Bilbo

Just to add to the debate, many define improvisation as real-time composition so definitions are as varied as interpretation s. It is what the listener wishes it to be in the same way that it is what the composer considers it to be.

I agree that compositions should have some sense of theme and variation but 'sections' is not the only way to do that. For me, there has to be some element of forward motion and momentum and there are all sorts of ways of doing that. Doing it successfully is the art of it. I don't think I do that at all well and really struggle with any form of modulation so a lot of my compositions feel frustratingly 'static' to me. So, hands up, I think I am guilty of the charge as levelled. Will try harder next month!! {PS worthy of note is the fact that I also wrote a second tune this month (after the above was uploaded) but it was not inspired by the picture in any way and so was not submitted}

My favourite recorded bass sound was a Rickenbacker (Greenslade - Time and Tide). Rush, Yes - all sounded great. Fugly things but great sound. Can I have my tablets now?

Voted.

Even I know the start of Phantom of the Opera, karlfer. You'll be playing 'The Chain' by Fleetwood Mac next I remember playing 'Peaches' at a jazz rehearsal once before realising that no-one else in the room had actually been BORN when the Stranglers had originally released it!! Ref: the 16 year old singer. No-one that young should be allowed to make decisions about repertoire. No-one.

£7247, IIRC

If you like scars so much, here, have another one!!! (DOINK!) Seriously, if it is not what you signed up for and you don't like the 'new' genre, I can't see any point in hanging around. Alternatively, I guess you could tell them to point you in the direction of the kinds of recordings that are getting them excited and see if it floats your boat. I know that reggae doesn't really interest me, for instance, but there are some amazing things out there that come under that heading. I suspect you know what you want to do.

I hereby designate this to be the most boring thread of 2014. So far.

I have got to 50 without ever saying the offending word out loud so I guess I'll cope. I also made sure my bass was made of Mahogany, American Walnut and Ebony before I bought it, just to avoid this particular issue.

At the age of 50, I am having the best year I have [i]ever[/i] had playing live. About 5 years ago, I did 120 gigs in the year. I earned a lot of extra money but the music was totally sh*te. Some of it was so bad that I was really starting to question my own ability and getting massively frustrated that, in a nutshell, I was not doing myself or the music any favours by continuing to hack away in this fashion. I pared back all of my gigs to the bone and only agreed to take the gigs I thought had some musical merit or, if I am honest, which I enjoyed as a social event (in the 'dark years', some weren't even offering that!!). The following year I did about 30 gigs but I was arguably a lot happier with the gigs I did do and began to feel a lot better about the music I was playing. The space also allowed me to start thinking about playing the double bass and I saw an improvement in my playing, my musicality and my confidence. Over the next few years, I started to see an improvement in the number of gigs was getting but also in the quality of those gigs (I hasten to add that, by quality, I do not necessarily mean money - the best gigs I have now pay really badly but that is not actually why do it). The gigs I do now are invariably more 'up my street' musically and I set up my own gigs now as much as I wait to be called. In the last 12 months, as well as playing with an orchestra for the first time (see that thread elsewhere), I have played with John Etheridge, Jim Mullen, Gareth Lockrane, Julian Siegel, John Parricelli, Tim Whitehead, Tony Kofi, Kate Williams, Alan Barnes, Peter King, Georgia Mancio, Phil Robson, Christine Tobin, Martin Speake, David Gordon, Josh Kemp, Kelvin Christiane, Nigel Price, Vasilis Xenopoulos, Gilad Atzmon, Ross Lardner, Christian Garrick, Julian Nicholas, Pete Oxley, Steve Fishwick, Osian Roberts, Lewis Wright, Robin Jones Latin Jazz ensemble, Mark Cecil, Nic France (Kate Bush, Dave Gilmour), Steve Waterman, Art Themen, Mark Lockheart, Dave O'Higgins and Roger Beaujolais. In the next couple of months, I am scheduled to play with Byron Wallen, Jason Robello, Brandon Allen, Simon Allen, Ivo Neame (Phronesis), Matt Wates, Anita Wardell and Eddie Parker. I have also met and played with great (and I really do mean great) local (Suffolk, Norfolk and Essex) players like Andi Hopgood, Phil Brooke, Russ Morgan, Simon Brown, Roger O'Dell (Shakatak), George Double, Zak Barrett, Holly Barrett, Simon Hurley, Chris Ingham, Kevin Flanagan and Andy Watson and am imminently scheduled to play with a few more local monsters like Malcolm Miles as well as more gigs with Jim Mullen and a few others listed above. I have also done some other really nice local Jazz gigs with guys like Ben Blackmore, John Parker, Ian Buzer, Charlie Richardson, Dan Banks, Frank Sebastian, Adam Morris, Albert Garcia, Michael Spearman, Ian Thompson and Tristram Butler, any one of which I would be proud to share the stage with again at any time. It's been a great, great year. Playing live is what Jazz musicians do. There is not really much point in it otherwise!! My point is that playing live is what you make of it. You get as good as you can be, get better at setting up your own gigs, learn the repertoire and get good at reading, whether that is dots or just charts and put yourself in the position of being the guy who gets at least some of the calls.

