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Bilbo's Transcription Archive


Bilbo

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On 18/05/2021 at 10:31, Bilbo said:

From the same Scofield LP, this is Darryl's part to the tune 'Techno'. A much tougher nut to crack.

 

Techno – John Scofield – Bilbo's Bass Bites (bilbosbassbites.co.uk)

It’s a simple enough bass line but the tempo makes it a real challenge. I heard this years ago and never realised it was Darryl Jones. For some incorrect reason I thought it was Gary Grainger. I’m not normally much of a Schofield fan (great player, just not my thing), but this is a cool track. Thanks!

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A bass head chart for the tune Play from the 1999 Mike Stern album, 'Play'. The bass player on the tune is Lincoln Goines but the chart is a written part so doesn't really feature Goines in any meaningful sense - his playing on the recording is great though (the form is a C Minor Blues)

 

Play – Mike Stern – Bilbo's Bass Bites (bilbosbassbites.co.uk) 

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'Three Nighter', another tune off the 1985 Passport Jazz album, 'Champion' by Jeff Berlin. I didn't transcribe the bass behind the guitar solo as it would have taken too long and have been pretty much unreadable but I have included the seque into the next section. Aside from the odd bar, the whole chart is pretty accessible.

 

https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/three-nighter-jeff-berlin/

PS there are now 40 Jeff Berlin transcriptions on there.....:)

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 A massively important piece for me, this transcription is nothing more than the themes from Ravel's Bolero. In September, 1974, the week I started at Croesyceiliog Comprehensive School in Cwmbran, Monmouthsire, they took us into a newly built music suite and played us two films on an old fashioned movie style projector. One was the Walt Disney film of 'Peter And The Wolf' by Prokofiev and the other was Ravel's 'Bolero'. I remember, as an 11 year old, being absolutely enthralled. I ran home to tell my Mum about it and was beside myself when she was able to reach into her own record collection (these were the days when people only had about 12 albums each) and produced a copy of the recording. I wore it out playing it again and again and again.  I still love it today, nearly 47 years later.

 

The transcription consists the main themes which repeat four times on an AABB format before closing on an AB with a tag ending. It is transcribed for 5 string (low Eb and Db) but I think you could play it 8va if you haven't got a fiver).

 

Bolero – Maurice Ravel – Bilbo's Bass Bites (bilbosbassbites.co.uk)

 

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Another easy one, this chart is one of the easiest reads on the website. This is not a celebration of the playing capabilities of Andy Gonzalez (who is a monster presence on the Latin Jazz scene) but a simple performance exercise for the developing reader. Technically only 13 bars long, the chart is two eight bar sections in C minor which repeat four times and three time respectively before ending on the root. Straight quarter-notes throughout. It is included here to evidence how reading, even at this level, can help even the most rudimentary reader generate a performance of something exquisite and beautiful. It would also be nice to think that it could introduce some of the world’s bass players to the heart rending music of Astor Piazzolla.

 

https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/tango-apasionado-prologue-astor-piazzolla/

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1 minute ago, Bilbo said:

Another one for old time's sake, this is Jimmy Bain's bass part for the tune 'Stargazer' from the 1976 Rainbow album, 'Rising'. One of the greatest Heavy Rock albums of all time.

 

https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/stargazer-rainbow/

Used to play this in a Friends of Deep Purple tribute act. Can see how my own notes fair against your Rob. Def a classic rock album.

Dave

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15 minutes ago, Bilbo said:

Another one for old time's sake, this is Jimmy Bain's bass part for the tune 'Stargazer' from the 1976 Rainbow album, 'Rising'. One of the greatest Heavy Rock albums of all time.

 

https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/stargazer-rainbow/

That was the album that really lit the spark and made me want to pick up a bass and be in a band! 

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One I had been meaning to get back to for a while. This is Benny Reitveld's bass part for the Santana hit 'Smooth' from his 1999 'Supernatural' CD. I posted a section of this very early on on  here but it was just a sketch whereas this chart is the full part (except the repeating turnaround during the fade). Not a massively challenging read but there are a few moments that require concentration. A fun chart to play.

 

https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/smooth-santana/ 

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Today is the first anniversary of the Bilbo's Bass Bites website going live. I started it with no expectations other than I wanted to create a resource for people who wanted something interesting to practice their reading on (a lot a reading material for developing players doesn't resonate whereas access to some of the tunes we like, want to play or are interested in exploring would, to my mind, offer people a sense of the 'point of it all'). A few months in, I was seeing a gradual increase in footfall and I thought to myself, I wonder if it will reach 50,000 hits in twelve months or even 52,000 (1,000 a week)'? Well, the final score is in an there have been 62489 hits over the last 365 days. That's 1202 hits a week and 171 hits a day. More to the point, I have had feedback from hundreds of people who have benefitted from my transcriptions and have been in touch with several of the players whose work has been featured, every one of which has been supportive. What has been lovely is to see people hearing things for the first time as a result of these charts and reconnecting with things they have not listened to for years. In short, it's all good! We are 271 transcriptions in including 40 Jeff Berlin transcriptions! I would have killed for those 40 years ago when I started out!

 

It's all down to Transcribe! and Sibelius software which was most certainly  NOT around when I was 17 :) (in fact, thinking about it, computers themselves  were a VERY new thing (I got a Computer Studies O Level in 1980) and a website of any kind was unheard of)

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An easy read, this one. It is a short piece called 'How Long'? which is the opening bass solo of the 'Transatlantic Echoes' section of the 1992 'Citi Movement' (Griot New York) recording by the Wynton Marsalis Septet. It is a 1:05 long and played arco but, as a reading exercise, it has merit. It is essentially a 23 bar Blues lick.

How Long? – Wynton Marsalis Septet – Bilbo's Bass Bites (bilbosbassbites.co.uk)

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