EliasMooseblaster

...aaaand in case you enjoyed that first single, the rest of the EP is released today! The whole thing is up at [url="http://cherrywhite.bandcamp.com/album/staring-at-the-sun"]http://cherrywhite.bandcamp.com/album/staring-at-the-sun[/url] and I'd love to know what you all think of it. Cheers!

Fantastic! We'll be on hiatus for June as our singer's away, but from July onwards I'll be looking to get us busy again - PM on its way!

Hi folks - very sorry, but it looks like I shall have to pull out of this one. I've had a job interview sprung on me for the day after, which is going to require me to fly out on the evening of the 14th. I'll be sure to try and get along to whichever bash occurs next within reach of London transport - hope y'all have a good one!

[quote name='Bilbo' timestamp='1433509815' post='2791704'] Jaco is barely a Jazz player at all. He does make a contribution to Jazz on one level but is nowhere near hardcore and it would be wrong to call him a pioneer in Jazz. Fusion, yes absolutely. Funk maybe. 'Electric bass' definitely. In Jazz terms, however, he is certainly not a pioneer in any real sense. You would need to look at double bass players for that. The received wisdom says guys like John Kirby (first band leading bassist), Walter Page/Wellman Braud (started 'walking' with Ellington), Slam Stewart (early bowing solos), Jimmy Blanton (first 'soloist' in a mainstream band), Ray Brown, Oscar Pettiford, \\\\\\\red Callender, Charles Mingus, Paul Chambers then guys like Gary Peacock, Scott LaFaro, Charlile Haden (Free Jazz). Jazz bass without Jaco wouldn't look much different whilst pop without Jamerson would be unrecognisable. [/quote] Does Jazz have a pioneering electric bassist? My obvious suggestion would be Monk Montgomery, but then I really can't think of very many bass guitarists who play 'true' Jazz! (i.e., as opposed to some flavour of Jazz-influenced Fusion/Funk)

Good stuff, I enjoyed those! Really nice groove on 'What Kind of Woman...' (Are Black & Blue looking to start gigging in the next few months? I'm really keen to bring Cherry White up to Manchester so it'd be really useful to know some bands in a similar vein to our own. Don't suppose I can interest you in collaborating on a show some time?)

[quote name='toneknob' timestamp='1433341541' post='2790268'] What a fantastic song though. Never got the hang of 8-strings. I had a Shergold double 4/8 (search around basschat enough, you'll see it a few times) and found it difficult to play. The set up was EeAaDdGg, octave strings in the lower (physically speaking) position. [/quote] I've often wondered if this arrangement makes more sense if you play fingerstyle. I think the logic behind the other setup (eE aA dD gG) was that if you played with a pick, you'd strike the octave strings first on the downstroke - so if you played with your fingers, you'd strike the bass strings first. On the other hand, it's probably easier to fret the octave strings if you can see them on top of the bass strings!

[quote name='Hobbayne' timestamp='1433318929' post='2789953'] Hmm! How are they strung? Is it Ee Aa Dd Gg?? [/quote] Typically, yes - well, actually eE aA dD gG if I were to be pedantic, as they're normally strung with the octave string towards the bass side! (I think Rickenbacker made some with the stringing reversed.) Not to say that you can't experiment with the tunings: I'm led to believe Chris Squire experimented with octaves on the E and A sets, and open fifths on the D and G.

They're a bit of a rarity, certainly. I wrote a long, rambling review of my Hagstrom eight-string recently: https://thecrowfrombelow.wordpress.com/2015/05/26/gear-review-4-hagstrm-hb-8/ - first, and possibly only, eight-string I've seen in the flesh!

Cheers, fellers - glad you enjoyed it!

[quote name='BruceBass3901' timestamp='1433241548' post='2789201'] Are there going to be any physical copies? Or just digital download? [/quote] I don't think we're going to do physical copies of the single, but we should be ordering the first batch of CD copies of the whole EP very soon! I might post a link to order when those arrive. [quote name='Roland Rock' timestamp='1433242009' post='2789206'] I like that. Nice dynamics - very Zepplinesque. Well shot video too. Great stuff [/quote] Cheers, glad you like it! (Perhaps one day, when I'm feeling brave, I might give away a few of the secrets about the shoestring budget on which we shot it...)

Ta very kindly - glad you enjoyed it! The full EP is due out next week.

