The Funk

So, who does Paul McCartney know who's had a long association with the place? Sir George Martin, that's who!

I was at the Jeff Beck/Eric Clapton gig recently. In one of his tunes Jeff Beck slipped into [i]Purple Haze[/i]. This was an arena full of guitar fans. I think I was one of about 10 people there to notice. I went to the movies with my mum when I was abroad a few weeks ago and saw a film called [i]The Tooth Fairy[/i]. One of the characters is a kid learning guitar. He slips into the main riff from [i]Sunshine Of Your Love[/i] at a couple of points. After the film my mum said "that's the song you always used to play when you started". My mum is as un-musical as it gets so I have no idea how she could remember the riff and spot it outside the context of a song so many years after last hearing it. It could be that most people don't notice 'cos they just don't care enough.

You guys may feel old but some of us younger guys feel like we've almost completely missed out. I'll feel sorry for my kids when the '60s greats have all passed onto the great gig in the sky. At least I've been able to see Clapton, Beck, Stevie Wonder, Bernard Purdie etc, even if they're a little mellow these days.

I gig through a 1000W stack while my guitarist plays through a 6W 1x12" valve combo. It's the only way to get the guitar and bass balanced!

It sounds like a combination of a poor warm-up routine and possibly problems with your right- / left- hand techniques.

You have to take that interview with a pinch of salt. Herbie Hancock IS a virtuoso! And I don't think he's saying that Chick Corea, as a virtuoso, doesn't know what music is all about. I think what he's getting at is that you can't practice creating art, and that when are creating art, you can't be an automaton who simply reproduces his practice regime.

I just wanted to clarify something: when I said that Clappers' set was a little plodding, I meant by his own standards. I saw him a fair few times in the mid '90s at the Royal Albert Hall and he was superb. I don't expect to be truly foxed by what he comes out with but I was left feeling that Clappers' band/sound on the night wasn't quite getting across what he's trying to achieve. As far as Beckola is concerned, he absolutely nailed his current sound, which is basically a sophisticated update of the [i]Wired[/i] sound. If Clappers' hair is anything to go by, he was revisiting his [i]Journeyman[/i] period, but without the pink Versace suits and screaming solos. JB has a new album coming out, while EC doesn't, which could explain why JB's set felt more coherent and EC's felt cobbled together. A few of the reviews mentioned that the whole thing seemed too polite and formal, and I have to agree with that. The whole thing felt a bit like a retrospective, which would have been cool in places - especially with longer sets covering more of each guitarist's back catalogue. But what it really needed was a bit more of an exploration of how the two of them could play together in the same band. Their playing on [i]You Need Love[/i] showed that with the right material there's something really quite special about their two guitars in combination. I'd have also liked to see them both on acoustic together, unaccompanied. The problem is that at 65 and 64 their schedules may not coincide well enough to give them enough time to actually collaborate properly - and with them being on different record labels it may not be so easy to organise a proper future album release.

Just read 3 other reviews. The general consensus seems to be that Clapton is god and that Beck is in the way. That was not my reaction at all!

An opposing review for comparison: [url="http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid=aCpu9XBpB3EA"]http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=206...id=aCpu9XBpB3EA[/url]

Caught the gig at the 02 last night. Pretty enjoyable. Jeff Beck's set was inspiring while Clapton's was a little bit plodding in comparison. JB has Rhonda Smith on bass. She was playing a nice Fender Jazz American '75 reissue through a Mesa stack. Her playing was pretty tasty but she made sure not to get in the way of the guitar - which is what everyone was there to see. She did a nice little slap solo. Very different player to Ms Wilkenfeld but I thought fitted with it much better. Clicked with Narada Michael Walden pretty well too. The set had a real [i]Wired[/i] vibe as a result of Beck and Walden reuniting. Walden doesn't do it for me the way Colaiuta does but was still excellent. Jason Rebello was superb - managed to do both the Jan Hammer-style lead stuff and the Tony Hymas-style pad stuff from two of JB's previous eras. All in all, an excellent rhythm section. EC has Willie Weeks on bass. He was playing a Precision through an Aguilar amp (possibly the 751) and what looked like an Epifani cab (although I couldn't really see it). EC's set was far less adventurous and with two keys players there wasn't much room for Mr Weeks but he kept things simple, clicked with Steve Gadd well and held it down - and again, made sure he didn't get in the way of the guitarist. (Same can't be said of Chris Stainton who just couldn't help himself.) I only just realised today that EC didn't play [i]White Room[/i], [i]Layla[/i] or [i]Sunshine Of Your Love[/i]. He didn't have a rhythm guitarist so that might have had something to do with it. In the joint set EC mainly played rhythm and sang with JB doing most of the lead work, but there were points where they were both cutting loose. They closed out the whole gig with a very funny rendition of [i]Hi Ho, Silver Lining[/i], which JB reportedly hates and refuses to play live. He seemed in a good mood and had a laugh playing it. Overall: happy. Clapton could have done with one less keyboard player and a better set list but it was great to see the two guitarists in action doing their thing.

