bass solos in jazz

[lojo]

In any music, I prefer when the bass just does a something special for a couple of bars, when everyone else backs off, not sure if you'd call it a solo, but just enough for you to go "ooh, thats nice" then its over

In Jazz, most go right through the whole progression with each solo, which most often for me is to much to take in

equally though, Jazz bass solos do need to be enjoyed through a decent system, its no good listening to it on naff TV speakers

[LawrenceH]

[quote name='Bilbo' post='1188048' date='Apr 4 2011, 06:01 PM']Not at all. What I am saying is that 'stunt' bass is not very entertaining.

Its like those video outtake programmes. watching people forget their lines or fall over is amusing a few times but quickly gets boring. Same with the home movie howler programmes: 'oooh, look. He fell over/the kid headbutted him in the nuts/the cat opened the door'! It gets tedious quickly. If a solo has no musical 'point', its acrobatics. And I don't know about you, I don't find acrobats very entertaining

Of course its subjective. But lets not all agree that its all good. Its not. In the grand scheme of jazz, some of it is good, some of it is great and some of it is pony poop.[/quote]

Acrobatics is awesome - I wish I could do a double somersault or a volley of backflips, that would be deadly. Also, how is acrobatics like those outtake programmes? No-one watches them except to laugh at other people's failure, whereas acrobatics is about skill, grace and poise - pretty much the complete opposite.

But back to the jazz. It's different things to different people, and I hope you'll forgive me if I say that judging purely from posts on here, you have a very 'serious' attitude to jazz. Which is fine, and Coltrane's unfettered intellectualist fervour is a great thing. But for me, just as important is the fun. A huge aspect of jazz is the live performance and it makes no sense in that context to separate out 'musicality' from the 'entertainment'. Whilst jazz has become its own, huge thing, that approach seems to completely disown jazz from its roots in music for dance, entertainment and general good times. We talk all the time about musical language and dialogue with the audience is an essential part of that.

I do agree that there's a fair amount of pretty rubbishy fusion and that musicality is something that to an extent, if not being objective, at least has a common subjectivity that we can define. But you can't be the sole arbiter of which goals are 'worthy' in the music upon which we make the judgement. My wife is a keen dancer and her appreciation of music is based on very different, but still completely valid, criteria, to what I perceive yours to be. Also, there is at least as much crappy jazz as there is fusion, where there's not even any kind of pyrotechnic to detract from the general averageness of the music.

Btw I think Wootten tends to be very musical even when he's doing technical displays, for me it sets him apart from a lot of the other bass 'virtuosos'. Berlin as well, although I still don't like his stuff, is generally a musical player.

[Bilbo]

Good post, LawrenceH. As I always say, don't ever make the mistake of taking me seriously

I'm not like this in real life.

[bassace]

Reminds me of the couple who hadn't spoken to each other for years, they went to the marriage guidance consellor and explained their predicament. So he went to his cupboard, got out a double bass and played a solo.

[2wheeler]

I have been told that having every instrument solo was originally done purely for commercial reasons. The professional musicians in the band wanted a chance to show off their individual skills to make sure they got booked for gigs.