Bass Magazine – Issue 1

Jump Head

COLINRADIOHEAD GREENWOOD OF

And

ANDREW GOUCHÉ REMEMBERS JOEL SMITH Plus SADOWSKY SINGLE CUT AGUIL AR’S L ATEST AMPS

G&L CLF L-1000 BASSES

bassmagazine.com ; ISSUE 1 ;

TAL WILKENFELD VICTOR WOOTEN KAVEH RASTEGAR BOB DAISLEY L ARRY GRENADIER DALLON WEEKES BNICOLE A S S M A G A ZFIORENTINO INE 1

ARTIST:

Jump Head

MADE TO PERFORM INSPE CTOR :

MODE L:

COLO R:

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TUNE RS:

NECK :

SERIE S:

FRETS :

INTRODUCING THE AMERICAN PERFORMER SERIES FEATURING ALL-NEW YOSEMITE ™ PICKUPS, HANDCRAFTED IN CORONA, CALIFORNIA

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©2019 Fender Musicial Instruments Corporation. FENDER, FENDER in script, PRECISION BASS, and the distinctive headstock commonly found on Fender Guitars and Basses are registered trademarks of FMIC. Yosemite is a trademark of FMIC. All rights reserved.

Contents Gear Reviews:

Features 20. Nicole Fiorentino The ex-Smashing Pumpkins bassist returns with her new band, Bizou.

By Jon D’Auria

28. Victor Wooten The bass great gives his take on Miles Davis classics with his playing on a new live album. By Chris Jisi

32. Pancho Tomaselli After holding it down for War and Tower Of Power, the Ecuadorian bass ace unleashes new albums with Philm and Ultraphonix. By Jon D’Auria

36. Adeline

60. Andrew Gouché Remembers Joel Smith

108. Aguilar’s Tone Hammer 700 & SL 115

Gospel great Andrew Gouché reminisces on a lifetime of friendship and grooves while paying homage to the great Joel Smith. By E.E. Bradman

112. Sadowsky’s Single Cut

66. Colin Greenwood In his first interview in years, Radiohead’s enigmatic and highly influential bass phenom opens up about his perspective on bass and dishes on his most iconic bass lines. By Jon D’Auria

80. Tal Wilkenfeld

115. G&L CLF L-1000 Basses

Columns 118. Jazz Concepts Bach for Bassists. By John Goldsby

121. The Inquirer To the Future of Bass!

By Jonathan Herrera

122. Alternatives

The Paris-by-New York low end songstress unleashes a soulful and funky new solo album. By Bill Leigh

With a new solo album and a new musical identity, Tal Wilkenfeld shows the world that she’s more than just killer chops and virtuosic licks. By Chris Jisi

40. Kiyoshi

92. Bob Daisley

Slap superhero Kiyoshi delivers her third solo album and talks about her energetic live persona. By Jon D’Auria

The man behind the thunderous foundation of Ozzy Osbourne, Gary Moore, and Rainbow recalls his lifetime of studio and stage work. By Freddy Villano

Freeting-Hand Finger Permutations.

By Patrick Pfeiffer

46. Larry Grenaider

Don’t Knock the Tribute Life.

By Karl Coryat

124. Beginner Bass Base

128. Berklee Bass Babylon Go Produce Yourself! By Steve Bailey

The upright master discusses his studio techniques, his love of alternate tunings, and the lonely task of recording solo.

By John Goldsby

96. Kaveh Rastegar

130. Partners

On his debut solo album, the John Legend and Kneebody bassist reveals a musical voice all of his own. By Chris Jisi

Leo Fender & the “Group of Guys”

By Jim Roberts

54. Dallon Weekes

102. Complete Transcription

Fresh off of leaving his role in Panic At The Disco, Dallon Weekes returns with his drum and bass duo, IDK How.

By Jon D’Auria

Kaveh Rastegar’s “Roll Call.” By Chris Jisi

Departments 4. From the Editor 6. 10 Questions With Bubby Lewis 8. Spins, Streams & Downloads 12. Bass Magazine’s 2019 NAMM Wrap Up

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From the Editor Let’s Take it from the Top. Bass Family,

Jisi, Bradman, D’Auria, and Friedland in Los Angeles, 2011

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Well, here we are, the debut issue of Bass Magazine. How did we get here? It’s a long story with lots of plot twists, but we’ll grab a beer sometime and I’ll fill you in then. In short, when the world’s #1 magazine for bass players was sold to a European publisher last year, it turned into a completely different beast — and the folks behind its 30 years of success wondered how to keep the spirit of “digging deeper” alive. Here is the result, and we couldn’t be more excited to bring you this issue, and more so, this magazine.

Not one bit of this would’ve been possible without the amazing group of writers and editors that we have on our roster. Seeing the names Chris Jisi, Elton Bradman, Jim

Roberts, Ed Friedland, Karl Coryat, Jonathan Herrera, Paul Haggard, John Goldsby, Rod Taylor, Freddy Villano, Patrick Pfeiffer, Bill Leigh, or our GM Tim Hill on our masthead, I can’t believe that we’re all back at it together again so quickly.

In the beginning when our core group of Chris, Elton, Tim, and myself first embarked on this, we knew we had some mountains to climb, and gathering our team was step one.

Of course there are so many other people involved. The entire bass community rallied around us upon our launch, and all of the artists, publicists, gear companies, luthiers, and bass experts have been instrumental in making this happen. There is no big corporation or publishing company behind this one bit; everything comes directly from us. Every single ad you see in these digital pages was placed with a blind leap of faith. We went to gear companies with only a tablet filled with bullet points, a few numbers scribbled on notepads, and the ambition that we would make this thing work. Contracts were sealed with handshakes, hugs, and the promise that we wouldn’t let each other down. And we won’t. If that doesn’t sum up the amazing bass world around us, then I’m not sure what does. It’s all about love, respect, and supporting one another, and always has been.

And finally, the content.

We’re beside ourselves looking at the editorial calendars and

layouts for our first series of issues. We have some amazing things in store that we can’t wait to reveal to you in the coming months, but as for this issue, we’re beyond stoked. I’ve been a massive Radiohead fan for decades and as soon as I became a bass journalist I set some goals, and atop those goals was interviewing Colin Greenwood. I had never known of him doing interviews and always wanted to know which bassists influenced his playing, how he writes his lines, and how such a patient player can create such seismic moments when he wants to. Now those questions are finally answered (big thanks to RS!). Additionally, we have phenomenal features on Tal Wilkenfeld and her new album; we get the latest from Victor Wooten, tons of interviews with our favorite artists, and lots of in-depth reviews. And we’re thrilled to bring you columns from the bass experts who have been writing them for three decades. This issue, and each that will follow, is bursting at the seams with content.

So dig in and enjoy. Don’t hesitate to hit me up and let me know your thoughts on our new zine at: jon@bassmagazine.com, and follow us on our socials and our website to stay in the loop.

Cheers to the next chapter, and cheers to the future of bass!

Jon D’Auria Editor-In-Chief

Volume 1, Issue 1 |

bassmagazine.com

Editor-In-Chief JON D’AURIA Senior Editor CHRIS JISI Editor-At-Large ELTON BRADMAN General Manager TIM HILL Copy Editor KARL CORYAT Art Director PAUL HAGGARD CONTRIBUTORS Ed Friedland Jim Roberts Jonathan Herrera Freddy Villano John Goldsby Rod Taylor Patrick Pfeiffer Bill Leigh Stevie Glasgow Vicky Warwick Patrick Wong FOR AD INQUIRES CONTACT:

tim@bassmagazine.com ALL OTHER INQUIRIES CONTACT:

jon@bassmagazine.com chris@bassmagazine.com elton@bassmagazine.com All Images, Articles, and Content ©2019 Bass Magazine, LLC

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10 Questions with

R 1

What was your first bass?

The first bass that I played was a Cort Curbow 5-string.

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Bubby Lewis

obert “Bubby” Lewis is certifiable bass ninja. His groove is like no other, his chops are the thing of legend, and if you haven’t seen his acrobatic/yogi finger chordal stretches on his MTD 6-string basses, then you need to check out his Instagram page immediately (https://www.

instagram.com/bubbylewis). He’s been holding down bass duties for heavyweight artists such as Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, Lupe Fiasco, Tha Game, and Stevie Wonder for years and is frequently a mainstay in Japan for various artists in those parts. He took a quick break from his practice regime to answer our 10 Questions.

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What’s something we’d be surprised that you listen to?

Lately I’ve been checking out a ton of the new banda and mariachi stuff.

I’ve always loved how every culture has something traditional and special to offer musically.

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What’s one element of your playing you’ve been working on recently?

I’m working on becoming more familiar with my instrument; knowing where everything is at all times and being able to execute the things I hear in my head.

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What was the first concert you ever attended?

The first big concert I attended was John P. Kee, held at my church when I was a little kid.

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What’s the best concert you’ve ever been to?

Man, that’s tricky.

Allan Holdsworth, Frank Gambale, CHON, John Legend, Big Bang, and Commissioned … I could go on all day.

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If you could have lunch with any bass player, alive or dead, who would it be?

I would want to sit down and eat with John Patitucci, Geddy Lee, Paul McCartney, Tom Kennedy, and Anthony Jackson.

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If you could sub for a bass player in any band, who would it be?

I’d sub for all the folks playing bass on the anime and video games in Japan.

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What’s the best advice you’ve ever been given about playing bass?

To have my own voice and be the artist I want to be.

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What the most embarrassing thing that’s happened to you during a gig?

Man, I took a dump on myself onstage [laughs]. It was in Australia back in 2010 with Snoop Dogg. We were playing “Gin and Juice,” and as soon as I hit a low note in the chorus … it happened. I had to ignore it and finish the show. Dude, it was only like the third song in.

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If you weren’t a bass player, what would you be doing?

I’d be in the comic book, anime, voiceover, or videogame industry. Or a person who goes around doing food challenges like on Man vs. Food.

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Spins, Streams & Downloads

like any reasonable 12-yearold, we’re still laughing about it. But like everything he does, that’s just Mono being Mono, and this album once again proves that he refuses to be anything else.

—Jon D’Auria

MonoNeon My Feelings Be Peeling The infinitely funky and highly prolific MonoNeon is back with yet another album that falls into suit with his previous work as a groove clinic of raw musicality and candid lyricism. Laying down funky line after funky line, the nine-song LP features Mono on bass and guitar with a little help from collaborators in the form of fellow low-ender Alissia Benveniste and drummers JD Beck and Sam Porter supplying intricate beats. The album kicks off with the laid-back grooves and crisp guitar strumming of “Don’t Make This World War 3,” and then continually builds with increasingly fast and soulful hits like “She Was Round & Brown” and “She Look Cute With My Hoodie On.” Every song features the intense musical mastery that Mono has become viral for, but the continual growth and expansion of his vocal range and one-ofa-kind songwriting won’t be lost on any listener who cops his latest work. If you’re just in it for a good time, don’t skip out on the first single, “Fart When You Pee” — because

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Tedeschi Trucks Band Signs Whose Hat Is This?

Everything’s OK Tim Lefebvre’s five-year stint in TTB (now anchored by Atlanta bassist Brandon Boone) resulted in two sterling studio sides and one live album, exposure to a swath of southern music for Lefebvre, and a cadre of new grooves for our ears, as he processed said music through his jazz-rooted filter. It also has produced an exciting experimental quartet,

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Whose Hat Is This?, made up of Tim and his TTB mates Kebbi Williams on tenor sax and flute, and drummers JJ Johnson and Taylor “Falcon” Greenwell. On their dizzying debut, Everything’s OK, cut live in Baltimore with guest hip hop artist Kokayi, the unit’s all-improvised set leads to many noteworthy moments. This includes “Jon Homes,” which rides Lefebvre’s kinetic P-Bass boogaloo, “X’s for Eyes,” Tim’s random interval exploration, via pick and effects pedals, “If I Had to Decide Between the Pork and You,” a free-tempo, bluesy theme and development on acoustic bass, and the electric-Miles-esque “Well Alright, Playboy.”

As for the song-rich Signs, it’s a worthy swansong for Lefebvre, who shares three co-writes and reminds how interwoven he was in the band’s creative fabric with lyrical lines that never overstep but always serve and swing. It’s also a sad goodbye to the brilliant, late keyboardist/ flautist Kofi Burbridge, who was pivotal to TTB’s musical DNA, and who shared a special bond with Lefebvre at live shows, where the two enjoyed a stepout segment. Track-wise, Tim adds a minor 9 subhook to the simmering ballad “I’m Gonna Be There,” drives the riff-heavy “Shame” and the trippy “Still Your Mind,” and serves as the funky, bouncing rhythmic core on “Walk Through This Life.” Five years well spent.

—Chris Jisi

Jump Head

Potty Mouth

Red Dragon Cartel

Flight Of The Conchords

Snafu Six years after their debut album, Hell Bent, the poppunk trio Potty Mouth has returned with their sophomore effort. Even beyond their obvious maturation as band, the new album brings to mind the work of popular ’90s acts such as Blink-182, Garbage, Weezer, and even Nirvana, but the bottom line is that the bandmembers are damn fine songwriters. Ally Einbinder kicks out charging bass lines that steadily pulse under the vocally melodic work that is just about as catchy as hooks can be. Einbinder serves as so much more than just the foundation, though, as her register-wandering lines serve as ear candy on tracks like “Massachusetts,” “Plastic Paradise,” and “Bottom Feeder.” If Snafu is the kind of evolving they’re already proving with just two albums, it’s safe to say that we can’t wait for their third effort.

—Jon D’Auria

Patina Former Lynch Mob/Ace Frehley bassist Anthony Esposito returns to the limelight on Patina, the latest from a realigned Red Dragon Cartel, the band launched in 2014 by exOzzy/Badlands guitarist Jake E. Lee. Not only did Esposito play bass on Patina, he also cowrote, co-produced and engineered the record, so it is a testament to his well-rounded skill set. Musically, Patina harkens back to the blues-based hard-rock swagger of Badlands, albeit with a more modern attack. Check out “Havana,” “Bitter” and “Chasing Ghosts” for prime examples of Esposito’s deep-pocket grooves and how well they complement Lee’s wickedly unique riff flexing.

—Freddy Villano

Live in London The self-proclaimed “New Zealand’s fourth most popular guitar-based digi-bongo a capella-rap-funk-comedy folk duo” Flight Of The Conchords, who became wildly popular from their eponymous comedic HBO series, have just released a live album and DVD that features the hilarious two-piece playing a new batch of side-splitting songs.

But don’t be fooled with the non-stop laughs — these guys can play. And more important to those reading this, Jermaine Clement is seriously good at bass, or as their fictitious manager calls it, “the dad guitar.”

Simply being really talented at the 4-string is impressive enough, but try doing that while singing in a multitude of voices, delivering hilarious punch lines, and interjecting constant banter with bandmate Brett McKenzie, all while keeping a straight face in front of a thunderous audience.

The gig is no joke, and nobody does it quite like Jermaine.

And he delivers impressive tone as he switches from Hofner 500/1 to a Fender Tele-

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Spins, Streams, & Downloads

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caster Bass throughout their live sets. Even Brett picks up the bass for one song, and not surprisingly, he holds it down, too. Not bad for the fourth best band from New Zealand.

—Jon D’Auria

tear), explore the elongated 9/4 groove of “Plan Nine” with a greasy agenda, and in the disc’s take-notice moment, relentlessy drive the Weather Report-intoned “Arboreal.”

—Chris Jisi

Fima Ephron

The Beta Machine

Songs From the Tree Fima Ephron is an undersung Big Apple bass treasure, deep in groove and taste, and a talented composer. His latest— recorded in ten hours with the killer esemble of saxophonist Chris Potter, guitarist Adam Rogers, drummer Nate Smith, and keyboardist Kevin Hays—is a first-rate effort rooted in the Gotham electric jazz vein of artists like Michael and Randy Brecker, and Steps Ahead.

Helping to nudge the genre forward is Ephron’s post-session sonic touches, adding keyboards, percussion, voices, and deft edits and mixes (as well as David Torn’s live looping on “Signs”). The other key is Ephron’s holy hookup with drum force Smith. The pair navigate three different feels on “Fortune” (with Smith unleashed behind Potter’s solo

Intruder When he hasn’t been on the road touring the world over the past seven years with A Perfect Circle, Puscifer, Eagles Of Death Metal, or Thirty Seconds To Mars, Matt McJunkins’ attention has been focused solely on his own project, The Beta Machine. As a collaboration with his rhythm section partner in APC and Puscifer, drummer Jeff Friedl, The Beta Machine released their debut EP, All This Time, in 2017 and have now unleashed their highly anticipated album, Intruder. Unlike his sideman role in his other bands, McJunkins takes the spotlight as Beta’s frontman, and his vocals and driving playing lead the way on their dynamic alternative-rock sound. The first single, “Embers,” plunges forward on McJunkins’ steady lines

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and colorful vocals that have hints of David Bowie accents.

Tracks like “Precious Design” and “The Fall” exhibit his ability to capture seriously dirty tones, although the heaviest bass cut of the album comes from “Bleed for You,” where his anthemic vocals belt over the speedy bass work of his right hand. For fans of his other bands, Intruder is a must listen — not only because it slays from front to back, but also because it gives a deep insight into McJunkins’ skillful style as a songwriter.

—Jon D’Auria

Beastie Boys Book

The all-encompassing, everything-you-ever-wantedto-know about the Beastie Boys memoir is a supremely entertaining read that takes you from the innovative MCs’ early days growing up in the five boroughs all the way through the peaks of their illustrious career as titans of hip-hop. While the book meanders through the evolution of three young punk rockers who reveled in debauchery and eventually grew into enlightened and iconic artists,

the true focus of the tale shines light on the genius of Adam Yauch (MCA). Since Yauch passed away before the book was written, his life is told through the eyes of his best friends and bandmates, Adam Horovitz (Ad Rock) and Michael Diamond (Mike D).

We quickly find that Yauch was the center and the heartand-soul of their trio. More than just a supreme emcee and bass player, Yauch was the man with all of the answers, a Zen-like figure who loved getting his hands dirty.

His bandmates explain how he tinkered with an analog

tape machine and figured out how to reverse the reel, which led to the iconic beat behind their early single “Paul Revere.” They also chat up his subtle genius in songwriting, and how one time between takes in the studio, he was fiddling around with some chords and a funky run that became the entirety of their smash song “Sabotage.” The book goes deep into Yauch’s lifelong passion for bass, and how he gained so much from studying his idols Ron Carter, Darryl Jenifer, Carol Kaye, Jah Wobble, and Aston Barrett.

Even after their wild com-

mercial success, Yauch was known to keep a very simple existence (partially due to his Buddhist spiritual awakening), and despite all of the money they made, he lived in a tiny New York apartment with nothing of value in it except for his basses and amps.

In fact, it seems as though he was always happiest in life when he was playing his 4-string. This book doesn’t simply serve as a candid trip down memory lane for superfans and causal listeners alike, it reminds us of how damn much we miss MCA.

—Jon D’Auria l

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Gear

WHAT’S NEXT? Bass Magazine’s Winter NAMM 2019 Wrap-Up

By Jon D’Auria

B

Magazine hit the Anaheim Convention Center in full force to check out all of the latest bass offerings that you come to expect from the biggest U.S. instrument trade show of the year. More than usual, we were blown away by all of the new innoass

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vations and models that bass builders, amp companies, luthiers, string makers, and effect creators dished out this year. Here’s a selection of some of the best bass gear that caught our attention at Winter NAMM 2019.

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Fender

Duff McKagan Signature Series

For his latest signature model, Duff McKagan threw it back to the same design of his ’80s Jazz Bass Special that he used to record Guns N’ Roses seminal album Appetite for Destruction, and Fender delivered. With a sexy design featuring pearloid block inlays, a black headstock, a drop-tuner, and two sleek finish options, this new series was the talk of NAMM. fender.com

Bergantino forté HP

Now bringing 1,200 watts of tone and power to its forté collection, Bergantino has unleashed the latest addition to its workhorse amp line with the forté HP. Like all Bergantino amps, the forté HP offers highly customizable options, all in a compact package. bergantino.com

Nordstrand

Acinonyx Basses

Not surprisingly, Carey Nordstand delivered perhaps the most fun bass we played at the show with his brand new Acinonyx short-scale prototype. Modern tributes to Goya Panther basses, Acinonyx basses feature tone buttons that greatly alter the frequencies you can cop on these addicting compact 4-strings. nordstrandaudio.com

(Bonus) Nordstrand NordyMute

This new foam mute with a wood covering stopped us in our tracks. Simply pop this lightweight device onto your strings near your bridge, and all of a sudden you get killer Bobby Vega-esque muted-picking sounds with automatic staccato resonance and tone similar to that of an upright bass. We couldn’t get our wallets out fast enough. nordstrandaudio.com

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WINTER NAMM 2019

Aguilar Amplification SL 115 Cabinet

Weighing in at only 34 pounds, this lean, mean 15" cabinet rumbles deep, but with all the precise clarity that Aguilar has become well known for. We heard it isolated and were blown away, but now we’re daydreaming about what this heavy-hitter sounds like paired with an AG 700 head and SL 410 cabinet. aguilaramp.com

MTD

H34D5 Headless Bass

We had to do a double take when we first saw MTD’s new H34D5 headless basses, but then we did a triple take when we heard the tone these beauties produce. Constructed with a highly figured maple top on a mahogany body with a maple neck and bird’s-eye maple fingerboard, these innovative new axes are a perfect addition to MTD’s collection. mtdbass.com

Stonefield

Mighty Mini Cabs

Ampeg

Liquifier Analog Chorus

Utilizing dual chorus circuits, Ampeg’s Liquifier Analog Chorus creates a thick, juicy, modulated tone. With the easy-touse rate, depth, and effect level knobs, you can dial them in subtly for tone enhancement or crank it up for heavy waves of chorus frequencies. Its sparkly purple metal casing pretty much seals the deal on its own. ampeg.com

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Always one for crafting innovative new bass creations, Stonefield’s Tomm Stanley has entered the amplification game with his new line of Mighty Mini cabinets. Available in 8" and 6.5" speaker configurations, these compact cabs pack some big tone, and they’re definitely the coolest-looking colorful new amps to hit the market. stonefieldmusic.com

WINTER NAMM 2019

Dunlop

MXR Dyna Comp Bass Compressor

With Sire bass in hand, Darryl Anders was happy to demo MXR’s new Dyna Comp Bass Compressor for us, and along with his highly enjoyable funky playing, we were super impressed with this small stompbox’s ability to home in on some serious tone. What sets this compressor apart is how it leaves your low end intact while letting you alter your dynamic range to your heart’s desire. jimdunlop.com

Gallien-Krueger Legacy Amps

GK once again wowed bass goers at NAMM, this time with its new Legacy series of amps. In honor of its 50th anniversary, GK released these powerful new heads with 500, 800, and 1,200-watt models. Not only do they look amazingly sleek, they deliver all of that iconic GK tone.

