Bilbo

[quote name='BassMunkee' post='339652' date='Nov 28 2008, 02:41 PM']Snigger. You are on a cold and lonely path in The Misty Mountains. You go East. Gollum appears. "What has it got in it's pockets?" You go North.[/quote] My and Golly (as I call him) go back a long way. Apparently he hates me forever. He hasn't seen me for ages

[quote name='Adrenochrome' post='339659' date='Nov 28 2008, 02:45 PM']Bilbo, could you do less hours in your day job and do more music? It's something I wouldn't mind doing when I'm a bit older.[/quote] That's being considered as we speak but my fear is that I would lose the income and NOT spend the time doing music but keeping the house cleaning and laundry more up to date and 'doing those little jobs around the house'! If my book gets published, other doors may open!

The kid's only 19 and is in a hole he can't get out of. I couldn't find my own a*** with both hands when I was 19. Leave him alone to lick his wounds. Pathologising him will make it worse not better. He has to make peace with his own conscience before he can move on and berating him in public will only slow that process down.

I did a great jazz gig on Wednesday and had to drive the singer there because her partner (the drummer) had to go there directly from work (teaching). Both Andi and Alex are university trained pros whilst I am a self-taught semi-pro. The conversation got round to gigs and it transpires that I do more than both of them. When I think that through, it feels good. I earn nearly £40k in my day job (+ pension, holiday and sick pay) and all the gigs I do are on top of that, some function work but mostly small group jazz. I get VERY frustrated at not being able to play, study and compose music every second of every day but that is not actually a money thing because, if I could compose what I would like to compose, its market value wouldn't necessarily generate a great deal of income. I think that point is that, if you are going to be a pro, it is like any other small business. You have to be nice to customers, smile when they are being complete t***ers, deliver the product they want when they want it. You do your accounts, offset your expenses, save your tax, do the Math. If it works (as it does for Jake), then that's fab. If it doesn't, you have decisions to make. What are you, as a small business(wo)man going to do about it?: rebrand, change your product line, train and develop, regroup? Or just sell up and go get a proper job? If you treat it as a business and offer the same commitment to it as any small businessperson should, you will see rewards. Whether they are enough is up to you. There has always been a sense that being a muso was a way to get to Oz and that the streets there were paved with gold. They are if you are lucky but only in a 'right place at the right time' 'lottery win' kind of way. In my experience, you get the breaks if you are ready for them and able to commit. In a round about way, I could have been in Feeder and had a career as a Rock god (!?) but when Grant went to London to make his fortune, I chose to stay where I was in a secure day job and get a mortgage. There are days when I wish I could be playing the O2 but I can't help remembering that Jon Lee topped himself so, whatever the glamour suggests, it can't all be roses!! Life is not about one choice and one path. We are all on several paths at once. I don't know Jake at all but, from the contact I have had with him, I think his attitude to life is great. He will be happy because it is in his nature to be. Whether he plays or teaches or both, he will be happy because he will make his decisions with integrity and conducts himself accordingly. My decision, as a musician, is to try to play music I like as much as I can. My approach to music is as an artist not as a businessman (my abilities as an artist are deeply questionable but my intent is honourable) and, for me, the music is its own reward (I got less than expenses for the jazz gig on Wednesday but it was the best gig I have done all year). How we feel about what we do is determined by a range of factors and being either pro or semi pro is actually only a tiny part of that.

[quote name='Spoombung' post='339411' date='Nov 28 2008, 11:17 AM']Ah, well, I also said I [url="http://spoombung.livejournal.com/45870.html"]have difficulties with Jazz Rock[/url]! I notice you're from Felixstowe (I'm from Ipswich) and you're probably around the same age as me - so you might remember the band '[i]Fusion[/i]' featuring the young Nick Kershaw - which I've alluded to in the above link...?[/quote] Heard of them but I have only been here about 5 years so they were well before my time. When did you leave Ipwich?

Intro to Sweet Child of Mine by Guns and Roses.