"Selling as I've finally got round to buying a proper scratching post for my pet leopard."

[i]Drifter[/i] by Cherry White [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bp7UAvkMf64[/media] This is the first single to be released from [i]Staring at the Sun[/i], an EP that we crowdfunded at the end of last year, with the help of a few BCers, among others. It's currently available on Bandcamp: [url="http://cherrywhite.bandcamp.com/"]http://cherrywhite.bandcamp.com/[/url] Still waiting for iTunes, [s]Amazon[/s], etc links to go live, but I'll pop those in here when I get them. Hope you enjoy it! [b]Update: Some delay with iTunes for reasons we can't quite fathom, but it's come through on Amazon![/b] [b]http://www.amazon.co.uk/Drifter/dp/B00YIWJLEM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1433155665&sr=8-1&keywords=cherry+white+drifter[/b]

[quote name='Bilbo' timestamp='1432635299' post='2783358'] There is another issue at stake here, something that is hard to talk about without offending people; I am talking about respect for the music. Now I understand that I am on seriously dodgy ground here but, some years ago, a drummer friend and I decided we needed to start a Jazz venture locally so we could bring some decent quality Jazz to the area. We found a sympathetic landlord etc and set up our little thing here www.jazzeast.vpweb.co.uk The reason I am posting this in this thread was to explain [i]why[/i] we did it. There were/are a massive number of acts/bands/artists in our area who were listed as or presenting themselves as 'Jazz' at a time when 'Jazz' has little or no media presence. We were aware that. locally, there were a growing number of these 'Jazz' acts/bands/artists and venues putting on 'Jazz' acts/bands/artists that had no idea what 'Jazz' was and was not and certainly struggled to actually [i]play[/i] it. I am not splitting hairs over semantics here; the stuff that was being presented was both poorly produced, poorly presented and VERY poorly played (try a Jazz sextet that used a drum machine that just went tsss, ut tu tssssss, ut tu tsssssss, ut tu tssssssss all night? Duos that comprise a singer and guitarist wearing a suit and using a 'Jazz' guitar whilst playing pop songs - it was even bad pop, never mind bad 'Jazz' - all first position chords, no concept of solo 'Jazz' guitar playing - just painful to watch). Now, we could have lived with that as there are always s*** bands etc but the problem was that these s*** so called 'Jazz' bands were the ONLY 'Jazz' bands available for audiences to hear and the absence of any credible alternatives meant that anyone who wanted to see/hear 'Jazz' for the first time was being presented with some pretty grim stuff and would have most likley been put off it for life (one musician friend reported saw audience members actually [i]laughing[/i] at the material being presented). One of my biggest gripes is people who sing songs from the Great American Songbook and call it 'Jazz'. They may be great songs that might even be sung quite well but that doesn't make them Jazz, just songs that are/may be associated with 'Jazz' artists like Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald etc. Some even use backing tapes, FFS. How can it be 'Jazz' with backing tapes and machines? I am not just being precious about my favourite genre and being all pretentious; the stuff I am discussing is just not 'Jazz' in any way shape or form. I guess what I am saying is that, if anyone is going to put live music on, as a performer or as a venue, they should have sufficient respect for the music [i]and for the audience[/i] to ensure that what is presented has some degree of merit. Our view was that poorly presented 'Jazz', and this stuff was [i]poor[/i], was actually doling more [i]harm[/i] to the music than not having it available at all. We did something about it and are having some success but it's hard work fighting these bizarre Frankenjazzers!! I know I am coming over as a Jazz nazi/snob but this stuff was grim, really grim (and they are still out there, s***ing on the music). [/quote] I think you have a very important point, and a noble ambition. As Mykesbass's blog post suggested a few weeks ago, I often see evidence of a similar risk with Blues as a genre. The risk manifests itself differently, of course - I've also been infuriated by the number of cynical sheisters who think they can pass off anything with a slight swing to it as "Jazz" (maybe Duke's classic should be updated to "It Is A Necessary But Not Sufficient Condition For It To Have That Swing") - but I'm sure we've all seen the "blues band" who are clearly just a vehicle for a guitarist to musically masturbate over. I am somewhat relieved to say that at least in London, for every unimaginative cutout "blues" band, I've seen a couple who put some thought into their set and did more than just flog a dead horse over a 12 bars turnaround. In any case, I fully sympathise!

