Mikey D

Is it that you are paying for me to go and play with those great instruments? I've always wanted to go to NAMM!

[quote name='bilbo230763' post='102145' date='Dec 10 2007, 02:03 PM']There is a large small group version of this by the Mingus Dynasty on an LP called 'Chair In The Sky' - it might help with your arrangement if you can find it. I don't know which Mingus LP has the original on. Can anyone help?[/quote] Wasn't it just one of the original melodies he wrote for Joni for this Album?

Tonight I will be playings as part of an 8 Piece Pop/R&B/Dance covers band at the Yardbird in Central Birmingham. The hits of EWF, MJ, Jamiroquai, Beyonce, R Kelly(!!) etc will be played. Think its £2 entry. On Thursday 13th December, 2007 7.45 pm I will be playing in support for two British Giants on jazz guitar. [quote]Jim Mullen with The Pat McCarthy Band + support act The Jimmy Brewer Trio One of the most eagerly awaited gigs of 2007 is our December concert by the Jim Mullen/Pat McCarthy Band. The main reason Grimsby Jazz came into being was to hear more of Pats wonderful guitar playing. He has never been less than great with his own band and an awesome accompanist of visiting stars. Now he meets the challenge of locking frets with one of his own favourites, Jim Mullen. It is an interesting contrast in styles. Pat comes from the traditional background of Django Rheinhart, Charlie Christian, Barney Kessel, which is supported by a brilliant technique. Jim Mullen comes from a blues style which he has transferred to his modern jazz playing. Using his thumb instead of a pick gives him a warm glowing sound which will contrast wonderfully against Pat’s pick technique. Both men are wonderful improvisers with great swing. To balance out the two guitars we have put in a multi-instrumentalist on piano/ alto sax/ and accordion, Piero Tucci. He has appeared at the club twice before and played brilliantly. On bass will be Zoltan Dekany who will not be put in the shade by the stars in front of him and will give his usual master class in the art of jazz bass playing. To complete the line-up another local boy done good John Perry, who is now drummer with many groups on the jazz scene. The Jimmy Brewer Trio We also take this opportunity to showcase the talents of another young guitarist, Jimmy Brewer who, to quote Pat McCarthy “is without doubt one of the most promising guitarists I’ve ever heard”. A former student of local legend Pat McCarthy, he is currently studying jazz guitar at Birmingham Conservatoire. His trio consists of Jimmy on guitar with Mike Doherty on bass and Lydia Glanville on drums. So don’t forget to come early as the evening starts at 7.45pm Tickets £10 in advance £12 on the door[/quote] Come see some amazing bass playing on the thursday, Zoltan will be on in the main set, it'll be just after my jazz fumblings.

I'm actually arranging this at the moment for big band...what a headache. But a great song, I should have a recording of it about the 19th January 2008 (hand in date for assignment) for you to critique. This is one of my favourite jaco parts ever.

[quote name='Buzz' post='99898' date='Dec 5 2007, 10:30 PM']That's bloody lovely, and I normally dislike gold insturments, but the pattern really breaks it up from solid gold and makes it look lush.[/quote] Same here...I hated it when I first saw it. Went back into PMT and realised deep down that I thought it was the coolest JJ bass I have seen and would definately look and sound great for function gigs. Not so sure about all my jazz gigs though!

I completely forgot about this offer and really need a fretted bass for some gigs coming up. But in a JJ version from PMT. I love the pimped out gold and it would be great for the R&B/HipHop/Pop gigs. Hell, prince may even give me a gig because of that finish.

edit: Ah ok. I read alot of this topic! Producer: "We're doing an album, and we want you to play on half of it." Bass Guitarist: "Great. What's the material?" Producer: "You'll do the rock and fusion stuff." Bass Guitarist: "What about the rest?" Producer: "Straight-ahead jazz. Upright." Bass Guitarist: "I'm good at that. Why not let me do that as well?" Producer: [Silence] how familiar this sounds.

actually...it probably isn't either of them. He wrote for bass player for a few years, but I don't have the magazines that go back that far.

or this one? [url="http://members.aol.com/jlsmith42/aj/dark_age.htm"]jazz in dark ages[/url]

[quote name='aj5string' post='99827' date='Dec 5 2007, 08:42 PM']Right, long shot i know, but... I'm trying to get hold of a particular article that was in a Bass magazine. I think, it was in Bass Player magazine, but am not certain - so would really appreciate it if everyone could rack their brains! Its an article by/about Anthony Jackson, where he talks about the bass guitar in jazz + prejudice etc... Its for my dissertation - not just to read Anyone know the one i'm talking about? Cheers! Alex.[/quote] Was it this one? [url="http://members.aol.com/jlsmith42/aj/interview/jackson1.htm"]part 1[/url] [url="http://members.aol.com/jlsmith42/aj/interview/jackson2.htm"]part 2[/url]

I'm in.

