Bilbo

Its not a bass. It's a Chapman Stick. Get over it.

Thanks for that, Garry. Looks live a marvelous site. Somewhere else to spend time when I should be doing 'more important' things!!

[quote name='The Funk' post='397948' date='Feb 2 2009, 03:10 PM']That's a good thing. It's being in the zone![/quote] Isn't that where the magic bass pixie makes it all happen?! You should know what you are doing all of the time. Anything else is a fortunate accident and shouldn't be an aspiration! 'The Zone' is the space where rational people suggest we can all go to justify why we can't play like people that work harder than we do. If your drummer had his eyes closed so he could concentrate and listen more effectively, then great. If he was looking for nirvana, them sack him . I fell asleep playing a tune once - just for a second, like when you are tired and driving (the bit before you pull over and throw up!!). In the zone my a***, I wasn't even in the venue!

You've got to be fully aware in order to play jazz properly. Count Basie called it 'total listening'. Its actually very hard to focus that intensely for whole sets. But that's where the art of it is. I guess its easier if you play a fretless instrument because you are listening closely all of the time in order to maintain your intonation. Noone said it would be easy.

I have mine up high because it rests on my gut. If I had it low, Icouldn't see it. Like my feet.

Serial solos! Anyone else up for it? Take an Aebersold MP3, import it into Cubase or similar, record your solo, export it as an MP3 and then post it here! Its like an old jam session cutting club. Just don't tell Jamey. He'll get the a**e

I've done a session with that trio, too. They speak very highly of you! All done in the best possible taste (with the worst possible phrasing)

I don't know Elling but that is really lovely. Thanks.

[quote name='Eight' post='396409' date='Jan 31 2009, 08:32 PM']Couldn't resist some pollution Edit: as soon as I can figure out how to post YouTube videos. LOL. [/quote] Sweetheart! They're playing our song :wub:

[quote name='Stickman' post='396902' date='Feb 1 2009, 03:17 PM']Hi Bilbo, any reason you need to go as far back as GCSE?[/quote] None atall. I just want to prove something to myself (a very old grudge ) and get something onto my CV at the same time.

[quote name='Golchen' post='395331' date='Jan 30 2009, 12:30 PM']You wrote the book then Bilbo??[/quote] No, I am still writing it. The publishing date is June 2010 so, despite my enthusaism for the project 'pre-contract', it has now got a bit scary (I've never done this before either). I now have to put up or shut up! They clearly liked the two chapters I already submitted and a third has been seen and liked by other parties so I am cool with that one too but I have 7 more to finish and limited time to finish them in. Hence the title of this thread. But, in the end, it is like eating an elephant. You take one bite at a time and chew.

[quote name='Balcro' post='395276' date='Jan 30 2009, 11:42 AM']Good on yer Bilbo. Is it going to be submitted to the jazz critics in the posh papers?[/quote] Probably - which is where it gets scary - people who are interested enough to look will probably know more about the subjects discussed than me and I could easily come out of this looking like a complete berk But what spurred me on was a colleague saying that the only thing worse than writing this book badly would be not to write it at all. Its a story that needs to be told and noone else is telling it so I thought I would. If someone says it is crap and writes a better one, then it has achieved its purpose!

[quote name='liamcapleton' post='395236' date='Jan 30 2009, 10:50 AM']It's all about the player in front of the music, not the music in front of the player.[/quote] Marvelous quote, Liam.

[quote name='OldGit' post='394940' date='Jan 29 2009, 09:04 PM']Hey fab! Well done that man. I hope there's a chapter of analysis of the styles of Paul Davis Vs Carole Kaye [/quote] Apparently, it was her on 'Kind Of Blue' [quote name='OldGit' post='394940' date='Jan 29 2009, 09:04 PM']Iain Ballamy caught me out a few years ago when I trotted off to see him and to eat the advertised food at our local nice restaurant/jazz venue only to find the advertised Food was the name of his band that week .. I hope my rumbling tum didn't detract from the music ...[/quote] I actually think Iain is one of the most exciting and creative players in the UK today - he is a true original. I played a set with him in Guildford about 10 years ago and it was a thrill for me (I suspect it was a bit less of an occasion for him). I was doing several gigs with his father, Mark, and Iain was there for Mark's birthday party and played. I had a brief chat with him afterwards and he gave me one piece of advice (really!). 'LEARN TO READ'!!

It seemed like a good idea at the time and now I am thinking... [url="http://www.equinoxpub.com/books/showbook.asp?bkid=395"]http://www.equinoxpub.com/books/showbook.asp?bkid=395[/url] Wish me luck; I'm going in! :

I am here to say something I have already said (more than once). The reading thing, for me, is less about getting reading gigs than it is about learning quicker and not having to retain stuff to be able to reproduce it. It is about being able to produce proper, accurate charts for other musicians and about wasting less time at rehearsals (which is more important as you get older and lifes gets more and more complicated). It is about wasting less time trying to learn by rote and studying scores to get the knowledge you are looking for (like the guy I knew who nailed a dep gig by listening to recordings on the way to the gig and writing out charts using his ears only). It is also a great way to explain stuff to students and to put together exercises for developing players at all levels. You don't do any of this instead of developing your ears; you do it AS WELL AS. In fact, it helps you develop your ears because, if you are reading, you need yours ears to tell you that you are playing the right notes at the right time and in tune, not your eyes to tell you your fingers are geographically in the right place (this is particularly important for fretless players). Readers aren't better than non-readers, they are just better than they probably would be if they couldn't read. If they have bad time, its because they have bad time, not because they can read.

