Bilbo

Bob Moses - Love Everlasting

I was led to believe that Jaco used two Acoustic amps that were out of phase, causing a 'natural' chorus effect (as opposed to an electronic one). No idea of the veracity of that 'legend' but there you are. I find playing the strings lightly and turn the amp up gives you a better chance than playing hard. And, yes, nearer the fingerboard is best. Here's my take on it (di'd Wal Custom Fretless bass, ebony finger board, groundwound rotosounds) [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=42836&st=0&start=0"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=...t=0&start=0[/url]

Glad to have been of help.

I drove 17 miles to a gig once only to realise I had left my bass at home - I thought I had left it on the kerb so drove home in a panic to find it was still in the house. Sods Law, I had to cross the Severn Bridge twice as a result, costing me two tolls as well as the additional petrol!! Best one was driving 18 miles to a rehearsal to find I had propped my bass against the car before driving off. It fell over and lay in the car park outside my flat for most of an hour before I got back to recover it - still there, lying in the middle of the car park. The worst one was losing a GK MB150S and SWR Baby Blue cab from the back of a car. I had gone into Aust services for food and came back to see two oiks nicking the gear. The gutter was that there was someone in the car 'looking after' the gear. The bloke had fallen asleep and was lying down on the back seat. The thieves hadn't seen him and he thought it was us messing around so hadn't bothered to get up.

You are, of course, completely correct, cetera. Its an art/commerce argument. I like music as an art form and, by definition, reproducing someone else's art is not art but craft. I prefer artists to craftsmen primarily because, despite my aspirations, I am probably the latter rather than the former. I am rehearsing with a Kool and the Gang tribute act this Sunday

[quote name='Pete Academy' post='966008' date='Sep 23 2010, 07:48 PM']And Bilbo, as we have said before - you play jazz standards. ie. covers.[/quote] And I hate them too Always feels like the path of least resistance and the head solos head formula always sounds tired. Doesn't make tribute bands more attractive though.

No need. He can make a quick getaway in his Porsche.....

[quote name='bassbluestew' post='965475' date='Sep 23 2010, 12:13 PM']I played with Middle of the Road for a number of years[/quote] That's not a tribute band, tho'. Its the original, surely! Nowt wrong with an act capitalising on its own history. All of those bands have every right to do what they are still doing. Its the people who are pretending to be them that I have a problem with (even when I am doing it).

I am a bad Bilbo and must be punished... Lock me in a room with Bela Fleck playing Watermelon Man......

My problem is that the results just aren't worth the effort. Just because its hard, doesn't mean its good.

A club in Oxford street is going to be massively expensive in terms of rents etc. The venue is competing with high street retailers for a prime site in the primest location in the capital city. They had no chance and its to their credit that they held out for so long!! Its hardly the same pressures at the Dog and Duck in Ipswich. When I started playing jazz gigs, there was a venue in Cardiff that put jazz on six nights a week and twice on a Sunday. It stayed there for years before the brewery wanted them out. It wasn't that they were making a loss, it was that the profits weren't as high as they could be if the premises were used for something else (i.e. a theme pub). The gig moved to another venue and is still putting on jazz at least five nights a week - 20 years later. I had a mate who had a jazz residency in Newport which he had held (last count) for 14 years - it may still be going for all I know. There is a jazz quartet playing Centre Parcs in Thetford that has been there every Sunday 21 years. Its not about pulling crowds, its about pulling bigger crowds. It is not about [b]making [/b]a profit it is about [b]maximising[/b] a profit. My grievance is not about the thing itself (you can play in as many tribute bands as you like), it is about what is lost as a consequence of assuming that the market is as narrow as you think.

I always worry that, when I gig, both of the people in the world who can recognise the difference are going to be in the audience that nght and are going to laugh at me for playing in Gb not F#. Terrifies me.

I listened to a bit of that cd on emusic and it was exactly what I expected. An over processed and insipid sound playing tired old standards in a tired old way. What I heard of it is horrible (in the same way as the 4 cds I bought (ond subsequently sold on) of his were). I grew up listening to Jeff Berlin and loved his stuff with Bruford and Holdsworth. I liked his first two LPs (yes, I got them on vinyl) but I just find his more recent stuff just yucky. This standards cd is superficial and unengaging. The rock kids like his playing because it is fast and involves lots of notes. His presence on the jazz scene is limite because his playing is insensitive and, in many ways, unmusical. I want to like his stuff but I don't.

