Bilbo

Have knocked this up using the Raney chart. Shoudl get you started,

Still having trouble loading pdfs. Getting that ipb thing still (has been weeks now)

Downloaded Frode Berg's Dig IT yesterday!! 7:4, FFS!!

I spent some time on Saturday looking at this tune. I programmes the chords into Band in a Box andplayed along. As I started to explore the changes, I realised that there are essentially only three key centres, B, G and Eb (all a major third apart instead of the usual fourths). The changes are all ii V Is modulating to the new key. Once I got my hea/ear around that, my solos started to begin to make at least a little sense.... ...at 80 bpm I then got out the Aebersold and tried to play along - no chance. Its not the changes that make it hard, its the changes AT THAT TEMPO and (Mike & Mark will know what I mean) [i]I was playing along with the SLOW version.[/i] The fast version was never going to happen. Whatever else, it was nice to get the brain working. When you do a lot of standards gigs, like I do, its easy to walk into the trap of the same old same old (jazzers have their own 'Mustang Sally's' and 'Good Times' and are as guilty as anyone of building sets based on the path of least resistance). So its nice to be reminded that there are still challenges out there. Great fun.

I spend my life not playing the right parts. I play a lot of covers where I have never heard the original so do whatever feels ok. When I then hear the original, I invariably fail to recognise it

Some great learning coming out of this thread. See what happens when we can have a adult discussion about the music instead of everyone just being 'nice' and 'polite'? Mike should be congratulated on having the courage to post a work in progress. Its encouraging to hear how people learn and not just seeing polished and perfect renditions. I think it is important to acknowledge how difficult this set of changes is. Unlike most standards, you can't 'busk' this one until the two odd chords appear. It kills every cliche you have and forces you to find an intelligent way of processing the changes. There is nowhere to hide. Coltrane spent two years learning to play over these. I am not altogether sure I want ot spend that much time on a set of changes I am not that fond of!! I think McG has a point too. Aebersolds force us to play longer solos than we would in the real world and so we are forced into the diarrhoea mode. There is a book out there full of transcriptions of the various versions of the track Coltrane recorded. Maybe we should be asking a sax player how s/he works these changes, rather than bass players? I'd love to post my version of this but I suspect it will be a while before I can find something to play on these changes that is worthy of a public airing. Not heard the guys you talk about, Mike. Will look them up.

I hit the motherlode: Barre Philips - Journal Violone (AKA Bass Barre or Barre Unaccompanied) Joe Fonda - When It's Time Marcin Oles - Ornette On Bass Jonas Tauber - Storm Walking Singing Dave Holland - Ones All/Emerald Tears Michael Formanek - Am I Bothering You? Barry Guy - Symmetries/Fizzles Joëlle Léandre - No Comment/Sincerely Miroslav Vitous - Emergence Peter Kowald - Was Da Ist? Paul Rogers - Listen Ron Carter - All Alone John Lindberg - Luminosity : Homage To David Izenzon Kent Kessler - Bull Fiddle (although Zerang joins on three tracks). Mark Dresser - Invocation/Unveil Ken Filiano - Subvenire Malachi Favors - The Natural and the Spiritual Lynn Seaton - Solo Flights Mike Milligan - Solo Flights Eberhard Weber - Pendulum Malachi Favors - The Natural and the Spiritual Fernando Grillo - Fluvine Alan Silva - Inner Song Roberto Miguel Miranda - The Creator's Musician Ed Schuller - Ong Song Music For Solo Bass William Parker - Lifting The Sanctions/Testimony/Painter's Autumn Henri Texier - Amir/Varech Aladar Pege - Virtuoso Solo Bass Anthony Cox - That & This Ingebrigt Håker-Flaten - Double Bass Dominic Duval - Songs For Krakow/Nightbird Inventions/Anniversary Wilbert de Joode - Olo Journal Violone by Barre Phillips Unveil CD by Mark Dresser William Parker solo bass record on No More records Anthony Cox's Double Base Kent Kessler's Bull Fiddle Ed Schuller's Ong Song Ingebrigt Haker Flaten double bass Dominic Duval Songs for Krakow, Nightbird Inventions and Anniversary Wilbert de Joode's "Olo" Vitold Rek "bassfiddle alla polacca" Stefano Scodanibbio "Geografia Amorosa" Anders Jormin "Alone Harry Miller's - Children at Play

I remembered another one I have. Jean Francois Jenny-Clark's Unison. Some interesting ideas. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Unison-J-F-Jenny-Clark/dp/B000008AKI/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1318100016&sr=1-1

That Bromberg sounds interesting. I'm gonna get me that one.

Nice stuff, Pete, but its not a solo, its bass with accompaniment. I am looking for stone cold, out there on your own double bass...

