wombatboter

I watched this video years ago and I was deeply disappointed and even a bit angry because it was such a waste of time I thought it was a bad idea to give him the means to make a video since he has so little to offer.. His intonation is bad, his ideas are so average and he should have paid more attention on his playing than on the looks and the moves. It didn't me inspire at all and luckily I found other fretless players with better advice which made me play more..

I traded my Pedulla for Stephen's Wal bass... Excellent transaction, had the feeling that there was nothing to worry about and there was mutual trust.. Thanks a lot !

Some time ago I was at a jam-session over here in Belgium and someone brought Divinity in to jam along.. She jumped on stage in the middle of the groove which was in Eb (not the easiest thing to play on for bassplayers who are used to do their stuff in E). She had a five string Marcus Miller bass and started to play the groove and it sounded tight.After a while they gave her a sign that she could solo and to my surprise doing the same things which every local player would do : some safely slapped octaves and a nice groove..Actually she didn't have incredible technique and nothing speedy came out of her fingers.. After a while it actually sounded like everyone else except for the fact that there was this American self-esteem which took over.. It's tough to break through in the States and I had again the impression that it is very important to be very confident on stage and sell yourself if you want to make it there.. She's a fine bassplayer but I wasn't blown away.. I agree that you don't have to be a speed demon and show incredible stuff but most of the bass players in that room had the same impression..if it would have been a man it would be less striking. After her jam the local bass-player came back onto the stage and no one felt a big difference with Divinity...in fact I liked his groove more...but he's a quiet guy in the background.

There are no funk fingers involved... [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptmDZ5JiLf0"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptmDZ5JiLf0[/url]

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LXQYAphr0M&feature=player_embedded"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LXQYAphr0M&feature=player_embedded[/url]

Victor Wooten always inspires me...not that I'm anywhere in that region but just the idea that anything is possible.

I've read the book and listened to the music... He seems to be in the right place at the right time and obviously is the sort of chap you like to hang out with, there's nothing wrong with that... I quite like this bass-line.. [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ECpQFx2ALg"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ECpQFx2ALg[/url]

He's got an amazing double live-cd which is one of my favourite records ever... Went to see him live in concert twice and it was just so good...excellent musicians and finally someone who's still capable of writing and singing a song instead of making only grooves.. The cd "Hourglass" is also excellent...his music is so refined and never "vulgar". You can feel that he "takes care" of his songs. This is my favourite, features the great Jimmy Johnson [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vg2D714gn2w"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vg2D714gn2w[/url]

Nice !

Although Wal basses are just great I'm pretty sure that Karn could have taken any fretless and give that his signature sound.. I believe he played Travis Bean and Klein basses too so it was all in his fingers.

I'm really getting curious about this book so I'm going to order it... You can never underestimate the power of money and what it does to people... Reminds me of Andy Summers coming up with that great guitar-line on "Every breath you take" (which pretty much makes the song what it is in a way) and Sting still claiming that the song is completely his.. I used to be in a band with one person being the musical director giving cues during our gigs for instance...(he was paid 50 euros more each gig) He was replaced for one gig by someone else so the drummer counted of the songs instead of the musical director.. Later on I heard from the manager that the drummer went up to him and whispered : "I counted of the songs today so you can put the extra 50 on my account". There is a reason why I am a receptionist during the day... money does strange things to people and even in the "ideal" world of music it has become more important. A daily job helps me to stay away from sharing this mentality.

I couldn't agree more..great playing, tight groove and that P-sound is the ultimate goal.