louisthebass

Remember buying this on CD when it came out - great album. The bassline is very Francis Rocco Prestia inspired.

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Sad news indeed as Licorice was there at the start of Rock & Roll in the 1950's. He was part of Marty Wilde's Wildcats who backed Eddie Cochran on his ill fated 1960 tour of the UK: Licorice and Brian Bennett with Eddie at the NME Poll Winners Show February 1960:

I used to have one of these, but definitely a "bass of two halves" for me. One good, one not so good. I really loved the sound of the MM p/up soloed. Downside for me was the balance - definitely neck heavy, even with lightweight tuners. The top horn being extended would have helped with that. Apart from that, it's a good bass, and you got that for a steal!

Like it - I've never been able to play with a pick...

Same here - learned a lot of his lines from The Jam records over the years.

Met Bruce at the 2013 LBGS on the Rotosound stand. Very humble guy, definitely not a "pop star".

Not for me I'm afraid, but if someone likes it that's fair enough...

Agree. I wonder if the "creative juices" just get lost in the need to churn out material to either keep the bank balance going, or to satisfy the record companies...

EC without a doubt, has been among one of the most influential musicians this country has produced in the last 50 odd years. The only problem is that a lot of his material post "461 Ocean Boulevard" has sounded pretty much the same. I think the only good album he did in that period was "From the Cradle", where he went back to his roots in the Blues. This is just my opinion, but his best work was with John Mayall, Cream, Blind Faith, and the Derek & the Dominoes period. And I have absolutely no idea who Phoebe Bridges is...

I haven't read all the thread, but this is my take on things; when (or if) things go back to the way they were, I suspect pubs will not really have the financial freedom to pay bands on the previously agreed figures. The most likely way a band will get anything close to "a fee" will be the old passing the hat / jug around, but as people's livelihoods have also been affected, there won't be a huge amount coming out of anyone's pocket. Like others, I feel that if you provide a service, you should get paid something, but I really miss playing live and doing rehearsals at the moment, so I would feel very tempted to literally play for nothing. Judging by the way things currently are, I'm not even looking at going back until 2022 now..

I still think this lady is one of the best Soul / R&B vocalists to come from the UK. Recorded in Muscle Shoals 1969; Barry Beckett (keys), Roger Hawkins (drums), David Hood (bass), Jimmy Johnson (guitar), Duane Allman (slide guitar):

Joni Mitchell (Max Bennett, Jaco Pastorius, Larry Klein) Suzanne Vega (Mike Visceglia, Tony Levin, Bruce Thomas) Bonnie Raitt (Freebo, Hutch Hutchinson) Aretha Franklin (Chuck Rainey, Tommy Cogbill) Melissa Etheridge (Kevin McCormick, Pino) Suzy Boggus (Lee Sklar) Kirsty McColl (Guy Pratt, Chucho Merchan)

Saw on Facebook that Beverley Knight's outdoor "Drive in" gig has been cancelled. I hate to say it but I don't think gigs in earnest are gonna happen until Level 1 / Vaccine / C-19 magically disappears. That won't be until maybe middle of 2021 going on the way the UK is working through the threat levels (in my estimation). I had a WhatsApp discussion with the singer in one of my bands, and we agreed that C-19 is forcing people to think more creatively... By that, I mean people recording remotely and putting cover videos out, or maybe even going back to writing their own original material and putting that out into the world. It might be a leveller for all age groups to do this, and we may even get back to a stage where some really great and new material comes to the fore.

I envy you! One of the things I would love to do before I stop playing is to play in a really good soul band with a horn section. I'd thought about trying to get a section attached to one of my current bands, but that's quite difficult as they prefer written arrangements etc...

Yep, Otis Redding's backing band was indeed the Bar-Kays ("Soul Finger" being an instrumental hit in 1967), 4 of whom were tragically killed in the plane crash later that year.

Duck toting a Jazz Bass with The Mar-Keys:

This thread would not be complete without this:

+1 There's a lot of good bass players out there who know "when to keep their chops in their pocket". Guys like Pino, and Mike Visceglia (Suzanne Vega's bassist) are a couple that spring to mind. Every band I've played in whether it be an originals or a covers band, I've gone in with the mentality that it's mine and the drummer's job to make everyone else sound good. If I've played my part in that, then I'm happy.

I'd probably throw in Jerry Jemmott and Norbert Putnam into that mix as well. I think JJ did sessions at Criteria in Miami and NP was also at Fame? Leroy Hodges is another one as well - he's on some of Al Lee's classic tracks.

Same here, there was an afro-caribbean girl who played saxophone with a popular London based Jazz outfit based on Art Blakey's Messengers sold me my bass, and also told me the story about Mark King working there for a time.

Same here, but I was fortunate enough to see both Dunn and Cropper play live. The Blues Brothers Band did a gig at Hammersmith in about 1988 (I think) and it was great just to see those two legends on stage. Alan Rubin and Lou Marini were in the horn section, Danny Gottlieb was on drums, and Matt "Guitar" Murphy was on guitar. Eddie Floyd was one of the guest vocalists. Oddly enough, the support band that night was "The Boogie Brothers Band" who were pretty much a Blues Brothers tribute act, but I think they had to be a bit careful about what they played that night...

One of my bass playing heroes and one of my major influences - remember hearing all those great Soul records when I was little as my brothers were really avid collectors of Stax back in the day. This book is definitely worth getting:

This - wish I'd learned to read years ago too. Would've taken me on a very different career path. There's a keys player in one of my bands who does pit work occasionally and he said he'd take me on for the pit band, but the only thing that lets me down is that my reading chops aren't great ☹️