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Bass Solos


scalpy
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After getting distracted by the career and learning logic and having to play guitar...

I've been trying to catch up on everything I've missed in bass world. Thanks to the arrival of youtube this has included getting round to listening to all the players I was too tight to fork out good Cd money on. A lot of these play something called bass solos.

In short, I've got a major question mark over this practice as an art form.

The forum's thoughts please.

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Depends on what your definition of good is and as I'm guessing you're about to find out, this is a topic no one is ever going to agree on! :) Here's a few ones I reckon are notable.

- My Generation - The Who... John Entwhistle
- Scorpio - Dennis Coffey - Bob Babbitt
- Alright Now - Free - Andy Fraiser
- Donnie Hathaway Live 1972 - Voices Inside (Everything Is Everything) - Willie Weeks
- Do I Do - Stevie Wonder - Nathan Watts

To name a few from the past few decades of popular music. In jazz there is so much more because the bass has much more free reign. That leads you on to players like Jaco Pastorius who, like him or not, was pretty much the first person to have explored the full range of what his bass could do, and then put it down as an album.

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i think this is pretty sh*t hot...

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USJ9BA05GU0"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USJ9BA05GU0[/url]

So is this

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHdN_O5k3WM"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHdN_O5k3WM[/url]

i gotta say i frickin love this for just a true shread showcase of this man...amazing Billy Sheehan

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5omFFeLEXFE&feature=related"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5omFFeLEXFE...feature=related[/url]

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Considering how recent the introduction of the Fender Bass had been, Jet Harris's solo in Nivram is pretty decent.

In fact a lot of Jet's playing would have been extremely innovative at that time. Maybe worth going back to those early Shadows tracks & having a listen.

G.

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[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-BvbeyyKNE"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-BvbeyyKNE[/url]

Another good couple of Stanley Clarke tracks:

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3N13y2A09Q"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3N13y2A09Q[/url]

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uImG6vNldIo"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uImG6vNldIo[/url] Edited by Oscar South
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[quote name='Oscar South' post='910826' date='Jul 30 2010, 11:47 PM']
[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-BvbeyyKNE"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-BvbeyyKNE[/url]

Another good couple of Stanley Clarke tracks:

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3N13y2A09Q"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3N13y2A09Q[/url]

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uImG6vNldIo"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uImG6vNldIo[/url][/quote]
The bass solo in Call Me Al by Paul Simom is pretty good. (apologies if thats in one of the youtube links above, didn`t look at them all)

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Possibly the first bass solo I heard, definitely the first one I tried to play: Lemmy - Keep Us On The Road, from Motorhead's first album:

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11DHbpERlRM"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11DHbpERlRM[/url]

Solo's at about 3.06. Still can't think of one I like any better.

Jon.

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For me,possibly the finest bass solo is by Willie Week on Donny Hathaway's 'Voices Inside(Everything is Everything). It grooves and it builds
all the way through. Stunning.
There are a lot of really cool bass solo's about. Obviously guys like Victor,Stanley,Marcus and Jaco have done some great stuff(Check out
Jaco's solo on 'Havona'),but there are also players like Jeff Berlin,John Patitucci,Jimmy Haslip and Janek Gwizdala who solo in a more horn-like
fashion.

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I always liked the solo from Free's live version of Mr Big. Not strictly a solo, but the bass takes over the lead. Very simple but very effective.

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGODVQmcEu8"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGODVQmcEu8[/url]

About 4:15 in.

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Indifference is a great way of describing how I feel about these things.

However, the middle ground is spotted on the horizon mentioning Call Me Al, although I view that as more of a break than a solo.

The Willie Weeks thing is good and right up my street in terms of genre but I find myself more drawn to the excellent drumming going on underneath!

I enjoyed the rancid thing but again without the drums he'd struggle to keep that crowd boiling.

Wooten Sheenhan and co don't cut it though, I like music not finger gymnastics!

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