Additionally, GK unveiled its Fusion S, Fusion +, and Plex-series amps to cover all sonic territory. gallien-krueger.com

Markbass

Kilimanjaro & Kimandu Basses

When Richard Bona puts his name on a product, you know it has to be good. That’s why we weren’t surprised that the first line of bass guitars from Markbass is stellar on all fronts. With a highend model (the Kilimanjaro) and a less expensive series (the Kimandu), these 4 and 5-strings basses are beautifully crafted and boast phenomenal tone that we got to hear played by Bona himself. markbass.it

BackBeat

Rumble Pack

One item generating a ton of buzz this year (both figuratively and literally) is the innovative new wearable rumble pack from BackBeat. This small device clips to the back of your bass strap and vibrates along with every note and bass line you play. Great for players who use in-ear monitors or play through smaller rigs, we feel like this innovation is a must-have. getbackbeat.com

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WINTER NAMM 2019

Genzler Amplification BA410-3 SLT

We made our way over to the Genzler booth with our very own Ed Friedland, who demoed Genzler’s new BA410-3 SLT slanted cabinets for us. The four 10" neodymium woofers pack so much power and clarity into every note, and we were able to hear the advantages of the slanted cabinet design, as they projected a thick, rich tone that blew our socks off. We credit Ed for that effect as well. genzleramplification.com

Sadowsky

Spruce Core Single Cut Bass

We felt lucky just being able to see Sadowsky’s new Single Cut bass in person, but it was an amazing experience to hear the man behind the bass himself, Roger Sadowsky, explain that he chose spruce wood because of its immense resonance — that’s why its used for pianos, mandolins, and violins. Listening to its Sadowsky mid-boost preamp and soapbar pickups in action solidified Roger’s point. sadowsky.com

G&L Guitars CLF L-2000

We spent a lot of time lingering around the G&L Guitars booth the entire week because we just couldn’t get enough of the company’s 2019 bass offerings. One of our favorites is the CLF Research L-2000 bass, with two Magnetic Field Design pickups that can make the tone shift from a classic P-Bass sound to a powerful gain-driven StingRay. We couldn’t put it down. glguitars.com

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Warwick

Shavo Signature Series Basses

Shavo Odadjian of System Of A Down is Warwick’s latest player transplant, and to welcome him over to their family, they gave him not one, but two stunningly designed signature basses. Created in both Streamer and Idolmaker body styles, the new signature basses were designed and conceptualized by Shavo himself on a recent trip to Germany, and we can’t wait to try one out ourselves. warwickbass.com

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WINTER NAMM 2019

Elrick Bass Guitars

Handcarved Icon Gold Series Bass

With beautiful hand-carved bodies, bolt-on necks, and a heel-less design, the new Icon Gold series is yet another masterpiece of building from luthier Rob Elrick. Available in 4- and 5-string models, these basses have 34" scales, come equipped with Bartolini pickups, and have swamp-ash bodies and quarter-sawn hard-maple necks that make their level of playability exceed all expectations. elrick.com

Mayones Guitars & Basses

Phil Jones Bass

Micro 7 and BP 800

Phil Jones Bass always brings a slew of innovative new offerings to every NAMM show, so we decided to profile two new products. The compact Micro 7 combo amp is super lightweight at only 15.5 pounds, and it kicks out a sound much bigger than its 7" driver and 3" tweeter should be able to convey. PJB also unveiled its new BP 800 head, which weighs only 5.7 pounds and sits at a tiny 7.5" wide. For the gigging bass player on the go. pjbworld.com

Hadrien Feraud 5-string Signature Jabba Bass

Mayones debuted the latest addition to its Signature Hadrien Feraud Jabba Basses with a new 5-string model. We’ve been huge fans of his original 4-string signature, so this bass was something we had to check out. With a profiled swamp-ash body, spruce top, and block inlay-lined frets, this is one of the sexiest-looking basses we stumbled onto. mayones.com

Lakland

Geezer Butler Signature Bass

The new all-black 55-94 Geezer Butler Signature model has a classic look and feel suited for the man behind Black Sabbath. Made of deluxe buckeye burl with an ebony fingerboard, this bass was just one of the many impressive new models that Lakland brought to the show. We almost got into a wrestling match with Ben Kenney to see who was going to take it home with them. (Full disclosure: He won.) lakland.com

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WINTER NAMM 2019

Blast Cult

Fretless Thirty 2 Bass

We swung by Blast Cult’s booth to witness a masterclass on grooving on upright bass from Miles Mosley, and ended up falling in love with the company’s latest fretless Thirty 2 Bass model. With a slick green paint job and a modern-meets-vintage design, this new 4-string was infinitely fun to play and boasts supreme sound. blastcult.com

LEH Guitars

Offset 4-string Bass

If our wrap-up had a “Rookie of the Year” award, it would definitely go to Lisa Ellis Hahn for her flagship bass series, the LEH Offset 4-string. But don’t be confused — Lisa is no rookie at all, as she has served as the top builder at Sadowsky Guitars since 2005 and is a seasoned veteran at making basses. The Offset reflects all of her luthier prowess, and we’re thrilled to see what’s next from her collection. lehguitars.com

Music Man

Joe Dart Signature

While it’s yet to be determined whether this will be a one-off prototype or something Music Man will put into production in the future, we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention Joe Dart of Vulfpeck’s new signature bass. With a full-scale 34" neck, natural finish, and simple one-knob setup, this bass is one of a kind. Big thanks to Joe for letting us steal it for a bit. music-man.com

Tech 21

SansAmp YYZ Geddy Lee

Taking the design of the previously released rack-mounted GED-2112 made for Geddy Lee, SansAmp has run with that engine and made it even smaller with the new YYZ pedal. This analog pedal allows you to cop Geddy’s tone and a versatile range of other sounds with a drive control, 3-band EQ, and a deep drive knob that will thrust your playing into the limelight. tech21.com

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WINTER NAMM 2019

Ashdown

CL-310DH Cabinets

Originally constructed specifically for Guy Pratt, these cabinets recently went into production and have a unique configuration of three 10" custom Ashdown drivers, and two high-frequency horns to project at loud volumes. Rated at 450 watts at 8 ohms, these tall and slender cabs have a unique look and sound. ashdownmusic.com

Hartke

HD508 Bass Combo

We visited the Hartke booth to listen to Victor Wooten perform with John Ferrara, and also to check out Hartke’s new HD508 combo amp — and we weren’t disappointed on either accounts. Weighing in at only 49 pounds, this combo features a 500-watt Class D amplifier and four 8" HyDrive speakers. It sounds killer. samsontech.com/hartke

La Bella

Olinto 5-string

La Bella’s Olinto line of basses has expanded with a 5-string model, and it’s every bit as phenomenal and vintage-sounding as all of La Bella’s 4-strings. Highly customizable options for these basses include a choice of body wood: alder, swamp ash, northern ash, mahogany, makore, black limba, and roasted. labella.com

GRBass Amps

ONE Pure Sound Amp

Italian-based GR Bass has released its latest amplifier that packs a lot of power into a small frame. The new ONE amp (available in 1,400-, 800-, and 350-watt models) have deep and bright filters, a preamp exclusion function when “Pure Mode” is initiated, an integrated tuner, a high-quality headphone amplifier, and amazing tone all around. grbass.com l

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Bizou

NICOLE FIORENTINO

Return To The Spotlight

By Jon D’Auria | Photos by ZB Images

IN

2010, Nicole Fiorentino’s life changed forever when it was announced that she was the new bassist for alternative rock legends Smashing Pumpkins. She was no stranger to the limelight, having previously been a member of other popular rock acts such as Veruca Salt, Spinnerette, and Light FM. Similarly, that same year she also formed the band The Cold And Lovely, which made for a nonstop touring schedule and also put Fiorentino’s writing and recording skills to the test. She went on to release Teargarden

by Kaleidyscope (2010) and Oceania (2012) with Smashing Pumpkins, and The Cold And Lovely’s self-titled debut (2012) and Ellis Bell (2013). She was up for the test, and delivered massive bass performances on each of the al-

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bums, while solidifying her prolific stature as a bass player.

Fiorentino’s magnetic stage presence and staggering tone made her stand out and become a favorite among fans of both bands.

When we had a chance to discuss her playing with Billy Corgan, the Smashing Pumpkins frontman likened her style to that of Chris Squire of Yes, an incisive comparison given Fiorentino’s strong rhythmic propulsion and her cutting midrange sound. She continued to develop a mature musical identity with both of her musical outlets, but in 2014 she announced that she was departing from the Pumpkins lineup, and in 2016 it was revealed that The Cold And Lovely would be taking an indefinite hiatus. The non-stop touring and studio schedule that she had grown accustomed to had

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Nicole Fiorentino

now subsided, and for the first time in a long time, she allotted herself some space away from music. In 2016 she formed her own business, a pet-sitting and charitable organization in Los Angeles that fueled her other love besides low end, dogs and cats.

Content with her new lifestyle, it was going to take something special to make Nicole want to don her bass once again, and that project found her late in 2018 when her close friends approached her to start a new band.

The initial jam sessions reinvigorated her love of playing, and before long, the group Bizou was minted and ready for action. In her own words, Nicole describes Bizou’s music as a sweet and poppy brand of dark beach goth that resembles if Siouxsie Sioux had a baby with Lush. We’d explain it better than that, but we really can’t. And naturally, the root of the music lies in the powerful, chorus and gain-driven lines of Fiorentino, who seemingly hasn’t skipped a beat in her time away.

Bizou has now recently released its self-titled debut EP, with a distinctive vibe that makes this nascent outfit already sound like a seasoned band. But that’s exactly what we’ve come to expect from any project Fiorentino steps into.

L I ST E N Bizou [2019] GEAR BASS Bonneville ’60s-inspired J-style bass RIG Aguilar Tone Hammer 500 head, Aguilar SL 212 cabinet EFFECTS Electro-Harmonix Neo Clone Analog Chorus, Boss CEB Bass Chorus, Tech 21 SansAmp Bass DI STRINGS DR Strings 45 Pure Blues Round Wounds

A

fter you departed from Smashing Pumpkins, you decided to take a break from music. What made you want to return?

I started my business and wanted to focus on that, and with any new company, the first two years are the hardest, so I really didn’t have time for anything else. But after a while I was itching to play again. I was waiting for the right thing to come along, something that just made sense to me. I’ve known Josiah [Mazzaschi] for years; we were in Light FM together right before I joined SP. Nicki [Nevlin] is my best friend, and we’ve been in many projects with each other over the years. Erin [Tidwell] is a longtime friend and played drums in my band The Cold And Lovely, and we met Mina [Prietto], our badass singer, through Erin. Going into this we all had a great rapport and a good under-

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standing of how we all work musically. We started writing songs and it all came together very naturally.

How did you approach the bass in this band differently than your work in Smashing Pumpkins and The Cold And Lovely?

I’m not sure if it’s because I took a long break or what, but there is a different vibe altogether in this band. I feel like it’s a clean slate for me as a bass player. I feel like the people I’m working with are really open to my ideas, not that Billy [Corgan] or Meg [Toohey] weren’t open — I think I was just in a very different place in my life when I was in both of those bands. Billy always encouraged me to play from my heart, but it was a very high-pressure situation. Meg was encouraging, too, but there’s a whole other layer added being in a band with your significant other. I feel very free in this band and very supported. Also for the first time in a long time I’m really just doing this for fun, because I love to play. And that’s a good place to be as a musician.

What was your process writing your bass parts?

Josiah is our secret weapon; he’s a jackof-all-trades kind of person. He writes the core of the songs, and we all work on our own parts based off that. I like to sit with the songs at home and work out my parts, and then when we rehearse I’ll often rearrange my parts depending on what Erin and Nicki have come up with. It’s a fun collaboration, and we are all super open to each other’s ideas.

Your bass lines have almost an ’80s postpunk, gothic feel to them à la the Cure or Joy Division.

The Cure are my all time fave, and Joy Division as well. I’ve always loved Peter Hook’s midrange melodic style, and it plays into how I approach the bass when writing my parts.

The rest of the band listens to a lot of Siouxsie Sioux, New Order, Chameleons, Curve, Wire, and all those similar bands.

There are a lot of elements, like synth lines and added melodies. How did you find your harmonic space?

Jump Head

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Nicole Fiorentino

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dancing. They just can’t help but move their little booties to it. It’s our disco jam.

How did you achieve your tone for this EP? In the studio we recorded with both a DI and amp signal and blended the two. A lot of the effects were applied with Pro Tools in the mix. The DI was a SansAmp, which gave it a little more drive. We used the SoundToys Decapitator 5 plug-in quite a bit, and the Electro-Harmonix Neo Clone Chorus and some Waves plug-ins. We also used a Boss Super Chorus pedal. I love choruses. For the song “Scars,” we ended up using a live recording on the EP rather than the studio tracks, because, why not?

And you used basses different from the Fenders and Reverends that you had previously.

My friend Lyndz McKay [bonnevilleguitars.com] builds these gorgeous vintage-inspired guitars and basses that just play beautifully. They feel so good in your hands,

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Bizou performing live.

PRISCILLA C. SCOTT

We compromise. Sometimes there will be a keyboard part that’s really cool, but then I write a part that makes more sense for the song, so we’ll just take out the keyboard, or I’ll write a part but it’s clashing with the keys so I’ll simplify it or take it out altogether. I usually start with more and then have to pare it back a little. I tend to be too wordy with my bass parts, and I always have to check myself.

Your lines in “Love Addicts” really drive the whole song.

I think it’s inspired by The Cure’s Disintegration [1989]. That album is often in my mind when writing bass lines. It’s such a classic. Specifically “Fascination Street,” it’s just so groovy and driving.

“Like Rain” is a grooving song where you really dig in.

That’s probably my favorite song to play live right now. Some of our stuff is pretty moody, but that one always gets the crowd

CLF Research L-2000

made in Fullerton, California

Nicole Fiorentino

PRISCILLA C. SCOTT

too. I know a lot of people are making relic guitars now, but Lyndz’s guitars are something special. He gave it to me about four years ago when was in The Cold And Lovely, and it has been my main bass ever since.

They’re inspired and designed after ’60s [Fender] Jazz Basses.

How did playing in Smashing Pumpkins impact you as a bass player?

Oh my God, in so many ways. Stylistically, I always felt I had the freedom to be me, but I had to figure out and step into myself in order to hold my own. I had some pretty badass predecessors on bass in SP, so I had to find a way to honor the history, but also stand out. I was up for the challenge, though.

I feel like I did make my mark with Oceania [2012], as my style is all over that record. In general, I had to up my game or I was going to fall flat on my face. Billy was a great mentor; we had a great musical connection, and I felt trusted and respected as a player. That trust helped build my confidence in myself.

I’ve taken that with me in my other projects — this idea that if I trust my instincts, they won’t lead me astray.

Do you miss any elements of being in that band?

Yeah, of course. I love those songs, and I

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miss playing them. I miss the energy of their audience, and I had a great bond with a lot of the fans, and I miss seeing them out at the shows. I do feel like I am still supported by the SP community, which is really wonderful.

Many of them have continued to follow my projects over the years. It warms my heart.

Are there any bass players who have been inspiring you lately?

I love watching my friend Ashley Reeve [Cher, Filter] onstage; she’s such a raw talent.

And Nikki Monniger of Silversun Pickups is also amazing. My all-time faves are Simon Gallup, Peter Hook, Kim Gordon, Carlos D, Jennifer Finch, and Krist Novoselic.

How have you evolved as a bass player from your early years of playing?

I think it’s not only a matter of playing in so many bands, but just getting older and learning to trust my gut when it comes to musical choices. Listening to my instincts and not worrying so much anymore about what other people think are important to me now.

And I’ve been lucky enough to learn personally from some of rock’s greatest artists, so I’ve taken all of those tools along with me.

I’ve tried to pick up what I can along the way and just continue to learn and grow individually. It’s been a wild ride, that’s for sure. l

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Jump Head

“I

was happy to be called to play bass — not to spin the bass around my neck or even to solo, but just to play foundational, grooving bass, which is what I love to do.” So says Victor Wooten remembering a call from Dave Matthews Band saxophonist Jeff Coffin to anchor a live recording in Nashville featuring saxophone titan Dave Liebman. On the Corner Live!: The Music of Miles Davis, with drummer Chester

Thompson, keyboardist Chris Walters, and guitarist James DiSilva rounding out the sextet, draws from Davis’ fertile 1972 jazz–rock– funk platter of the same name, on which Liebman played a starring role. The unit also covers material from Davis’ In a Silent Way and Live Evil [all on Columbia]. That meant mining the minimalist, hypnotic ostinatos of Michael Henderson. Offers Wooten, “I was familiar with Miles’ music in that era through my brothers, who were avid listeners, but I

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Jump Head

Victor Wooten Revisits Miles Davis’ On the Corner With Dave Liebman & Jeff Coffin

By Chris Jisi didn’t really know the players. I knew Michael more from being a pop vocalist in the late ’70s, with his hit, ‘You Are My Starship.’

He was certainly the vital backbone of Miles’ music in that period.”

To prepare for the gig at the Nashville venue 3rd and Lindsley, the band received recordings and charts and had one rehearsal.

“Dave likes to keep it loose, so a chart might have eight bars of a notated line and that’s it, or a little notation and then a prompt that the bass player and drummer should come up with a new groove in a specified key. I love that, because it invites the band in.

Dave trusted us to provide him with quality support and inspiration.” As for his rhythm mate, Thompson, best known for his work with Phil Collins, Frank Zappa, and Weather Report — including Jaco’s debut with the band, “Barbary Coast” [Black Market, 1976, Columbia] — Wooten was hip. “Chester lives here in Nashville, so I’ve gotten to play and hang out with him a good bit. He comes from an older school of drumming that reminds me of playing with my brother Roy or Lenny White. There’s a grit and humanity in

their playing that’s sometimes missing from younger, chops-’n’-flash-oriented drummers.

Their sole objective is to make the song or the soloist sound good, and there’s always a little dirt in their part that brings the emotion to the music.”

Wooten is equal parts hands and ears throughout the album. He sets up a percolating boogaloo on the title track and works angular, intervallic written lines into his pulse on “Wili” (listen for his quick E-string tune-down to grab a few ultra-low notes).

Elsewhere, his free-form, harmonics-infused “Bass Interlude” settles into the briskly paced, dynamic “Black Satin,” and he picks up his fretless Taylor acoustic bass guitar for the airy ballad “Selim.” Staying home on the twonote ostinato of “Ife” leads to more stretching on the experimental burner “Mojo.” Finally, his bubbling, muted-fingerstyle foray drives the album-closing “Jean-Pierre” [We Want Miles, 1982, Columbia]—a more contemporary Davis cover that boasted a young Marcus Miller.

With so many of the album’s songs centered around one-chord vamps, does Wooten

VIEW

L I ST E N On the Corner Live!: The Music of Miles Davis [2019, Ear Up] Gear BASSES Fodera YinYang 4-string, fretless Taylor acoustic bass guitar STRINGS DR Strings Pure Blues PBVW-40 AMPS Hartke LH1000 head with 410 Hydrive cabinet EFFECTS Zoom B3 Bass Effects Pedal

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Victor Wooten

have advice for bassists faced with similar situations, who are unclear about when to stay home on the bass line and when to improvise?

“To me, there are three keys: First, don’t be afraid to play something over and over. That creates a musical mantra or trance, which is really what a groove is supposed to do. At the same time, you can’t play a repetitive figure as if you’re coasting; you have to continually add momentum and energy so the song can maintain itself and move forward. The second key is listening; if you do that correctly, the song and the band will let you know when to change or if you need to change. That kind of conversational approach will also keep the song alive. The third key is having some kind of theory knowledge to understand that just because you’re playing on one chord doesn’t

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mean you can only play the root. There are seven diatonic chords in the given key to choose notes from. So if we’re in Gm, I may play and E or an A at the end of an eight-bar phrase, just to change the chord quality and throw in a different color. That’s the power of the bass: We can change the quality of the chord simply by playing a different note. As I tell students at Berklee, every instrument has a superpower. Once you learn what it is and how to use it, you become more potent as a musician.”

For Wooten, the opportunity to cover the bass chair for this historic revisit was its own reward. “I got to play Miles Davis’ music with the great Dave Liebman, one of Miles’ musicians. That’s an honor that will hold a special place in my career.” l

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Philm, Ultraphonix

PANCHO TOMASELLI Low Rider

By Jon D’Auria |

R

Photo by Kevin Blades

egardless of where he is or whom he’s with, Pancho Tomaselli is always the biggest personality in any room he steps into. Whether it’s his lightning-fast wit, the abundant life lessons that he’s quick to impart, his hilarious tour stories, or the intense charisma he embodies when he sparks up a conversation, the 44-year-old has a swagger all his own. And when it comes time to step onstage, the Ecuadorian-born 4-stringer’s playing somehow overshadows his persona. That’s why legendary acts such as War, Tower Of Power, Rex Brown, Eric Burdon, Dos Lobos, Tricky, Nelly Furtado, and many others have enlisted his powerful playing for their music.

Tomaselli moved from Ecuador at age 20 to attend the Berklee College of Music, but not to study bass. Instead he graduated with a degree in Music Business and Management.