Just got back...WOW! I'm convinced that Allan is the greatest musician I have ever witnessed! Also, jimmy and chad were playing supposedly, unfortunately, I didn't have a chance to take my eyes and ears off what allan was doing.

[quote name='bilbo230763' post='98067' date='Dec 3 2007, 12:47 PM']And they will have £10K of student debts for their trouble. I wish it worked differently but I do think that a lot of people could go a long way studying independently.[/quote] Make that £24k and you are nearer where I will be at! Thats a lot of high quality one to one lessons, a fodera matt garrison, epifani rig, a car and money to go see all the best jazz gigs.

[quote name='bilbo230763' post='98069' date='Dec 3 2007, 12:48 PM']'Writing about music is like dancing about architecture' - Elvis Costello paraphrasing someone else[/quote] Thelonious Monk!?

I'm not here to raise hippie consciousness, I'm here to wet some panties. ~ Jaco Pastorius

[quote name='bilbo230763' post='97991' date='Dec 3 2007, 10:50 AM']I love the idea of going to college to study jazz on electric bass. I would have loved to do it twenty years ago and I would love to do it now. All that playing, practising and studying all day every day. Brilliant! Only I can't help but notice that some of the people I have taught/played with who have gone on to do this (Royal College/Leeds etc) are now gigging on the same scenes as me, playing the same venues for the same money and doing no more gigs than I am. Not sure what the point of it all was? Not sure what point I am making. Not sure whether this thing half way up my arm is my a**e or my elbow.[/quote] Your point cound be that, why go to a conservatoire when you can probably practice and play with a full time job and still be as good, and as you say do the same gigs. Which I tend to agree with, even though I am studying. I think a lot of students don't take full advantage of things when they are studying, because there is no reason why you can't be the biggest muthaf***a on your instrument, as you have the time to dedicate to it, the resources there every day and also a dedicated student body to play with, who if upon leaving go into the field will be your peers and call you for gigs. But more important than getting "good", I don't believe enough emphasis is put on learning how to market yourself or just generally the business side of making a living in music. Which with the jazz market as it is today, it's probably as important as being a good player. I've seen shocking jazz players make a decent living out of playing, because they know how to get gigs etc. It has been quite apparant that most jazz musicians, no matter how talented, don't have the knowledge of the industry, or the entrepeunerial skills when they leave college to make their own gigs, or get the higher paid gigs. Then it also comes down to the point of whether they are creating anything valid on their own which may get them picked up as an "artist" in their own right. There are not many I can think of that have left a jazz course who have gone on to much greater things in standard terms...Gwilym Simcock, the empirical guys from london (although they are still on a course) and of course polar bear/acoustic ladyland. Also it comes down to the fact that there probably aren't that many bigger gigs and they tend to get snapped up by the same people over and over again. This tends to be the case in most styles of music, whether it be pop or hiphop or jazz. Personally, when I leave I want to be f**king great on electric and do a pretty good job on upright, but I am fully aware already that no matter how good you are, it just isn't enough nowadays. It's to do with making contacts, getting out there and playing on the scene and getting noticed. Making your own CDs. Recording other people or producing cds for them. Putting on your own gigs. Anything...and thats if you want to actually do that. You might be happy having no audience, no fans and just create music for yourself in your room. As don't forget, music is art, not just the product/commodity that most people see it as nowadays.

[quote name='ARGH' post='97773' date='Dec 2 2007, 08:39 PM']From what I have seen,heard and learnt.... from past and present students and lecturers its a better place than a few years ago.[/quote] I would have to say that this applies to Birmingham aswell, maybe, the whole of the UK jazz education system is getting better!? But each year the standard seems to be getting higher overall. I think this has been helped by having an easier application process via Cukas on the web, thus more people are applying and of course, with the chance of the auditions panel seeing a lot more potential students they have more of a "higher standard" to chose from. I'm definately going to have to pop over to leeds sometime just to check out whats going on, I was wanting to organise a lesson with Zoltan in the new year anyway.