He plays jazz, he plays jazz.....(sweating)...

[quote name='BigBeefChief' post='392864' date='Jan 27 2009, 04:14 PM']The film score dude?[/quote] Have you heard the Theme from Schindler's List? If that isn't great music, what is? There is a version of it on YouTube with Itzhal Perlman playing the solo. 4.14 of you life to see another way of moving people. Go on, you know you want to.....

[quote name='Cantdosleepy' post='391826' date='Jan 26 2009, 03:14 PM'][Complex jazz expert]'s music is, say Jodorowsky's Holy Mountain, compared to Spoon's Shotgun Stories. Simplicity if executed well can be staggering.[/quote] Totally agree - but when all you get is simplicity, it loses its impact. Just like the complex. Its all about tension and release, yin and yang, Scooby and Shaggy....

[quote name='Rich' post='391774' date='Jan 26 2009, 02:06 PM']Yes, and a hell of a lot of people play simple thuggish music for the unwashed masses, for fun. I used to be in a pub blues-rock trio and had a whale of a time. Loved it. And I love jazz too. Please tell me you weren't serious when you wrote that, Bilbo..?[/quote] Fun is massively overrated Ok, I might have milked it a bit for effect.... but the spirit of it is what matters!

[quote name='BigBeefChief' post='391757' date='Jan 26 2009, 01:56 PM']I think the truth is, if the masses started liking Jazz, Jazz fans would start hating it and move onto something even more obscure and pointless.[/quote] It'll never happen. One of the main facets that attracts people to jazz is its unpredictability. What keeps the great unwashed in the cess-pit of popular music is the exact opposite. What is mor epointless than another rendition of 'Mustang Sally'? [quote name='BigBeefChief' post='391757' date='Jan 26 2009, 01:56 PM']Keep music dumb I say.[/quote] Yes, I got that...

'Simple', thuggish music (in the broadest sense) started boring me about 28 years ago. 'Pub rock' is to music what Eastenders is to drama, American Pie is to cinema or Mills and Boon to Literature. Superficial, predicatable, uninspiring and little more than fodder designed to take money off the great unwashed. That's not to say that a simple piece of music cannot be beautiful (take 'Pan's Lullaby' from Pans Labyrinth). The main theme is beautiful and simple beyong belief but, because Javier Navarette is an educated musician, he can take this simple theme and weave a complex series of variations which reflect a range of moods. Same with Elgar's Enigma Variations - take two bars and make it work for 45 minutes. Forget the examples I use; wouldn't you like to be able to do that? My interest in theory stems from my admiration for those who have it and use it creatively. Mashing about with a guitar, in my experience as a listener, rarely produces anything of any remotely lasting value (bit like the infinte number of monkeys with an infinte number of typewriters metaphor). I look at these great composers and improvisers and think, 'how could I do that'? The answer, as I have said here before, is not going to come from the magical composing pixie who throws the magic pixie dust over me and turns me into 'The Maestro'. It will come from the acquisition and disciplined application of knowledge, experience and reflection. How pretentious is that? Well all I can say in answer to that is that, on a completely visceral level, I love it. Its fun, pleasurable, rewarding, exciting, stimulating, enthralling, absorbing, relaxing.....etc. tBBC calls it w*****y but isnt it that same perspective that assumes that because someone is talking a foreign language, one you do not understand, they are talking gibberish? Of course there is bad jazz out there, I play it myself as often as I can, but, like all other genres, in amongst the trial and error, there are nuggets of gold. If you like the more popular genres, these nuggets are regularly drawn to your attention. If your interests lie elsewhere, however, you have to find them yourself. Two free compilations from the Daily Mail ain't gonna do it! Personally, I dislike singers as a rule. Not because I don't like the human voice but because I have no interest in what most of them are saying. It is almost invariably something I have heard said before a miliion times, equally ineffectually. But I don't slag off all vocal music because it is self indulgent preaching, endlessly narcissistic or just plain boring. What appeals to jazz musicians and to its listeners isn't the w******, as it has been called here; its the idea that every tune you play is an new opportunity to create (not recreate), produce (not reproduce) and compose (not decompose ). I play music for fun. I am not a pro - I earned less than £6K from music last year - its no kind of living and as much a 'hobby' for me as it is for anyone else here. But people need to grasp the fact that, until the 20th Century, many of the great artists, composers and poets in history weren't professionals but passionate amateurs. I haven't done a reading gig in 4 years. I still say 'learn to read'; it helps you grow just like literacy does - its not just about reading Dickens and Shakespeare; sometimes its just about reading a bus timetable and getting to a job interview on time, or knowing which shop sells fish so you can feed your cat.

Firstly, try not to sound like a double bass - you need to fill similar sonic space to an upright rather than 'sound like' one. You need to swing, not to sound like a double bass. , Play near the neck not at the bridge. Get rid of the mids in your signal (top is ok, its the mids that make it sound, errr, 'electric'), lots of bass and treble on the eq but not too boomy or clanky. Use your ears to ensure that the bass sound sits underneath everything else and blends into the overall sound of the ensemble - like you know its there but noone can hear it except you. Or like noone knows your are there unless you stop. In truth, you are trying to achieve in one month what I have taken 10 years to achieve (and still haven't nailed). Good luck!

I've got a jazz gig tonight too. There can't be two jazz gigs in Europe on the same day. Are we playing together?

I think I saw it off Orford Ness on its way to Norway - I can call ahead and get them to return it if you want?