From there he moved to Los Angeles, where he landed a high position with Virgin Records in its A&R department, which led him to work with Janet Jackson, the Rolling Stones, Lenny Kravitz, Ben Harper, and a slew of others before he got the itch to jump to the other side of the desk to pursue music once again. Several bands instantly recruited him before he got the call to join War, a bass chair he proudly held for 16 years. This eventually led to him stepping in for Rocco Prestia in Tower Of

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Power for a series of tours in 2013.

From there, Tomaselli decided to create his own music. That’s when he helped form the rock trio Philm, featuring drummer Dave Lombardo (Slayer) and guitarist Gerry Nestler. Now sans Lombardo, Philm is preparing to release its third album, Time Burner. The release will coincide with the debut album, Original Human Music, from his other outfit, Ultraphonix, a hard-hitting rock supergroup that features Corey Glover (Living Colour), George Lynch (Dokken), and drummer Chris Moore. When he’s not occupied with those bands, Tomaselli is keeping busy writing original music and scores with his old mates from Dig Infinity and putting the finishing touches on his new signature-series basses from G&L Guitars. “I’m always busy, because I’m willing to work harder than anyone else,” says Tomaselli. “Aside from that, I’m just a shredder bass player who never plays roots and 5ths and was blessed with chops and a good ear.”

ow do you prepare for all of these big gigs that you land?

I’m the type of player who is called to come in and fix holes. When I got the War gig, I looked at what B.B. [Dickenson, founding bassist] wore to the shows, what he smoked before the gigs, where he was from, what he ate, what his amp settings were, what bass he was playing — I would go deep into the psy-

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Pancho Tomaselli

L I ST E N Philm, Time Burner [2018, philmofficial. com]; Ultraphonix, Original Human Music [2018, Edel Germany] EQUIP BASS G&L SB1 P-style, fretless Kiloton, JB 4-string, and LB100 RIG Form Factor BI1000 head, Form Factor 2B-10L and 1B15L cabinet PEDALS Line 6 Helix, Gogo Tuner STRINGS D’Addario Medium Half Rounds (.050-.105)

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chology of the gig. Anyone can play the notes; notes are just notes. But the true pros pay attention to the details and absorb all of the parts of the role. When I was playing for Rocco in Tower, I went to ESP and told them to set my action how Rocco had his on his basses. So they mailed me a P-Bass, and the action was set so damn high. That’s the only way you can play that many 16th-notes without being wobbly. It’s all in the high action. But that’s a detail that could’ve been overlooked if I hadn’t searched it out and replicated it authentically.

How did get the opportunity to play in Tower Of Power?

I got a message early one morning from [drummer] Dave Garibaldi that said to call him immediately after I finished my huevos.

So I did, and they told me Rocco was having some health issues. The first concert was that week and I had to decide immediately if I would take it. It was a no brainer. The craziest thing about that gig was that I had no rehearsals with them, and I had never played a note with the band before those tours. I don’t do covers in my personal practice, so I had never played any of that music whatsoever.

The first time I ever played “What Is Hip” was onstage with Tower for a packed crowd.

It was a wild experience. It was definitely the biggest challenge and the most daunting thing I’ve done in my career. It was like Rocco and Garibaldi and the whole world of funk was asking for my help, and I had to step up to the challenge.

Why did you study business instead of bass at Berklee?

I studied music business because it was the only way I could get funding for it. But that’s probably what made me so directed in my career. If I had studied bass at Berklee, I’d probably show up to all of these gigs with written charts, a 6-string bass, and I’d probably slap and tap all over the place. But instead I came into this business playing with street cats like War and Dos Lobos, where they just shut up and play. And they do it really damn well.

How did you go from being a major-label A&R person to playing in War? My first gig back was playing cumbia mu-

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sic in a band called Sonora Dinamita, which was great because it was a familiar sound to me, so it was easy for me to get back into the swing of being a professional musician. Then I got the call from War. I really didn’t understand how iconic and how big War was when I joined them. Musically, they taught me how to play. Everything I know as a bass player I learned from that gig. And it wasn’t just funk — we’d play all types of music. I held that bass chair for 13 years and loved it.

What’s a specific lesson that you took away from that band?

One big thing that I learned from War is that a mistake is only a mistake if you make an obvious face and then you don’t repeat the mistake again. If you mess up and shrug or look at someone else, then everyone will know you messed up. Just keep your head down, play the same wrong note again and then laugh with the band about it later. You see, War is all ghetto players, so they know the little secrets of music.

What can we expect from the new albums coming out with Philm and Ultraphonix?

The Ultraphonix album was so great to make. We got together and wrote a bunch of songs, and it’s all super bass heavy. After I finished tracking, I called Juan Alderete [Mars Volta, Racer X] and told him that I jacked his moves on this stuff. With Philm we lost Dave Lombardo for this album, so Gerry Nestler and I wrote a new album, and now we’re going to release it and play some shows.

It was a one-take album where we just went in and tracked quickly and put vocals on top of it, and I’m so excited for the world to hear it. It’s our best music yet.

What’s your best advice for working bassists?

More than ever, right now is the time to really be yourself and stay off the trends. Famous people are so damn famous now that if you do what they’re doing, you won’t make it. By the time you get noticed, everyone will be on to the next fad. Don’t chase all of that; just be yourself. I’ll always just be me. I play a 4-string bass with dead strings, and if you like it, call me — and if you don’t, I’ll find another gig. No biggie. l

Pancho Tomaselli

JARED SCHLACHET

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ADELINE 36

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FINDING HER VOICE

By Bill Leigh | Photos By Dennis Manuel

T

he stars seem aligned for Adeline. Since moving to New York from Paris 14 years ago, the singer/bassist fronted two albums with slick 17-piece disco throwback band Escort, including a self-titled debut, which made Rolling Stone’s top 50 albums for 2012. Then there was a two-year stint playing on NBC’s Meredith Vieira Show, which led to a bass-and-backing-vocals gig with singer CeeLo Green. Now with her debut album, Adeline [ad-uhleen] — a funky outing influenced as much by Prince as by the Caribbean music of her father’s native Martinique — Adeline is coming into her own as a solo artist. “I was always writing my own stuff,” she says.

“It just seemed like a natural evolution as an artist.”

Finally releasing her first solo album required a bit of a psychological “push,” as Adeline describes it.

“I was a huge fan of Prince, and when he died I was devastated. People I met who had worked with him told me, ‘He’d love you,’ so his death kind of selfishly shattered my dreams of someday collaborating with him. But I was also inspired, because Stevie Wonder spoke about how fearless Prince was in his music, and that if you introduce fear into yourCaption music, you cease being creative. That hit me so hard; I realized I’d been afraid of doing this solo stuff, and I had no more excuses. So I just went for it.”

Adeline had been a touring singer even as a child, and she took up guitar at age 15 to begin writing her own songs. Bass entered the picture shortly after she moved to New York, when a hired bassist cancelled the day before a gig, and her bandmates encouraged her to play bass. “I totally fell in love with the way it felt on my fingers, the way it sounded, the feel, and

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Adeline

just the attitude and everything about it. It was like, Oh my God, that’s what I was looking for.”

Once hooked, Adeline locked herself in her apartment for a year of intense practice.

“I was lucky to be surrounded by some amazing bassists who could show me things,” she explains. Chief among her bass mentors was Fred Cash Jr., son of Impressions co-founder Fred Cash Sr., who had himself been mentored by Impressions and Curtis Mayfield bassist and music director Joseph “Lucky” Scott. “‘Super Fly’ was one of the first big songs I had learned; I’m a huge Curtis Mayfield fan and was really drawn to Lucky Scott’s sound. So my mentor was mentored by my favorite bass player.”

Adeline’s bass influences can be heard all over Adeline [ad-uh-leen]. There’s the Lucky Scott-style R&B syncopation driving “Never Know” and the disco octaves and hammer-ons of “Before”; the stuttering Bernard Edwards-meets-Jamiroquai pulse of “Echo”;

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the taut, pocketed slaps anchoring “Emeralds” and “Café Au Lait”; and the greasy hiphop subhook of “Satellite.” She’s also inspired by her contemporaries, like Alissia Benveniste [Bootsy Collins] and Brooklyn-based doubler Burniss Earl Travis II [Common, Robert Glasper]. Vocally, Adeline pays close attention to other bassists who sing. “Meshell Ndegeocello is my favorite, and I also love Larry Graham’s work with Graham Central Station. In terms of singing and playing, technically, Esperanza Spalding does it at the highest level.”

So how does Adeline approach playing and singing at the same time? “When I started playing bass, I learned the parts for songs where I was already singing. So I was already thinking of bass as an accompaniment to singing, but it’s still extremely challenging. I realized that it was taking me like five times longer to learn a song than other people, because when you’re singing and playing, you’ve got to run it over and over. Now it’s

Adeline

just part of my process. One trick I use when the rhythm of the vocals and bass are different is to count out the bass-line rhythm slowly with a metronome until it becomes second nature. Then I place the words in the rhythm.

But that’s why I enjoy playing for other people also, because I’m a bit freer on bass when I’m not singing at the same time.”

When it comes to refining her musical voice, Adeline also focuses on getting a good bass tone. Her tools include Sadowsky basses and Aguilar amps. “Both Roger Sadowsky and the guys at Aguilar set me up in style for Meredith’s show, and they continue to provide amazing support,” she says. Underfoot,

a favorite is her Aguilar Filter Twin. “That’s the one I really like. I use it for Bootsy Collins moments of slap with filter effects.” She continues, “I’m a huge fan of Meshell’s sound, and the last time I saw her play, it made me understand that I needed to spend some time on getting my bass tone, so that’s what I’ve been working on since my last tour. I just spent more time getting the sound right in soundcheck and in band rehearsals.” Adeline’s bass tone philosophy is simple: “I really want to get my tone to be like a second voice, besides my singing voice. People focus on my voice because I’m a singer, but I want to have a pretty voice with my bass, too.” l

L I ST E N Adeline [ad-uh-leen], 2018 GEAR Basses Sadowsky J-Basses Strings Sadowsky Blue Label stainless steel (.045–.105) Amps Aguilar DB 751 head with DB 810 cabinet; Tone Hammer 500 head with SL 112 cabinets Effects Aguilar Filter Twin, DigiTech Bass Whammy, Boss Super Octave

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Jump Head

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5-String Superhero

By Jon D’Auria

AS

with most children growing up in Osaka, Japan, the scope of Kiyoshi’s musical world as a young girl revolved around Japanese pop music and Anime theme songs. She took piano lessons regularly from a budding age and would contently sing along with her favorite songs on the TV and radio when she wasn’t immersed in her studies. Her modest taste in music, however, took a vast turn when she turned 15 and learned about the exploding alternative rock scene of the ’90s that was going down in America. All of a sudden her taste in music shifted from regional genres to the booming music of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rage Against The Machine, Mudvayne, Fishbone, 311, and especially Primus. Realizing that a common theme among these bands was their prominent use of bass, Kiyoshi quickly ditched her piano studies and bought a 4-string that became her new obsession.

She submersed herself into the instrument, and by learning songs by the bands she adored, including the slapping and tapping lines of Les Claypool, she eventually became a hot commodity in the music scene around her. By also teaching herself how to sing while playing, she began writing her own songs, which led her to join Japanese rock bands Madcap Laughs and Inside Me, as well

as appearing in the 2016 Japanese movie Too Young to Die. Once she felt she had found her unique musical voice, Kiyoshi wrote her own solo material, which led to her 2016 release, Kiyoshi, and her sophomore follow up, 2017’s Kiyoshi2, which both feature her covering all the musical parts minus drums.

These albums caught the attention of former Megadeth guitarist Marty Friedman, who enlisted her as the touring bassist for his band. At this time she also caught the attention of Warwick Basses, who brought her on as an endorsee and made her own series of Streamer basses. In 2018, Kiyoshi released her third solo album, Kiyoshi3. It features her honed playing and tenacious slap chops, which kick off the album on the song “Hero,” and continue the sonic attack with her dirty tone and fast wrists on “Sign” and “Escape.”

Gaining attention from reaches of the globe far from Japan, Kiyoshi’s musical journey is gaining steam more than ever before. And much like her slap riffs, it’s showing no signs of slowing down.

W

hat was the writing process like for Kiyoshi3?

Since about 2016, when I released my first album, making songs has become much faster, and I always knew that I wanted to do this two-piece band someday.

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Kiyoshi

L I ST E N Kiyoshi, Kiyoshi3 EQUIP BASSES Warwick Streamer Stage II 5-string, Streamer Stage I 5-string, Thumb Bass 5-string RIG Gallien-Krueger 1001RB II, SWR Goliath III, SWR Big Ben 2x15 EFFECTS Fulltone Bassdrive, MXR M-80 Bass D.I.+, SansAmp Bass Driver DI, EBS MultiComp, Electro-Harmonix Micro POG, Electro-Harmonix Pitch Fork, Boss Harmonist STRINGS D’Addario Medium 5-string

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I write all of the songs and arrange them and play all the sounds except drums, so it is very quick to complete them. It is not necessary to think about guitarists, keyboardists, and other instruments. Thinking only about the most important rhythms and melodies, making songs with few instruments is very free and a lot of fun, and the ideas spill out rapidly. It was smooth and easy to make three albums because of that.

How do you typically write your songs?

Does it always start with a bass riff?

I often hum while playing the bass, so the song will be completed naturally because my lines and vocals come about at once. I keep a lot of stock of riffs and melodies that I’ve made in the past few years, so sometimes I connect them and complete them by piecing them together to form full songs.

How would you say Kiyoshi3 is most different from Kiyoshi and Kiyoshi2?

My first album is a work with many experimental elements. Everything was my first experience; it was my first time creating an album with just drums and bass, and it was also my first time singing by myself. When I listen to it now, I feel that my voice was so weak and thin, and that the sound was crude, but I do like its passion. The sound I wanted was clarified with Kiyoshi2. I aimed for a very intense, clear, and vivid bass and drum sound. It incorporates a wide range of music genres, from my favorite ’90s alternative vibes, pop themes from the ’80s, rhythms like U.K. rock bands, and lots of other elements.

In Kiyoshi3, those elements are getting stronger. I think that my performance and sound are the highest quality they’ve ever been. The biggest difference is that my singing has become a much stronger presence. I’m very glad that my voice has become so powerful.

I hear some Les Claypool influence in the riffs of “Hero” and “Escape.”

He is my superhero! He is my favorite bassist in the world. I have all of his albums, and I learned a lot of his riffs. It was a shock when I listened to Primus’ “Tommy the Cat” for the first time. “What is this sound?

How does he move his hands like that?” I

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watched the video over and over and practiced. I learned from him how to slap, like I do in “Hero.” His songs are perfectly complete with only the bass riffs. He taught me that bass can support songs, but it can also be the song’s main element.

You play some great chordal parts in “Mirror” and “Stay.”

My band is only my drummer and me, so sometimes my bass plays the role of guitar.

I can’t play the guitar, but I play like a guitarist on bass sometimes. I wrote “Stay” as if I were playing an acoustic guitar. I like the resonance of the bass chords very much, but when playing too many strings at once, sometimes the sound becomes muddy. So mostly I only strum two or three strings at a time. I like playing the root note with the 4th string and chords with 1st and 2nd strings.

Your style shifts a lot from rock to heavy to progressive to alternative. How would you describe your music in your own words?

I love the beautiful melody of the Japanese music I grew up listening to. I like to sing super-catchy melodies on funky and heavy bass riffs. It would be wonderful if I could rap like Zack de la Rocha or scream like Jonathan Davis, but I can’t. But luckily I like my innate voice now.

What is your ideal bass tone, and how do you achieve it?

I like both super-distorted and clear sounds. In recording, I make both a very clear sound and a very distorted sound, and I mix them together at different parts. The allocation of clean and distortion is changed by what the song calls for exactly.

You get a great slapping sound. Describe your technique.

I actually slap the strings pretty softly.

I’ve learned that you don’t need to bang on the strings to get a big sound. Sometimes it feels like I’m simply placing my finger on the string when I slap. Sometimes I swing my arm a lot and do big arm actions, but the moment I touch the strings I’m gentle. That part is just for show and being in the moment of the performance.

Why do you prefer 5-string basses?

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Kiyoshi

I like playing heavy rock, so I need the low B or low A. The possibility of my bass lines expand with that extra string. The 5-string has narrower string spacing than a 4-string, so

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it’s also easy for me to strum chords on them.

What do you love about Warwick basses?

Most of my favorite bassists are playing Warwicks — P-Nut, Norwood Fisher, Ryan

Kiyoshi

Martinie, Robert Trujillo, and so many others. The Warwick bass sound is very clear without being buried, even in intense music.

Becoming a part of the Warwick family was my dream. Two years ago the dream came true! Now Warwick makes basses for me. I still can’t believe it.

You started playing bass at age 15. What led you to choose bass?

I wanted to listen to more music and began to explore music from all over the world.

My preference for music changed more and more to heavy things. Rap-rock and funk-metal was music I had never heard before, and there were incredibly cool bands that changed my life. The thing that always stood out for me was the bass player. I was amazed that various sounds were coming from the bass, and I felt that the bass, universally, was the source of the groove of music.

That’s when I decided to pick up the bass.

Was it natural for you to play bass in the beginning?

It came very naturally to me. I could not think of anything I wanted to do other than play bass. But in fact, my first dream about the bass was not to become a bass player, but to become a bass builder. My interest in the bass became very deep, and I wanted to make this instrument with my own hands. I wanted to be a craftsman like Carl Thompson. I went to a school where I learned how to make musical instruments, and I made a lot of basses.

It was a very fun time, but I quickly learned that it is more fun to play the bass than it is to make them.

What was the first bass you owned?

It was an ESP Guitars 4-string, “Forest.” I bought the same one as the bass player of my favorite Japanese rock band, L’Arc-en-Ciel. I learned all of their music by playing with a pick, but now I don’t use picks anymore.

Has it always been easy for you to play bass and sing at the same time?

Not at all. At first it was very difficult, but I got used to it after practicing it a lot. Before standing on the stage, I know the bass lines in and out and don’t have to think about them so that I can concentrate on singing.

Your live shows are very energetic and powerful. What’s going on in your mind when you play?

I don’t think much about what I’m doing.

I throw myself into the music, and the music will guide me. I’m not thinking, “Let’s shake my head here, let’s jump here,” and so on. If I play like my bass is coming from my body, not from the speaker, it will be a great show. I sometimes get nervous or lose confidence before a concert, but the moment I stand on the stage, the audience turns on my switch. They make me a superhero. When I play onstage, I believe that I’m a great bass player. I think that is common courtesy to the audience.

What’s it like playing with Marty Friedman?

He somehow plays the guitar as if he is singing through his instrument, so I feel like I’m playing with a singer when we’re onstage together. What he does on guitar is so amazing, I can just sit back and play eight root notes and it still sounds good. He is a perfectionist — he has mastered so many difficult techniques — but onstage he emphasizes the band’s groove and passion more than technique, unlike a lot of players.

What do you like most about his music?

I like his super-heavy riffs, and also his beautiful ballads. He has an open mind to music and incorporates music from various countries into what he writes. He keeps making great music, and I am amazed by his willingness to create. He is not only a great guitarist but also a great songwriter.

You play very physically. What’s your preshow routine?

I do yoga and light exercise such as pushups to warm my body. Then I play the bass and move my fingers with simple basic practice. That usually loosens me up and makes me feel ready.

Why the bass? What do you love so much about the instrument?

Well, simply put, the bass is extremely cool [laughs]. I don’t know how else to say it.

The sound of the bass has made my musical world vaster and my life better. I would like to say “good job” to me at age 15 for choosing this instrument. l

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LARRY

GRENADIER’S THE GLEANERS On his new ECM album, alternate tunings, Oscar Pettiford, Anton Webern, studio techniques & the loneliness of recording solo

By John Goldsby |

L

egends Gary Peacock, Dave Holland, Miroslav Vitous, and Barre Phillips have graced the bass world with their solo recordings on the ECM label since the ’70s. Now Larry Grenadier joins the ranks of these celebrated players with his own set of brilliantly conceived and impeccably executed solo double-bass tracks, The Gleaners [2019, ECM].

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Photos by Juan hitters, ECM Records

Grenadier’s intonation, tone, and expressiveness is quite an achievement, and it’s one of the best records in its category that I’ve heard in a long time.

I first met Larry in the early ’80s at a jazz workshop in San Jose, California. He was a workshop student, about 15 years old, and I was 22 — a fledgling teacher. I remember sitting with my clinician colleague Todd

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Larry Grenadier

Coolman in the audition room when Larry played for us, and thinking, “What can I possibly teach this kid?” Larry ripped through “There Is No Greater Love,” in thumb position. My teaching concept at the time (gleaned from my musical mentor, Jamey Aebersold) was simple: Teach what you know.

At that early point in my teaching career, I could play strong quarter-notes, in time, with a pretty good sound and decent intonation. Even in his mid-teens, Larry already had a strong foundation on the double bass: solid walking skills, a good command of the instrument, and a mature ear for the jazz language. I can’t claim to have taught Larry much at the workshop that week, but we hit it off. Our paths have crossed regularly through the years, and it’s been an inspiration to watch Larry develop into one of the great jazz bassists of our time.

Grenadier has enjoyed a storybook career, from his early days of playing with Stan Getz and Joe Henderson in San Francisco, his work with the Brad Mehldau Trio, and his cooperative trio Fly (with Mark Turner and Jeff Ballard), to his sideman activities with Pat Metheny, Wolfgang Muthspiel, Rebecca Martin, Paul Motian, and others. Although he seldom takes on private students, Grena-

GEAR BASSES USED ON THE GLEANERS Arco, German bass played by Grenadier since 1994; pizz, bass made by Benedict Puglisi of Melbourne, Australia STRINGS German bass (for arco): Gerold Genssler G string, D’Addario Helicore Hybrids D, A, E strings; Benedict Puglisi (for pizz): Original Pirastro Flexicore G string, Kaplan D & A strings, Thomastik E string LIVE AMPLIFICATION Schoeps CMC6, Grace Design mic preamp into a powered 12" monitor.

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Listen to Larry Grenadier’s ECM album The Gleaners on Apple Music.

