Bass Players as Composers

[Bilbo]

Ok - building on the discussions we are having on artist vs craftsmen, I thought I would start thinking about bass players who are composers, not just of bass lines or solo bass features (narcissism ) but of music to be played by larger ensembles - co-writers not allowed. The bass player must do the whole thing like QueenoftheDepths and write out the parts/teach the parts to the band/ensemble.

As a jazzer, my thoughts turn to:

Charles Mingus and his small and large groups
Dave Holland's trio, quartet, quintet and big band
Marc Johnson and his Bass Desires
Miroslav Vitous
Charlie Haden

any more?

[Huge Hands]

Paul McCartney?

[Bilbo]

Who?

[Huge Hands]

Just someone I heard about.

Calm down, calm down!

[BOD2]

Andy Fraser back in the days of "Free"

I recall reading somewhere that he would should Paul Kossof the guitar parts, Paul would take a while to get a hold of them but once he had done this he would adapt them, make them his own, and play them better than Andy could.

[Huge Hands]

I bought Stuart Clayton's book on Bernard Edwards and Nile Rogers recently (free shameless plug for you there).

From what I read into it, Bernard often showed Nile quite a lot of techniques and probably therefore was a similar kind of composer in their relationship?

[3V17C]

doesn't Stanley Clarke compose film scores these days?

[artisan]

Steve Harris

[3V17C]

aren't some of the people mentioned (steve harris and andy fraser for instance) more songwriters than composers? i'm sure steve harris, (although coming up with the initial song ideas) doesn't write all the guitar lines/drum patterns etc ........ to me, a composer would write [i]everything[/i] within the piece?...... though i have got a migraine so my brain may be broken!


peace

c

[alexclaber]

I've always liked Miles Davis's approach to composition and arrangement, of getting the right musicians and giving relatively vague directions for much of the piece ("shut up and play m*****f*****" I imagine) and only writing out or clearly directing the essential parts. Often I'll leave the precise chords up to the guitarist which can end up in all sorts of nice twists on what I've written and only if it's moving in the wrong direction are clearer instructions required. This makes it a lot less painful when you do have be dictatorial and say "this horribly complicated unison line is what we're playing, we need to nail it note for note..."

Looking back at the original post I now realise that technically my bandmates are thus co-writers, which I believe is very useful in keeping a financially ineffective project together, but unfortunately makes this post redundant!

Sting.

Jaco.

There, that's more like it. And although Bob Marley wrote the songs, most of the arrangements and many of the key riffs were originated by (but uncredited to) Family Man.

Alex

[Wooks]

The metal legend that is LEMMY!!!!
And the prog god Geddy Lee are 2 for starters

Edited June 17, 2008 by Wooks

[Jase]

Didn't John Paul Jones refer to himself as a composer? I don't really know many bass composers apart from the obvious few already mentioned..........but that would make sense really because I don't compose music for band members, I sometimes offer ideas for parts etc with my original band but that's about it...ummm, still can't think of any.

[BigBeefChief]

Nikki Sixx

[Dubs]

John Deacon wrote a bit for Queen – a few classic hits as well including "You're My Best Friend" and "Another One Bites the Dust"

[gypsymoth]

depending on your definition, Willie Dixon, Roger Waters, Tim Bogart, of course Paul McCartney.

me. I write & play it all.

[bass_ferret]

Waters and Macca - didn't Macca write some orchestral thing recently?

[queenofthedepths]

In the delightful genre that is metal, apparently "Evil" J. McGuire composes all the music for OTEP.

[markytbass]

[quote]John Deacon wrote a bit for Queen – a few classic hits as well including "You're My Best Friend" and "Another One Bites the Dust"[/quote]

And he wrote "I want to break free". I think he also did some sound track work as did JPJ.

[paul, the]

Brian Wilson.

[silverfoxnik]

[quote name='paul, the' post='220905' date='Jun 17 2008, 08:11 PM']Brian Wilson.[/quote]
Good call!

To that I would add Barry Adamson (Magazine), Dennis Dunnaway (Alice Cooper) and although Bilbo is being a bit duplicitous when he says 'who?', Paul McCartney definitely fits the bill for this thread !

Who's Miroslav Vitous anyway, when he's at home

[bnt]

Eberhard Weber deserves a mention, I think, as does Danny Thompson (his Whatever project & more). John Patitucci too.

What about Mick Karn? On the Dali's Car project he did everything except vocals and drum machine programming. He says he can't read music, though, so that might cramp his compositional style a little.

Edited June 17, 2008 by bnt

[lowdown]

Derek Smalls the Bass Player in Spinal Tap,
He did the lot when the Guitarist and his wife left the band.


Garry

[HeadLove]

Can't believe no ones mentioned these two;

Trevor Dunn
Les Claypol

I'm sure theres more but thats all I can think of at the moment.

[Welshbassist]

Didn't Jaco write a lot of his solo stuff? I'd imagine he did!

[The Funk]

Miroslav Vitous is a great bassist, when he's at home (in the Czech Republic I believe) or anywhere else. Wasn't he in Weather Report before Alphonso Johnson and Jaco?

I'm the main composer in my band. On several of our songs I wrote the drum groove, the bass part, the guitar part, the keyboard part, the lyrics, the vocal melody, the changes and the arrangement. Does that count? On the rest of the songs I'm a co-writer, which doesn't count. I think every bassist should have a go at it.

For a lot of funk bands, bassists probably are the main composer or co-writer. Just come up with the main groove/riff, the other groove/riff, a bridge and a vocal line.