Now there's a thought!! Another amusing Robert Palmer anecdote. I once got his royalty cheque sent to me by mistake. The PRS got my name when a band I was in registered, put two and two together and got five!

Actually, I have a great Robert Palmer story. I had to get a dep for a gig a long time ago (15 years) and I called a guy with some considerable pedigree (no names this time). I introduced myself.... Me 'Hi there. My name is Robert Palmer and I need a dep' Bass Player 'Not THE Robert Palmer' Me 'No' Bass Player 'Good. He's a tosser'.

Never heard of 'im.

On Sunday, I did a Jazz gig with a 75 year old saxophonist with a bad back, bad teeth and a duodenal ulcer. He kicked my ass. Peter King is a monster.

Actually, I find the biggest challenge here is finding the [i]time [/i]to do something substantial.

Here's my April contribution. It is called Improvisation on a Funk Motif and is a solo double bass piece. I cannot play 'Funk' a la James Brown/Marcus Miller/Bootsy etc so went with what I know. https://soundcloud.com/robert-palmer-1/improvisation-on-a-funk-motif

'Every sensible child will know what this means' The Smiths Nowhere Fast 'A fantabulous night to make romance....'

[quote name='Dave Vader' timestamp='1397660587' post='2426195'] and yet you're always bringing it up? [/quote] I think you'll find that everyone ELSE keeps bringing it up

I am never thinking about Moondance.

[quote name='EssentialTension' timestamp='1397646264' post='2425948'] Link not working, did you mean: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0Wf2SP0rJ4 [/quote] Dunno! Can't see it. It was Ben Allison's 'It's Only Just Begun'. The cover is barely recognisable as The Carpenters. I personally struggle with covers because I have limited interest in playing other people's stuff. I can and do do it regularly in 'one-off' situations but doing it for more than a couple of gigs sees me getting very bored very quickly. I just don't see the point. If you want Don't Fear The Reaper, buy the record! I guess its different for audiences because they only see the covers band once but, playing in it? Not a favourite situation for me. Jazz allows you to play covers without having to just regurgitate them but, even there, it's the originals the grab my interest. There is no expectation that the 'originals' are better as individual works than the stock covers, just that they are interesting and valid. A good song doesn't have to be a 'classic' to be a good song any more than a 'classic' has to be a good song to be a 'classic' (that does make sense if you read it enough times !!)

Interestingly, you can be very creative doing covers and very predictable doing originals. A lot of Jazz originals are astonishingly formulaic (12-bar bebop blues, bossas etc). Creativity is creativity. Catch this Carpenters song.... http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=t0Wf2SP0rJ4

Ironic denouement is my speciality!!

Just emailed Cottle. He read the session cold. Kudos to him.

Counting 78 bars is easy when the piece is familiar and the parts are strong but, sometimes, as on some of the parts of this suite, difficulties are caused when there are long passages without any apparent rhythm and a lot of textural stuff including changes of bar lengths from 4:4 to 3:4 to 2:4 and nothing to hang it all on. Sometimes the parts are annotated with 'warning' parts telling you that the flute plays X two bars before you come in. Then it is easier. It is when the only indicator of when to come in is the waving!! The practice seems to be to indicate beats with the UP movement of the arm not the down and to indicate when you come in one beat before you do, unlike a jazz conductor who would indicate the beat that you actually play. Also the classical approach is to wave gently whereas the jazz MDs I have worked with tend to be stronger in their actions. I am sure the protocols are perfectly routine when you know them but I didn't. That was my point.