[quote name='ARGH' post='97520' date='Dec 2 2007, 10:23 AM']Go to Leeds,the guys/tutors from Germany and Norway have removed the "its not an upright" snobbishness,and embraced the 'free' jazz styles,plus they are opening up to performances that are REALLY cuttingedge. If you play Bass they love you there...play more than 4 strings and you have a red carpet.[/quote] I wonder if it is time for me to change!?

[quote name='dexter3d' post='97400' date='Dec 1 2007, 08:48 PM']Hello, I am thinking to study electric bass more in depth for the next year, or probably for 2 years. As I don't want (and I'm not able) to start a 4-year BA degree in conservatory (I already have quite some degrees in other fields), the various 'higher education' programmes seem attractive. I am thinking about any place in Europe (I'm Lithuanian myself). How about the Leeds College of Music Jazz diploma programme? Or LCCM (http://www.lccm.org.uk/)? Has anybody studied there? How are such places as Academy of Contemporary Music [url="http://www.acm.ac.uk/"]<a href="http://www.acm.ac.uk/" target="_blank">http://www.acm.ac.uk/[/url]</a>, Institute of Contemporary Music Performance (http://www.icmp.uk.com/) considered in UK? I am also considering DJAM school in Amsterdam (www.djam.nl/). I am interested mostly in jazz improvisation, I would like to study it seriously. Maybe there's something else to consider? Thanks for comments![/quote] I study on the Jazz BMus Hons at Birmingham conservatoire and my opinion on the course has been put on this site a few times. Bear in mind, wherever you study jazz electric bass, prepare yourself for the guaranteed snobbery towards the bass as not being an upright, but you will most definately find some people who don't care if it is electric or upright. You say you already have a degree so you can try any of the places that offer a diploma, Birmingham and Leeds do. If you come to birmingham you will study with Fred Thelonious Baker and Mark Hodgson on electric, you get 40 1-2-1s a year, as well as other lessons, which will include musicianship with Mike Williams (quite possibly the most talented musician I have come across and what he doesn't know about jazz and improvisation is minimal). Look on google for birmingham conservatoire and you will have all the info you need. Other than that, there is a very talented community of young jazz musicians and there are normally about 10 or so people on the diploma course at one time. I'm not saying here is the best as I have no experience with the other colleges etc, but as an electric bassist I encountered a lot of issues towards the instrument from others, but you have to just do what you want to do and hopefully when you find your voice it wll all pay off.. AJ5string on here also went to birmingham and can give his opinion. Leeds has Zoltan Dekany who I have heard many great things about and he was the dep of choice for Jeff Berlin when he was out in the US, so he can't be too bad! Where are you based at the moment? Are you taking jazz improvisation lessons already? I can send you a few things that we work on here to give you an idea of what to expect. If you are really serious about studying seriously, you could even consider taking just one to one lessons with a good teacher and playing as much as you can, it depends if the diploma itself will mean much to you or not. I also met a portugese bassist in Ireland last summer who went to Amsterdam, and if his playing was anything to go by, the standard must be pretty good, but he did also have lessons with Gary Willis so who knows! I'm not sure if they do anything equivalent to a diploma etc, but Gary Willis actually teaches at a conservatoire in spain, might be worth checking out!

Chad Wackerman it is then! I'm so looking forward to this, I think I am going to go on monday and wednesday.

It's a common Db or C# major pentatonic. Db(C#), Eb(D#), F, Ab(G#), Bb(A#) 1 - 2 - 3 - 5 - 6

He was double jointed!

The worst I had was pieces of glass embedded in my foot, not sure how it works, but the pieces were bigger than the entrance holes!? This was friday night, sat in the emergancy room for 4 hours, so 2am comes along and the doctor says they have to operate on it the next evening...sorry no can do, I got a gig. The doctor understood, he was a fellow bassist! Couldn't give me pain killers though because I wouldn't stay in the hospital over nignt so had to hobble around and do the gig sitting down. The worst part was when the most attractive girl in there stood on my foot!! Needless to say, I was like "thats ok, it doesn't hurt that much!" Then wait until monday for the op...the show must go on. I don't think I've ever been physically sick on a gig though, well not without the aid of alcohol!