Listen to The Gleaners on Spotify.

Watch Larry perform his composition “Pettiford” with the cooperative trio Fly.

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dier teaches a few times per semester at the Basel Music Academy in Switzerland.

The Gleaners was recorded at Avatar Studios in New York by engineer James Farber, with ECM founder Manfred Eicher producing. In the liner notes, Grenadier writes, “The process for making this record began with a look inward, an excavation into the core elements of who I am as a bass player.

It was a search for a center of sound and timbre, for the threads of harmony and rhythm that formulate the crux of a musical identity.”

When I found out recently that we were living in the same time zone, I jumped at the chance to catch up with Larry and ask him about his new album.

H

ow did you and Manfred come upon the idea of recording a solo bass album?

I had been doing albums with him over the past 15 or 20 years. I always really dug working with him musically and personally. He mentioned doing a solo bass album once after a recording. I was definitely not thinking about doing a solo bass record, but it seemed like the right sort of challenge I wanted to take on at that moment, so I said yes. For the next month or so, I thought, “Oh, what did I get myself into?” Conceptually, it was a real puzzle. I had some references, but not that many. The puzzle became the motivating force to think about the music — how can it capture a listener for 45 minutes and be interesting on multiple levels. Those considerations brought me into different technical things, and those things turned into the practicing to get ready for it.

So, the music grew out of the conceptual puzzle.

Right, the journey of learning more about the instrument and learning more about what music means to me. A lot of bass players don’t record that much as leaders, and I think it’s mainly because we find ourselves in sideman situations where we feel like we can express ourselves and make our music that way. I’ll be 53 next month, so it took me a while to even want to do a solo album. The opportunity came at the right moment, and it

Larry Grenadier

was really educational thing.

There’s one track called “The Gleaner.” Does the title have a special meaning for you?

Naming jazz tunes is such a bizarre thing.

For me, it basically ends up being about what I was thinking about while getting a tune together. And that could be inspired by external things, what I was reading, or seeing a movie or person. This title came out of seeing a documentary by the French filmmaker Agnes Varda, called The Gleaners and I, about modern-day gleaning. Gleaning was what poor people would do after the wheat had been harvested. They’d come in and collect the leftovers from the fields, and it reminds me of how we learn to play music: We glean bits of information along the way from various sources.

How was it being in the studio alone, with only the engineer and producer present and no other musicians around?

Being in the studio alone is a trip. I had never really done that, except for maybe overdubbing something. You’re waiting for something to react to, but it never comes. You have to get comfortable with that.

You’re waiting for the “Yeah, man,” after the track!

“Yeah, man” — you’ve got to say it yourself!

Let’s talk about how James Farber recorded your fantastic tone.

I recorded in New York. I’m pretty sure the mic was a [Telefunken] C12 on the bass, and then maybe a [Neumann] U 47; I really don’t remember. For the first hour or so, we experimented with where to stand in the room. I ended up facing one of the walls; I was eight feet or six feet from a wall. I did the arco stuff in another part of the room with mics very far away. I used two different basses: one bass for arco, and one for pizz.

What are your string choices on those basses?

Well, that was another trip. For the pizz stuff, it was a G string that Gerold Genssler in Berlin makes, and then the bottom three were D’Addario Helicore Hybrids. For the bowing stuff, that was fun to experiment

with, because I had never really done that. I tried a bunch and ended up with a mix. On the G string, I think it’s called Pirastro Original Flexocor, and then D’Addario Kaplan on the D and A. I think the E string was just a Thomastik Spirocore.

Let’s talk about the track “The Gleaner.”

You use an alternate tuning.

That was tuned F#, D, G, D, going from high to low. I was reading a book about the history of the double bass and all the different tunings. It wasn’t standardized until fairly recently.

Another thing that strikes me is your mastery of intonation with double-stops, like on “Oceanic.” You play double-stops all over the bass, and they’re all in tune. Did you practice double-stops in particular? How did you come up with all these variations?

It’s something I’ve practiced over the years. Most of what I practice is classical music, and some specific pieces that I’ve worked on for a long time incorporate double-stops.

It’s trying to get the bass to resonate. You know when it’s happening; the whole bass moves in a different way. That was part of using alternate tunings — the discovery of how the bass resonated in different tunings, and how to bring that out. I love that aspect of the instrument; it’s such a natural, beautiful part, and when it’s solo bass, you can accentuate it.

In an ensemble, it’s a little harder maybe to hear that, but by itself, you can really hear the bass resonate in different ways.

The second track on the album is your tune “Pettiford.” Oscar Pettiford is one of the first bass players who struck me as having that clarity, back in the ’50s, where every note he played had a center to the pitch. So, you wrote a tune dedicated to Pettiford based on his composition “Laverne Walk.”

Yeah. The clarity of his technique was amazing; every recording of him, whether live or in the studio, always has that perfectly clarity. I came upon this great Bud Powell thing on iTunes, which I think is just called Birdland 1953. It’s about 40 tunes of Bud playing at Birdland that year with different trios. A lot of it is with George Duvivier

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Larry Grenadier

and Art Taylor, but quite a bit is with Oscar Pettiford, and it’s incredible. You hear a really noisy club — it’s surprising how noisy it was — and Oscar presses the notes out there.

It overwhelms you, it’s so clear and powerful. Also, as a composer and a musician, he’s amazing to me. Such a great bridge from swing to bebop.

You’ve probably seen that video of him and Attila Zoller playing Oscar’s tune “The Gentle Art of Love.”

Fantastic.

When I watch Pettiford, he’s got the oldschool right hand, where it’s sort of a paddle board or something bouncing up and down. But it’s very clear, and the sound pops out. It’s the coordination between his right hand and left hand, and that’s a challenge for a lot of bass players.

Right. Oscar had a wide variety of ways to get a sound out with his right hand. He was definitely coming from that original old style, where he’s almost slapping it or pulling the strings out a bit more than we would. And then he could also play it like Ray Brown. I think all these guys have a vocabulary of different techniques in order to make it work in the moment.

Speaking of other techniques, the track “Woebegone” reminded me of Red Mitchell a bit, because it sounds like you’re strumming the strings.

I wanted it to be more like a guitar, like a singer–songwriter guitar-picker, you know.

It’s a bit like the way classical players play pizzicato, where they pull the sound out.

You were overdubbing some on that track, with multiple bass tracks.

I think it goes from one bass to two, and then there’s a solo blues section — that’s three basses, pizzicato. And then there are some arco basses at the end. The overdubbing was something that I had to think about: whether I wanted to do a record with lot of overdubbing, which is obviously a possibility. I went the other direction, but there was “Woebegone,” and then there’s a short tune at the end of the album that was a bunch of overdubs [“A Novel in a Sigh”]. But I want-

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ed to make a record with a minimum of overdubs, just to have that challenge.

That makes those two tunes stand out, “Woebegone” and “A Novel in a Sigh,” where all of a sudden you hear two or three basses and it’s like choir has arrived. Your wife Rebecca composed “Gone Like a Season Does.” Is that something you had played with her before, or did she compose it for the album?

We’d never actually played that song, but I’d always liked that tune. I knew I wanted to do one tune of hers that would complement the record. I like her writing because it’s coming from a different world, but it shares this musicality and balance that I love in great jazz composers and any composers, really.

There’s a balance of the form and the melody, and there’s enough harmony to get your teeth into.

On the track “Vineland,” you use some spiccato technique, bouncing the bow off the string. Is it a 4/4, 3/4 grouping?

Yeah, it’s mostly 7/8, but then it has a little 5.

Did you practice a lot of bowing techniques like spiccato and other classical techniques to get that together?

I should have! [Laughs.] Talk about writing a tune that I couldn’t play, you know. I should be able to play it, but to play it consistently and in time — it brought out stuff that I needed to work on, which was great. I’ve always practiced with a bow, but I’m not an orchestral bow player at all, and there are all of those different bowing techniques. It was not about playing spiccato or whatever, but just trying to get certain sounds using the technique involved in getting a sound. And it was like, Wow, I’ve gotta practice this! So, it became more like an étude, really.

You’ve got a couple of tunes from Wolfgang Muthspiel on the record. Did he write those for you, or were you playing those tunes in his band?

I was recording with Wolfgang when I decided to do this album. When I told him, he said, “I’ll write some stuff for you,” so he came up with those two tunes for me. Those were both a little tricky to get the way I

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Larry Grenadier

wanted them.

On “Bagatelle Number 1,” the first few double-stops are very low on the instrument, but they’re really powerful.

I love these low double-stops, because usually we don’t play down there. They’re harder to play, because the spacing is pretty big. The notes are low, and there are some really close minor-2nd intervals. I like that sound of the bass. I was trying to find different sounds to provide a pathway, a journey for the listener.

You also recorded a Gershwin tune. Why did you choose “My Man’s Gone Now”?

I love that song so much; I love the minor blues vibe in the first part, and how it goes to another key in major. I like the movement. I’ve always loved Miles Davis’ version with Gil Evans, and this one has subtle references to different Miles versions.

The first time I heard that tune was when I saw Miles after he came back in 1980 or ’81, and Marcus Miller was playing; there’s one Marcus bass line I play, because it’s so great.

That was such a great band, but it’s kind of ignored now. People don’t really talk about that period of Miles.

“Compassion/The Owl of Cranston” combines a John Coltrane tune and a Paul Motian tune. How did that come about?

The ’Trane tune is from the Meditations Suite, which is a piece of music that I love. I thought, “Oh, this could work.” Then I used it over the C# pedal, accessing that low note as a drone when I wanted — not constantly, but referencing it as something to play against — so it has that two-voice thing occasionally.

That helps a lot when you’re playing by yourself, and it worked with that tune. Also, the way ’Trane was playing at that time was inspiring. His sound had changed, and his vibrato changed on the later records. I just love that period of ’Trane.

Paul’s tune was something I had played with him. The two pieces worked well together. It wasn’t planned to be a medley, but they were in the same key, and it flowed. Paul’s writing is great because it’s so open to what the soloist wants to do. Once the melody

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stops, you’re left with this beautiful melody that becomes the source of the solo. Sometimes he would write changes to some of his tunes, but they were never referenced at all.

Everything came out of the melody and the rhythm of the melody. I love that way of playing and the way the time flows. It has movement, but it’s not in a specific tempo.

I guess I did that with the Pettiford tune: playing through the changes, but more freely, and then finally getting the tempo to another point. That’s a way of implying time in a forward momentum, but not being in a strict tempo. I knew I didn’t want to do a solo bass record and play a bunch of tunes in tempo with the bass playing the melody, then soloing, and then playing the melody. So, everything was kind of counter-that.

The “Pettiford” track is powerful because I can hear Pettiford in your performance, but it has your stamp on it. It’s not, “I’m gonna play a few choruses on ‘Laverne Walk’ and then a couple O.P. licks, and then see what happens.”

That would be cool, too.

Well, yeah, because they sound good [laughs]. But you made it your own thing, which is hard to do when playing a tribute to a bass player like Pettiford.

Thank you, man!

The last track is “A Novel in a Sigh,” which is a great title —it implies a long story told in a short breath. The vibe on this track is heavy because it delivers a very impressionistic sound that takes over quickly, and then it quickly dissipates.

[Composer Anton] Webern was somebody I’ve been listening to over the past few years.

I tried to listen to his music many years ago, and I couldn’t find my way. Now I can hear him and say, “Wow, that’s amazingly beautiful and skeletal and bare-bones, with just the essential things.” The seed of this little vignette comes from one of his pieces. I tuned down. I just wanted to see how low I could go.

Is that a low B? Wow! I think I recorded it maybe five times or so, just to have the thick sound of that note.

It’s one of those fun things you can do in the studio, to take advantage of a big room. l

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IDK How

DALLON WEEKES Lost & Found

By Jon D’Auria |

D

Photo by Samuel Halleen

espite his best efforts, you’ve found Dallon Weekes. It was only a matter of time, really. After walking away from his longstanding role in Panic At The Disco in 2017, the 37-year-old took some time with his family before completing material he had been working on in between his hefty touring schedule. He teamed up with drummer Ryan Seaman and they recorded their debut EP, 1981 Extended Play [2018].

They kept the project entirely secret, and even began playing shows anonymously to avoid exploiting the notoriety they gained from their previous bands. When confronted by fans and when photos and videos emerged online of the duo, they denied everything.

But their ruse could only go on for so long, as their songs began making their way online and extended to the far reaches of the internet, where fans became ravenous

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to know when material would be released and when their next shows were going down. Finally in August 2017, Weekes released their first single online, “Modern Day Cain,” which was met with ecstatic reviews and frequent radio airplay. The duo decided to use the moniker I Don’t Know How But They Found Me, which is both a quote from the movie Back to the Future, and an appropriate title given the band’s initial attempts at secrecy. What is no secret now, however, is Weekes’ low end-fueled new sound where bass takes center stage as the lead instrument.

Songs like “Bleed Magic,” “Choke,” and “Do It All the Time” reveal Weekes’ untethered and recently freed chops on bass that allow it to serve as both the rhythmic and melodic center of the band. And live, his charisma and commanding stage presence make him a bona fied frontman, after serving as a sideman for

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Dallon Weekes

so many years. All of these elements naturally manifested into the next chapter of Weekes’ musical life, and the quickly spreading fanfare that has come along with it is just an added bonus. I mean, in his defense, he tried to keep this to himself and use it as a simple creative vehicle after not having his own outlet for so long. But hey, you found him, so here he is.

T

his all seemed to come together pretty quickly. Was leaving Panic and starting this band a whirlwind for you?

Everything actually happened organically. The end of my time with Panic was long in the making and I saw it coming a few years before it happened, so I had time to create some ideas and collect material for this new project in my downtime. When the moment came for me to do IDK full time, we were in a good spot to get the gear turning and the wheels moving on that machine.

IDK blew up quickly and went viral instantly.

What was that like for you?

It was overwhelming and we weren’t prepared for that reaction at all. When we started making recordings and first started playing shows, everything was a secret. We’d go book a show at a club and not tell anyone so we could go play for strangers who didn’t know or care what other bands we’d been in.

We wanted to see if these songs could get attention on their own, and we did that for a good seven or eight months. Eventually fans started to figure it out, and we’d just deny, deny, deny everything. We’d deny our own existence, even. Eventually, just like any other band, we wanted people to hear our music and we wanted to get it out there, so we finally ’fessed up to what we were doing and we started putting stuff online, but we still weren’t advertising it. We wanted the fans to do the footwork, and also so we weren’t taking advantage of the bands we were playing in at the time. Something about that just felt disingenuous, although it would’ve been really easy to do. We wanted to build credibility for this band on its own.

How much fun is it to play as a bass player in a drum and bass duo?

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Dallon Weekes

L I ST E N I Don’t Know How But They Found Me, 1981 Extended Play EP [Fearless] EQUIP BASS Fender Precision Bass RIG Aguilar Tone Hammer 350 and DB 410 Cab PEDALS Ernie Ball volume pedal, Aguilar Tone Hammer preamp/DI, Fulltone Bass-Drive mosfet, Black Russian Big Muff Pi, Boss DD7 delay, Boss PS-6 Harmonist, Boss tuner

Dude, it’s so fun. There’s no one stepping on my toes, no one to tell me to not use this or that effect pedal; it’s complete and total creative freedom when it comes to songwriting and performing. Bass is not a support instrument in this band. We treat it more like a lead instrument, and it’s just so much fun.

What was your mentality for writing bass for this EP? I’ve always been a sucker for songs where the bass line is the melody and when you’re done hearing the song, it still stays in your head. A good example of that would be a song like “Billy Jean” by Michael Jackson. I don’t care who you are — when you think about that song, the first thing that pops in your head is the bass line. When you treat it that way, bass can be a very special thing.

That’s such a killer bass line on “Bleed Magic,” and you get some great pick tone on it.

I know that some bassists treat playing with a pick like a cardinal sin; I understand that. In that regard, I’m definitely guilty.

But I attribute that to most of my bass heroes playing with picks. Robert Sledge, and Matt Sharp from Weezer. I try to go back and forth, but I’m mainly a pick guy. That song started with that picked bass line for me, and I ran with it. It kind of formed organically from there.

“Do It All The Time” has some great pocket lines. How did that come about?

I wrote that one on my own, and that’s probably the most sarcastic song I’ve ever written, both musically and lyrically. I wanted to do a send-up on all of the standard pop music formulas that people tend to gravitate toward. It mocks the attitude of doing whatever you want to do, which is a philosophy that’s so popular in pop music right now. I think it’s such a stupid philosophy. That song was written out of sarcasm and contempt for pop music conventions. You’re definitely not supposed to have the bass guitar be the lead instrument in your song, and in that song that’s the first thing you hear.

What was the recording process like for this EP? Every situation on every song was dif-

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Dallon Weekes

ferent because the budget was, and still is, non-existent. It was all very DIY. I recorded a lot of the album in my kitchen — about 70%, actually. I’m not the most technical person when it comes to recording, so I would take those files to friends who could polish them up and make them sound as they should.

But I made sure that everyone I worked with knew my philosophy about bass in this band, and that it was going to be the lead instrument and not to treat it like an afterthought like a lot of bands and producers do. That was my main priority.

Has it been a big leap stepping into the frontman role?

It took me a little bit to remember how to play that role. In the last three or four years of Panic I was relegated to being in the background and was told not to jump off stuff, not to move around too much, and that I was supposed to stay in my area and wear my black suit and stand in the shadows. And I was happy to play that role. Panic was not my band, so I was happy to do whatever they needed me to do. But doing it that way for so long, I kind of forgot what it can be like to be onstage when there are no rules and you can turn your brain off and just go. But I’m starting to get back in that zone again of being a frontman.

Was it a conscious goal of yours to make the sound of IDK different from Panic?

There’s been a conscious effort to avoid similarities with certain bands, and especially Panic because I was in that band.

People tend to make lowest-common-denominator comparisons. The easiest possible comparison is usually the one that comes up first. So, from that, the fact that I was in Panic At The Disco will make people want to relate this to that. And because there are two of us in this band and we play bass and drums, 21 Pilots would be the next thing we could be compared to. So it was important for us to sound like neither of those bands. Regardless, people are going to shout those names at us everywhere we go because it’s easy. We tend to avoid sounding like any other bands.

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What have the shows been like from your perspective?

It’s scary and it’s overwhelming and it’s stressful, but it’s also incredibly rewarding and validating. To have these ideas that I sat on forever that people told me were no good and that no one would ever like, and to put them out there anyways and have people like them, has been such an amazing feeling.

We’re going to continue to keep doing this as long as people care to listen.

What’s it like playing with Ryan Seaman as a drummer?

It’s really easy, because we share philosophies that the song always comes first. It’s not about showing off your chops and showing everyone how good you are at this fill or this riff or this solo. We’re here to serve the ideas first, and everything else comes after that. Ryan has always been that guy. He’s one to work to serve the song first before he serves his ego. It’s really easy to play with people like that, especially when you’re on the same page like we are.

That Capri Orange Precision Bass you play in IDK is a beauty.

Man, I love that thing. I got that off Craigslist for $200. I usually gravitate toward fullscale basses because I’m a big guy, but I do have a Capri Orange Mustang Bass that I play sometimes just to feel like a giant. My favorite bass that I’ve played as of late, which is on the song “Social Climb,” is an old Fender Musicmaster from 1977 that belongs to my friend Jason Hill. It’s beat up and a piece-ofcrap-looking old thing, and it looks like you’d never think in a million years it’d be worth playing, but when you do, it sounds better than any bass out there. It’s my favorite bass to play, and any time I get to pick it up and use it, I do.

When can we expect the full-length album?

I wish I could say for sure. It’s definitely a big priority for us, but things like that usually take longer than you hope. We’re going to go do some radio promos and some one-off shows and festivals coming up, so we’re going to be pretty busy for a while. And we’ll be collecting new ideas for songs as we go. l

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PAUL HAGGARD

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Blessed Assurance Andrew Gouché’s FA R E W E L L T O

Joel Smith

By E.E. Bradman

It

was 1975, and the Hawkins Family had come down to L.A. from Oakland for the Watts Summer Festival. Sixteen-yearold Andrew Gouché, two years deep into what would become a lifelong bass obsession, was in for a surprise. “I went to see them, and they were playing ‘Going to Gouché (left) and Smith a Place,’ a funky, uptempo song.

That was the first time I ever saw someone play chords in gospel,” Gouché remembers. “But I didn’t ask how he did it. I was like, why? Why did you do that? Why did your brain know that would be the killingest thing on earth, ever?” He laughs. “That’s the way Joel Smith’s playing was. Every time I saw him play, he was always better than

the last time. Every time.”

That hot August day was the beginning of a friendship and deep mutual respect between two of gospel’s greatest musicians.

Both born in 1959 — Gouché in May, Smith in December — Andrew and Joel would play together on several Edwin Hawkins Music & Arts Seminar Mass Choir sessions in the ’80s, crossing paths many times on the way to helping establish gospel bass as a dominant force in American pop music. They influenced each other, too: Gouché cites Joel as the reason he began to tune his bass down a wholestep; when Joel tuned his 4-string to Eb, Gouché oneupped him by going to D. And when Joel was ready for a new instrument in the early 2000s, Gouché introduced

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Andrew Gouché & Joel Smith

him to Mike Tobias and brought him into the MTD family. At MTD4LYFE NAMM events, both giants played with Gouché’s band, old friends trading licks and laying down monstrous grooves that spoke of parallel but different styles and careers.

Raised at the left hand of the mighty Rev. James Cleveland, Andrew Gouché has a recorded resumé that extends back to 1980.

Right from the start, he made his mark in both the gospel and secular worlds, working with the Mighty Clouds Of Joy, Andraé Crouch, and the Winans, as well as Cheryl Lynn, Julio Iglesias, the Jazz Crusaders, and Michael Jackson. Gouché’s abundant chops and distinctively bright grooves have netted him high-profile bass, production, and musical-director gigs with everyone from Joe Cocker, Destiny’s Child, and Whitney Houston to Patti Labelle, Chaka Khan, Snoop Dogg, Gladys Knight, Mary Mary, and Prince.

