Bilbo

Interesting point. I play with Brazilian guy and enjoy the Brazilian covers he does but hate all of the English language covers. The problem is, the English ones are, to him, 'exotic' and the Brazilian tunes are cheesy. I guess its all about context or familiarity breeding contempt!

[quote name='peteb' timestamp='1349898161' post='1832055'] I appreciate that it might not be the same as creating your own material but surely you must admit that it is great fun to get to grips with the music that your favourite bands made. Even players of the caliber of Paul Gilbert, Billy Sheehan & Mike Portnoy (along with various singers) get together to play tribute gigs of their heroes (Led Zep, The Who & Rush, etc) just for fun! [/quote] I guess its easier to enjoy playing this stuff for fun when you are generally satisfied with the stuff you do all of the time. If I did 200 great gigs a year, doing 2 tribute gigs or whetever may float my boat. It is the idea of doing the 200 gigs of this stuff that puts me off (mind you, doing ANY of the gigs by the three people you named would not really work for me either! ).

Yeah, I get that. I remember doing a version of the hateful 'Ain't Nobody' by Chaka Kahn that was so in the pocket it cmae out covered in fluff and stuck to a mint humbug. There have been others; a couple of versions of Canteloupe Island (but the hit rate over 30 years or so is appalling) and even Moondance has scored once or twice(no more as I refuse play it now).

I can't ever get past the fact that a great cover is only a cover. There is a simple buzz to be got from a job well done but it has always remained a shallow victory for me.

This is the main focus of my practice at the moment. I am seeking to develop consistency in my 'management' of my left hand position movements without compromising my intonation. It is easy enough when focusing on the issue but, if I am looking at a trascription or trying a bowing exercise, its the first thing to slip. Still, I guess that is why we call it practice. Baby steps, baby steps.

I'd kill myself.

I did a gig with Jim Mullen years ago, a real chance to work with a top player. The fanatasy outcome was 'Jim is stunned by my playing and offers me a regular gig or, at least, walks off into the sunset telling all of his professional peers 'that Rob Palmer is a great, great player'. The real ending. As he was leaving he thanked the other rhythm section players by name, shook my hand and said 'Nice one, [b]ROD[/b]'

Sounds a little bizarre to me. Any note played on a bass (or any other instrument) will have the fundamental note plus a range of overtones arising from the note that is resonating. To fret another string just for it to vibrate sympathetically (i.e not to play another note) woudl only add something that is already there, in theory. Where I can see a benefit is if the additional note is out of tune and a subtle chorusing effect takes place (like when a fretless player plays an octave that is not quite perfect) but in 99% of cases (i.e anywhere where the bass is not being played unaccompanied) all of this would be completely inaudible. Or am I missing something?

[quote name='uncle psychosis' timestamp='1349862874' post='1831357'] "Real bass players intonate by ear, these new fretted basses are for lazy untalented people..." [/quote] That is, of course, entirely true and all fretted basses are just real basses with stabilsiers

Manring is s freak.

I love chicken sandwiches. If I had them for starter, main course and dessert every day for a month, I would soon hate them. All things in moderation. I can take a few minutes of these jugglers but, after the 'wow' has worn off, I quickly switch off. I think someone is right in that we need guys to push the boundaries but we also need guys who consolidate, who use the ideas of the trailbalzers in a more musical and less grandstanding way.

I saw him playing with Jon Anderson on the 1980 tour that supported the Song Of Seven LP; the band were called the New Life Band and included some major UK session talent. Willie Morrisey, Barry DeSouza, Lee Davidson, Christopher Rainbow, Morris Pert, John Giblin, Ronnie Leahy, Jo Partridge. Stunning band. It was at Bristol Colston Hall in the days when a band's tour actually involved touring. I had already heard of Giblin through Brand X and really enjoyed his (Wal) bass playing that night (I didn't get my Wal until 1986 - I was 23 which means I have now had my Wal in my life longer than I hadn't when I got it).

I guess there is also the thing about effects etc being used to enahnce what is there rather than to cover up for what isn't e.g. autotune. The problem with things like autotune is that you can hear it and it comprmises the product. Like theatre/film, the best examples are the one's where you can't see the 'acting' happening (my wife loves Miss Marple and I have always been impressed by Joan Hickson's acting in that she doesn't actually [i]look[/i] like she is acting, unlike, say, Geraldine McEwan or Julia McKenzie). In my entirely subjective opinion, if you are listening to a recording and 'hearing' all the bells and whistles, its probably not a good recording.

