Bilbo

[quote name='LawrenceH' post='1262114' date='Jun 8 2011, 11:37 PM']You do make me smile sometimes, Bilbo! I'd hate to think music was invented as some form of 'entertainment' Love the Jaco though, good clips, thanks[/quote] I know what you are saying. I just meant that the drivers for a lot of his live playing are 'the 'show' not 'the music'.

Two. So What and Impressions.

Another great lp with AJ on was called French Toast. Mostly Michel Camilo tunes but a bigger band with horns. Worth looking for. Peter Gordon – french horn Lew Soloff – trumpet Jerry Dodgion – alto sax Michel Camilo – piano Anthony Jackson – bass Dave Weckl – drums Steve Gadd – drums Sammy Figueroa – percussion Gordon Gottlieb – percussion

Jaco was, in many ways a lick player. If you listen to a lot of his stuff, you will eventually hear his cliches. But his take on the bass was very much from the perspective of a musician not a bass player. He played stuff that noone else could touch. By the time he was getting ill, he wouldn't have been practising and his ideas would have started to get stale. But from 1976 to about 1980, he was carving something special. His cliches have a rock sensibility; they are based on entertainment not music. He wasn't a hardcore improvising jazz musician as such but he was a creative guy who, when allowed to, was capable of greatness. He pitched a whole load of new concepts at bass players, most of which are still being processed by most of us today. I think it is important to respect what he did and not what he didn't and not what he became.

I rarely see other bands any more. I am very choosy so, if they are crap, I probably wouldn't be there as I rarely see bands I don't already know something about. Unless I know them well, I also wouldn't talk to a bass player after the gig unless he approached me. Its not in my nature to be pro-active in these kinds of situations.

And this one has a really great bass solo from the master himself. 1980 - No Fodera, but he still sounds like AJ.

Yum yum, pig's bum

Don't play in direct sunlight. Its a killer and you could get ill.

I don't care if some don't like it. Its beautifully executed. No rhythm? Yeah. Like a train A lot of popular music is based around a definitive and explicit beat. Boom, Whack, boom, whack, boom whack. All beat and no grove. Listen to Bach. No beat there either.

[quote name='Mike' post='1259293' date='Jun 7 2011, 08:22 AM']Ah, never saw this post. How annoying. You would have been very welcome to borrow mine, set up by Martyn Bailey. Let me know in future![/quote] I will, Mike. Many thanks (likewise the other way around - although mine is a five string so be warned!!)

And something else gorgeous from Michel Petrucciani with Jackson doing his thing.....

Jackson is left with no nuts after grooving them off w. Robben Ford (guitar), Jimmy McGriff (organ), Bernard Purdie (drums), and the horn section of Phil Woods (alto), Bob Berg (tenor) and Art Farmer (trumpet). If you don't 'get' it, you have no pulse.

You can't get away from it. When he was on, he was ON!

I am finding that the best way to build up your left hand 'muscle tone' is to play the thing. I don't think you need strength as such, just finesse. If all the muscles in your left hand are working together efficiently, you probably had enough strength in that hand before you even started. PS I got three hours double bass practice in yesterday with no tension in my hands at all. A good action and tried and tested technique and it all comes together. Gain without pain

I seem to have convinced some people here that I can read anything. I can't. I can read well enough to do most gigs and I can 'get' hard passages after a run through or two but, in a high pressure reading situation, I would be found wanting. Still working on that. But my biggest praise for reading is the value it has in enhancing your practising/rehearsing/composing/arranging/recording etc etc.

Been working at reading the Parker solos in the Omnibook. If anyone is interested in working at reading accidentals, the whole book is pretty much in C so all the sharps and flats are written as such. Good for getting you used to reading changing accidentals. Remember: you don't have to read them at the speed Parker played them to benefit from the practice (I can't).

I love this instrument. That's all

[quote name='Mike' post='1255976' date='Jun 3 2011, 09:36 PM']Very nice Bilbo! I play bass for Andi from time to time and it's always a fun experience. Is it Alex on drums?[/quote] Certainly is, Mike. It was just a demo for his Blue Rondo Jazz Ensembles website. Simon Brown on piano (a lovely Steinway!!) and Gareth Lumbars on sax.

[quote name='ShergoldSnickers' post='1251927' date='May 31 2011, 07:26 PM']Quietly proud... it's much better than that and you know it.[/quote] Its not false modesty, mate. I love the performance overall but I find my own playing on it is not write as 'on' as I want it to be. There is nothing wrong with it per se (which makes a change) but I am of the view that the bass sound could be 'thicker' in some way. I did it with a mic and a K&K pick up which was a 4 string model (the bass is a 5). I have a 5 string pick up on the order and hope that may give a little more depth to the sound and, consequently, to the performance. It is, despite my reservations, one of the most 'convincing' jazz pieces I have for my 'cv'.

[quote name='lettsguitars' post='1255608' date='Jun 3 2011, 03:51 PM']how come as a bass maker i'm not allowed to advertise my wares on basschat and posts are instantly deleted when all i'm asking for is a few opinions, and yet it's fine for every man and his dog to try and flog their cd's? sort it out mods. this is BASSchat after all, not sellmemusicchat. one for all and all for one![/quote] The purpose of the OP was to highlight a new technological development in music marketing, not to sell the Kaiser Chief's CD/download.

[quote name='Low End Bee' post='1255552' date='Jun 3 2011, 03:22 PM']Get back to your wax cylinders and 78s daddio [/quote] Careful, sunshine. I haven't bought anything but downloads for over 10 months now.

Rock turns to pyramid selling.

Why interview a pianist about a bass player when you can interview a bass player? GS is not someone I have heard much of so its not a dig at him. Just thought someone who played the same instrument would offer insights. To be fair, JP was a composer also so that may be the rationale.

I guess another way of thinking about it relates to the key signature. The signature tells you which notes in the song's key are sharp or which notes are flat. A key signature can't tell you that a note is both. So, in the key of D, you would have two sharps, C and F. Whereas, in the key of Ab you would have 4 flats Ab, Bb, Db and Eb. If you did the key signature of D as flats, you would have both a D natural and a Db and also both a G and Gb so a key signature would be impossible.

Why is Mr S (my editor, by the way) interviewing Gwilym and not someone like Al Dankworth, Lol Cottle or even Guy Pratt? Seems a wasted opportunity to me.