I hate tribute bands - not the people in them (I get the people need to make a living) but the fact thay they exist and what they are doing to music overall. I look at the listings for my local venues and they are full of tribute bands. It makes it so much harder for ordinary bands to get a gig. Theatres that should be presenting new and creative music are chock full of Pink Floyd tribute acts. The vital rock music I grew up with has been bastardised into some form of naff 'pretence'. Whenever I see a tribute band, I think of all of those 'James Gaway plays the Beatles' lps that used to do the rounds when I was a kid. Tribute bands are an extension of what made punk necessary in the 1970s. The drive for mainstream (financial) success leads to mediocrity, to all bands soounding the same in the same way that all orchestras sound the same (yes, I know they don't exactly sound the same but the repertoire is very narrow). 100 years from now, rock music will be a tired and uninspiring and played in dusty lofts to 'afficianados' who split hairs over every detail. Playing in one or behind a tribute act is the same thing.

Its the sequence that defines it, as skej21 says. If you work on the principle that you have to have a CDEFGAB in every scale F goes FGABbCDEF, whereas G goes GABCDEF#G as opposed to GABCDEGbG. If, say, the key of Db had sharps in, it would read DbEb[b]FF#[/b]G#A#CDb. It matters a lot more if you are reading to key signatures as having say a B and a Bb in a scale would mean every B woudl have an accidental which would make it harder to notate. Most rock music is written in E, A or D so its sharps whilst most sax orientated music is in Bb or Eb (generalisations I know) so its flats all around.

Or Gedo Musik's mid range basses (also Czech). Best to find someone to talk to, if you have no other reference. There must be someone in Glasgow? Teachers are generally willing to offer a first lesson to someone without a bass so they can get a handle on what its all about.

[quote name='Count Bassy' post='963752' date='Sep 21 2010, 08:27 PM']Plus lots (except that I don't slag off songs like Mustang Sally etc.). If only everyone took such a balanced view. PS: never played Mustang Sally in my life, but would given the chance.[/quote] I have a problem with reasonableness where music is concerned. It leads to mediocrity. Give me arrogant passion any day.

[quote name='dave_bass5' post='962384' date='Sep 20 2010, 04:47 PM']We play an extended version of Moondance at any gig where people are either ignoring us or eating etc. It passes the time.[/quote] Go to jail. Go directly to jail. Do not pass Go. Do not collect £200 An extended version on Moondance? That is a crime against humanity.

Fever, Moondance, Canteloupe Island, Watermelon Man, Song For My Father, Mercy, Mercy, Mercy.......

mmmm.... tough one.

I'm with Faithless. Bass solos are generally pretty dull compared to saxophone, trombone, trumpet, piano and guitar solos. Try Gerry Mulligan baritone sax solos, they are generally playable.

That Jarrett/Haden stuff is sublime. Proper jazz without that kind of macho competitiveness that marrs a lot of the music. Coincidently, I downloaded it yesterday (I have not had a chance to listen to it properly yet).

Yeah, it sounds like Ron (those slides at 2.38) and it certainly doesn't sound like Jack DeJohnette. I can hear something of the Gadd off Chhick Corea's Friends album but Gadd doing jazz is not something I am that familiar with - I heard him most with fusion bands..

[quote name='Faithless' post='958696' date='Sep 16 2010, 07:21 PM']Bilbo, don't get angry on me for Autumn Leaves, but it's just too musical.. And the band is just killing it - but what else would you expect from Gadd and Carter.. And that pedal point is nice too! Desmond's has been probably my favourite sax for a while, but this is just sick - that laid back vibe and sound is just what enslaves me.. Definetly the next one I'll be transcribing.. enjoy.[/quote] Bizarre video. A young Chet Atkins (1950s) playing with a 1970s Steve Gadd and a 1980s Ron Carter. Bit of a montage thing going on there. Are the players on the audio definately Gadd and Carter? Something is not right here.

Wiry little sucker, ain't he?