His melodic aesthetic has impacted at least two generations of gospel musicians, who in turn have changed the sound of modern electric low end.

Joel Smith was born into Northern California’s Hawkins family, whose pop- and R&B-friendly style made them pioneers of the urban contemporary gospel sound as far

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back as 1969, when Joel’s uncle Edwin Hawkins had a monster crossover hit with “Oh Happy Day.” Edwin’s brother Walter Hawkins established the Love Center Church in Oakland in the mid ’70s, and from the time he was 13 years old, Joel was the one-man rhythm section of choice for his uncles: He played drums and/or bass on numerous Edwin discs; on every one of the Love Center’s six immensely popular Love Alive albums, recorded between 1975 and 1998; and with the Hawkins Family, which included Edwin, Walter, their younger brother Daniel, as well as Joel’s aunts Tramaine Hawkins and Lynette Hawkins-Stephens. Joel also graced a handful of secular recordings, including discs

by Shanice, Tony! Toni! Toné!, Regina Belle, Al Jarreau, Sheila E., Stephanie Mills, Ellen Honert, Sista Monica Parker, Rhiannon, and Melvin Seals. But his tasteful approach, rock-solid time, and laid-back personality were legend in the gospel world, where he delivered electrifying performances on bass or drums (and in the studio, frequently both) with everyone from T.D. Jakes, Kim Burrell, Richard Smallwood, and Rev. James Moore to Daryl Coley, Kurt Carr, Lawrence Matthews, and Beverly Crawford.

Joel was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2015, but he continued performing all the way through his uncle Edwin’s annual Christmas show in December 2017. By the time Edwin Hawkins died in January 2018, Joel had already been hospitalized. He passed away on September 8, 2018, and his memorial service at Oakland’s Love Center Ministries was a powerful, emotional send-off by many of gospel’s greatest heavyweights, including Gouché, who organized a Joel Smith tribute at L.A.’s Greater Emmanuel Temple Church four months later.

More than 40 years after first hearing Joel, Gouché is still one of his friend’s staunchest fans. “Nowadays in gospel, there are a lot of guys who can really play, but there are very few — in fact, I can’t think of one — that when you hear them play, you know it’s them,” he says. “Joel had his own style. The way he fingered, the way he played, his right-

Andrew Gouché & Joel Smith

hand moves … nobody was doing that. When you hear him on a record, you know it’s him.

And a lot of these cats, they don’t understand: The dudes they grew up listening to grew up listening to Joel Smith!”

H

ow would you describe what was so special about Joel’s playing?

He was the king of being super solid, with impeccable time. He was super funky and super in-the-pocket. Joel would do drum parts and then go in the studio to put the bass on, and when he did the drums, he knew exactly what he was going to play on bass. Every one of those sessions, it sounded like the drummer and the bass player recorded together.

He knew how to make the whole band sound great.

Yes! A lot of times, you can be watching a band, and you’ll hear the bass player do stuff that’ll take your attention away from what everybody else is doing. Joel never did that.

What he did was always totally relevant to everything else that was going on. It was never, “I’m about to do the sweet lick I’ve been working on for six weeks.”

Joel wasn’t really a solo guy, either.

When we did the tribute in L.A., a couple of guys wanted to play solos, but we decided that since Joel didn’t solo, there wouldn’t be any solos. One of the things I loved about the tribute we did is that it was in the spirit of Joel Smith. We wanted to play these songs the way Joel played them. That’s how you pay homage to somebody — not trying to put your funky spin on it. Joel was an innovator, and that’s what we paid homage to.

It was fascinating to hear his bass tone change over the years, from Fender Jazz Basses and F Basses all the way to the MTDs he was using at the end.

I was instrumental in him joining the MTD family. I told Mike [Tobias], “You know how people talk about me and my influence on them? Well, that’s how I feel about Joel Smith’s influence on me. I wouldn’t be the bass player I am if it wasn’t for Joel.” Mike just said, “Tell him to call me — I’ll build him

a bass.” He got a blonde 6, and Mike built him a 5, too. Joel was the kind of dude that anything he put in his hand was going to sound incredible. I don’t care what bass he played, when I heard him play, I knew it was him. Always. And I can hear a lot of Anthony Jackson — it was as if Anthony was a gospel dude.

He loved him some Anthony Jackson.

He got a lot of his style from Anthony. I think that was his favorite dude.

How did Joel inspire you as a bass player?

He gave me another way to think. He increased my vision of the bass and the possibilities of the things I could do, the directions I could go in, and he did things that nobody else had ever done in gospel.

You got to play with Joel and the rest of the Hawkins Family, too.

Playing with the Hawkins Family literally changed my life as a musician. When I talk about it in clinics, about my experience being exposed to them, I liken it to the scene in that movie Pleasantville where everybody was in black & white but as their awareness increases, they start seeing the world in color. That’s what it was like for me when I started playing with the Hawkins Family.

What was it like to play bass alongside Joel on drums?

He didn’t stand for any B.S. I remember a few times when I played with him, he was like, “Nah, man — don’t do that, do this.” He

CO N N E C T CHECK IT OUT

Edwin Hawkins Singers, “Oh Happy Day” CHECK IT OUT

The Hawkins Family, “Going to a Place” CHECK IT OUT

Andrew Gouché and Joel Smith in the hospital CHECK IT OUT

Andrew Gouché and Joel Smith at NAMM 2007

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Andrew Gouché & Joel Smith

was one of the very few people who could give me suggestions and I’d comply. If Joel said it, it was law. Period.

Joel is a legend in the gospel community. Did he have the swagger to match his reputation?

People revered Joel, but he was so humble. I don’t know that he ever grasped the magnitude of who he was. He was just so laid back, and he never got caught up in the hype.

He was just a cat who did his thing and paved the road for contemporary gospel music. So many things people play today are a direct derivative of what Joel Smith created. That’s why when we heard that he passed, there was no formal invitation [to the tribute], but everybody came. It was one of those things — you just knew you had to be there.

How was the event at Greater Emmanuel Temple?

A couple other things were going on that night, so I was worried that it wasn’t going to be well attended, but 900 people were there.

The church was packed. The love was incred-

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ible! All the high-profile cats came out to pay homage to Joel. We raised $4,000 and gave it to his mom, Feddie Hawkins.

It must have taken lots of planning.

You would’ve thought we had weeks of production and that the thing was scripted, but we had half a rehearsal the night before.

I was sitting there laughing because it was going so well. I was thinking, there’s no way this thing is going this good, man! It was literally seamless. [Co-organizer] Jeff “Lo” Davis lives on one coast and I live on the other, so we discussed it, talked to the people who said they wanted to be involved, and everybody showed up.

What about rehearsals?

Everybody knew the music. All we had to do was get up there and play those songs like Joel Smith played them. Doing it like that, you didn’t really need a rehearsal. The morning of the show, none of the background singers had practiced the leads, so I got on the phone at 7 a.m. and called a couple people.

They came through, and it was incredible.

When was the last time you saw Joel play?

In Raleigh, North Carolina, for the 2018 International Musicians Summit. They were honoring Joel, and he and some of his crew — including guitarist Jonathan DuBose and keyboardist Kevin Bond — played a couple songs. I’ve heard those songs a million times, but never did they sound the way they sounded when Joel played them. I posted a video of them playing “Don’t Wait Till the Battle Is Over” on Instagram. It’s crazy because he was playing my bass, and I just never imagined that that would be the last time I saw him play.

There’s great footage of you visiting him in the hospital.

He was doing chemo last February when I came up to Oakland for Edwin Hawkins’ memorial [in early 2018], so all the musicians drove over to San Francisco to surprise Joel in the hospital. It was the greatest thing, just this wonderful fellowship, and for him to see the outpouring of love. . . . You know that saying, “Give me my flowers while I can smell them?” It was great for us to go there

Andrew Gouché & Joel Smith

and just show Joel love. It was a blessing for us. We spent a couple hours there, and it was so great.

Even in those videos, his spirit was amazing.

I didn’t think that would be the last time I saw him, because Joel was so strong. He was the healthiest dude I ever knew. In the ’80s, when we were all eating fried chicken and ribs after the gig, Joel would be eating carrots and celery, and he would do 500 pushups and 500 sit-ups every night before he went to bed. That’s the kind of shape that dude was in. I remember laughing when we went to go see him at the hospital, because he looked strong, and I was thinking, “Joel still looks like he could kick all our asses right now.”

Thankfully, he left behind so much great music.

Joel Smith created a whole style. The Hawkins Family style and sound was Joel on bass and drums. Walter and Edwin wrote the words and the melodies, but the grooves and the sound was Joel Smith, all day. His legacy is going to live forever. l

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HOW TO DISAPPEAR

COMPLETELY Colin Greenwood SPEAKS AT LAST ABOUT HIS PLAYING & HIS ROLE IN THE HIGHLY INFLUENTIAL MUSIC OF RADIOHEAD

S

omewhere on a vast stage under thousands of colorful lights, rapidly flashing strobes, and bright screens suspended in the air, fixed between two drum risers and concealed within the shadows, stands Colin Greenwood. For three and a half decades, this is where he’s been so comfortably stationed — his focus rarely leaving the kick pedal of Phil Selway, moving with the rhythm and expertly delivering his bass lines. The brooding

By Jon D’Auria |

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music of Radiohead is as ethereal as it is emotive, and each of the six stage members plays an equally important role in conveying such deeply impactful songs. For Greenwood, his role couldn’t suit his personality any better.

He’s humble and laconic by nature, but when something enlivens him, he’s quick to articulate his thoughts on the matter with profound certainty and excitement. His bass playing is similar in style, as his foundational command steers the multitude of sounds that his bandmates create, but when the time is right, he

Photographs by Colin Greenwood and John Dolan

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Jump Head

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Colin Greenwood

L I ST E N Radiohead, A Moon Shaped Pool [2016, XL Recordings] GEAR Basses Touring: 1963, 1972 & 1976 Fender Precision Basses; new additions: Sadowsky NYC Bass, Lakland Donald Duck Dunn Bass; home basses: 1962 Fender Jazz Bass, Sadowsky Metro Bass, South Korean student upright, Ned Steinberger electric upright Rig Ampeg SVT-VR, Ampeg SVT 810, Ampeg B-15RW, Ashdown ABM 300 EVO II, Ashdown 410H & 115 cabinets Pedals Lovetone Big Cheese, Tech 21 SansAmp Bass Driver Synth Novation Bass Synth, Roland PC-500 Picks Dunlop Tortex

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steps out and unleashes momentous bass moments that change the entire song.

It would be futile and unnecessary for Greenwood to try to upstage his bandmates in the sonic spectrum of Radiohead. Frontman Thom Yorke’s stage presence alone equates to at least four performers in itself, as he attracts much of the spotlight with his energetic charisma and constant changing of instruments. Beyond that, you have Jonny Greenwood, Colin’s virtuosic younger brother, who has become a guitar icon in his own right, along with being an acclaimed movie scorer and influential multi-instrumentalist.

Then you have guitarist Ed O’Brien, whose haunting and instantly recognizable guitar playing is matched evenly with his beautiful singing voice. And rounding it out is now not one but two drummers in Radiohead’s own Phil Selway and stage member Clive Deamer (Portishead, Ronnie Size, Robert Plant), who work together almost as one percussionist, kicking out polyrhythmic waves that are quick to entrance listeners. So naturally, amongst all of that, Colin’s place as a bass player is to hold all of that frenetic frequency together and use his grooves as rhythmic mile markers that keep the vehicle on track.

It’s something he’s become renowned for.

But his place in Radiohead’s music is simply instinctual at this point, as his life in the band is all the 49-year-old has ever known. At age 12, a young Greenwood connected with one of his classmates and bonded over their musical likes and dislikes, and they decided to start a band of their own. That curious friend was Thom Yorke. Radiohead went on to release nine studio albums that have sold well over 30 million albums worldwide, and this year, will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. While that sounds like all of the makings of a rock-musician lifestyle, Greenwood, like his bandmates, has always kept a low profile. Living a private and modest life, he resides just outside the small university town of Oxford, England. When he’s not on the road or in the studio, he’s most commonly buried in a book or studying the transcriptions of his heroes James Jamer-

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son, Carol Kaye, and Donald “Duck” Dunn.

He’s contributed his playing to scores and albums by Yorke, his brother Jonny, and most recently he’s been performing with Egyptian songwriter Tamino, for whom Colin also recorded bass on his most recent album, Amir.

Among bass players, Greenwood is a highly adored figure that has influenced countless low-enders ranging from icons to budding stars of the next generation. His bass work on Radiohead classics like “Paranoid Android,” “15 Step,” “Morning Bell,” “I Might Be Wrong,” “Nude,” and “Karma Police” have become staples of rock players’ practice regimens. And on Radiohead’s latest album, A Moon Shaped Pool [2016], Greenwood doesn’t disappoint in the least. His expansive scale-stretching moments on songs like “Identikit,” “Decks Dark,” and “Burn the Witch” contain all of the erupting moments that we always desire from him. But for such an influential player and idol to his contemporaries and fans, Greenwood has largely remained an enigma, as he doesn’t often do interviews or make public appearances away from the stage. But luckily for us, Colin is finally stepping out of the shadows.

Y

ou’re very tasteful about your parts and when to unleash explosive lines where they fit.

Well, I love to play for the song and give it the respect that it deserves and add to it what I feel it needs. I’m in a band with a lot of other members doing a lot of things at once, so it could get muddled if we go on and step on each other’s toes here and there. I try to be patient and play for the song. One of my favorite songs that we’ve written is on our album In Rainbows called “Weird Fishes/ Arpeggi.” I had a 1978 Jazz Bass that I love because the neck is narrow and I have really small hands, so it plays beautifully for me.

At the time I was really into Ray Brown’s Bass Method [Hal Leonard]; I learned all of the exercises in it, and it opened up all of the chords on the neck for me. Thom and Johnny brought in the idea for that song, and Phil had an amazing beat for it, and Ed started layer-

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ing his parts, and I was obsessed with those chords and scales I was learning. I started hearing all these lines over everything they were playing, so I began playing them and

Colin’s original transcription of “Arpeggi.”

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using the chord extensions from that book, and it gave me limitless possibilities. I wrote loads of lines for it and it went on and on, and I had to cut it down and pick sections of it to

Colin Greenwood

Jonny Greenwood and Phil Selway.

Photo by Colin Greenwood

use. I had all of the shapes in my hand for the chord progressions, and it felt amazing.

“15 Step” is another example of you hanging back and then playing a song-altering riff late in the composition.

That was just my fantasy. I love soul music, and I felt that like it sounded like an old Motown kind of bass run, so I tried it and it worked. That’s also like one of our songs called “Bloom,” where I messed with a lot of bass lines and wanted to come up with something that J Dilla [late hip-hop writer and producer] would write. I came up with different lines and then I found that wonky boom, boomboom, boom-boom, boom-boom, and I tried to play it and phrase it in a way that I imagine J Dilla would have done, maybe from his album Ruff Draft [2003] or Donuts [2006].

It worked. The most exciting part about music to me is that someone might hear that and not understand how I hear it. You can translate something that you understand that they don’t get, but when they hear it, they translate it as something entirely different. I don’t think anyone listened to that part and thought about

J Dilla, but that’s how I wrote it. That’s what excites me about music.

It sounds like “Bloom” could have been inspired by upright bass.

I have a Korean student upright bass that I use sometimes on “Pyramid Song,” “You and Whose Army,” and on some of my brother’s music for Bodysong [2003]. I also have a Ned Steinberger electric upright, and I feel terrible because I can’t play it that well.

I need to take some lessons for that and fully learn how to translate some upright facilities to electric bass. When you watch a guy like Phil Chen play and talk about his favorite Jamerson bass lines, he goes on about how he would drop down from open notes and how it was so amazing and powerful. There’s simplicity in that genius, and there’s a sheer love of taking a song and putting your whole heart into one note.

You don’t always play economically with your left hand, and it looks like you sometimes play a line on the same string.

When I started out I was really into Joy Division, and Hooky [Peter Hook] played

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a lot of stuff up high and got great tones up there — so I’ve always been one to move up and down on the neck a lot. I also started off playing classical guitar, and still do, and with that you’re playing the top lines along with the bass lines, and I’ve always had the device of trying to get harmony and melody into the bass lines. Sometimes I make it too complex and too noodly, but Thom is good at putting the brakes on that. Really, I guess I try to find all of the good notes and what feels best to play. You should learn your entire fretboard and where all of the notes are, and which ones sound good where, and let that influence your playing. But you can tell that I’ve been told not to play too much for years [laughs]. Maybe that’s why it comes out in short bursts.

You also often take the function of bass beyond its common place as simply the foundation.

We toured with a band called Sparklehorse, and one of their players used to talk about how bass was the connection between the rhythm and the harmony … and now that I say that out loud, I sound like Derek Smalls [Spinal Tap] with his “lukewarm water” quote. But I think that stands very true for our instrument. If I hear some music and I connect it to something else I really like, then I try to play like that thing I’m thinking of. So as I said before, if I hear a beat or a song that reminds me of J Dilla, then I’m going to try to play something that I think J Dilla would have played over it that encapsulates what I love about him. It doesn’t end up sounding like that, because I’m not him — but that inspires it, and it becomes its own thing. We’re not limited as bass players to strictly playing root notes.

It’s great to hear that J Dilla is such an inspiration. He’s underrated as an influence on bass players.

We love hip-hop, and his work has really inspired us in what we do. You might not always hear it in our music, but that stuff weighs in heavily on it.

Which players have influenced your playing the most?

My heroes are James Jamerson and

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“Duck” Dunn. They’re whom I draw a lot of my inspiration from. When we first started the band, I wanted to play guitar because I had been taking guitar lessons with Thom when we were 11. Ed and Thom took the guitar spots already, so I picked up the bass and got way into a lot of that post-punk stuff like Joy Division, The Fall, and Magazine. But then as I played more, I started discovering Otis Redding, Al Green, and all of the soul music that was coming out at the time. The idea that the bass could be used to make such beautiful lines and be such a big part of music astonished me. That’s what really solidified me as a bass player.

How do you decide when to use your fingers or a pick for a song?

I use fingers mostly—I’m not great with the pick. Carol Kaye and Joe Osborn were amazing with picks. Joe Osborn is my new current hero. He was really heavy with the pick—amazing. And for fingers it’s Leroy Hodges [Stax], Joseph “Lucky“ Scott [Curtis Mayfield], and David Hood [Muscle Shoals].

How do you typically write your bass parts in sequence with the band?

On the last record I sat with our producer, Nigel Godrich, and I wrote all of my bass lines and recorded them in a series of sessions where I could focus on each individual song. Sometimes I’ll also write when we’re all standing in a room playing together. The two things I love the most are either sitting with Nigel and writing my bass lines with input from Thom and Jonny, or standing in the room and looking at everyone and working on song arrangements together in real time.

That way, I can play something and Thom will have instant feedback on what he thinks is a good riff. And if you give him one thing, he’ll run with it — and before you know it, a whole song has developed. I’m trying to get my writing better and be able to notate my parts. I’ve been teaching myself to read music, and that Jameson book [Standing in the Shadows of Motown, Hal Leonard] really helps me with that.

How much of a hand do you have in the songwriting process?

Colin Greenwood

Thom is the main songwriter, and it depends where it goes from there. He likes to start the process and come up with melodies and then bring them to us. Then my brother usually joins in next, and then it all unfolds from there.

A Moon Shaped Pool seemed like it spanned a lot of sessions over that two-year period.

The process had a lot of starts and stops, but the two most important times for that record came when we were in our studio in Oxford in the beginning, and Nigel wanted to do a process where we didn’t use computers at all. We recorded everything to tape and multi-track. At the time he was really into the 8-track recordings of Motown and early David Bowie albums, and he wanted to replicate that. It forces you to have to make decisions in the moment; it’s very much the opposite of having your album stored on a terabyte hard drive. Then a year later, we went to this amazing studio [La Fabrique] in the southern region of France, and we went through

the previous recordings we’d done in Oxford, and we built upon all of that and finished it.

Then Nigel wrapped it all up and mixed it in London.

What is Nigel’s process of capturing your bass tone?

We used to have a rehearsal space that we used, and I would always use a DI box that sounded great. But in the studio it’s all up to Nigel. I honestly don’t have any sort of idea what he’s doing to my bass until I hear [the final product]. Obviously he’s using compressors and different tools to mix it, but I leave it entirely up to him. And I’m always blown away with what he does. That’s not my area of expertise. I usually use an Ampeg or Ashdown cabinet and then all of my usual basses. He’s less keen on Jazz Basses because they can hum, so we use my P-Basses. He’s brilliant. Whatever he does he makes me sound better than I have any right to sound.

Your lines on “Identikit” really stand out.

That song was a kind of a leftover from

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Colin warming up backstage. Photo by John Dolan

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our previous album The King of Limbs. We’d been working on using loops, and Thom has such a beautiful voice and he had recorded these three singing loops, and it became a sketch more than a song at the time.

I took that to my studio at home and played around with it using my Akai MPC [recorder], and I got obsessed with it. The melodies were so beautiful. I’d send my ideas to Thom, and then he’d play piano parts on it and send it back to me, and those became the bridge part after the last verse. We worked on it for a long time, and then it became one of our new songs. Thom is a genius at finding melodies with hooks, and he came up with some for this song. The chord sequence is really straight, so I somewhat over-harmonized it a bit. When I worked on it with Nigel in France, he had me use my old P-Bass, and it sounded great on that track. It has a slight fuzz on the low end, so it sounds like a very mild distortion, and I plugged it in and started writing that part on it.

Radiohead plays in a lot of odd time signatures. Is that intentional or just naturally how you write?

I suppose the time signatures we use

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come out quite naturally as how write, without thinking about it. A song like “Morning Bell” from Amnesiac is interesting because it has a driving bass line on the verse, and then it gets melodic on the chorus with a harmony that I play. That’s a great example of how we work together as a band, because Thom had programmed that drum part initially and placed the bass line where it is, and I learned from that and then wrote the rest of it, including the higher-register part. It was quite the collaboration. He did something that I wouldn’t have done. That’s one of the great joys and pleasures of playing with such other brilliant musicians. My brother Johnny is really into reggae music, and he always shows me such cool dub bass parts, and I learn from those and they really inspire me.