[quote name='Mike Brooks' post='741757' date='Feb 11 2010, 09:23 AM']That's the same night as Larry Graham & Graham Central Station at Koko....pish.[/quote] It's at times like these I wish I had a MASSIVE house in Camden with a full-on massive jam / party room set up for a post-gig double after-party.

If you stack them make sure you have insurance to cover any potential personal injury claims against you! Cross-fire them and see how that sounds/looks.

[quote name='Marvin' post='740774' date='Feb 10 2010, 11:09 AM']You've heard my playing then. [/quote] Hah, we all started that way!

[quote name='endorka' post='740700' date='Feb 10 2010, 10:17 AM']Rushing or dragging is a problem with a musician's timing, and I have yet to find any situation where it has a positive effect.[/quote] [quote name='JTUK' post='740714' date='Feb 10 2010, 10:26 AM']I agree... I think this 'experienced' keyboard player is getting confused. He means a feel thing, but talks about timing...??????????[/quote] Just to clarify, I agree with Jennifer and JTUK. I always understood rushing/dragging to be terms to describe sloppy time but from the first post I thought that the keyboard player was trying to describe feel. I'm sure he got the terms wrong but I thought I'd try to help the OP by discussing feel as opposed to timing. Speeding up and slowing down - unplanned, inconsistently and not together - is a major problem.

[quote name='Mykesbass' post='740191' date='Feb 9 2010, 05:41 PM']Is this not refering to playing in front, on, or behind the beat rather than speeding up/slowing down?[/quote] That's how I read it. In my band the drummer and I tend to play ahead of the beat, the keys player tends to play behind the beat and the guitarist always plays bang on. Ahead gives it a bit of snap. Behind settles the whole thing down. You can have it sounding good with some guys playing ahead and others behind. Context, taste and control are everything though!

I picked up an Eden WTX-260 pretty early on in the first wave of micro-heads. I'm just wondering what's out there now? I know Gallien-Krueger do two micro-heads now, one of which is a hybrid. Genz Benz also do a whole range of them. Eden have added a WTX-500 to their range. What else is there? Markbass? Ashdown Little Bastard? How do they compare to each other size-wise and in terms of features?

[quote name='cetera' post='726146' date='Jan 27 2010, 10:59 AM']If I recall correctly from the Talkbass thread where this appeared - this monstrosity was actually refinished to match the colours of the helicopter in Magnum PI... What?!? Why?!? Who knows.... [/quote] I knew it looked familiar! Maybe it belongs to Roger E. Mosley!

4 stringers = bass!

I'll be abroad so I'll be missing it sadly. Otherwise I'd be there!

Cool list! Any power trio should chuck some Cream and Stevie Ray Vaughan in there. You should also try arranging other songs for the trio format. The main thing you need is songs with cool riffs!

I'll have to arrange my future plans around your August show!

[quote name='ezbass' post='707776' date='Jan 10 2010, 03:37 PM']Bugger whenever a gig comes along that I want to go to I'm elsewhere [/quote] Same here

[quote name='cheddatom' post='704329' date='Jan 7 2010, 03:39 PM']can't you just tape up the little two and use the big two? Maybe not.[/quote] Not a good idea to try something like that. Just let it all heal properly. I can't use my little finger on my fretting hand very much because I didn't let it heal properly.

Don't risk it!!! I busted loads of different parts of my arms/fingers/hands/shoulders back in my rugby days. Let everything heal properly before doing anything. The best way to carry on musically at the moment is with stuff that doesn't require a bass, such as a bit of ear training or theory.