[quote name='RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE' timestamp='1432757852' post='2784748'] Yeah, it's gone very cliched and formula now . Individuality gone out the window . [/quote] I don't know a great deal about the subject, but I get the impression that the minute a band does something different, which deviates from the formula, they suddenly get labelled as a complete different sub-type of metal, and an entire subgenre springs up based around the one thing they've done differently...

I'm somewhere between 2 and 3 on that list. The bass has always been, and probably always will be, my main instrument, but when I was about 16/17, my younger sister took an interest in the drums. We bought a kit from one of my friends, who had long since given up to focus on his guitar playing...at which point I had to sit down at the thing and work out how to play it, in order that I could teach her what to do. So definitely more of a bedroom drummer, but I've managed to get up at a couple of jam nights and bash the kit without embarrassing myself too much. No two ways about it, once you can relax behind the kit then the drums are great fun.

Option 3 seemed like the closest description to my current state of GAS. Currently I have no desire to buy another bass...that said, if I were to come into a large amount of money, I might be tempted to, say, - Get a backup Thunderbird - Get a genuine MIA Std Precision - Upgrade to a sw***ier fretless - Upgrade my cab(s) - Try a few longer-scale 8-strings and see how they compare to my short-scale or, ultimately - commission the strange SG/T-bird hybrid that I've been mulling over for a while. But ultimately, I'm more than happy with what I already have. Honest.

[quote name='TheGreek' timestamp='1432395091' post='2781136'] The venue we use for The Herts Bash has about 5 drum kits - people's Mum's donating them - and I thought playing Bass upset the neighbours. [/quote] I'll bring my sticks if we're allowed to use one of them!

[quote name='Muzz' timestamp='1432305093' post='2780264'] I'm probably in a huge minority, but visually I just can't be arsed with them. That much more than the tones (and there are plenty in there, I agree) puts me off completely. [/quote] [quote name='ras52' timestamp='1432305441' post='2780270'] I feel your pain. I think I've narrowed my annoyance down to the metal control plate. That's why I've got a G&L JB-2. [/quote] For me, it's the offset body that I find off-putting. Certainly not a deal-breaker - I mean, I certainly wouldn't say no if somebody offered me a Jazz bass - but I just prefer the traditional Precision body. I actually think the separate control plate is a very handy idea, much more convenient than having to unscrew the entire scratchplate like I have to with my P clone!

Unless it's tuned using that screw sticking out of the bridge...which presumably also doubles up as a strap pin, making me wonder whether the string is therefore tuned by how high you wear the bass.

[quote name='TheGreek' timestamp='1432232797' post='2779565'] Always fancied being a drummer - well as a kid anyway - I could never figure out what to hit when though - dabbled with Saxophone for a few years but transposing is a real nightmare - no "just slide up the fretboard a bit" - you have to learn every scale for every key separately...in comparison playing bass is relatively easy [i](taking cover from incoming abuse..)[/i] [/quote] Plus we get to play in concert pitch - no extra level of thought when the bandleader says, "right, this one's in C," forces us to think, "ok, so that means I'm playing in A...oh no, crap, D, I'm playing tenor on this one!"

Good afternoon, BC, Cherry White's next outing will be back in my old hometown of Kingston upon Thames. As the thread title suggests, we'll be playing at [b]The Fighting Cocks [/b]on [b]Friday 29th May.[/b] Latest news is that the lineup will include (running order tbc): [b]Cherry White[/b] https://soundcloud.com/cherrywhitemusic [b]Subset[/b] [b]Rivals & Idols[/b] [b]Cute Cute Death[/b] The official FB event thing can be found at https://www.facebook.com/events/1605744903005388/ (More links to follow shortly!)

[quote name='tauzero' timestamp='1432067657' post='2777907'] And when does he expect this bid? [/quote] After a sudden wave of localised hyperinflation reduces the Pound Stirling to about the same value as the late Italian Lire.

[quote name='mazdah' timestamp='1431683078' post='2773883'] I would say: all valve! Ashdown LB30 or CTM30 with VS212 or 112 cab. This bass needs valves! [/quote] +1 I have a long-scale Epi SG - so a bit of a different beast, but it drives both my LB30 and my CTM100 rather nicely (going into a Laney 1x15). This assumes you're happy with a certain amount of thick valve grit, of course!

...and one from last Friday (15th May), taken at The Spice of Life (Soho) by somebody in the crowd [attachment=192204:SpiceOfLife.jpg]