You’re able to capture the same tone live as you do in the studio. How do you dial it in?

I like the idea that you plug into an Ampeg SVT head and it automatically sounds really good. It’s rather funny because I was only allowed to have pedals onstage recently, because previously I would stand on them accidentally and press the wrong button and all of a sudden there would be this wild distortion through the massive sound system. Now my bandmates have finally let me have pedals so long as I promise to be careful [laughs].

You’re known for playing Fender basses, but you’ve recently picked up both Sadowsky and Lakland basses.

I wanted basses that make it easier for me to play all of those faster, more difficult lines that we have. I’ve figured out that if I have a smaller, narrower neck, then I can make chord shapes with my hands. On a Precision Bass I have to fight with them more. I love the Precision’s midrange growl, and I’ve found that these new basses have that. I’ve known Roger Sadowsky for a long time, as I first met him over 20 years ago. And I got in touch with Lakland when I was in Los Angeles, and they gave me an Indonesian bass to try out, and it was the same shape that they used in making the one for Duck Dunn. When I went out on our previous American tour, I

Colin Greenwood

wanted to follow up with both of them. The beginning of the tour was in Chicago, so I got to go into Lakland’s workshop and explore it.

And then we had seven days in New York, so I got in touch with Roger to go visit Sadowsky.

I love the basses that Lakland and Sadowsky made for me, and I’m excited to use them more on tours to come.

What’s it like playing with Phil as a rhythm section after all of these years?

I’ve come to know his ankles very well after staring so intently at them for so long. I swear they haven’t aged a day [laughs]. It’s an enormous privilege to play in the same rhythm section. I love how he plays to the song, and has his own style. And now it’s such an honor to share the stage with Clive Deamer, who has always been a hero of mine. His playing with Portishead, Robert Plant, Roni Size, and Hawkwind is tremendous. What a rhythmic roll he has!

Your stage presence seemed to change after the Hail to the Thief era. You’re more animated

during shows now.

I try to get away from just standing in the back and being “the glue.” Now I want to go over and see what Jonny’s doing. He’s amazing to watch, especially on guitar. I’m trying to have more confidence to move away from the drum position and go check out what’s happening up front. When I listen to the front-of-house mixes, the musical firing from the front three of Thom, Ed, and Jonny always amazes me. It’s quite full on being between two drummers, and I don’t want to miss all the top-line melodies and riffs flying about. More than anything else, I’ve come to enjoy being onstage with my friends. Thom sets things up with his amazing performances. He leads from the front, and he’s very supportive — he wants to get lost in the vibe onstage. It’s a very welcoming vibe, sharing that space, and that comfort and excitement transmits itself to the audience.

So what is a Radiohead show like from your perspective?

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I love it when I lose myself entirely in the moment of the show. There seems to be a point about halfway [through] when band and crowd slip into the same hypnotic spell. I try not to be distracted by external thoughts, because it can derail me. I’m also trying to listen very hard to all the different sounds around me, and play to those sounds. It can be a lot more distracting live, compared to the studio: You’ve got all these dynamically lit sonic whiz-bangs going off onstage. That’s a big difference compared to having all your ducks in a row, in a balance, by Nigel Godrich in front of a mixing desk in the studio. But both are great fun, really.

What are your favorite songs to play live right now?

I always love “Weird Fishes/Arpeggi,” “Separator,” and “I Might Be Wrong.” Anything with a big singing bass line makes me happy.

The trickiest songs always seem to be the simplest, with lots of space and sustained notes.

You play synth bass on songs like “Idioteque” and “Climbing Up the Walls.” How do you approach keybass?

Much like how I approach the upright bass — with great trepidation. I’m also playing loops and samples, stuff we’ve taken from the studio, and I enjoy that. I’ve explored sampling and programming a lot, and used bits and pieces of the guys’ recordings to make up the soundtrack for a documentary about a fashion designer friend of mine named Dries Van Noten [Dries, 2017]. That was great fun, but I always prefer working with other people in a band setting.

How did you first start playing bass?

When I realized the guitar spots had been taken in our band, my mum got me a black Westone DX Spectrum. I loved that bass. It was very black. I think it ended up for a while being the door prop to the old management office. I had an old Toshiba radio cassette player, and I would listen to Joy Division, Otis Redding, Cocteau Twins, Booker T., James Brown, and anything my older sister passed on: Magazine, The Fall, Joe Jackson’s Jumpin’ Jive, and I’d play along with every-

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thing. But for bassists, it was Dunn, James Brown’s players, Peter Hook, and lots of Lee “Scratch” Perry.

Growing up together and working together now, how do you and Jonny inspire and influence each other musically?

I’m very proud of Jonny’s stuff; he’s always had the music gene in him. He’s tipped me to some nice bass lines when we’re working, usually from his deep love of all things dub and reggae, like slow eighths and offbeat reggae-syncopated lines — that’s his bass style. I enjoy the unison line we play together on the song “Staircase.” In our heads we’re being Crockett and Tubbs from Miami Vice on that one: neon and Espadrilles and seersucker jackets with rolled-up sleeves and all, if that makes any sense. It’s important to entertain a fantasy when you listen to music. If you like something, it usually has affinities with something else you already love.

What are you working on in your personal practice right now?

I’m playing through songbooks from Carol Kaye, Motown, Duck Dunn, Oscar Stagnaro, and my old teacher Laurence Canty’s book. I dip into all of those, and when I’m home I try to play for one to two hours a day.

I always return to Ray Brown’s book; it’s just brilliant. And I’ve learned a lot from watching our second drummer Clive and how he practices the basics and fundamentals every single day. I try to match his work ethic.

How have you evolved as a bass player over the years?

If my playing has evolved at all, it’s because I’ve vaguely kept doing the same thing for a long time. Maybe not quite Gladwell’s 10,000 hours, but more like 250. I’d like to try working with other musicians as well, just to see if I can play more regularly with a group. With Radiohead stuff, a lot of lines I play that I like come about because I’m already enthusiastic with what I hear in the others’ music, and the bass line is already formed, like a song in my mind. It can be like that with a vocal melody, a riff, or a rhythm.

Really, I’m as excited and as intrigued by music as I was the day I started playing. l

Jump Head

Everything in Its Right Place

By Stevie Glasgow

Of

all of the impressive characteristics of Greenwood’s playing, perhaps the most notable is his ability to find space to stake his sonic claim amidst the many sounds going on at any given time within the music of Radiohead. Whether it’s pedal-heavy

guitars, wild lead solos, layers of synths, frantic vocals, or polyrhythmic drumming, Greenwood has to be extremely tasteful in choosing where to place his lines, and it’s something he’s superb at. His love for Motown and R&B grooves becomes evident when you break down his playing,

wood subsequently weaves into the hook from Example 1a. Observe how he utilizes non-chord tones to give the line extra bite, using an open-string Dn as a pick up into the G# that begins the line, then an A# at the end of bar 1 (as part of a 2-fret-wide descending string pattern).

Example 1a conjures the mood of the hypnotic midsong groove that occurs 2:39 into “15 Step.” Note how Colin stresses the minor third of the G#m chord (Bn) on the downbeat of each 5/4 bar, holding off on the root until the second eighth-note of beat two. Ex. 1b is modelled on the descending phrase first heard at 2:09, which GreenEx. 1a = 188

G#m

2

Ex. 1b

though it might seem counterintuitive if you simply graze through the experimental, alternative sound of his outfit. Here are some samples of his work that exhibit his unique playing in some of Radiohead’s most bass-centric tunes from Radiohead’s extensive catalogue.

4

2

0 2 4

4

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Ex. 2 approximates the sequential phrases that ground the middle section of “Identikit” (starting at 1:56). Dig how Colin balances each measure by initially sounding four repeated notes, which he then balances via a G-string-based D#-E-F# motif—giving rise to some exotic harmonic flaEx .2

B

= 150

vors in the process, such as the G+maj7 (alternatively notatable as B/G) in bar 3. Be sure to damp any wayward ringing tones that may occur as a result of the string-skipping in measures 3–6.

B/A

9

9

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9 11

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Gaugmaj7

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F#/B

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Em(add9)

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11 12

Ex. 3 is reminiscent of the line that first appears at 1:23 in “I Might Be Wrong.” Note the effective use of 16th rests at the start of beats one through three and the savvy deployment of Bns, which impart a strong Dorian feel. Other Ex .3

Dm

= 103

G D A D

0 2 3

0 2 3

0 3

0 2 3

0 5 3 0

0 2 3

Ex. 4 sketches the first appearance of the sparse and haunting bass work that underpins the verses of “Bloom” (0:47). To cop the laid-back phrasing of Greenwood’s Ex. 4

12

10

(G7add11)

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3

0 5 3 0

chord-tone-based melody, try playing just behind the 4/4 of the main drumbeat—a slightly slippery task in light of the guitar and keys’ thick polymetric morass.

Dm9

= 150

7

points of interest include the use of Drop-D tuning (thus facilitating a meaty low D at the end each measure), and the subtle refiguring of this initial idea as the track progresses (from 2:08 onward).

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(Dm9)

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Colin Greenwood

Ex. 5 C

= 82

9 10

4

C

10 10

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C(sus4) Ab6

0 8 9 10 11

C(sus4) C5 B5

0 8 9 10 11

Bb5

10 9

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11 G5

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Bb

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C

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C(sus4)Ab6

0 8 9 10 11

10 9

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Bb

C

8 9

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C(sus4)Ab6

0 8 9 10 11

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Bb

8 10

Finally, Ex. 5 resembles the nimbly fingered lines that appear 2:08 into the band’s celebrated number, “Paranoid Android.” In bars 1–3, Greenwood peppers his part with chromatic approach notes against a 7/8 backdrop, linking the C chord of beat one to the A♭ chord that falls on the 5th eighth-note (perceived as a secondary strong beat in light of the 4+3 feel of the 7/8 vibe). Note also the use of the 5th (F) over the B♭ chords at the end of bars 1 and 3, and the heldover C at the start of the first measure. Though it may appear daunting notation-wise, a one-finger-per-fret approach allows for the whole section to be played with only a single position change (for the 10th-fret F midway through bar 3). l

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ROOT TAL WILKENFELD REVEALS HER MUSICAL SOUL WITH LOVE REMAINS

M

By Chris Jisi | Photograph by Kory Thiebeault

eet the new Tal Wilkenfeld.

Same as the old Tal Wilkenfeld? That query especially resonated in New York City this March, as the Australian-born “Wonder from Down Under” returned to the site of her explosive entry into the bass world and music scene for a twoweek barnstorming run to promote her stunning new album, Love Remains. From two packed nights at the Mercury Lounge (featuring guests Sean Lennon and Becca Stevens) and “unplugged” webcasts with her reactive band (guitarist Owen Barry, drummer Tamir Barzilay, and keyboardist Chris Price), to an album listening session at Guitar

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Center and countless social media interviews including iHeartRadio, Gothamites quickly grasped her transformation (ironically, the title of Tal’s 2007 jazz instrumental debut).

The teenage bass phenom who regularly sat in with the Allman Brothers at the Beacon Theater, gigged with Jeff “Tain” Watts and Wayne Krantz, toured with Chick Corea, and blew up the internet with her solo on “Cause We’ve Ended As Lovers” as a newly minted member of Jeff Beck’s band at Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Festival 2007, had evolved — in a major way.

Love Remains is a proclamation of the full range of Wilkenfeld’s considerable gifts. It’s a return to what she refers to as her singer–

AWAKENING

Jump Head

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songwriter roots, and it’s her vocal debut, but it’s much more. Although best filed under the umbrella of rock & roll, the album’s ten songs draw from a wide range of genres. Tal’s team of expressive cohorts — drummer Jeremy Stacey, guitarist Blake Mills, keyboardists Benmont Tench and Zac Rae, and co-producer/guitarist Paul Stacey — weave a sonic tapestry of electric, acoustic, baritone, and bass guitars, supplemented by keyboards, strings, and woodwinds, to create ambiguous harmonic colors, shifting meters, and nuanced parts that all sparkle differently with each listening. Lyrically, there’s equal heft, as Wilkenfeld reflects on the dichotomy of life and love, with a deeper spiritual component perceptible throughout. As for her two voices, she makes an instant connection vocally, whether cooing passionately or getting down, dirty, and defiant. And on bass, every move and manner that made her a special sideman with jazz and rock royalty is present.

Best of all, Tal’s incredible journey — which began at age 16, when she left her native Bondi Beach, Australia to move to Los Angeles to study music, and climaxed on the stages and recordings of the likes of Jeff Beck, Herbie Hancock, Prince, Toto, Mick Jagger, and Jackson Browne — is the very essence that fueled the stories and songs on Love Remains. Yes, Wilkenfeld is embracing a new audience, but she’s not abandoning her established one.

A

t what point in your sideman career did your desire to pursue your singer– songwriter side emerge?

It was always present. I was singing and writing songs from the first day I picked up a guitar, at 14. When I moved to the States, my focus shifted to being strictly an instrumentalist. After a few years touring as a bassist, I realized I had abandoned my roots as a singer–songwriter. I knew I had to take time away from the that lifestyle and concentrate on finding my voice. That’s when I began working on Love Remains.

How did you start compiling songs and get down to the final ten?

I kept writing with the intention of find-

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ing a song that would become the linchpin for the rest of the album. When I wrote “Corner Painter” and recorded it with the Stacey brothers [Jeremy and Paul] and Blake Mills, I knew I had landed upon the sound, both compositionally and sonically, that I wanted the rest of the songs to stand alongside.

How did your team come together?

Through my love of sushi! [Laughs.]

I’ve met so many key people in my life that way. I made plans to have sushi with Benmont Tench. He invited Jeremy, whom I had met briefly at Eric Clapton’s Crossroads festival, and halfway through the dinner, Paul showed up. After dinner, we went to my car and I played them some songs I was working on. They really connected with it, and I liked what they had to say about how they’d approach my music, so we made plans to try out a couple of songs in the studio. I suggested we call Blake Mills, who’s one of the most inventive, musical guitarists I know, and the four of us cut “Corner Painter.” A few months later, while having sushi with Benmont at the same place, I met Zac Rae, who joined Benmont on keyboards when we cut the rest of the album. I can easily state that those five are amongst my favorite musicians in the world. I feel so blessed to have them be a part of this project.

You chose Paul to produce the album with you.

Yes. It was very helpful to have Paul working on this with me because he’s musically diverse, and I trust his taste and experience. He offered a lot of great ideas, and even when we disagreed about certain things, he took a stance when he believed it was right for the music. It’s important to work with a producer that isn’t just a “yes” person. Tony Berg [credited with additional production on “Counterfeit”] was also very insightful and supportive. I don’t think I’ve ever walked away from a conversation with him without learning something new.

What is Jackson Browne’s role, and how did you first connect?

Jackson is listed as executive producer because he oversaw the album process from

BENJAMIN HAZLET

Tal Wilkenfeld

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Tal Wilkenfeld

start to finish. I met him while performing with Jeff Beck at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 25th Anniversary at Madison Square Garden. As I began recording my songs, I would call him up and ask for advice, and he was beyond helpful, taking the time to share his wisdom and knowledge. I feel very fortunate to have him as songwriting mentor and a friend.

Who else is among your songwriting influences?

A lot of the artists who inspired me were ones I was introduced to during the making of the album — thanks to Jackson and Benmont. When they realized I didn’t grow up hearing artists like Bob Dylan, the Stones, or Neil Young, they made sure to educate me.

That affected how the album developed, as they became some of my favorite songwriters, along with Elliott Smith and Paul Simon. All of these artists were influencing my writing in real time, along with artists whose inspiration I’d already drawn from, like Leonard Cohen and Jimi Hendrix.

Who are your singing influences?

Jeff Buckley, Sam Cooke, Janis Joplin, Joni Mitchell, Etta James, Aretha Franklin, Frank Sinatra, Donny Hathaway, and Bonnie Raitt are key inspirations. Another favorite is Dylan. Sometimes when I tell people that, they think I’m joking. How could they?

Dylan has some of the greatest phrasing I’ve ever heard. And the way he delivers his lyrics — some of the greatest ever written — is unlike anybody else. His unique phrasing is apparent when he sings covers, too. Hendrix is another singer I love; Bruce Springsteen, Randy Newman … the list goes on. The common denominator, what sets them apart, is that they don’t approach the voice as a “singer.” They’re communicators. I definitely don’t think of myself as a singer; I’m just singing my songs because having someone else sing them feels inauthentic to me. I don’t even think of myself as a bass player either, for that matter. I might call myself a musician or an artist … on a good day!

Has the transition to your singer–songwriter side led to changes in your bass playing?

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One hundred percent. I’m a completely different bass player now than I was when I was in Jeff Beck’s band and had only been playing for four years. It’s a really exciting time when you pick up an instrument and start discovering your voice on it. Sometimes that can be a distraction from the discipline of when to step forward and when to step back. The more experience you get, the more your playing becomes less about your voice and more about the song. Through the process of writing and recording my own songs, I am backing up a singer, and in this case the singer is me! Doing that regularly reinforced how to play the appropriate part for a song, not necessarily the most interesting idea I could think of.

There’s the element of the bass being your other voice and engaging in call and response with your vocal, as on “Counterfeit” and “Fistful of Glass.”

Most of the album, including “Counterfeit” [see music, page 89], was recorded live — so aside from some written parts, the bass playing is a spontaneous reaction to my singing. As always, I just play what feels right, and I try to be melodic. On “Fistful of Glass” I overdubbed the bass and used a pick, but I retained a call-and-response approach.

Which brings us to your bass-and-vocal ballad, “Haunted Love.” How did you come up with that unique creation?

I had put a high C string on my Sadowsky NYC 5-string, and while playing it, “Haunted Love” came to me all at once — melody, chords, and lyrics [see music]. I chose to use a capo because I wanted to sing it in a higher key and not lose the ringing, open strings. My approach is like I’m accompanying myself on a baritone nylon-string acoustic guitar. I also imagined having orchestral accompaniment, so when we were able to make that happen, thanks to Paul and a great English arranger named David Arch, it was a dream come true.

The song is very satisfying to play because I get to sing on both of my instruments.

Your early-’60s Harmony H22 hollowbody is featured on “Under the Sun.” I wrote that song with Sonya Kitchell,

Tal Wilkenfeld

and I grabbed a Harmony hollowbody bass that was hanging on her wall. With the bass melody I played at the top [see music], it seemed like the Harmony defined the sound of the tune, so I went out and bought one.

Sometimes an instrument can inspire the creation or development of a song and in turn becomes a key part of its sound. So, it’s nice to maintain that authenticity when recording and performing it. That’s why Jackson Browne has 15 guitars onstage!

Your bass on the rest of the album is a Fender Precision.

Early on we established a sound for the record; I don’t want to call it vintage or retro, but it was definitely warm and analog. We didn’t want the album to sound like 1970 or 2019; we aimed to make it sound like it could have been recorded at any time. Passive instruments like the P-Bass and the Harmony work well in that setting, because they have a timeless sound. Modern basses have more of a hi-fi sound, which works great in certain situations, but it wasn’t right for what we were trying to accomplish. On “Haunted Love,” to make my Sadowsky complement the sound of the rest of the album, I used flatwound strings, rolled the tone all the way down, and recorded it through a guitar amp.

Blake Mills plays bass on the title track.

When we were recording, Blake tried a few different approaches on electric guitar, and it all felt like too much on top of an already complex song. So, I suggested he play bass. He used a flatwound-strung P-Bass and came up with a very interesting, musical bass line that I would have never thought to play.

Sometimes the most inventive ideas on an instrument come from someone who doesn’t play that instrument primarily — like Stevie Wonder on drums!

You don’t play bass on “Corner Painter” or “One Thing After Another.”

I played a baritone acoustic guitar on “Corner Painter,” and Blake tuned down his electric guitar. When we listened back, there was enough going on musically between the core trio of Blake, Jeremy, and me that we didn’t need to pull focus from that with an

L I ST E N Tal Wilkenfeld, Love Remains, 2019, BMG; “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” 2014, Amazon; Transformation, 2007, AIS TA L W I L K E N F E L D C R E D I T S Wayne Krantz, Chick Corea, Jeff Beck, Prince, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Macy Gray, Lee Ritenour, Trevor Rabin, Steve Lukather, Toto, Jackson Browne, Brian Wilson, Mick Jagger, Joe Walsh, Ringo Starr, Ryan Adams, Todd Rundgren, Pharrell & Hans Zimmer, Keith Urban, Slash GEAR Basses 1969 Fender Precision, early-’60s Harmony H-22, Sadowsky NYC 5-string (tuned EADGC) Strings D’Addario XL Nickel Wound, Thomastik-Infeld Jazz Bass Flat Wound Amps “I’ve used and liked EBS and Ampeg amps in the past. I’m not sure what I’ll be playing through in 2019.”

Effects TC Electronic Flashback Delay and Electronic Hall of Fame Reverb, EBS OctaBass, Way Huge Pork Loin overdrive, Boss VB-2 Vibrato, Keeley True Bypass Looper, Xotic RC Booster-V2

electric bass line. Later, I overdubbed some root notes on an organ to fatten up the bottom. I didn’t play bass on “One Thing After Another” because it wasn’t needed. Instead, we added a woodwind ensemble with bass clarinet, for a different color.

How did Love Remains become the title of the album?

I liked how the combination of the two words has two very different meanings, both present in the record’s themes: the endurance or the failure of love. I had that title for a few years before finally turning it into a song.

What’s your songwriting process?

Real life situations inspire me, whether they’re mine or someone else’s. “One Thing After Another” came to me while I was driving in terrible traffic and my phone kept ringing with stressful calls. I spontaneously began singing the words and melody to the

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my mind in autopilot. When you’re in that semi-meditative state, creativity flows.

Do you write mostly on guitar?

