Bilbo

[quote name='Linus27' timestamp='1330511857' post='1558475'] I must admit, I can't wait for some of the Bilbo and Mani discussions. That could get entertaining [/quote] Does he play in a tribute band?

Never heard of him**. But I suspect he has never heard on me either. Then again, I have not heard of at least 9,985 of the members posting on here so he is in good company (I assume? How would I know). He is welcome, whoever he is. Can he read music? **I am my Dad

I think that's the point. A lot of players who we deem to be 'underrated' (and most of those listed above) are not so much underrated as unremarkable. I get that everyone has their favourite bands, songs, cds etc and each player has their moment to shine but when we talk about people being underrated, there is an implication that they are in some way overlooked geniuses when they are simply journeymen bass players who can deliver a professional product with some level of creativity. The question for me is always 'what would this sound like with a different player'. Now Duff McKagan may have some merits but I can't hear much that couldn't be delivered by any one of 1,000,000 rock bass players from about 15 years of age onwards. Del Palmer is a quiet contributor to Ms. Bush's work but I hear nothing to get overly excited by. Could he be replaced? In a second. Take Jaco off the Heavy Weather cd and its a different album. Take Kasim Sulton off 'Bat Out Of Hell' and its the same album with a different bass player. Competent and capable, yes. Underrated, probably not.

2010 is new. 1959 is 'last season'

The notes of the Bb major scale are Bb C D Eb F G A B. The notes in Parkers lick are Bb G Eb C D F. All are diatonically correct and fit perfectly. It seems that you have a slightly distorted view of the starting point of the Bb major? Were you thinking of the chord tones/arpeggio rather than the scale? It is perfectly acceptable to play absolutely any note over a Bb chord; the only issue is the level of tension created. You get little or no tension from Bb, D, F and A, a little from C and G and and whole lot from Eb but, if you wanted to, you could, for instance, use B, Db, E Gb and Ab as lead in notes for a lick or to create an extension which means every note is right (or probably more accurately 'not wrong'). It's all about context. My gut feeling is that you are operating on a misconception of what being 'in Bb msjor' actually means? Can we help?

For piano trio gigs....

I get around that by writing charts that have long blowing sections that are 'standard' pattern so, after the intensity of reading heads/arrangements, we get the buzz of stretching out. I guess its the nature of the art of composing for jazz and the art of improvisation as opposed to through scoring and fully written scores. Would love to hear some of your mates charts, bassace. Anything out there we can link to?

[quote name='paul_5' timestamp='1330380770' post='1556668'] I just discovered "Blue Trane" last week. I love Jazz too - that's a superb album. [/quote] Try 'Blues and the Abstract Truth' by Oliver Nelson

Glasper floats my boat but Cowley hasn't grabbed my ears yet. Might try again.

Did that website ever get done, Jake?

I have figured out where I went wrong with the Headtap. Will try again on the next double bass gig (in 84 days!!! (*&%^*($%*^@) Still, I have already got another three bookings for the trio so its all good!

I gigged with a keyboard player's combo for a short while (I think it was a Peavey but am not sure. It was when my own GK/SWR rig had been nicked and I took a while to replace it due to cashflow). It worked great (jazz gigs not rock).

Well that was a mixed bag. Some of my tunes went down well but some of them fell apart as the sax players reading let him down!! Nevertheless, the imnpetus of the project is intact and we are scheduling another rehearsal to nail the detail. A good night's work. Did the whole gig on double bass with no major after effects. My in-ear monitoring idea failed miserably (couldn't get the Headtap to work at all) but the gig was ok and a bass playing regular said it sounded better than ever. THe drummer, who I hadn't played with for ages, commented that there was a marked improvement in my playing (he last gigged with me about a year ago) commenting that the stamina difficulties I was plagued by early on seem to have gone away. The highlight was finishing the two+ hours of playing with Night In Tunisia going past like s*** off a stick. No worries at all. Maintined the pulse throughout and even solo'd on it without any train wrecks. I think I can play the double bass now

Don't forget to wear a Jersey. Its Fresian in there.

[indent=1][/indent] [indent=1]Its been hanging there for about 26 years. When I started it was slung a little lower (in rock bands) but I found that, as I played more and more of the neck, I needed more ready access to the top end and found that having it too low made that difficult. So I moved it up and down and bit for a few weeks/months until I felt I had got the optimum height. And there it has stayed ever since. It never gets uncomfortable and I never really find the bass heavy so I have no reason to consider changing it again at this point. But, as you will have guessed, it is an entirely personal thing.[/indent]

Saw th video at last. Some more great stuff on here. The bar has moved up again in recent years and us ol tarts are getting left behind (which is as it should be)....