Jeff Berlin vs. Percy Jones? Couldn't listen to either of them now for more than 15 minutes (in total, not each, for the sake of clarity)! Its great bass playing and a great spectacle but emotionally flat music (back to that thing about great bass lines not making music better). Jones had a really original concept going but the music he plays just doesn't do anything for me. At all. And as for Jeff - I wanna like your stuff, mate, but where's the soul?

I'm with Jake on this one (despite being a jazz bass player who regularly gets accused of noodling over everything (grrrr))! There is no such thing as a boring bass line, just a boring song. If you and your drummer lock in and just play 180 bars of A with the greatest groove in the history of rhythm sections, trust me, you will not be bored! I have said it before here but I think the highlight of Billy Sheehan's career is 'Ladies Night In Buffalo', a straight pedal note but what a groove! All the tapping stuff all over 'Eat Em And Smile' is very athletic and head-turning but, musically, that pedal was perfect! The world is full of 'boring' bass lines that are EXACTLY the right thing for the song. An interesting bass-line won't 'make' a song (I think half of James Jamerson's best work is wasted on Motown bubblegum - polishing turds, I think they call it). What will make your lines more interesting is studying music not bass. PS you can do both at the same time!

If it needs to go by boat, I am at Felixstowe so can stand on Landguard beach where the docks are and watch the ship sail over the horizon, just to make sure no Somali pirates hijack it for its precious cargo (Evil Ted can ride shotgun). If it helps...

Had a rhythm section gig at High Barn in Great Bardfield, Essex, last night backing jazz vocalists Sarah Mitra and Andi Hopgood. Bloomin' marvelous - great sound, great players, attentive audience - one of the best gigs of 2008 (and this has been my busiest year ever). It was of those rare gigs when putting a touch of vibrato on a note actually mattered!

I guess different is not good enough!!

This is always been a contentious issue for me. I have tried several pedals on and off but, to date, I have never found one that makes the bass sound better than a bass straight through an amp. Different, yes, but not better.

Just getting into Chris Potter's 'Gratitude'.

It's a bass that does what you need a bass to do when you need it to do it. That's all you can ask of an instrument, isn't it.

[quote name='jakesbass' post='335092' date='Nov 23 2008, 07:19 PM']A very good drummer friend of mine had a buyout session for which he was paid £300. The album sold 15million copies in America.[/quote] Paul Chambers got about $350 for 'Kind Of Blue', it has sold over 3 million copies. In fact, all those classic Blue Notes were done for scale. Gil Evans recorded one LP and. unitl the day he died, he still OWED the label money for the session! That's JAAAAAAAAAAAAAAZzzzz!

[quote name='ARGH' post='335341' date='Nov 24 2008, 10:45 AM']Is it just me Bilbo,But they 'feel'....they induce confidence?[/quote] I do know what you mean. I sometimes think that, for me, a heavy bass gives an sense of quality and commitment (bit like the 'clunk' of a heavy car door). I have never actually considered the Wal to be a partucularly heavy bass but, at 6' 1'' and 16 stone, I guess that this is relative!

In about 1998, I was asked to do a rehearsal with a jazz gtr/bs/dr trio in Epsom, Surrey. I had met the drummer before but not the guitar player. I got there first and set my gear up and put my Wal Custom fretless on its stand and sat down to wait the arrival of said guitarist. The chap arrived and walked into the room with his guitar over his shoulder, carrying his amp, but, before putting them down, he walked over to my Wal and peered closely at it. 'I think I made that' he said. It was Paul Herman (I later did a duo gig with him and think he is a really nice player). It turned out that he hadn't and Pete Stevens had made it but it was a great moment. Paul did some cosmetic work on mt bass around that time and reset the intonation - that's twice it has been done in 22 years! I think that post about a bass that lets you 'sound like you' really says it all. When I got mine in 1986 (£760 from Monkey Business), I was still young enough to be trying every bass I came across at shops and music fayres etc and this one stood out big time. The quality of the build was high and the evenness of the sound remarkable, It had a rich, warm sound (at a time when lots of basses were very 'zingy' - Status, Jaydee etc) and I used to say it sounded like wood and not electric circuits. My 'industry standard' sound at the time was Jack Bruce on Cozy Powell's 'Over The Top'. a real traditional 'bass' sound not that Mark King/Stanley Clarke rattle/twang and the Wal delivered. More to the point, it delivers everything. I have had other basses since (Washburn and Status) but they always stayed on theie stands and rarely got out. I haven't gigged another bass in years and find that whether I am playing funk, Latin, pop, rock or jazz, the Wal is on the money, 110%. Why would I need another bass? My only GAS is for a 5-string Wal fretless but I never have the money so I will have to wait for a rich relative to die before I can resolve that one!

