Bilbo's Transcription Archive

[Bilbo]

Some more Bob Mintzer, have a crack at the Will Lee bass part from the tune 'Truth Spoken Here' from the 2013 Live Bob Mintzer Big Band album 'Get Up'! Meaty as ever with a lovely Fender Jazz growl.

 

https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/truth-spoken-here-bob-mintzer-big-band/

[Bilbo]

Personal nostalgia - I did a gig with an Essex singer called Helen Abbey that featured some great tunes including Lulu's 'To Sir With Love' from the Sidney Poitier film of the same name. The track has been credited to several bass players but my instinct says Bob Lang. Don't hit me with a 1,000 'no, it was....' posts because, 'Frankly, my dear. I don't give a damn'.

 

https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/to-sir-with-love-theme-song-lulu/

Edited December 7 by Bilbo

[Bilbo]

From the same gig. Cilla Black performing Lennon and McCartney's 'It's For You'. Easy read, easy play but a great tune.

 

https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/its-for-you-cilla-black/

[Bilbo]

It's been a whole week so it's time for some more Dave Holland. The complete bass performance of the Kevin Eubanks tune 'The Watcher' from the 2013 album, 'Prism' that features Holland, Eubanks, Eric Harland on drums and Craig Taborn on piano. A wonderfully grungy sounding quartet with a real edge in terms of the compositions. Fairly demanding this time as the tempo is fairly quick and the lines fairly unpredictable and the time signatures are constantly moving.

 

https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/the-watcher-dave-holland/

Edited December 9 by Bilbo

[Bilbo]

Another short solo bass piece from Jorge Roeder's 'El Suelo Mio' album. The tune us called 'Bounce'. It's a choppy little number and will test the best of us, even if the reading is not massively taxing in itself.

 

https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/bounce-jorge-roeder/

[Bilbo]

I can't believe it has taken my this long to get to a bit of 'arris! The complete Steve Harris bass part for 'Hallowed Be Thy Name' from the 1982 Maiden classic 'The Number Of The Beast'. Monster!

 

https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/hollowed-be-thy-name-iron-maiden/

[TKenrick]

On 10/12/2025 at 07:55, Bilbo said:

Another short solo bass piece from Jorge Roeder's 'El Suelo Mio' album. The tune us called 'Bounce'. It's a choppy little number and will test the best of us, even if the reading is not massively taxing in itself.

 

https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/bounce-jorge-roeder/

 

Hell of a player, that Jorge. Saw him with Julian Lage a while back and the level of musical telepathy between them was incredible. 

[Bilbo]

His sound on that album is huge (and the duet album he does with Sofia Rei). I got them both through Bandcamp. Got me inspired/motivated with my own double bass playing.

[Bilbo]

One from my man - the (nearly) complete bass performance of Paul Chambers on 'Blue In Green' from the 1959 Miles Davis classic 'Kind Of Blue'. I didn't get the arco part from the closing section, not because it is hard (it isn't) but because it is quite difficult to actually hear the details.

 

https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/blue-in-green-miles-davis/

Edited December 12 by Bilbo

[Bilbo]

I arranged the three melodies from the Charles Mingus tune, 'Self Portrait In Three Colors' from the 1959 album, 'Mingus Ah Um' for arco bass (as that is what I am working on at the moment).

 

https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/self-portrait-in-three-colors-melody-arranged-for-arco-bass-charles-mingus/

[Bilbo]

I wanted a few arco pieces to work on so I put this one togethers also. The theme from the Spielberg movie 'Schindler's List'. Composed by John Williams and played by Itzhak Perlman. I wanted to try the piece moved around to make  it playable on the double bass. It doesn't really work as the range is not there and some of the jumps are probably too much so think of it as a practice piece. 

 

https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/theme-from-schindlers-list-arranged-for-arco-bass/

[Bilbo]

Something seasonal - the complete Reginald Veal bass part for the tune 'Winter Wonderland' from the 1989 Wynton Marsalis album, 'Crescent City Christmas Card'. For me, this is the best Christmas album ever recorded. Steeped in New Orleans traditions, it manages to avoid that crass saccharin sweetness that most Christmas albums have. This record is brimming with Joy but remains classy and profound. Veal is such a deep player; he can do no wrong by me.

 

https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/winter-wonderland-wynton-marsalis/

[itu]

Have to look at that Winter Wonderland, although I am not so much into Xmas carols, because of that saccharin... 

 

Our band's keys decided we need to play this. First trials became a chore. Not a prima vista for me, but a doable and fun song. If someone wants the bass part, I can share the pdf. 

 

 

[Bilbo]

Ella always sounds great and this is pretty cool but have you heard the Marsalis version with Jon Hendriks (same record as Winter Wonderland)?

 

 

[Bilbo]

There is a thread on here somewhere referencing solo bass albums and I checked a load of them out. This album was the first time I have knowingly heard this guy (although, looking at his CV, I have probably heard him somewhere along the way). The tune is by Cuban folk artist Silvio Rodriguez and this is the complete transcription of the solo bass of Anders Jormin. The whole thing is a weird out of time vibe about it and you can take real liberties with the tempo throughout and it was all sound great.

 

https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/oleo-de-mujer-con-sombrero-anders-jormin/ 

[Bilbo]

As simple as it gets, the tune is a one chorus melody rendering of 'My Foolish Heart' from the 1992 Victor Goines album, 'Genesis'. The bass player is Christopher Thomas who plays it as straight as they come.

 

https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/my-foolish-heart-victor-goines/

[Bilbo]

I revisited this one today. This version has the shout chorus and the ending. It is also counted differently to the previous version I posted on here.

 

https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/blues-connotation-head-and-end-only-steve-kahn/

[Bilbo]

John Illsley's bass part to the tune 'Down To The Waterline' form the 1978 Dire Straits debut. Not too difficult but one mad fill at the end.

 

https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/down-to-the-waterline-dire-straits/

[Bilbo]

I had another mad episode and took on the complete 17:24 bass performance on 'What Goes Around' by the Dave Holland Big Band. Some real challenges but the main thing is the alternating 6:4 and 5:4 bars throughout. I think they lost it at one point and had to adjust but I may be wrong and just lost track of the 'one'. Don't print it off. It is 16 pages long and took me days.

 

https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/what-goes-around-dave-holland-big-band/

[Bilbo]

Tough one to crack, the complete Jimmy Johnson performance on the tune 'Ojai' from the 1986 Wayne Johnson Trio album, 'Grasshopper'. I got this when it came out because I had read about this guitar player in the Guitar Player magazine when it used to be good and full of top drawer players an not hair metal poseurs. he had a double-neck 6/12 and Flim had one of the first 5-string basses I had ever seen. More to the point, he used the whole damn instrument in a way that most Rock player would never do. One of my top 4 influences.

 

https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/ojai-wayne-johnson-trio/

[itu]

Jimmy Johnson is a super player. I sure cannot play the stuff he does but it is very interesting to follow his playing through your transcription. Once again, thank you @Bilbo.