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Kala U-Bass on crack


funkgod

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2 hours ago, Leonard Smalls said:

From what I've seen over the years, any sort of music beyond the simplest boy/girl band stuff is a minority interest!

The majority of people I know, as opposed to actual friends, don't seek music out; they quite like a tune that's easy to hum but if they find one they won't necessarily look for more by that artist, they'd be happier with a "Now That's What I Call Music" comp as they will often conjure for them a mood of the time. They don't really want to sit there listening to great playing, or to seek out what's "advancing" music - music is largely a background thing. As a result of this, the majority of mainstream music follows a simple formula and is musically inoffensive.

All of which I think is a shame, and is probably the fault of a decline in music education in schools.

Funnily enough though, if you go to the continent there's a large market for more challenging music; frinstance I was in the tiny town of Marciac in the south of France a couple of weeks ago. It's got a population of just 1200, but has a dedicated music venue - the night we were there was a "slam poetry" show, following night was a Colombian folk group and the next was an electronic noise duo. But more importantly, it has a world-renowned jazz festival which is hugely popular and has far more experimental out-there stuff than we'd get at Cheltenham of Birmingham's alleged jazz fests! Frinstance, last year had Marc Ribot's Ceramic Dog playing; they also played in Germany, Holland, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and Norway, all to great acclaim, though London only got a night of Ribot solo. However, the previous 4 European dates had no UK dates... Similarly, Suicidal Tendencies haven't played the UK since 2018 with 1 date then and 1 in 2017. But on those same visits to Europe there were gigs all over France and Germany. And I don't think it's all to do with The B Word (!) as their last UK tour was 2016, but very little before that despite tons of European dates every year.

Much of the same unfortunately apply to Denmark where I live, much unlike our Scandinavian brothers/sisters.

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15 minutes ago, OzJzF said:

Well playing an old jazz tune on a uke bass is obviously a crime against humanity...

I am just watching the Ukelele Orchestra of Great Britain on YouTube playing "Smells like Teen Spirit" as we speak. I suppose (hope) satire is excused.

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Charlie Parker wrote that tune over "changes" of an older tune (I have no idea) to "scare away" the "amateurs" from getting on the bandstand. It was a whole "thing" called Be-bop. Cab Calloway, a band-leader of the time, called it "Chinese music". It was an intellectual masturbation process that jazz went thru. So these many many many (many) years later, it's still a "standard" to show your chops. Wowie Zowie. 

But I listened to it. I wish the camera was on her for the whole "head" of the tune, it is one acrobatic romp. I am of a certain age where that guy with the de-fretted Fender was rouging around & I was at Berklee and I had a Real Book. I tried. My chops were never THAT good. The tune has interesting chord changes and turn-arounds. It's a good study. 

At that precise time I was venturing into "other musics", and having a hard time with the educators @ Berklee so I left, formed a band with other Berklee Outcasts (now that would be a good name for a band), and got a job as a dishwasher, which eventually brought me to food preparation skills of the caliber to run a successful restaurant with my name on it. 

But never any $$$$$ doing the music I love.

So it was cool to listen to. Once. Made me think, Maybe I should check one of those Kala basses out. It's nice and small and my back might not hurt when I play it sitting down and it's a lot smaller than the Stick...

Then I picked the Stick up. Mumbled along on Donna Lee, and said, "Hey this stick is pretty cool. F*ck the pain..."

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1 hour ago, StickyDBRmf said:

...got a job as a dishwasher, which eventually brought me to food preparation skills of the caliber to run a successful restaurant with my name on it... 

StickyDBRmf is a curious name for a restaurant...

 

Edited by Baloney Balderdash
restaurant is spelled restaurant, not returant
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21 minutes ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

StickyDBRmf is a curious name for a returant...

 

My name is Marty and the restaurant was called Martys Marvelous Mexican Chow. 

My nom de plume here @ BassChat comes from I'm a "Stick" player who tunes Dual Bass Reciprocal and the little "mf" is, just because. 

I'm known by many names...

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6 minutes ago, Beedster said:

As is returant :)

Fixed...

 

And I see we don't share the same sense of humor.

 

I just thought I would find it curious if I actually encountered a restaurant with that name, especially a successful one, but apparently I am the only one who finds that thought amusing.

 

Edited by Baloney Balderdash
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13 minutes ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

Fixed...

 

And I see we don't share the same sense of humor.

 

I just thought I would find it curious if I actually encountered a restaurant with that name, especially a successful one, but apparently I am the only one who finds that thought amusing.

 

He'll probably start a franchise now and make millions, then you can do him for having the idea..😁

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7 minutes ago, StickyDBRmf said:

Ok now I gotta ask, being a Yank. Is DBM an acronym I don't know about?

BM. Oh. 

What about the "D"?

I honestly wouldn't know, I guess I focused more on the first part of the name "Sticky", and just overall though it would be a rather absurd name for a restaurant, even with the rest of the letters being nothing but a meaningless random combination of lower case and capital letters.

 

 

But just looked it up, and this is what Wikipedia says:

 

"dBm or dBmW is a unit of level used to indicate that a power level is expressed in decibels with reference to one milliwatt."

 

Still absurd, if not particularly funny.

 

Edited by Baloney Balderdash
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content aside, either it works for you or not, but just the fact shes playing it on a kala bass ! cant be easy that.

i did try one once it just felt awfull, the rubbery strings felt all baggy and fat, ..

i knew a girl like that once, couldn't get on with that either 🙂

Edited by funkgod
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She is much cop though.  Whether anyone likes her playing and/or the music is something else.

 

Dont like the the horrid rubbery , elastic band in bowl of custard tone, but she can play, as can the others.

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On 20/06/2023 at 22:29, funkgod said:

content aside, either it works for you or not, but just the fact shes playing it on a kala bass ! cant be easy that.

i did try one once it just felt awfull, the rubbery strings felt all baggy and fat, ..

i knew a girl like that once, couldn't get on with that either 🙂

Because of the speed in certain sections, she could probably only play it on a U bass with such small fret spacings. The rubbery feel and low string tension is relatively easy to adjust to and I agree that tone isn't best suited to up front bass solos like that. For me a U bass is great for approximating a double bass playing more traditional low register lines not shredding just for the sake of producing a spectacle. 

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42 minutes ago, Gasman said:

She does look very pleased with herself for getting through it with only one wrong note - did anyone else spot it? Nice!

Was it the twenty sixth millionth, three thousandth, eight hundredth and ninety second one before the piano break? 🤔

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I like her playing and the band in general but the bass seemed to get a bit lost when she started walking (but then this also often happens with bass guitar playing in a "straightahead" jazz setting).

I have a U-bass and it's a great "noodling about on the sofa" instrument - good for working out tunes when I can't be bothered to play the DB, but the tone can be a bit suspect alright.

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I think she’s a great player and having done sessions on bass, keys, drums and guitar I know that Donna Lee isn’t the easiest tune to negotiate on any instrument. Having said that, all I’m hearing here is muso show off dry w@nk business. But she rocks it nonetheless. I couldn’t play it ever, so full respect from me for having a go 👍

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