Solid song writing, solid professional perfofrmances from all concerned (except the cameraman!). A good set, karl. Well done.

[quote name='chris_b' post='333911' date='Nov 21 2008, 03:23 PM']Alzheimer’s?[/quote] Nope - LP, CD and Enhanced CD/DVD (wanted to see the KoB DVD - disappointing!!). I gave the original cd away in a moment of evangelism! The curse of being born before CDs were invented is that you have this overwhelming need to 'up-grade' big chunks of your vinyl collection! Other up-grades include Yes, ZZ Top, Genesis, Weather Report, Pat Metheny (Bright Size Life), Jaco (Word of Mouth and Jaco), a couple of early John Scofield recordings.... the list is growing!!

[quote name='mcgraham' post='333888' date='Nov 21 2008, 02:52 PM']They had a coffee table style Limited (Re)edition of it too. It had a coffee table stylee book, numerous CD's, associated bumf, AND what appeared to be a 'blue' vinyl LP still in its original sleeve/jacket. I assume these are being distributed with these packs as New Old Stick collector edition vinyls. Mark[/quote] This fella, I assume [url="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Miles-Davis-Kind-Anniversary-Collectors/dp/B001D08SK0/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1227279325&sr=8-2"]http://www.amazon.co.uk/Miles-Davis-Kind-A...9325&sr=8-2[/url] I have all of its constituent parts so have no need to buy it but, for a completist, it is good value (the Robert Herridge DVD has some lovely Davis/Gil Evans and some of the best video footage of Paul Chambers that is out there. The Kind Of Blue DVD with all the names on it got my back up because the only mention Chambers got was one reference to say that he was on it - nothing about the absolutely crucial contribution that he made to the integrity of the sextet's performances).

[quote name='mcgraham' post='333882' date='Nov 21 2008, 02:47 PM']Sorry Bilbo, I'm not meaning to put it down. I'm just not in the mood for it at the moment. Nothing wrong with the music, but right now it's not what I'm after, so I didn't get it. Simple as that really. I'll get it eventually don't worry Mark[/quote] I have bought it three times!!

[quote name='mcgraham' post='333848' date='Nov 21 2008, 02:09 PM']I was tempted to get Miles Davis - Kind of Blue, I wanted something with a groove, something with a pulse[/quote] And your problem is? I keep meaning to send you some more Latin stuff but my CD reader has been kernackered and I couldn't get the stuff MP3'd and fit for travel. I just got a new usb cd burner so I will have another try... As for me, this month's purchases are; Joshua Redman - Moodswing Lee Morgan - The Cooker Abbey Lincoln - That's Him Red Garland - Groovy (all three for my Paul Chambers research) Ohad Talmor - The Other Quartet - Sound Stains Stravinsky - Rite of Spring (upgrading from vinyl) Dave Grusin - West Side Story (replacing a lost gem)

Prejudice - an unfavourable opinion formed beforehand without knowledge, thought or reason. I am not arguing with the accuracy of the original post but I do regret the fact that bass solos as a phenonmenon are judged on the basis of the worst examples and not the best. The reality is that most people have never heard a bass solo so, when they hear one, they don't know what to do with it! Personally, my favourite definition is the bass solo is 'the bit you can't hear in the car'.