All these exciting young players around, its great for the instrument......

As a long standing jazz musician.... I can sit in a room on my own and not be frightened. I can make stuff up as I go along. I can ride on the top deck of the bus on my own.

Agree with Mike on the importance of rehearsals for jazz musicians. A culture seems to have developed in the UK where noone who plays jazz ever rehearses and, as a result, most gigs, particularly in the provinces, are the same old same old. I had one rehearsal on Wednesday and we are doing 11 originals on Sunday that have never been played live before anywhere. Imagine what we could achieve with regular rehearsal time. On the occasions when I do rehearse with jazz bands, they alway sound SOOOO much better. These top guys (sorry, can't watch the clips in work although I do know Sixun) rehearse their arses off and it sounds like it. 'Improvisation' does not mean 'don't bother learning the material and make it all up as you go along'.

Get that reading going and, 6 months from now, youi will be a better reader than 90% of the people on here and will get all their gigs

I sent a flight cased bass overnight Felixstowe to Cardiff for £15 insured so that price is competitive. It was wrapped in brown paper and bubble wrap just to protect the cover of the flight case from nicks. The flight case was there to protect the bass and if that was inadequate, I suspect the truck was at the bottom of a cliff on fire and nothing would save it!! It got there no problem (Parcel Monkey).

Did a rehearsal last night for my next trio gig (this Sunday). We are doing 11 of my own compositions for sax/dbass/drums. Can't wait!! Some are stronger than others but the players I am using, who's opinions I respect (and who will not patronise me in a million years), are enjoying the material and occasionally grinning at the charts (and furiously counting) as the melodies weave in and out through odd time signatures and weird intervals (some are, however, fairly predictable). Apparently, several my compositions sounds Morroccan, which is interesting given that I am part Indian!!

Manuscript paper is good but laying things out and correcting mistakes is easier on Sibelius!! As is transposing Its all good.

I think we are missing some of the dynamics of the forum here. Firstly, there are as many as 5 generations of players on here. Kids of 15, students 25, pros in their thirties, old pros in their forties, new starters in their 50s and even a couple of 60+ year olds. Then there are the dozens of genres represented here, the gear nuts and the 'one bass fits all' brigade, double bassists and ERB fans. In order to have some common ground for discussion, it is likely that we will talk about the most influential players be it Jaco, Flea or young Hendrick. Most of us know the top ten of each generation or favourite genre whereas few of us will know the next 20 of each others generation or genre. Secondly, a lot a great players have long careers and as many people will buy the next Rush CD as they will the latest Professor Green CD so the influence of a player is not as closely linked to the 'era' in which they 'arrived' as we may think. So talking about Geddy Lee, Dave Holland or John Patitucci's recent work is not just nostalgia but also about following the career of an established artist Thirdly, many of us like the bass player that plays with the bands we like and see qualities in them that those who don't like that band, genre will miss. Fourthly, some folk are looking for innovation and technical excellence from bass players whilst others are looking for great songs where the bass playing is incidental. Geddy Lee's playing, whatever else it is, is exceptional whereas 99% of us could play Adam Clayton's lines so, when it is time to talk about something interesting, it is the exceptional that gets attention. Fifthly (I have never got to fifthly before. How exciting), there are those that develop a skill by the application of effort and study (say Manring or Anthony Jackson, Stuart Zender or Bill Sheehan) and there are those who, it would appear to most of us, learn to do what they do in a more 'organic way' (Lemmy, Steve Dawson (Saxon), Nikki Sixx, Sid Vicious, Peter Hook etc). A lot of pop bassists 'have' great feel and great sounds because they are ghosted on CD or run 1000 takes before getting a good one and actually can't play that well in any real sense. So those in the know are less inclined to extol their virtues or get excited about their skills. My simple perspective is that, if I can play it, it can't be hard so I am not that interested For me, a lot of great groove players in popular music are that by accident and good luck to them. Modern players take time to filter out inot mainstream listening. You get something exceptional (Dirty Loops?) and it goes viral. Something more mundane like an innocuous pop single by a band that appeals to teenagers is not going to get the attention for the wider community. Where players are concerned, most bands in most generations are not producing anything new. What did Oasis offer, in musical terms, that The Damned didn't or Big Country or Jesse J. DuM dum dum dum dum dum dum bass lines with three fills per tune are not going to generate a debate. Blur's material is not musically excpetional enough to get a lot of non Blur fan players on board whereas Manring is going to get noticed.