You notice I don't post my own version

You could probably cut out about 50-60% of what you are doing and make the notes count more, Mike. Your solo doesn't start somewhere and go somewhere else, it just is. I remember someone once said to me 'deny yourself 3 times before you play something'. It prevents the musical diarrhoea (spelling block) we are all guilty of when we try and fill every space. Let the rhythm section speak and 'frame' your phrases (it even works on an Aebersold)! Tell a story, as Lester Young says. You are making the changes, no mean feat, but aren't letting your audience make them with you. Hope that doesn't come over as too brutal. You play great, mate, but a fast run sounds better if it isn't surrounded by other fast runs!

I am lsitening to Dave Holland's 'Emarald Tears' and have his 'One's All' cd. I also have Edgar Meyer's Bach Cello Suites cd. Does anyone know of any other solo double bass cds> I know of a truckload of duets: Holland and Sam Rivers, HOlland and Milcho Leviev, Haden and Jarrett, Haden and Metheny, Glen Moore and Nancy King etc but can't think of any other solo double bass cds. Loads of electric bass solo stuff but not so much the double bass. Can anyone think of anything I hve missed?

Can't wait to hear it, Mike. I still can't make this tune sound like anything but running scales!

Learning theory in music is like learning to read and comprehend the English Language. As you are ready what I have written, you don't sit there thinking 'i before e except after c', 'that word consistes of a t followed by a h and an e so that means 'the', 'ahhh, the pronoun and the adverb are in the correct order' and so on. You glide over it without even noticing that you are doing it. Learning and comprehending music theory is a step towards using it. When you play, you use it all of the time, you just don't know that you are because you have internalised it. The more knowledge you have, the more it will come out in your playing. Learning a lick will only offer you the means to repeat that lick. Learn the theory behind it and you will open a thousand doors. Its the musical equivalent of 'Give a man a fish, he eats for a day. Teach a man how to fish and he will eat every day of his life'. At least, that's the theory.

Learn them. Start with the first four frets and the open strings and the rest will grow from there. E - F - F sharp/Gb - G - G sharp/Ab A - A sharp/Bb - B - C - C sharp/Db D - D sharp/Eb - E - F - Fsharp/Gb G - G sharp/Ab - A - A sharp/Bb - B

Try a piano. It all makes more sense on a piano

Ask him.

Good. I've got his number!!

There is a link to my soundcloud page in my signature. Enjoy....

Oh and I have jsut noticed Kenny WHeeler's Windmill Tilter has finally been released on CD. That's gone right to the top of my wish list!!

Welcome to the world f six string bass playing. The whole string dampening thing becomes a science in itself and there are several solutions. There is a video of Kevin Glasgow on here somewhere where he has a wrist band wrapped around the neck of his bass whiilst he plays it to stop the open strings from vibrating. I foudn myself that I had to use my right hand to stop that opens strings whilst I played the upper strings. THere are other solutions and others will have something to say but, in short, you are discovering one of that hazards of Extended Range basses. To be blunt, it was one of the reasons I never really enjoyed the instrument (mine was a Status Energy 6). Never got comfortable with it. My bad. I just didn't get anything from it that made me want to keep going.

Listening to Alex Sipiagin's Prints Cd. Good writing. Been trying to listen to 'new' stuff (for me, not neceessarily new in chronological terms). David Binney is doing some nice stuff. Chris Cheek is an interesting player. There's also Ryan Kisor, a Dave Holland sideman who has done a couple of nice cds, one a quartet with Chris Potter and no harmony instrument. Kevin Eubank's 'Zen Food' is a great CD (I have liked him since his tenure with Holland for the Extensions LP - saw that band at the Bath Jazz Festival. This cd is really strong on performance and content. I listened to that Wyntn Marsalis interview on Jamie Cullem's Radio 2 programme last Tuesday and he said something that strucka chord. HE was talking about his father showing him the 'joy of seriousness', the idea that taking something seriously and commiting to and investing in it brings its own pleasure, its own fun. A lot of people here talk about ;its supposed to be fun'. Well, I agree and working hard at this stuff is the [i]best[/i] fun I just wish I could go home now and write some tunes.

I have the K&K Sound Double Big Twin Upright Bass 5 string pick up and, with a Fishman Plat Pro, it sounds great. And you fit it without any modifications to the bridge. http://www.gollihurmusic.com/product/1426-KANDK_SOUND_DOUBLE_BIG_TWIN_UPRIGHT_BASS_PICKUP.html

There is a cd by Glen Moore (Oregon) and Nancy King called 'Impending Bloom' (see link) http://www.amazon.co.uk/Impending-Bloom-Nancy-King/dp/B000000NQ5/ref=sr_1_4?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1317310514&sr=1-4 A track on Claudia Acuna's cd Wind From The South called Alfonsia Y El Mar where she duets with Avishai Cohen. And there is a Kurt Elling video on Youtube where he duets with a bass (its absolutely stunning but I can't recall the title of the track or the player).