I find I am constantly changing the exact position of the r/h all of the time. I do go to 'electric bass' r/h technique on really fast passages but stick with more correct pizz technique until the 'tipping point'. As it only relates to a tiny part of my playing (I believe that most great jazz is not played at fast tempos), I don't obsess over it.

An interesting discussion. I remember talking to some guy many years ago about the Keith Jarrett standards trio LP Still Live (a beautiful album) and commenting that, wihlst the sound of the trio is undoubtedly stunning (an ECM recording, with all that this implies), it wouldn't have even sounded like that if you stood in the room where they were recording the trio. Pretty much every recording is so close miked that what you hear is not what you woudl hear in real life. The recording process, even in a setting like Jazz where the performances are mostly live and in real time, is partly about capturing the performance but partly about using the available technology to make it sound as good (define) as it can; be that using reverbs and echos, compressors, 'live rooms', even mixing. I guess its for the individual to decide what is 'legitimate' and what is not. A lot if Dance stuff only exists in a virtual sense and can only be created using technology whereas a lot of folk or jazz stuff uses a lot less. But, then again, what is a piano if it is not a compliucated machine. Or a bass or a saxophone? It's all technology. Use it and make great music. Just don't let it undermine the wonder of a real time performance by a great player.

[quote name='silddx' timestamp='1349809912' post='1830907'] Do you record on a computer mate? You may find EZDrummer is your solution. [/quote] Yes; a MESH computer with Cubase SX. Will look EZDrummer up. Thanks for the tip off (not sure how much use I would get out of it, tho', as rock drums are not normally on my radar and I have several jazz type VST kits)

You just keep at it. I get fallow periods and periods of plenty; depends on whatever the other intruding things are. Big issue for me is maximising practice time rather than just noodling. I try to work on some transcriptions, scales, tunes whatever, don't just sit there wiggling my fingers. Had a late start this morning so got 20 mins double bass in. Reading rhythms practice in work sometimes. Whatever. Just remember you get better in tiny increments and a little and often is better than 4 hours one day and nothing for a week. It's surprising how easy it is to find a few minutes here and there. It's the same with writing. If you always have a pen and pad at hand, you can always writei things down. Sam with sheet music. All sorts of ways of 'getting some time in'.

Daniel Szabo Trio with Chris Potter guesting on sax.

Also, Barry Green's 'The Inner Game Of Music' is specifically targetting this issue. To put it in perspective, I have never suffered from nerves as I worked out a long time ago that no-one is listening to what bass players do unless they stop. I once got really bored at a jazz gig where no-one was listening and the guitar player and I played a 12-bar blues in which we played the whole thing a semi-tone apart (he was in Bb, I played it in . What''s more, we alternated so, after each chorus, we swapped. No-one noticed. You may be agonising over that sharpened 5th but, trust me, no-one else is, possibly not even the rest of your band.

Yes, I think you are. Personally, I think the 'lick' thing tends to refer to those people who take a certain lick from a certain solo they have transcibed and then often play it whenever that chord sequence is present. You can get away with murder doing this but it lacks integrity and any decent player will spot it a mile off. I remember hearing players who used certain quotes in their solos regularly. If you hear it to often, though, it is actually easy to take the piss, musically. I recall a sax player in Cardiff who repeatedly played a lick out of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue whenever he played a blues. On one gig, the piano player then incorporated another part of that tune in his solo and then I used a third part of it in mine. We all laughed good naturedly afterwards but I never heard him use that lick again. A lot of the stuff we learn sits in our vocabulary to be revisited as and when we need it. If you learn scales out of Simandl or Slonimsky or wherever, those patterns will inevitably appear in your playing. The secret is to use them creatively and not too often and not in the same place as last time and the time before that. We all have a limited vocabulary of English but can all say something fresh and original whenever the aardvark flogs you a compelling insurance carrot. You will use all of the constituent parts before but you just put them together in a fresh way. But don't udnereatimate the art of it. Playing improvised solos well is damn hard. It's not like learning 'Good Times' and regurgitating it again and again. It's about having a mind that 'hears' the ideas and then the chops to execute them instantly. The more I learn about it, the more I am amazed by the Joe Lovano's etc of this world.

Dave Valentin is a major force in fusion floot! [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8f_Qbg3HY90"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8f_Qbg3HY90[/url] [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ef_ejWcJcY8&feature=related"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ef_ejWcJcY8&feature=related[/url]

Jimmy Garrison did a lot of this. Have a look for some videos of him on youtube.

I saw Bill Frisell do a gig at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London playing to 3 Buster Keaton movies. Interesting but I am not that big a fan of black and white movies like that so it was not a life changing experience.

Look up Bobby Vega on youtube.