Yes; because of the range, it’s the most practical instrument for me to voice chords on. Piano would be my #1 choice if I were as fluent on it as I am on guitar. Occasional-

KORY THIEBAULT

chorus of the song. “Pieces of Me” also came effortlessly, maybe because it’s such a universal theme: One commits oneself to a relationship and later discovers the other person only loves pieces of them. Most of my songs come to me while I’m driving, hiking, washing dishes — any kind of activity that puts

Tal Wilkenfeld

ly I write on bass; “Killing Me” and “Haunted Love” were written on bass. Sometimes a song idea will start with a melody or a lyric, or when I’m playing an instrument it may be a chord progression. Sometimes a groove can catapult an idea. Whichever order it happens in, if it’s a song containing lyrics, I aim to have the music elevate the meaning or the message of the words. So if the music comes first, I’m always prepared to adapt the music to the lyrics afterwards. That’s where I admire someone like Stephen Sondheim. Rumor has it he won’t continue to write a song without a finished lyric. He writes the chords, the melody, and the lyrics all at once; therefore they all influence each other in real time.

You use odd meters and shifting time signatures in a natural, musical way.

I always say I feel everything in 1/1 [laughs]. For me, that’s rooted in listening to old blues and folk music, where the story and the vocal dictate the meter. If done well, it doesn’t end up sounding like an odd meter or odd measure because your ear is following the melody and the lyric. I was laughing with Bob Weir the other night, talking about how Lightning Hopkins played the 12-and-a-halfbar blues.

You’ve said Indian classical music is your favorite genre to listen to.

Yes, because it speaks to so many aspects of my being. First, it’s intellectually stimulating, because it’s rhythmically adventurous, and melodically they’re using quarter-tones.

Second, there’s a spiritual aspect as they have ragas for different times of the day, which are associated with different prayers and chants.

I love how music is a part of their spiritual practice. Last, the music really hits me emotionally; it’s very soulful. I actually have some Indian classical-style violin on “Under the Sun,” played by Shiva Ramamurthi.

What led you to switch from guitar to bass?

After I arrived in Los Angeles to study music, people would catch me plucking funky grooves on my guitar. If I saw a bass, I wanted to play it. Same with drums. It was obvious to everyone that I wanted to be a rhythm section player. I was hesitant to switch, get-

ting such a late start at 17, but once I picked up the bass it felt very natural to me. It felt like home.

Who are your main bass influences?

The people I spent time with when I was a teenager. The first person was Marcus Miller, who took an afternoon to play bass with me and offer his guidance. Soon after I moved to New York, I met Anthony Jackson. We’d sit in his car every week, talking about music and analyzing albums. He’d say, “Listen to how the bass subtly sits back in the verse here,” or he’d ask me questions like, “Why do you think they chose to play that there?”

Having a musical conversation with a giant like Anthony had a big impact on me. He regularly sat in the front row of my shows. We only sat down once with our basses, for like a half-hour, which was a lesson in itself. Ultimately, however, I learned bass playing isn’t about what you can “do” on the instrument, it’s your concept that matters.

Next, I met Oteil Burbridge, and through him and Derek Trucks, I sat in with the Allman Brothers at the Beacon Theater. One night they had me play “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed,” and they gave me five minutes alone onstage to solo! I also met Lincoln Goines, who played on Wayne Krantz’s Long to Be Loose and 2 Drink Minimum [both 1995, Enja] — the two albums that drew me to New York in the first place. On occasion I’d also see Tim Lefebvre and [drummers] Keith Carlock or Zach Danziger play with Wayne.

Those guys are all great.

When I got to New York, people told me I sounded like Jaco, and I hadn’t really familiarized myself with his work yet.

So I dug into his solo records and his work with Weather Report and Joni Mitchell. The truth is, even if you never hear Jaco, if you listen to ten bass players now, you’ll hear Jaco in at least nine of them. His work has become part of the bass vernacular in the same way that Hendrix has for guitar. As a kid I saw and met Victor Wooten in Australia, playing with the Flecktones, but I wasn’t playing bass yet. He was the first bassist I ever saw play in person, and I remember

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Tal Wilkenfeld

assuming that must be how everyone plays the bass, which in retrospect is pretty hilarious! Nowadays there are so many great bass players out there. I get inspired by the ones who have a solid groove and create a bass line that is just as melodic as the top line.

James Jamerson was the king of that.

How do you reflect on your debut instrumental album?

My intention was to make a record with no particular purpose other than for it to become a calling card of sorts. We recorded the album in two days, and it was very much about composing songs for the bass. It helped me get to tour with Chick Corea and Jeff Beck, so it definitely served its purpose. As a standalone album it’s so far from where my head is now that I don’t think I’m the right person to judge what it is or what it means to me. I feel like that was in another lifetime.

What was your main takeaway from working with Prince?

Inspiration. I was inspired by how quickly he liked to work. The first time I recorded to tape and used a pick in the studio was with Prince on a song called “Hot Summer.” He preferred recording on tape and he moved very fast, and he never wanted to punch in unless it was absolutely necessary. And if you did punch, he would only give you one shot at it. That taught me how to how to work fast and effectively, and commit to my decisions.

How about your takeaways from working with Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter?

It’s comforting to know that two of the greatest musicians alive are just as focused on their spiritual paths as their musical paths, and for them, they’re one and the same. I remember standing at the side of the stage a few minutes before I was going to play with Wayne, and he came up to me and said, “Play eternity”! Leonard Cohen, who I was lucky enough to spend time with, was also deeply focused on his spiritual journey. Self-inquiry is a very important part of my life, and it’s reassuring to meet other like-minded people.

How would you summarize your time with Jeff Beck and what you gained from the experience?

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Playing in Jeff’s band — and Herbie’s band, for that matter — was so much fun, because it was never about “playing for the sake of playing”; it was about having diverse musical conversations with notes. When you approach music from that place, everyone has something to say and something to learn from a conversation. There’s no way you can walk away from situations like that without picking up on some of the nuances and the subtleties these masters bring to the music.

Also, playing with Jeff exposed me to people who have now become very loyal fans. I’m truly grateful for that. I got to see a lot of the world, and I experienced so much during that time, which in turn I’ve been able to express in my songs.

How did you come to open for the Who, and what did you garner from that tour?

I met Pete Townshend briefly in 2014, but right after I recorded my album I sent it to him, and his reaction was very encouraging and supportive. As it turned out, the opening band for the Who’s upcoming tour was having visa issues, so it was a case of very fortunate timing. As for experience, it was invaluable. Other than a few club shows, I had never sung a whole set of my music before, certainly not in arenas. I learned how to create a set that keeps the audience engaged, and I built up the stamina to perform it. I also learned how to simplify the music in order to reach the people in the very back rows.

What lies ahead for you?

We’re off to a fun start: I just wrapped up a super-busy few weeks of shows and press appearances in New York City. I have another series of tour dates in June, and I plan on touring in support of Love Remains in 2019 and 2020. I’ll also maintain my session side at home in L.A., where I’ve been doing some writing, arranging, and production work, in addition to bass playing. I love collaboration.

If I can enhance a project with something I can contribute creatively, I’m all in. Ultimately, I’ll listen to what my heart tells me to pursue, as I’ve always done, and I’ll follow the inspiration. l See music sidebar.

Jump Head

F

or anyone concerned that Tal Wilkenfeld’s transition from bass phenom to singer–songwriter might cast her main instrument in a lesser role, breathe easy. Rooted in Love Remains is all of the fingerboard finesse that made her a standout sideman, including pocket-pleasing grooves, vocal-responding fills, expres-

BRETT BOILER

LOW END REMAINS sion-rich melodies, song-friendly subhooks, and the record’s vocal-and-chordal-bass masterstoke, “Haunted Love.”

Example 1 shows the verse bass line of “Counterfeit,” at 0:33. By utilizing open strings on her flatwound-strung Precision Bass, Wilkenfeld is able to provide both bottom end and the upper-register melodic fig-

Ex. 1 Med. rock

(5)

5

0

0 16

13 14 13

0 12

12

S

12 12 11

0

13 14 13

0 16

13

14

0 16

13

C(add9)

8

0 12

12

S 12

14

12

14

Asus4(add3rd)/C#

Em7

0

8

Asus4(add3rd)/E

Em7

= 125

10

8

0 12

12

Bb6

Ebmaj7(add#4)

6

11

12

10

12

S

11

12

11

9

10

9

13

10

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Ex. 2a F13

Med. ballad

Eb13

Eb13

F13

= 130

Capo on 3rd fret

C G D A E

13

13

14 13

13

3

19 13 13

F13

Eb13

19 14 3 13 13 13 13

17

17

11

11

3 11

11

3 11

11

3 11

11

3 11

11

13

14

13

13

F

13

3

19 13 13

17

11

11

3 11

11

3 11

11

3 11

11

3 11

11

13

Bb

3

C G D A E

S

22 17 (3) 17

3 3 3 3 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11

11

Ex. 2b

Capo on 3rd fret

5

C G D A E

3

15

19

3

3

19

15

3

15

3

13 13

1.

F/Bb

= 130

C G D A E

19 3 15

22 17 (3) 17

19 16

Bb

19

23 16

21 16

Bb(sus4)

16 12

12

Ebmaj7/Bb

16 10

3 10

3

16

12

3

12

16

12

3

12

3

16

17 12

2.

Eb6/Bb

3

16

10

3

10

3

16 17

14 3 10

3

14

10

3

10

3

14

Ebm/Bb

17

12

3 3 12

19

3

Bb

12

16

12

3

12

16 3 3 12 8

Cm9

8

C G D A E

90

17 13

17

13

3

13

19

3

13

3

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3

16 0

3

16 0

13

Tal Wilkenfeld

Ex. 2c

Gm(add9)

= 130

C G D A E

Capo on 3rd fret

12 7

3

3

11

3

3 7

12

3

7

3

11

3

3 7

Ex. 3 Bbm

Med. rock

3

= 120

3

13 11 13

S

15 17

3

17 18

13

5

13

13

15

PO PO

13 15 17

3

H

15 13 11 13 15

15

13

13 15

3

12

13 12 13

13

13 15 11

ure in the first six measures that her vocal answers. Let the open E’s ring (bars 1, 3, and 5), and for the open G’s (bars 1–6), use your index finger to rake both the G and the fretted note above it on the D string.

Ex. 2a–2c are from “Haunted Love,” for which Wilkenfeld tuned her Sadoswky NYC 5-string EADGC, and added a capo at the 3rd fret. Example 2a shows the intro and the verse figure. Tal plays fingerstyle, with her thumb plucking the E string and her index and middle fingers on the D, G, and C strings (except for the final Bb chord, which is thumb on the G string, index on the D string, middle finger on the C string). To capture the rhythmic flow of the arpeggios, listen to each string separately, and start by playing slowly. Let all the notes ring where possible, play the accented notes a little louder, and be mindful of the “open Bb string” (the one tuned to G), which functions as a drone. Ex. 2b shows the first 12 measures of the chorus section (no-

11 13 15

11

11

11

S

11 13

S

9

11

9

tated an octave lower), first heard at 1:05.

In addition to listening to each string for the rhythmic pace and being mindful of the open Bb (and open C in the last measure), be aware of the shifting time signatures, and listen for how closely the top note mirrors Wilkenfeld’s vocal melody. Ex. 2c contains the transition first heard at 1:46, which also serves as the outro beginning at 5:07. The ear-grabbing open voicing is further expanded by Tal’s vocal notes. Also note how the rhythmic phrase being split evenly in each measure gives an even-feel flow to the odd-meter time.

Finally, Ex. 3 has the bass melody during the intro of “Under the Sun,” at 0:21. Wilkenfeld used her Harmony H-22 tuned down a half-step (not shown here). Most compelling is Tal’s trademark float-over-the-bar-line phrasing. Listen for the push and pull and swing of the line, as well as her recap of the melody with a few variations in the outro (at 4:37), and then try your own interpretation. l

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Gary Moore, Ozzy Osbourne, Rainbow

BOB DAISLEY The Power Of The Blues

By Freddy Villano

IN

the rock bass world, Bob Daisley really needs no introduction. His playing on Ozzy Osbourne’s first two post-Black Sabbath records, Blizzard of Ozz [Jet, 1980] and Diary of a Madman [Jet,

ZOLTÁN CSILLAG

Daisley Performing with Gary Moore.

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1981], is essential listening for any would-be rock bassist. Daisley’s otherworldly rhythmic and melodic sensibility adds a nuanced, Paul McCartney-like touch to his bass lines in now-classic songs like “Crazy Train, “I Don’t

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Know,” “Flying High Again,” “Believer,” and “Tonight,” firmly cementing his place among rock’s most influential players. Ozzy’s band and songwriting team (which included guitarist Randy Rhoads and drummer Lee Kerslake, along with Daisley, who was also the group’s primary lyricist) helped rescue Ozzy from exile and catapulted the singer’s solo career into the stratosphere. Prior to working with Ozzy, Daisley had been a member of the last incarnation of the Ronnie James Dio-fronted Rainbow, originators of what is today known as neo-classical hard rock and heavy metal.

The 69-year-old Australian bassist did not, however, launch his professional career by playing with the icons of heavy metal. Actually, Daisley first gained international recognition as a member of the English blues band Chicken Shack in 1972 and then went on to play with Mungo Jerry, appearing on their 1973 U.K. hit single, “Alright, Alright, Alright” [Dawn Records]. It was during this period that a life-long affinity for the blues emerged, and, after decades of playing with rock royalty — which also included stints in Black Sabbath and Uriah Heep — he returned to those roots via numerous collaborations with Gary Moore, culminating in the release of Moore’s 2004 masterstroke, Power of the Blues [Sanctuary].

In late 2018, Bob Daisley & Friends released Moore Blues For Gary – A Tribute to Gary Moore in homage to the iconic Irish guitarist, who died in 2011. We caught up with Daisley at his home in Australia to talk about how he managed to put together such a co-

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hesive-sounding tribute with musicians from all over the globe, including vocalist Glenn Hughes (Deep Purple), drummer Eric Singer (Kiss), guitarist John Sykes (Whitesnake) and many others, as well as what’s behind his fiercest bass tone yet.

W

hat was the catalyst for recording a Gary Moore tribute?

I began writing my autobiography, For Facts Sake, in February 2009, and I thought Gary would get to read it — there is so much about him in there. It really hit me when he unexpectedly passed away in 2011, and although there were tributes to Gary, I thought that not enough had been said about one of the greatest guitar players to ever live.

By 2013, I began to consider doing a tribute to him. After I’d asked around regarding who would be interested in performing on such an album, I knew that I had to do it. The response was compelling.

Were there any logistic hurdles to conquer, like getting permission from his estate, to make this happen?

Besides including much of the Gary Moore musical family tree, I asked Gary’s two sons, Gus and Jack, if they’d like to pay tribute to their father — both immediately agreed, so that was the stamp of approval from the Moore family. They are both on “This One’s For You.” Gus sings, and Jack plays guitar.

How did you go about tracking a record

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with so many guest musicians living abroad?

I had already chosen the songs and had worked on new arrangements before any recording was done. The first few basic tracks were recorded at Rob Grosser’s studio with me and Tim Gaze. [Grosser and Gaze are the drummer and guitarist of the Hoochie Coochie Men/Jon Lord.] Some of the tracks were sent via audio file to various performers with just drums and bass, or in some cases, drums, bass, and keyboards. It was a long and time-consuming process, especially with the editing, which took Rob and me more than three years to complete.

What were you editing? Multiple takes?

I asked all the performers to send at least two takes so that we had a choice of parts to use. Eric Singer [Kiss drummer and former Gary Moore bandmate] and Doug Aldrich [Dead Daisies guitarist] sent their recording of “The Loner,” and then I added bass — those tracks were then sent to Don Airey [Deep Purple] to add keyboards. These are examples of how it was all done.

Your bass tone has never been better.

What did you use to record? DI only? Miked amp? Combination?

All of the above. For a lot of the tracks I used my 1962 Fiesta Red Fender Precision, the one that I used with Gary. I also used my 1958 Fender Precision with the gold anodized scratch guard that belonged to John Entwistle. Amps included a Markbass head with 2x10 cab, a mid-60s Selmer Treble ’n’ Bass 50-watt valve head, and a 1969 50-watt Marshall valve guitar head. More than half of the tracks were recorded just DI, with a few plugins for dirt. Much of the tone comes from the instrument and the fingers playing it though [laughs].

The bass solo on “Empty Rooms” is a classic, but didn’t Mo Foster cut the original, even though you are often identified with it?

Yes, Mo played on the original studio version of “Rooms” before I joined Gary, but I seem to be associated with that song because we always did it live, and it was on the numerous live recordings, and videos, that we did. I knew that “Rooms” had to be includ-

Bob Daisley

ed, even though it wasn’t a blues song, strictly speaking. I did the new arrangement with a sort of Cajun/swamp vibe, and it seems to fit in, continuity-wise. I asked Neil Carter to sing and play keyboards on that one because he co-wrote the song with Gary, and Neil’s voice is similar to Gary’s. I didn’t play a fretless this time, though; it’s my 1962 Fiesta Red Fender Precision with a bit of flanger and chorus, and a touch of octave pedal with reverb, which seems to work.

I dig the grit on your tone in songs like “Texas Strut” and “Don’t Believe a Word.” What are you using to obtain that? It sounds like fretless.

No, neither is fretless. “Texas Strut” is the ’58 Entwistle Precision recorded DI with some crunch from the SansAmp PSA plug-in that comes with Pro Tools, and “Don’t Believe a Word” is my 1959 Danelectro Longhorn with similar settings. The fretless sound comes from how I slide the notes and bend the strings.

Tell me about your relationship to fretless bass. You seem to utilize it at the most opportune moments; Ozzy’s “Mama, I’m Coming Home” comes to mind. What makes you think, Yeah, fretless would be good on this tune?

Over the years I have used a fretless bass on certain tracks. “Mama I’m Coming Home” is one amongst several, but on Moore Blues For Gary, I used a fretless bass on only one track: “Nothing’s The Same” with Glenn Hughes on vocals. I have a replica Ronnie Lane [Faces] big-bodied Zemaitis acoustic fretless bass made by Dave of England — that’s his trade name — and it sounds similar to an upright double bass, which was perfect for that song’s emotion.

What’s the key to becoming a good blues bass player?

Try to make your bass lines interesting and melodic, but don’t get in the way of the vocal melody or the rest of the performers.

Lock in with the drummer and enhance his beats with bass notes. For playing blues authentically, it’s good to play just behind the beat — never in front of, or even on, the beat.

It’s the feel needed for blues. l

L I ST E N Bob Daisley & Friends, Moore Blues For Gary – A Tribute to Gary Moore [earMUSIC, 2018] EQUIP Basses 1963 Fender Precision, 1958 Fender Precision (formerly owned by John Entwistle), 1959 Danelectro Longhorn, early-’60s Harmony, Zemaitis Ronnie Lane Acoustic, Hofner Club Amps Markbass TA503 head, Markbass Standard 102HF 2X10 cab, mid-’60s Selmer Treble ’N’ Bass 50-watt head, 1969 Marshall 50-watt JMP head Strings Picato (.045–.105) Picks Dunlop Nylon .88mm LIVE LINKS CONNECT @BASSMAGAZINE.COM Though not a blues performance, this concert (April 25, CHECK IT OUT 1987 in Stockholm, Sweden, on Gary Moore’s Wild Frontier Tour) captures just how electric the dynamic was between Daisley and the guitar maestro, and also demonstrates the enduring nature of their musical relationship.

Visit Bob Daisley at bobdaisley.com where you can find tons of rare info, including his autobiography, For Facts Sake, and hard-to-find releases, like Chicken Shack – Live in Germany 1975.

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ROLE Kaveh Rastegar Parlays His Versatility Into An Auspicious Solo Debut

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By Chris Jisi

IS

there a more versatile, all-in bass player than Kaveh Rastegar? Since arriving in Los Angeles in 1999, Rastegar has defined the modern session bassist: He’s a doubler who has provided bottom on recordings ranging from Meshell Ndegeocello and Shania Twian to Beck and Charlie Puth, as well as film soundtracks and jingles (including an appearance in La La Land); he’s a composer who has written for Ndegeocello, Bruno Mars, Ciara, and Cee Lo Green; and he’s a producer for Sabrina Claudio, Dawn Richard, and De La Soul (for

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whom he also wrote and played bass). Then there’s his recently concluded, 18-year run wearing all of those hats in the forefront jazz unit Kneebody, and his longtime role in John Legend’s band. With that much musical impact on other people’s projects, it was only a matter of time before Kaveh released his solo debut. Light of Love is a sonic tapestry full of fervent grooves, abundant vocal hooks, and ingenious bass orchestrations via his ’64 Fender Precision and acoustic bass. Key to the 12-track disc’s uber-contemporary sound is the way it was written and produced, through free-form jam sessions, post-jam collabora-

Jump Head

CALL

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Jump Head

GEAR Basses 1964 Fender Precision Bass; 100-year-old ¾ German acoustic bass (with Pirastro Evah Pirazzi strings, Kolstein German-style bow, and Gage Realist pickup); 2019 Fender American Professional Precision Bass (with flatwounds); 2008 Hofner Beatle Bass; 1967 Gibson EB-2; 1968 Gibson EB-0; 1977 Music Man Stingray; 1972 Fender Jazz Bass Strings GHS Boomers, GHS Bass Precision Flats (both .045–.105) Amps Aguilar AG 500 or DB 751 head, DB 410 & SL 112 cabinets Effects Aguilar Octamizer, Boss OC-2 Octave, Wesco Pedals Grease Juicer, Electro-Harmonix Memory Man, Line 6 DL4, Boss SD-1 Super Overdrive, MXR Bass DI+, Rat Turbo RAT Other Tonecraft 363 Tube Direct Box, BAE DMP 1073 Desktop mic pre L I ST E N Light of Love, 2018, Rope-A-Dope; Sabrina Claudio, No Rain, No Flowers, 2018, Atlantic; Kneebody, Anti-Hero, 2017, Motéma Music; Meshell Ndegeocello, Ventriloquism, 2018, Naïve; De La Soul, And the Anonymous Nobody, 2016, A.O.I.

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tions, and open-minded experimentation.

