Bilbo

I run a Jazz gig Best audience reaction ever was Mammal Hands; a three piece sax/keys/drum trio doing totally original material most of which was not in 4:4 or 3:4. Worst audience reaction - perfectly competent girl singer doing the great American songbook. I think there is a lot of lazy thinking on here; tediously conservative (small c). Giving the audience who are there what they want may be udnermining your ability to attract many more punters who want something else. Most people I know would not more go and watch a 'default' covers band than they would a free form Jazz gig. Give them something that they will like but surprise them at the same time.

A suite? Nay a song cycle? The Dad3353 Songbook.....

Makes sense. Thank you.

That makes great copy but, in Jazz, you cannot really play a credible groove without understanding the issues of interesting note choices. Whereas a pop or funk tunes generally requires acres of repetition and nuanced variations are nice but superfluous, a Jazz walking line requires endless variation and interaction so playing the same thing again and again would be counter-productive.

Dad makes a great pizza too! And, yes, I have eaten at that restaurant (a LOOOOONG time ago)!!

Which Warwick Red Label strings are you referring to, bro? I can't see a seven set on-line but this ERB malarky is new to me - I have never even needed to buy a low B before!!! Just curious how much a set would be to replace the ones on this bass if I bought one.

No - nobody likes a smart arse.

[quote name='lowdown' timestamp='1437376930' post='2825304'] Nothing wrong with "Fly Me To The Moon", in the right (and left) hands of course...... [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8P-aw-Qu84[/media] [/quote] Nothing you couldn't cure with a spade across the back of the head. The 'offended' saxophone player discussed above may be in the wrong in a debate on aesthetics but, if it's his gig he is booking, it is a matter for him. There are thousands of examples of electric bass playing Jazz standards. Most of them suck but the few superb examples don't provide insufficient leverage with which to argue that the electric is anything but a last resort for most players. I was thinking about this on the weekend. I did a pop gig with a five piece (three vocals, guitar, bass, drums, keyboards and trumpet - all the vocalists played) and it was a sweet gig in terms of the lovely people involved but, fundamentally, it sucked because the production values were all over the place and the sounds across the board were 'nearly but not quite'. It was a scratch band essentially and it was 'good enough' for the occasion but it was all over the place for all sorts of reasons. A classic Jazz quartet of piano, double bass, drums and one horn will almost always sound 'authentic'. Take out the double bass and replace it with electric and, in most cases, it immediately starts to sound flaky. A lot of (most?) Jazz is played by scratch bands so the default position is piano, double bass, drums and hornn (of course, I am generalising). Electric piano is almost always a given - so few venues have pianos nowadays - but electric bass will mostly be a last resort. Even electric guitar has to be idiomatically appropriate (Kenny Burrell not Frank Gambale!!). It is interesting to note that, as soon as I got a double bass, my electric bass Jazz calls stopped immediately, even thought I was sh*t (I used to ask and was always told 'double bass' - I stopped asking). Unless someone can go back and get Miles to re-record Cookin', Relaxin', Steamin' and Workin' with electric bass, I suspect the double bass will remain the instrument of choice for most Jazz standards ensembles. In 99% of cases, it just sits better in the mix.

Would irritate the f*** out of me but I wouldn't do anything about it as the stress of that would be worse. Bit if wood filler would deal with it. I don't really aspire to perfection as I know I cannot maintain it but fresh out of the box? I would get into 'why me' mode and f and jeff an bit before getting on with it.

With respect, the innovative use of electric bass in Jazz is not in question. Of course it is entirely legitimate. That is very different to a little Suffolk trio rolling up at a restaurant gig in Felixstowe to play Fly Me To The Moon. Prime Time tunes would get you kicked out in a second 😃

I think it's a bit of both but Garrison never had PC's chops. He had his thing, absolutely, but PC had the smoother technique and stronger bop chops. Garrison was, for me, the deeper of the two.

This is a massive question and one that will not be best served by a short answer. The fact is that there is no such thing as a wrong note, just a poor choice. The 'rightness' of a note is determined by not only its theoretical relationship with the harmony, it is also determined by a note's place in the presentation of an idea, phrase etc. If it has a legitimate logic, it is a legitimate note.

Ravel's Bolero. Age 10 in a school music lesson. The teacher played a film of the piece being performed as a means of introducing us to the various instruments of the orchestra. I can still picture the room I was in whilst we were watching the film. I knew then I wanted to be a musician. The lovely thing was that I ran home to tell Mum what I had seen/heard and she rifled around in her (tiny) record collection and found a copy of Bolero. I was elated!!

[quote name='Damonjames' timestamp='1436966404' post='2822396'] Haha, the thought did occur lol. I have done some sight reading in the past, and I don't enjoy it, I feel like the music comes off the page and out of the amp, with no input from me [/quote] There is a kind of pseudo- myth about reading that suggests that the reader has to be able to turn the ink into magic in an instant. Whilst there are some session ninjas who can do this to a greater or lesser extent, it is more often the case that charts are well rehearsed before there are any public performances or recordings. Good readers can make the rehearsal process quicker but a lot of the greatest performances are by people who use the dots to learn the tune but internalise the music for live performance/recording. My own experiences suggest that, for something like a show, about six run throughs are enough to go from 'reading it out' to performing it properly. Orchestras tend to have a relationship with most of their material that allows them to 'revisit' the charts in a daytime rehearsal before a performance rather than play it cold on the night. My point is that learning to read is not just about knocking out a laser accurate performance at the first run through, it is about accelerating the time it takes to get from arrival to professional performance, about communicating ideas to those who are unfamiliar and about capturing ideas for later recall (this last one is what I use it for most). The short cut you are looking for is essentially chord charts with a couple of bars of written parts to indicate a feel which is then followed by a 'simile' instruction i.e. carry on in this vein and then the odd bar of written stabs. These are certainly the most common form of chart used by Jazz musicians..

My wife bought an Orla Kiely handbag (£350) in a charity shop for £3.

Bought my Wal for £740 in 1986. Now worth about £3K? And I didn't do anything but grow older!!

I think I have enough change in the footwell of my car!!

I can't believe it but I am gassing for one of these. I play guitar as well as bass and have a credible pick technique. I can 'hear' this thing whereby I play a seven string bass tune BEADGBE (as opposed to BEADGBCF) effectively as a guitar/bass hybrid. A lot of seven string basses are used in heavy, driving musics but I can see a use for it in a kind of more laid-back, Steve Swallowesque way. Think Jim Hall but going lower. For the money they cost, it's got to be worth a punt!

Simple question: what's the answer?

Simple question:what's the answer?

It's about measuring up the pros and cons. If you have a sh*t job that is easily replaced, go (a lot of 'actors' in the US work sh*t jobs so they can 'resign' if an audition comes up and get another job the next day if they don't get the gig). If you have worked hard at developing a career, getting qualifications and all, maybe think more carefully. Also, if you have a mortgage vs. no financila obligations etc etc. Simple cost/benefit analysis.

Here we are...... [url="https://soundcloud.com/robert-palmer-1/flight"]https://soundcloud.c...palmer-1/flight[/url]

I had a two lessons with Dudley Phillips, one with Paul Westwood and about six or seven with a guy called Dan Quinton who was by far the best [i]teacher[/i] of the three.

I knocked something out last night. Not particularly exciting but it will have to do (wasn't really inspired by the image this time). I am not going to get to this again before the closing date. WIll post it when I can get to a computer with a USB port!!