Bilbo

I have been a fan of this track (and band) for decades. I heard this track first when Jaco had Bob Mintzer in his band but this is the Bob Mintzer Big Band version of the tune, 'Mr. Fone Bone' from the 1985 album 'Camouflage'. Tough little sucker, this one. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/mr-fone-bone-bob-mintzer-big-band/

A simple read (bar a couple of fills), this is the Darryl Jones bass part for the tune 'Time After Time' from the 1985 Miles Davis album, 'You're Under Arrest'. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/time-after-time-miles-davis/

I learned this one on electric bass very early on in my playing career after seeing it performed on TV on an Oscar Peterson fronted Jazz programme. I recorded the programme on VHS video cassette and then recorded the soundtrack off that onto a C90 tape cassette before learning the piece (I didn't write it down that time as I was not reading). No Transcribe software in those days The tune is called 'Airpower' and features the bass player Neils Henning Orsted Pedersen ripping us all a new one. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/airpower-niels-henning-orsted-pedersen/

Cheese Fest!! Anthony Jackson's bass part for 'Spanish Eyes' off the 1980 Al Di Meola album, 'Splendido Hotel'. It's only really four bars long and repeats up and down fourths and fifths (don't get cocky, kid - there are some tricky bits, too). Jackson plays this with a pick so there's another challenge to consider. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/spanish-eyes-al-di-meola/

It's been a few days but here is a tricky little sucker; Steve Rodby's bass part from the tune 45:8 from the 1989 Pat Metheny Group album, 'Letter From Home'. It's not as hard to play as it sounds but great fun once you get the gist of it. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/458-pat-metheny-group/

Some of my favourites (the full package, in this case, not just the front cover)

Yup - I made that exact same mistake too. When I think back, it was naive, given the rich and bottomless depths of the Art world. I have a lot of affection for Dean but it ain't Carravagio . .

Transcriptions of a couple of the tunes mentioned above. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/refuge-of-the-road-joni-mitchell/ https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/a-remark-you-made-weather-report/

No idea 😄

The reason we haven't heard of Michel Hatzigeorgiou is because he is a shade, a shadow of another artist. A fool's errand. He would not exist without Jaco. Jaco wasn't perfect but he changed the rubric. Michel Hatzigeorgiou just a fan who got lost down the rabbit hole dug by his mentor.

My seven string is tuned BEADGBE, not CF. I think guitar tuning with the low B so guitar chords are transferable.

Can anyone name the guitar player?

It's mostly stuff from my own collection, Dave. Not really any Funk, Pop, Country, Rap, House, Electronica etc but lots of Fusion, Jazz and old school Rrrrrrrock. It's my musical life and (almost) no one else's. I did my first double bass gig last weekend and am on an upright buzz at the moment so the Marsalis stuff is getting an airing.

An easy read, this one. It is a short piece called 'How Long'? which is the opening bass solo of the 'Transatlantic Echoes' section of the 1992 'Citi Movement' (Griot New York) recording by the Wynton Marsalis Septet. It is a 1:05 long and played arco but, as a reading exercise, it has merit. It is essentially a 23 bar Blues lick. How Long? – Wynton Marsalis Septet – Bilbo's Bass Bites (bilbosbassbites.co.uk)

Today is the first anniversary of the Bilbo's Bass Bites website going live. I started it with no expectations other than I wanted to create a resource for people who wanted something interesting to practice their reading on (a lot a reading material for developing players doesn't resonate whereas access to some of the tunes we like, want to play or are interested in exploring would, to my mind, offer people a sense of the 'point of it all'). A few months in, I was seeing a gradual increase in footfall and I thought to myself, I wonder if it will reach 50,000 hits in twelve months or even 52,000 (1,000 a week)'? Well, the final score is in an there have been 62489 hits over the last 365 days. That's 1202 hits a week and 171 hits a day. More to the point, I have had feedback from hundreds of people who have benefitted from my transcriptions and have been in touch with several of the players whose work has been featured, every one of which has been supportive. What has been lovely is to see people hearing things for the first time as a result of these charts and reconnecting with things they have not listened to for years. In short, it's all good! We are 271 transcriptions in including 40 Jeff Berlin transcriptions! I would have killed for those 40 years ago when I started out! It's all down to Transcribe! and Sibelius software which was most certainly NOT around when I was 17 (in fact, thinking about it, computers themselves were a VERY new thing (I got a Computer Studies O Level in 1980) and a website of any kind was unheard of)

Original bassist with the legendary Mahavishnu Orchestra, Rick Laird has passed away following a long illness. I am told that, after MO, he got sick of poorly paid Jazz gigs and became a portrait photographer. He was aged 80.

Music is just an interesting way of joining up silence. Miick Goodrick.

One I had been meaning to get back to for a while. This is Benny Reitveld's bass part for the Santana hit 'Smooth' from his 1999 'Supernatural' CD. I posted a section of this very early on on here but it was just a sketch whereas this chart is the full part (except the repeating turnaround during the fade). Not a massively challenging read but there are a few moments that require concentration. A fun chart to play. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/smooth-santana/

I guess musos etc have a consistent taste in houses/flats etc. Interestingly, we bought this house off a guitar player. He had pictures of Robben Ford and Larry Carlton on the wall and was blown away because I knew who they were!

I was selling my last house before this one and one of the viewers was a prolific music journalist/writer. My wife did the viewing not me and, despite several attempts to hook up, we never actually got to meet. His name was Terry Rawlins, IIRC, and Mod culture was his thing. The same house was viewed by the local MP who was looking for somewhere in the constituency. |I refused to sell it to her because she was a Tory (that's not actually true but I thought about it - she didn't make an offer. Probably needed something bigger to accommodate her share portfolio 🤣)..

Another one for old time's sake, this is Jimmy Bain's bass part for the tune 'Stargazer' from the 1976 Rainbow album, 'Rising'. One of the greatest Heavy Rock albums of all time. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/stargazer-rainbow/

The website just passed 60000 hits. Roughly 1150 per week.

This made me smile. When I was a teenager, I was a little preoccupied with the respective threats of death, nuclear war and rabies. I had an album by Magnum (Marauder) which had a song that included the line 'there' ll be no new day dawning for me'. I didn't play the tune for years despite playing the rest of the record. I can cope with it now. 😁

592 hits on the website yesterday!