really want to start/join a band as I miss gigging but finding musicians seems to be pretty tough at the moment, especially when what you want to be playing is jazz and funk. Jam nights used to be the best place to meet like minded musos and a lot of the projects I used to work with were formed from going to jam nights. I have an old mate who's very keen to put something together but finding enough people to make a band has proved challenging, particularly finding a drummer. There does comes a point where playing on headphones on your own to backing tracks just doesn't cut it anymore, I need to play with other humans! Matt and Phred's seems to be a fairly regular fixture, I'm wondering if anyone North West based knows of others I should be checking out?

[quote name='lowdown' timestamp='1477573156' post='3163075'] Yes, but did you notice how some of us carried on and waited for you to catch up? True professionals. [/quote] Ha! Touché good sir!

[quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1477570934' post='3163041'] [/quote] LOL spelling fail *facepalm*

[quote name='Ghost_Bass' timestamp='1477564330' post='3162973'] If the drummer is so bad that he can't pick up the tempo/rythm after a miss then he's not prepared to gig live and needs to get back to the practice room (this is valid to every musician). [/quote] I agree with this in the context of a paid gig for sure, if it's just an informal jam though I wouldn't lose sleep over mistakes. [quote name='lowdown' timestamp='1477566687' post='3162988'] If there are problems with Drummers messing up, the MD would direct the band and if need be, follow the MD. Good grief can you imagine letting 60 members loose in an Orchestra ? Apart from the Conductor feeling a redundant lonely person. Can you imagine the hard work the next day, sending out 60 odd P45's. [/quote] Totally agree with this, I've led bands before where there's been a dep (friend of a friend of a cousin who once saw a photo of a drum on facebook etc). It was an emergency and we just went with it. It was hard work to say the least. Fortunately the band was not a regular band, just a one off thing for an event so no damage done the reputation of the band. The rest of the band were all guys I'd played with regularly so there were no issues there. The dep guy however just hadn't learned the tunes, missed a lot of segways and just generally wasn't able to get into a groove (especially irritating when the chart says "Reggae feel" and he starts playing some sort of ridiculous 2/4 circus beat. WTF???). Needless to say I never used him again. Nice enough dude but not ready for gigs.

I'd never just carry my own gear into or out of a venue, just plain old courtesy. Drummers for me are what makes a band complete. I've done a few gigs we're it's just keys, guitar and bass and something always feels missing. Even if it's just brushes on a snare, something for me to interact with just makes it for me. I try not to engage in drummer bashing, a lot of that coming from personal skill envy. Obviously there's the usual friendly gig banter and I get more of my fair share (being a Neanderthal failed guitarist who's harmonic vocabulary doesn't extend beyond the root and the 5th). Drummers can do something I can't do, every time I sit down at a kit I sound like an over enthusiastic 6 year old! I often sit and watch drum lessons on YouTube just to hear different approaches to groove and try to apply some of the stuff I learn to my bass playing.

I've played with a lot of drummers of varying abilities but consistently decent time keepers. To be completely honest my reaction in this situation is often down to the gig. I always try to remember that a lot of mistakes (by any of the band members myself included) are 1000 times more obvious to the band members as they are to the general audience. Of course every gig has the jazz police but most of the time the guys that heckle are the ones that aren't gigging themselves. In a pub or jam etc I'd tend to follow the drummer to make sure the groove doesn't fall over, usually trying to be as subtle as possible to save their embarrassment (accent the down beat for a few bars to make sure we're locked in). Often you're playing tunes you don't know so well when someone shouts turn to page 475 in the Real Book 2 for example. On a more pro gig I'd stick with the band. 99.9% of the time the drummer will be experienced enough to figure out their mistake in a fraction of a beat and correct it. No one loses sleep over it and the tune carries on. Of course there's always the awkward 0.1% where the drummer knows best and gets stubborn... I've been in similar situations we're I've gotten lost in the chart while playing a tune I don't know and dropped a beat or come in too early etc. One time I did a gig where I had a total mental block and completely forgot the intro (which embarrassingly is also the bass line) to Higher and Higher. To this day I can't believe that happened! Keys player to the rescue and I was back in, dignity bruised a bit but life goes on.

Has anyone heard this album? Some of the grooves in here are filthy with some really cool bass lines and clever little melodies. Been playing it repeatedly and starting to consider whether I need a Moog Sub Fatty or not! Particular album highlights are "Bad Blood" and "Inhale Exhale". Some very dirty synthy-ness and very stanky grooves! https://open.spotify.com/album/2BmceJHiy9RTyvaB1IU0P6 I'd love some more recommendations on similar sounding stuff if anyone knows of anything?

Only track on the album I tend to skip is "Margery, My First Car", I prefer the instrumental version. Also not hugely keen on the panning of the bass hard left and the drums hard right on "Daddy, He got a Tesla", just spoils an otherwise brilliant tune for me but that's personal preference I guess.

So I've finally caved and gave his album a go, been avoiding it as I didn't want to get caught up on the hype train. Properly impressed to be honest. The track Saviour is one of the filthiest grooves I've heard in a while. Thinking I might have to see this guy live!