bassace

You’re playing a jazz gig, Miles, bebop and such. It’s riding along beautifully with an Art Blakey clone on drums. Then some derrière in the audience asks for Stranger on the Shore. Happens quite often.

Punters raising their voices, gosh. In the sixties fights were a regular feature in the halls and ballrooms. One venue was closed down because, as one guy wryly put it, there were too many dances during the fight.

What The Rev says. My Bryant scale length is 40.5” and my Martin 40” although, surprisingly, it looks easily the larger of the two. So go figure. Anything less than 40” has got to be a half size, I’d say.

I remember talking to the leader of a big band in the days before email or social meejah and he said that every gig required a minimum of 54 phone calls to put together.

That bass is quite something. For a laminate it’s got a great voice and Nick A said he’d never come across a lam that bows so well. A little bit of work, initially fingerboard reshoot and a decent endpin, and later new bridge and strings will turn this duckling into a swan. Truly a great bass in prospect.

Third from right is Simon, a local musician and friend of Bro Malvis. What a great day! Great shout for Bro M whose organisation was so laid back that I thought the whole thing was going to fall over before it even started, but I shouldn’t have worried. That man has mystical powers, it seems. And thanks, Owen, for some classy catering from the local Co Op. Truly an enjoyable day. What a great bunch, the BC DBers.

Do we have a list of those who will be coming? I will, and I’ll be picking up Bob (Staggering On) from his hotel in Bicester. He’s come over from Canada. So who else do we have?

Wow! I’d have come for just the food. Well done, you guys and gals.

I’ve always assumed it was a 1958 recording.

I’ve dusted off my Miles Davis Porgy and Bess CD. I urge anyone who hasn’t heard it - it’s 60 years old - should do so. It’s been described as Trumpet and Bass (Paul Chambers) with orchestral accompaniment but there’s a lot more to it than that, especially Philly Joe Jones’s drum fills.

In the early sixties we had ridden the trad boom and very soon our music would be pretty well totally eclipsed by rock. The four of us out of six lived in a series of Cheltenham flats or houses in Young Ones disorganisation. We read in the local paper that Gloucester’s Mayors Ball (Mayors had balls in those days!) couldn’t find a dance band. This gig was a big deal in those days, black tie, very formal. So we wrote to the organisers under The John Goodwin Ballroom Orchestra and offered to do the gig for a fat fee. Whether the organisers smelled a rat I don’t know but they wrote back ‘reluctantly’ accepting our offer but insisted that we provide continuous dance music for the duration, which I remember was in excess of four hours. We were a trad band so what was this dance music about? We’d have to do waltzes, quicksteps, Fox trots, old time and some ‘novelty’ stuff. Most of us could just about read but where could we find a library? As it happened a local band leader had recently died, so recently that the corpse probably wasn’t completely cold. But with the hubris that only the young have we went to see his grieving widow to express our condolences and, by the way, could we borrow his library? We drafted in a local baritone sax player and a pianist. So we were an eight piece dance band with a library. No time for a rehearsal but what could possibly go wrong? On the appointed day we formed up on the stage in Gloucester’s Guildhall and looked down on the Mayor his invited guests and all the assembled throng in their finery. We started the first number and the sound, nay noise, we produced was hideous, apalling, awful. Every few seconds the young piano player would emit a loud nervous laugh and, looking round, I could see all our faces were white, all the blood having drained. Anyway, we struggled through the first two hours with diminishing confidence and increasing disharmony until we left the piano and drums to it while the other six took a break and ‘fortified’ ourselves. We decided we were onto a complete loser and on our return to the stage we played a two hour Dixieland set. The hitherto rictus-set audience started to warm up and went crazy. What started as a mismatched disaster turned into a success. But it was a close thing, oh yes, very close.

I’ll do that.

I’ll do that.

They didn’t return my two calls, can’t be arsed. I have a contact in US who gets me the genuine article from Francis Deck. Wouldn’t be without it.

I had an MAS 45. As the Rev said it’s a great cab. Very much regret selling it on but didn’t have any specific use at the time. Probably the best cab I’d owned.

We took a trio to an old(ish) folks home in Oxford last night. Nice gig and they were very hospitable. Just after the interval the sax player knocked his glass over getting his alto off its stand. And when packing up I did my usual trick of forgetting to unplug my lead and dragging it across my glass. As someone remarked, the only incontinent people were the bloody band!

Looking forward to meeting you, Bob.

Grown ups? We’re bass players. You can’t have both.

Because we can?

I’ll bring my Bryant DB, FDeckHPF filter, Puma 500 amp and Genzler 10-2 Array Cab. Plus possibly my Kolstein Travel Busetto if there’s any interest. Ill try to get some jack-to-tailpiece clips if I’ve got any parts in stock. Looking forward.

There was a programme on the recording of Pet Sounds BBC4 last night. CK was spoken of very highly and it was great to see her at work and hear that great pick sound straight from the desk.

Have I said I’m coming? I’m sure I have previously. Anyway I’m coming with a double bass and some ampy stuff. Looking forward. I’ll do something about the beard.

I’ve never been an AI speaker fan, Rabbie. Probably my best, most versatile, Rig was a Clarus on top of a stack of 10” and 12” EA Wizzies. Nowadays my preferred amp is a Puma 500. But it’s not as versatile as a Clarus. If I need any extras they have to be outboards.

An Acoustic Image Clarus would do very nicely. In addition to the 48v phantom power and db eq/voicing it has HPF, phase reverse and notch. And power amp, of course.