Bilbo

Dave LaRue's bass part to the tune 'Busybodies' from the 2002 Steve Morse Band album, 'Split Decision'. If you like Bach, you'll love this. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/busybodies-steve-morse-band/

It works. Keep at it.

If I could play 'authentic' Brazilian (or Cuban) music with a full percussion section, I would drop the Jazz like a red hot brick Joao Bosco, Marissa Monte, Dori Caymmi, Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Hermeto Pascoal, Airto Moriera, Plora Purim, Roberta Sa....love it.

When I was a teenager, it became apparent to me that forming a band was impossible because there were never any singers available. I got into instrumental music and Jazz was only a short walk away. Since then, for much of the time, I find lyrics/singers a complete turn off. Even when I book them for my Jazz club, it is with a certain reluctance and simply to keep the punters happy. There are exceptions, many of them, Joni Mitchell being one obvious one but the reason I always loved Jon Anderson's lyrics was precisely because they sounded beautiful but didn't mean a thing (they were part of the music not words to understand). 99% of lyrics are inane bollocks, pseudo philosophy (as a Prog fan, I often wince at the 'meaning of life' content of some lyrics). Even Neil Peart can make me cringe ('as a hawk goes soaring by....') - some great lines but a lot of A level poetry.. I have to admit that the presence of a singer on a recording is often a deal breaker for me. I do have albums with singers of them but I generally prefer it when they don't.

Another Dave LaRue part, this is the complete transcription of the track 'Derailleur Gears' from the 2000 Steve Morse album, 'Major Impacts'. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/derailleur-gears-steve-morse/

John Wetton's complete (ly ridiculous) bass line from the track 'In The Dead Of Night' from the first U.K. album (1978) https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/in-the-dead-of-night-u-k/

Anthony Jackson's complete bass part to the bossa/samba tune 'Ritmo De La Noche' ('Rhythm Of The Night') from the the 1982 Al Di Meola album, 'Electric Rendezvous'. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/ritmo-de-la-noche-al-di-meola/

Another request from Talkbass, this is Alphonso Johnson's bass part from the tune 'Elegant People' from the 1976 Weather Report album 'Black Market'. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/elegant-people-weather-report/

A request that came through the website, this is a (nearly) complete transcription of Geddy Lee's bass part to the tune 'The Color Of Right' from the 1996 Rush album, 'Test For Echo'. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/the-color-of-right-rush/

Something that determines which pieces I attempt to transcribe is whether or not I can actually hear the bass part. It is astonishing really how often it is impossible to find a note or phrase simply because it is so low in the mix or masked by other details. I guess it shows how irrelevant a graphite nut is in terms of tone production. If you can't even hear a note, how can you hear the nuances of bass tone?

A request from Talkbass, this is the Alphonso Johnson's bass part from the tune 'Black Market' from the 1976 Weather Report album of the same name. I am not entirely satisfied with the transcription as there is a clash in the mix between Johnson's bass and Joe Zawinul's synth part. Johnson's bass is busier and more creative but it is sometimes rendered inaudible by what is going on around it. Not a complete transcription but a lot of it is there and you certainly get a sense that Johnson was the equal of his successor, something that I have thought since first hearing these albums at the time. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/black-market-weather-report/

I think there is something about context here, as others have already acknowledged. Being a busy player only matters when the player is allowed to improvise some or all of the parts required. If you were playing a Bach Cello Suite, there is no room for extra notes. If you are playing in a totally free setting, you have infinite options. In reality, most music is somewhere between these extremes. During most musical performances that require a degree of improvised playing (i.e. where a bass player is not playing a fully composed part), the musicians are engaged in some form of dialogue, with an element of call and response between the parties involved. The number of notes played is completely immaterial. It is the context that matters. Are the notes, be it 1 or 1000, congruent and logical. Do they fit? If they do, it won't sound 'busy'. If they don't, it will. Of course, objective taste does come into it but, broadly speaking, the question is why is it busy and does it work in the context of the performance.

A request that came in from the website today, Geddy Lee's complete bass part for the tune 'The Analog Kid' from the 1982 Rush album, 'Signals'. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/the-analog-kid-rush/

Another complete Dave LaRue transcription, this is the tune 'Zig Zags' from the 2004 Steve Morse Band album, 'Major Impacts 2'. Nothing death defying and lots of repetition so, once you have the gist of it, it's not too tough to perform. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/zig-zags-steve-morse-band/

Something easy for the new readers, a one page chart for the tune 'Across The Rubicon' by Dutch Prog band Silhouette. It is from the album of the same name which was released in 2012 and features Gerrit-Jan Bloemink on bass. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/across-the-rubicon-silhouette/

https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk

A quick chart to make up for the duplicate Richard Nolan transcription posted above. This is 1:24 of Cachao, the pioneering Cuban double bass player who resurfaced in the 1990s after being rediscovered by Andy Garcia. A simple chart but a nice introduction to Latin bass. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/al-fin-te-vi-israel-cachao-lopez-bass/

Have just done a trawl and, yes, I appear to have done it before about 18 months ago. No idea where it has gone as the first copy isn't in my documents files. No harm done - only my time wasted.

It wasn't in my index, Dave. It's perfectly possible. 😄

From the 1986 It Bites album, 'The Big Lad In The Windmill', this is a complete transcription of Richard Nolan's bass part for the tune 'I've Got You Eating Out Of My Hand'. Some really interesting tricks and turns and a great sound, I really love his playing on this album. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/ive-got-you-eating-out-of-my-hand-it-bites/

Unsurprisingly, the complete set of transcription pdfs of the Geddy Lee bass parts for the 1978 Rush classic, 'Hemispheres'. Be careful out there! https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/hemispheres-full-album-rush/

A final cut from the 1978 Rush album, 'Hemispheres', this is the classic 'The Trees' - a complete transcription. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/the-trees-rush/

Another one from a wasted childhood, this is the complete bass part for the first side of the Rush 'Hemispheres' album; 'Cygnus X-I: Book Two - Hemispheres'. Thanks to 'Transcribe' software and a YouTube 'isolated bass' video, I have got the bulk of it. There are a couple of passages that I am not entirely satisfied with but this will certainly get you where you want to be in terms of playing the damn thing. A real eye-opener, the transcription really gives you a sense of how strong a player Lee was at that time and how the tunes are put together by Canada's finest. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/cygnus-xi-book-ii-hemispheres-rush/