Bilbo

You don't have to move around like a lunatic in order to engage and audience. It can, in fact, be wholly incongruent. Where jazz is concerned, accuracy is more important because you are trying to form and execute ideas simultaneously, unlike most popular genres where all you are doing on gigs is reproducing well rehearsed set pieces. Yes, I accept you are being paid to entertain; that is why most bands with top names like Kylie or Take That are actually hidden from the audience. But, in jazz at least, it is the music that matters not the musicians! Engaging the audience doesn't require lighter fuel or a seizure....

Just bought two GK MBX112s off synaesthesia. All went well. items were a bargain, as described, well packed on posting, sent quickly etc. All round satisfied customer. Recommended as wholly reliable.

[quote name='doctorbass' post='108761' date='Dec 24 2007, 01:56 AM']Otford July 07 opening for Limehouse Lizzy[/quote] [i]Opening[/i] for a tribute bnad - now you really [i]have[/i] made it

Does anyone actually fall for those 'rock' poses anymore? I was watching someone on T4 earlier and they were staggering around looking drunk like the Stones do and I just thought 'thats a sixty year old pose'. I guess its all new to the kids?

Had them on the first gig (1980) and never again. Its all in the preparation. There's a saying 'Amateurs practice until they get it right. Professionals practice until they can't get it wrong'. Personally, and this is an instrument specific perspective, once you realise that noone would notice the bass player, visually or aurally, unless s/he actually caught fire, the edge is taken off it

Teen Town by Pastorius - I am sure I could play it when I was 17 but now, bluggered if I know why I can't nail the sucker (with hindsight, maybe I only THOUGHT I could do it at 17?).

Accuracy every tmie!

Trouble is, he is with McLaughlin who is one if the world's worst/most typewriter orientated players - clearly paid on a notes per second basis. Most players sound better away from him!

I can't look at the videos posted above as I am in work but what I have seen so far of HF is a bit like what I have seen of Matt Garrison. Technique is like acting - if you can see it happening, its not very good! I have a DVD of Garrison with Herbie Hancock and I really like what he is doing but I bought one if his CDs and found it a bit 'so what?'. The best playing, for me, is that which is fully integrated into good music. Jimmy Johnson, Anthony Jackson, Steve Swallow etc all excel as technicians without drawing attention to themselves. The showboating aspect of players can be a distraction. I will be seeking out some more Feraud before I express a definitive Bilbo opinion but, so far, the YouTube videos are not giving me what I look for.

I know - I love the fact that he is exactly the opposite if a stereotypical 'proper' jazz bass player but swings like a donkey's and has a creative, individual voice!!

You have a great eye for a bass, mate. Thse are all exceptionally beautiful instruments to look at. I always thought that the Ken Smith basses were the ugliest, uncoolest basses in the world and, whatever their sonic strengths, should be avoided at all costs. But these babies; I'd have any one of them in a flash... [url="http://www.pagelli.com/e/2instrum/bass_git005.html#"]http://www.pagelli.com/e/2instrum/bass_git005.html#[/url]

[quote name='Dan_Q' post='257596' date='Aug 7 2008, 09:17 PM']I mainly play indie stuff- REM to blur to joy division to the stone roses type things,[/quote] That is likely to change over time. Like when you hear proper jazz for the first time The thumb in the middle of the neck is a tried and tested method that facilitates better access theh neck. The other way is like running with a stone in your shoe; yes, you will get there but why would you do it if you didn't have to!

One Wal and a Status Energy 6 that I don't use. I have also previously owned a Hondo II Precision copy, Aria SB700 and a Washburn Headless (all 4 strings). I play the music and not the basses! I actually have more guitars: a Gibson ES175, an Adamus II six-string electro-acoustic, a Takamine CD132SC and an old Antoria that I have strung to a Nashville tuning.

Nope - anthropomorphication is for girls...

It was like 'Carrie'!!!

Blood On The Dancefloor!! The punters were dancing. The girls took their heels off. A punter dropped a glass and didn't tell anyone. The girls cut their feet to ribbons. The blood flowed. The ambulances came. The bride wore red. I can't believe the venue didn't stop the dancing and clear the dancefloor! I certainly hope they have public liability insurance!

YOU ARE SO RIGHT!!

One point worth mentioning in your work would relate to the number of musicians who double but who are repeatedly told to bring only their double bass to jazz gigs and those who play electric but take up the double bass only to be asked to bring the double bass to jazz gigs instead of the electric before they can even play it. I am a jazzer (did I mention that before?) who doesn't play upright. I KNOW that there is a prejudice and I do all I can to counter it and to prove these critics wrong. So far, I am reasonably successful but I still lose out loads of gigs to upright players, even those who are, frankly, quite weak. Have you spoken to Mike Mondesir? I can get you his number if it would help with your dissertation - I know he has strong opinions on this issue (and doesn't play the upright) and would be willing to talk to you.

[quote name='TKenrick' post='259563' date='Aug 10 2008, 09:49 PM']he's clearly still one of the top guys out there but his playing isn't really to my taste.[/quote] Stick with it, T. I used to think that but, as I have matured, I have begun to realise that his is one of the most inspired and musical concepts in contemporary bass. Try transcribing some of his stuff; you will begin to realise how sophisitcated he is as a musician. I have only seen him live once, with Paul Motian's Electrci Be-Bop Band (I wanted to do the Metheny/Burton thing but I have a rool - if there is a choice between watching or playing, I play. So I had a gig in Cambridge. Would have loved to be there. Hey, aj5string! What's your dissertation about?

The band footage is from the Scofield/Metheny 'I Can See Your House From Here' tour but there is a two part interview intermingled. I love the bit about having to 'eat your father'..... [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qizemaNdVG0"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qizemaNdVG0[/url]

Concepts for Bass Soloing - Marc Johnson

[quote name='Shaggy' post='42296' date='Aug 7 2007, 08:18 AM']+1 Tho the coolest bassist I ever saw was in a Cambridge Jazz club about twenty-five years back – big guy, big beard, big grin, biggest beer belly I’ve ever seen, fag stuck in the headstock (beat-up Fender Jazz of course), grooving along nicely.[/quote] Dill Katz?

[quote name='phil_the_bassist' post='258117' date='Aug 8 2008, 02:09 PM']I've recently persuaded my covers band to play MustSal, purely for the aformentioned cheesiness:D[/quote] Can the moderators exclude this guy...?

Depends how often you gig, whether you can dep some out, whether the gigs pay, whether you can get days off work to do the odd gig that clash with your shifts.... but, in a nutshell. yes it can be done.