Bilbo

I am watching the youtube video of a live performance of Anna Maria Jopek with Pat Metheny. If you know Metheny's stuff, you gotta watch this. It is a wonderful reframing of Metheny's stuff. (Can't post a link in work so if someone else can do it....). Great band and I particularly the vocals/backing vocals thing - sublime.

The argument over fact vs opinion is an interesting one and it is surprisingly hard to find fact when discussing music, basses, amps etc. Kind of Blue was recorded in 1959 - fact. Kind of Blue is the biggest selling Jazz lp of all time (dubious fact - define Jazz). Kind of Blue is the greatest LP of all time - opinion.

I got rid of the first 100 or so last night (to a vinyl loving friend). Interestingly, I noticed several LPs as we were searching throught them that made me think 'I love that' so, this morning, I am sitting in work with Spotify playing some of these 'greats'. Only they aren't as 'indispensible' as I thought. There is nostalgia value, absolutely, but I am not really one for looking back so feel surprisingly ok about letting them go.

Your options are almost infinite but the suggestions above are all perfectly credible. Personally, if you are struggling with the massive range of options, I would recommend you find something you know already (as in 'can whistle', not that you know the chords etc). This will make it easier for you to process and improvise.

Yes, I heard. But the space is needed and I can't remember the last time I played a record. At least a year ago. Spotify covers a lot of it so it needs to go.

400+ lps left ( had a purge a few years ago). A vinyl loving friend is coming around on Tuesday to have his wicked way with my collection and then the rest will find its way to Oxfam. I may keep a couple of dozen for old times sake (my own stuff, for instance) but, otherwise, the dust collecting has to stop. End of an era.

That was where they started to lose me. Move from progness to song orientation. Like Genesis and Yes around this time, ended up a little less exciting for me.

Yes.

Jethro Tull Broadsword and The Beast

Enjoy themselves?! Outrageous!!!

It is usually boats!

You arrive at the gig to find the ceiling on the stage is one inch above your head and your bass is too tall to be played upright.

[quote name='Bilbo' timestamp='1357377227' post='1921708'] I just got told that Mr. P.C. Haas been nominated for the 2012 Association for Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC) Awards for Excellence in Historical Recorded Sound Research. If I had any idea what that meant, I would be thrilled! [/quote] Well I'll be damned. I won :)

Five-string Parker Fly.

The theme to Pipkins. Well it can't all be hip and cool.

I just had my attention drawn to a great review of the book by Kevin LeGendre for Echoes Monthly magazine. I really rate Kevin so his endorsement is a real buzz for me PS the review is in the August 2013 edition p. 34-5

[quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1378337840' post='2198994'] Excellent, Bilbo, really class playing and feeling. [/quote] Kudos to Mirosolav Philharmonik. It Is entirely a VST and was not 'played' but typed in

Just bought a Shure SM58 off Gareth. Good price, good comms, quick turnaround etc. Would deal with him anytime.

I wrote it over a couple of days, whilst walking the dogs. Put it into Sibelius, created a midi file, populated it with Misoslav Philharmonik's solo cello and posted it. Took about 35 minutes.

My September offering. I took a moment's look at the image and solo cello came into my head. I put this together quite quickly using Arabic sounding scales but it really does it for me in terms of it relating to the image. More so than almost anything else I have done before. Simple but effective. [url="https://soundcloud.com/robert-palmer-1/syrian-sofa"]https://soundcloud.c...r-1/syrian-sofa[/url]

Singing lines and playing them (not playing lines and singing them) is by far the most effective means. Links your ideas to your fingers. Remember to learn the intervals backwards as well (fifth to root not just root to fifth).

Hardcore

Speaking as someone who is close to that pinnacle myself.... Seriously, the concept of there being a line of improved development from Monk Montgomery through Jaco to these gunslingers is anathema to the concept of Music as Art. Atheletes get faster, higher, further etc, not artists. Having looked for great players all my life, I have learned that there is always some other cat just around the corner. Great bassists canplay crap music, crap musicians can play great music. Technique is not just about faster but also about expression. It is all very complicated. Interestingly, guitarists seem to have stopped trying to speed up as the shredding has proven to be a dead end. Same with horns really. Its about the ideas now, not the process.

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1375911329' post='2167452'] That's the thing with db, everyone will watch![/quote] Get a hat. You'll be fine.

[quote name='operative451' timestamp='1377872953' post='2193092'] I guess being a grunge kid (and seeing as i may have sort of triggered this a bit) - anything with more than 4 strings, unless you're playing metal - anything that's ostentatiously flashy wood, PRS or anything too 'session muso' or jazz. Acoustic basses unless its 1994 and you're on MTV unplugged. Violin basses. Any bass worn above the belt buckle. Especially 5 string bookmatched and used for slap jazz funk fusion! [/quote] More prejudices than a coachload of UKIP members on a European tour