Bilbo

Hey Mikey D - you an' me both. I started playing jazz on electric (fretless) in 1986 and am still a great believer in its potential in the jazz genre. Whilst you can't beat a double bass for sounding like a double bass, a properly placed electric bass sound can easily make something swing. I guess the question is what kind of swing is it. Paul Chambers and Charles Mingus 'swing' differently so why can't Steve Swallow (who is THE swingingest bass player ever to plug in) and Anthony Jackson? I think its all about where your bass sound sits in in the sonic spectrum and how it interacts with other instruments (primarily the drummers ride cymbal). I think it is important to work with your instrument AND your amp to make the sound work (I use a Wal Custom Fretless and an Eden Metro combo - I know the Gallien Kruger combo is popular for jazz but, for me, it doesn't fill the right sonic space to make the music swing. Most people use it because it doesn't weigh much not because it sounds right). The truth is if a musician wants to book a double bass player to fulfil his musical vision, s/he should do so. If, however, s/he prefers a double bass player who can't swing to an electric bass player who can, then it is for appearances only, s/he is an idiot and I don't really want to play with him anyway.

Used to play in a band with Grant Nicholas from Feeder and New York based producer Brian Sperber (at the same time). Used to sleep over at Grant's parents mansion cos I couldn't get a bus home after rehearsals. Have supported 'Kool & The Gang' at the Hammersmith Odeon and Dr. Feelgood at a festival in Suffolk, Have played jazz with Stan Sultzman, Jim Mullen, Iain Ballamy, Roy Williams, Janusz Carmello, Hank Shaw, Osian Roberts, Dylan Fowler, Nick Page, Stuart Curtis and a load more. Am now in Bridget Metcalfe's band (Half Moon in Putney - Friday 19th October - be there or don't, see if I care) Also played in a jazz Quintet with Osian and and a trumpeter called Ceiri Torjussen who is now working as orchestrator for major Hollywood blockbusters like Blade 2, Day After Tomorrow, Die Hard 4, Terminator 3, Hellboy etc. Jammed with Richie Haywood (Little Feat) and Gary Moore's drummer (can't remember his name), recorded with NWOBHM band No Quarter and blues man Andy Fernbach (Blues In a Hotel Room). Shared a stage with Ronald Lacey (the Gestapo nazi in Raiders of the Lost Ark). Once saw Dr. Legg from Eastenders on a tube station. Saw Eddie Yates in Cardiff once. Erm. Can I go now?

I think its a little more complicated than one or the other. When you are playing lines that cross strings, you will sometimes need to play with alternate fingers on you right (playing) hand and sometimes rake. I like to compare it to a drummer: sometimes you just need a paradiddle to change priorities on your alternating hand. The issue is that you need to be ready to play the next note wherever you are. Sometimes this is easier than others. My suggested exercise is to take some short sixteenth note passages, two bars or so, and play them starting on different fingers. Then you will develop insight into which fingering patterns need work. A great line for practising this is Darryl Jones main riff on John Scofield's 'Techno' (off the CD 'Still Warm').

Hey, Dickens, why is your sound SOOOOO bad?

Geddy Lee refers briefly to Ipanema on 'Rush In Rio' - to be fair, his quote is ironic so perfect execution was never the priority but the point is made. I knwo what is being said about Jaco's stuff - obviously the tunes are composed but the lines are improvised on the basis of familiarity with the groove, teh form, the intentions etc. My point is simply that constructing your own lines is very different to learning someone elses and that learning the lines played by others can take a lot longer because you are simultaneously learning to absorb a range of new techniques, scales, fingering patterns etc whilst also learning the piece. I caution against learning stuff by people like Wooten. He is a supreme athelete and can groove like a Mother but the juggling and acrobatics he achieves on his bass are not that significant when you look at the music being played. It is entertainment not music (and, yes, there is a difference). A technically wizzy rendering of Amazing Grace is still only Amazing Grace, a cheesy hymn written by Englishman John Newton in 1772. I'd rather listen to it played a 1,000 other ways.

But seriously, learning to read takes you to places you would otherwise not go and it is by far the most marketable skill you can have as a player - read and you will work. Start with walking bass lines and, over the next decade expand into more sophisticated stuff like saxophone solos etc. If you can read, you can work almost anywhere and do it quickly. Best thing you could ever work on and progress, whilst slow, is its own inspiration.

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'A Remark You Made' by Weather Report and the rest of the 1976 WR CD 'Heavy Weather'. Jaco's definitive moment with that band and an LP that changed the way we heard the bass forever. 'A Remark You Made' is actually quite easy to play and should sound convincing quite quickly so its a good place to start. Percy Jones plays great fretless but his style is so personal it is very hard to relate it to things outside of Brand X. Very creative, tho'. There are a few great Joni Mitchell CDs with Jaco on called 'Shadows & Light', 'Hejira' and 'Mingus'; fantastic use of space and text book melodic fretless bass playing. The fretless bass is an infintely more expressive instrument than a fretted one. I rarely play fretted since I got a Wal Custom in 1986. Can't get past the clanky sound of metal on metal instead of metal on wood. I hope you learn to love it as much as I have.

I think there is a point to be made here. Many of these monster bass lines/solos are played by people in an improvised setting. Take Jaco's 'Havona'. He didn't have to 'learn' that bass line as he had constructed his lines around the tunes he had written and used a couple of dozen of his own stock licks. Anyone who has spent any length of time listening to Jaco will know that he, like all musicians, repeats himself over and over, using his own signature licks to leave his mark on a piece. But it is important to note that much of what he does is made up on the spot ('Teen Town' being an obvious exception). It is actually a [b]lot[/b] harder to learn a passage that is played like that than it is to burn one of your own. In a more conventional setting, someone like Bruce Foxton would have written a line that felt comfortable under his fingers and that he could play without too much difficulty. Noone in their right mind would compose a complex line for a song that he could pull off only 3/10 times. Someone once said 'amateurs practice until they get it right. Professionals practice until they can't get it wrong'. Geddy Lee plays that solo lick off 'YYZ' perfectly everytime. It can't be hard for him as a, he wrote it and b, he has played it 200 times a year ever since. But have you heard him crucify 'Girl From Ipanema'? Easiest song in the world and he f***s it up! Francis Prestia is known as THE finger style funk player but that's all he does. He can barely put together a jazz bass solo, probably can't play a fretless in tune and definately can't read music. It is more important to play musically and to your strengths than it is to be able to execute every great line you have ever heard. Work on your technique, yes, but learn to play the music not the musicians! And don't get dispondent you can't pull off 'Red Right Returning' by Michael Manring. He probably can't play 'Ace of Spades' like Lemmy either (can you?).