Co-conspirators include vocalists Becca Stevens, Gaby Moreno, and David Garza, drummers Chris Dave and Scott Seiver, guitarists Chris Bruce and Josh Lopez, and trumpeter Nicholas Payton. Allows Kaveh, “This record was certainly overdue. The fun was in drawing from all of my musical worlds.”

Born in Montreal on November 17, 1975, Rastegar moved with his family to Denver when he was two, remaining there until age 21. The years in between were filled with music at the urging of his arts-minded parents and his stepdad, a prog-rock composer/guitarist. Saxophone came first, at age nine in elementary school, and then his tastes turned to punk rock and reggae. Kaveh recalls, “Suicidal Tendencies, Sly & Robbie, the Cure — the bass in those bands was such a driving instrument, and the ferocious, wonderful sound when the rest of the band dropped out drew me to bass. A key was Simon Gallup’s part on The Cure’s ‘Fascination Street’ [Disintegration, 1989, Elektra].” First picking out bass lines on his stepdad’s acoustic guitar, Rastegar got a Fender Musicmaster Bass at age 13 from his mom, and he was off.

Kaveh Rastegar

While in high school he saw the Psychodelic Zombiez, a local funk–punk horn band, and he fell into their universe, meeting their vocalist and then Lopez and Seiver, and gigging in all of the group’s satellite bands. Spending time on a Fender P-Bass Lyte, a Peavey TL5, a Fender Jazz Bass 5-string, and Lopez’s dad’s acoustic bass, Rastegar played in reggae and salsa bands, and he subbed for jazz acoustic bassist Artie Moore. Along the way he took in the additional influences of Flea, Les Claypool, Jaco Pastorious, Pino Palladino, and Bernard Edwards.

Gradually, members of the Zombiez moved to Los Angeles, creating a pipeline for the Colorado crew of players. Rastegar’s next move, however, was to attend the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley for two years until another Denver pal, trumpeter Shane Endsley, convinced him to join him at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. Kaveh successfully auditioned on acoustic bass and, along with Endsley, met saxophonist Ben Wendel and keyboardist Adam Benjamin, who would all go on to form Kneebody in Los Angeles (with drummer Nate Wood) in 2001. Regarding his original May ’99 move to the City of Angels, Rastegar recalls, “It was mysterious, colorful, warm, and incredible. All of my Denver buddies were in touring bands for artists like Macy Gray and Everlast. I did local gigs and became a bass instructor at Flea’s Silverlake Conservatory of Music.” Over time, he made inroads across the musical spectrum, leading to the alliances that help make Light of Love the kaleidoscopic, kinetic debut it is.

H

ow did Light of Love come together?

My intention at the start was for it to be my bass album, but it ended up bringing together all of my worlds: bass playing, songwriting, producing, and my love of collaboration — I also played guitar and sang.

The genesis was getting together with my old friend Scott Seiver [Tenacious D] and improvising grooves and forms that I could later write over. I did additional jam-style sessions with buddies like Josh Lopez, Chris Bruce,

Brandon Coleman, and Chris Dave. Then I went through all of the sessions and picked out some good spots, and I began writing the songs with collaborators. My buddy Pete Min, who engineered and mixed the record, is a key collaborator, as well. I bounced all of my ideas off him. I was inspired by J Dilla’s Donuts [2006, Stones Throw], where it’s just one insane idea after another. Compositionally, the songs are just moods that inspired me, like a mixtape. My work on De La Soul’s And the Anonymous Nobody was like that.

There are a lot of diverse bass colors, starting with “Cuento Ilogico” and “Cat Woman.”

“Cat People” is my ’64 Precision and my acoustic bass going through a Fender Twin Reverb, with the reverb on. The song is a nod to Giorgio Moroder’s score for the 1982 film Cat People, with its mysterious, elegant, synth-laden melodies. “Cuento Ilogico” has my arco acoustic bass choir at the top and my P-Bass later. I wrote that with the vocalist, Gaby Moreno. And I wrote “A Little Too Late,” which also has arco acoustic bass, with [vocalist] Becca Stevens in my studio. Those are the only two songs not written from previous jams.

“Tom Tom?” and “Lavender” sound like they have keyboard bass lines.

“Tom Tom?” was from the end of a jam I did with guitarist Jeff Parker. I’m playing both a [Roland] Juno and P-Bass bass line to the groove, which is in 5/4. I brought that to Chris Dave, and he created something new against it. “Lavender” is actually my P-Bass and a Boss OC-2 Octave pedal with the oct 1 knob turned all the way up and everything else turned all the way down. That song came from the same jam as “Accidents Waiting to Happen” — you can hear the same style and tempo. I put the track together and sent it to Dawn Richard, a New Orleans artist who was in Danity Kane, and she wrote the lyrics and added her vocal.

What’s the feel and stylistic influence of “As Long As You Love Me”?

That’s inspired by Malian singer/guitarist Ali Farka Touré — that African-musicmeets-the-blues style — and the feel is 7/4. I

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Kaveh Rastegar

play baritone and standard guitar, and acoustic bass. The vocals and lyrics are by an artist known as Who Is Wednesday. It started from a jam with Scott and Josh, and then I wrote the B section, which has the two scales fused together [A Mixolydian b6 ascending, Bb Lydian descending].

You step out for a solo on “Long March,” which features Nicholas Payton.

That’s built on a bass line I’d had for a long time, which is a bit of a tongue-twister but has a funky side, too. I taught it to Josh and Scott, and they made it their own. Then I sent it to Nicholas, who I had met through Kneebody, and he wrote and overdubbed the melody and the horn parts, all of which are brilliant. The changes are challenging to blow over [A–C– Eb–Ab–G–F]; I just went for it stream-of-conscious, keeping the groove in mind.

You end the record with a chord melody version of “Luz Do Sol.” That’s one of my favorite songs from one of my favorite records [Caetano Veloso, 1986, Nonesuch], by Brazilian composer–vocalist–guitarist Caetano Veloso. About ten years ago, I got into creating solo bass arrangements of songs I love as part of my practice routine. It’s a great learning experience, because you find all of these challenges and limitations on the instrument that you have to solve, and more often than not, you discover that the simplest way to get the melody across is the best way. Here, I added an outro, with Jeff Babko on keyboards, Chris Dave on percussion, and three overdubbed basses in conversation.

Having recently left Kneebody after 18 years, how do you reflect on the band?

To have been a founding member of Kneebody is one of the true honors of my life.

I learned quickly to get over the hang-up of being around incredible musicians who were levels above me, so I could focus on all the ways they challenged me. Along the way, we became best friends and brothers who created records in a musical lab. We would all bring in tunes, workshop them on gigs, and find our way to the finish line. It’s a leaderless band, which could get a little crazy at de-

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cision time, but it couldn’t be any other way.

And to be able to play with a hero of mine in Nate Wood — an equally amazing drummer and bassist, who hears everything — raised my playing and musical awareness tenfold.

I’ll continue to watch and support them, knowing they’re in super-capable hands with Nate handling both bass and drums.

How would you describe your role with John Legend’s band?

I feel very blessed to play in John’s band because he’s one of the great artists of our time. He’s rooted in R&B, soul, and pop, so bass-wise I draw from masters like James Jamerson, Chuck Rainey, and Willie Weeks — but he also comes from hip-hop, so I’m drawing from players like Pino Palladino, too. He’s open to all of the cool things you can do as a bass player, whether it’s filling the spaces on a soul tune or creating a huge, subbass sound with a pedal on a hip-hop tune.

Basically I play what’s on the recordings, but there’s plenty of leeway. John feeds off the band’s energy, and ideas develop live. It doesn’t always mean I play busier; maybe I’ll play a different bass note or we’ll throw in a chord substitution. Overall, I feel like my role is to provide whatever the bass needs to do for the music, and that almost always means being the foundation.

What’s coming up in 2019?

I’m about to release two follow-up singles to Light of Love. One is from the same jam session as “Roll Call,” called “Don’t Turn Back,” featuring vocalist Dorian Holley, and the other is a remix of “Luz Do Sol” by electronica producer Daedelus. This summer I’ll release my singer–songwriter record, which has a Plastic Ono Band vibe and features keyboardist Larry Goldings, drummers Matt Chamberlain and Jay Bellerose, and guitarist Tim Young.

I’m producing some songs for vocalist Sabrina Claudio and continuing to tour with John [Legend]. I also have some projects coming up that I can’t speak about yet that will be especially interesting to bass players. Overall, I feel very fortunate to be involved in so many different musical camps, with each one providing a unique creative outlet. l

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Transcription

Kaveh Rastegar’s “Roll Call”

“R

oll Call,” Kaveh Rastegar’s collaboration with singer–songwriter Mike Viola, sets the stylistic pace for Light of Love, through both its jam-based creation and Kaveh’s fingerstyle technique on his ’64 Fender Precision. Born from a jam with drummer Scott Seiver, Rastegar fleshed out the song with Viola and had Jeff Babko overdub keyboards.

The tune is built around a four-bar bass line that finds Kaveh exploring root notes below a repeated double-stop of A and D harmonics. The tonality is basically Bb major resolving to D major in the last measure. “A good deal of my playing these days is fingerstyle, including thumb-and-palm muting,” he says.

“I was aware of players like Anthony Jackson, Gary Willis, and Pino Palladino using that technique, but I sort of came to it on my own about six years ago. I wanted to focus and control my quarter-notes through note duration and dynamics when my bass line is exposed; that led me to try fingerstyle, and it grew from there. I like the fatter, meatier tone when I pluck with my thumb, and the

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ability to make notes die out quicker or swell after the deadened attack. I also like being able to play percussive, chicken-pickin’-guitar-type parts that make a bass line snap.”

He continues, “The other cool aspect is being able to expand your range by grabbing upper extensions of the chord, harmonics, or actual chords on the higher strings. That opens you up to giving your part a call-and-response component, such as playing bass notes and chords at the same time, like Charlie Hunter does on his seven-string guitar.”

The track begins with rubato, overdubbed synths by Babko and then Rastegar’s one-beat pickup into the four-bar intro. Each time he gets to the D chord in the second half of every fourth measure, he improvises a different fill. Viola enters at letter A, singing two fourbar verses over the first eight measures. Kaveh stays faithful to his ostinato for the two verses and then switches to a more percussive, palm-muted version, starting with the pickup to the ninth bar of A. The successive four measures are an instrumental transition (with Babko’s Rhodes entering), setting up the next verses at letter B. Regarding his ghosted-16ths

Kaveh Rastegar

now filling in the open spaces in his original bass line, Rastegar says, “That was the part of the jam where I had settled into the bass line and I spontaneously decided to make it more funky. I think in the back of my mind I was trying to play a new variation every fourth or eighth bar.” One other subconscious bit of brilliance is how he plays his A and D harmonics at either the 7th fret of the D and G string or the 5th fret of the A and D string, depending on which one is more convenient to reach his root note on the E string.

Viola’s return for two verses at letter B finds Rastegar getting looser: He plays some open E’s throughout, he introduces G, F#, and B harmonics, and he plays his most melodic fill one bar before C. Letter C is the chorus, with Viola repeating his four-bar lyric — dig Kaveh’s measure 34 fill. That sets up the spacey outro at D, with some spoken words

by Viola’s daughter, Babko stretching and reharmonizing a bit, and Seiver transitioning from his backbeat groove to freer, Paul Motion-style drumming. On the bottom, Kaveh starts utilizing D and G harmonic double-stops (5th fret D and G string), turns the D chord in bar 38 into a D/E, plays all the available harmonics on the 5th fret in bar 41, slides a harmonic in bar 42, and winds down in the last two measures.

Rastegar, who points out that the title track has the same fingerstyle vibe, advises listening to “Roll Call” before playing it to take note of the pocket-center feel, the accents and dynamics, and the variatons in his muting. He uses his thumb on the E string, index finger on the D string, middle and occasionally ring finger on the G string (note how rarely he plays the A string unless it’s in a harmonics double-stop), and of course the heel of his palm against the strings near the bridge when muting.

Example 1 shows the first eight measures of Rastegar’s solo chord-melody cover of Brazilian composer/guitarist Caetano Veloso’s “Luz Do Sol,” played on his ’64 Precision. Check out how each measure is built around the basic chord shape and a three- or four-fret range for additional melody notes.

The B9 chord in bar 8 is a handful due to its upward proximity on the fingerboard; barre the 18th fret with your index finger while fretting the B with your middle finger and the A with your ring finger. Kaveh advises, “Listen to how Caetano sings and plays on the original [Caetano Veloso, 1986, Nonesuch] to get some insight into the phrasing.” Also note how Rastegar delays his strums (mostly thumb downstokes and index-finger upstrokes) on some of the chords for a slight arpeggio effect. l

Ex. 1 Dmaj7

Am7

D7

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15 16

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17 17

15 15 15 15

15

12 12

D

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15

13 13 11 11

12 10

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Transcription

Roll Call

By Kaveh Rastagar | Transctribed by Chris Jisi & Kaveh Rastegar

= 85

Bbmaj7

Intro

Rubato synth

7

A

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Transcription

22

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40

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Bbmaj7

7

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Gear Review

Aguilar

TONE HAMMER 700 & SL 115

By Rod C. Taylor

THE PROLIFERATION OF LIGHTWEIGHT bass rigs makes it easy to forget that we once all boasted about how heavy our gear was, how far we had to carry it for a gig, and how big of a car we had to own to haul it around. Yeah, those were the days. Okay, not really.

One of the companies that has significantly contributed to the growing number of bass players with happy ears and happy backs is Aguilar Amplification. Well established as a leader in bass innovation — from amps to pickups to pedals — Aguilar has been pushing the envelope of what lightweight gear can offer with the Tone Hammer amps and the SL series of cabinets. Recently, we tested the newest members of these lineups: the Tone Hammer 700 (big brother to the Tone Hammer 500) and the SL 115 cabinet. Aguilar sent

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along three SL 115s, the TH 700, and a SL 410x, so I was able to put together various configurations.

My first chance to test this gear came when I was leading a music workshop with Victor Wooten at a local university here in Nashville.

When playing with another bassist, Vic tends to privilege the higher end of the sonic spectrum, leaving the lower range for the other player.

As such, I decided to build a rig that was all about the bottom. I took two eight-ohm SL 115s, the Tone Hammer 700, and my MIJ Fender ’75 Reissue Jazz Bass (with a Sadowsky three-knob preamp installed). With a SL 115 in each hand, the amp in my gig bag’s outside pouch, and the bag strapped on my back, I only needed to make one trip from the car. Super-light, indeed.

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As expected, this setup delivered meaty lows, but I was surprised by the punchy, clear, and crisp tones coming from the midrange and even the upper end. Dave Boonshoft, president/CFO of Aguilar, explains that while some 1x15s are specifically created to act as a subwoofer, Aguilar designed the SL 115 with full-range capabilities. Its frequency response is listed as 35Hz­–4kHz, but it had no problem reproducing tones beyond that. I could easily see gigging with two SL 115s and the TH 700 head.

Back home, I set up a couple different rigs. First, I paired the TH 700 with an eight-ohm SL 115 and the SL 410x. For the other, I ran the TH 700 with a single four-ohm SL 115 to try that out as a standalone option. I then played a variety of basses through each. Both setups

Aguilar Tone Hammer SPECS STREET Tone Hammer 700, $899; SL 115, $999 PROS Powerful, super-light gear that packs a heavyweight punch.

CONS None BOTTOM LINE Light gear, heavy sounds.

produced distinctively warm and punchy tones without any heavy coloration. Not an accident, says Boonshoft. “We don’t want our speakers to act like filters, but rather simply be a good transducer.” I should also mention that I own a variety of amps and cabinets from Aguilar, including DB 412, GS 410, and AG 500 heads (none of which are lightweight), so I had a good baseline for testing the SL series. While the SL series has its own character, I found it to be comparable in quality, pow-

er, and transparency.

Stacking the SL 410x (44Hz– 16kHz) on top of the SL 115 made for the perfect combination. I couldn’t believe the rumble it produced when I played one of my 5-string basses through it. I stood in front of it for about an hour just playing tunes that required the use of the B-string so I could revel in the way the low notes spoke with authority. Again, no noticeable filtering here, just a good transducer doing its job. Did I mention it rumbled? Seriously — I vibrat-

TONE HAMMER 700 POWER OUTPUT 700 watts @ 2.67Ω or 4Ω, 350 watts @ 8Ω PREAMP SECTION Solid state POWER SECTION Class D TRANSFORMER Switchmode power supply (SMPS) EQ Bass ±17dB @ 40Hz, mid ±16dB @ 180Hz–1kHz, treble ±14dB @ 4kHz Inputs One ¼" input jack, compatible with all active and passive basses EFFECT LOOP Series operation, adds 6 dB of gain OUTPUTS Two Neutrik Speakon speaker outputs, XLR balanced output with pre/post EQ and groundlift switch, tuner output Cooling Two high-quality whisper fans with thermal speed control DIMENSIONS 12"W x 9"D x 3"H WEIGHT 4.9 lbs (2.2 kg) WARRANTY Three years limited SL 115 POWER HANDLING 400 watts RMS FREQUENCY RESPONSE 35Hz– 4kHz SENSITIVITY 99dB (1W/1M) IMPEDANCE Available in 4Ω or 8Ω DIMENSIONS 19.6"H, 21.9"W, 15.4"D WEIGHT 34 lbs CONTACT aguilaramp.com

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Aguilar Tone Hammer 700 & SL 115

ed one picture and a signed drum head off my studio walls. What amazed me more, however, was that through all that rumble, each note’s distinctive quality and overtones stood out. Of all the ways I tested the SL 115 and TH 700, this configuration was my favorite.

As expected, pairing the TH 700 and the four-ohm SL 115 resulted in the cab putting out serious volume. I never pushed it as far as it could go (I still had some pictures on my wall and wanted them to stay there), but I cranked it enough to convince me that, as a standalone cabinet and head, the rig would serve me well for small to mid-size stages. Whether at low or high volume, the SL 115 delivered, and that is probably the best praise I can offer overall; each of these setups provided similar high-level performance at all volumes, and the Tone Hammer 700’s volume, gain, and drive controls let you dial in about as much grit as you want at any decibel level.

The TH 700 is set to deliver 700 contin-

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uous watts into four ohms and also into 2.67 ohms. That means you could connect an 8 and a 4 ohm cabinet at the same time without causing an amp shutdown. I don’t recommend mismatching cabinets like that, since one cab will draw more power than the other and thus produce uneven volume levels, but the Tone Hammer 700 allows for it. When I asked Dave Boonshoft about it, he said, “At Aguilar, we are in the business of making tools for bass players, and we never want them to fail, regardless of the reason why.”

That’s an attitude I can get behind.

We currently live in a bass world dominated by 10s and 12s, but my experience this past month with the Tone Hammer 700 and SL 115 makes me wonder if 1x15 cabs might be gearing up for a rematch. If so, expect Aguilar to be coaching from the corner of the ring. Designed to serve players well, on and off the road, the TH 700 and the SL cabinet series promise to be easy on your back and awesome in your ears. l

Victor Wooten plays bass all over the world, and while on tour he has the opportunity to play through every rig imaginable. But night after night Victor chooses Hartke amps and cabs.

Š 2019 Hartke | hartke.com | victorwooten.com

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Gear Review

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SPECS

Sadowsky

SPRUCE CORE SINGLE CUT

By Jonathan Herrera

OT H E R T H A N L E O F E N D E R H I M self, no bass builder is more commonly associated with the Fender Jazz-style bass than Roger Sadowsky. The New York-based luthier first made his mark in the late ’70s as the go-to repair guy for the city’s session elite. Not long after, he began to build his own line of Fender-style basses, most equipped with his famed boost-only 2-band onboard preamp.

Sadowsky has since become an iconic brand, often credited with sparking the souped-up J-style bass boom that has dominated the marketplace for at least a decade now. This longterm association with Fender-style basses is what makes Sadowsky’s latest model so intriguing: The Single Cut is an entirely new design, the result of a collaboration a few years ago between Roger Sadowsky and Shop Manager Lisa Hahn. Our tester is even more special than a stock Single Cut, though, as it boasts a chambered spruce body core, here capped with a “master grade” maple burl top and back.

I can’t pinpoint the date, but there was clearly a moment in boutique

bass-design history when singlecut bodies became trendy. I think this is due largely to two factors: Fodera — with its exceptional artist roster and sterling reputation — released a singlecut model, and boutique bass buyers often expect their money to result in something that looks innovative, irrespective of the impact on performance. Regardless, Sadowsky stayed out of the singlecut game well into its peak popularity, unmoved by singlecut bass aesthetics, and unconvinced that the increased neck-to-body contact actually made a sonic difference.

Yet, growing public pressure, as well as a luthier’s natural thirst for challenge, found Sadowsky releasing his first Single Cut a couple years ago. Not only did the instrument’s shape meet Sadowsky’s aesthetic requirements, but he also reports that there was an audible difference: “To my surprise … I immediately heard the increased resonance, sustain, and evenness of response due to the increased neckto-body contact.”

Given how ubiquitous and well-regarded spruce is as a tonewood, it’s a bit mysterious why it

SPRUCE CORE SINGLE CUT STREET $8400 PROS Gorgeous and well-balanced design; sophisticated and sensitive tone; impeccable craftsmanship CONS None BOTTOM LINE While Sadowsky is better known for its J-style basses, the Spruce Core Single Cut is a resounding success — and nothing like the rest of Sadowsky’s existing lineup.

CONSTRUCTION Bolt-on BODY Ash or Alder, “Master Grade” maple-burl top and back NECK Maple FINGERBOARD Morado FRETS 24 medium NUT Bone BRIDGE Hipshot (Sadowsky Design) TUNERS Hipshot Ultralite SCALE LENGTH 34" PICKUPS Sadowsky Dual-Coil CONTROLS Master Volume, Blend, Passive Tone with push pull active passive switch, stacked Treble/ Bass boost control.

Separate mini toggle switch to engage mid boost.

MADE IN U.S.A. CONTACT sadowsky.com

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Sadowsky Spruce Core Single Cut

almost never appears in the bodies of solidbody electrics. If it’s good enough for piano and harp soundboards, not to mention the tops of million-dollar violins, surely it’ll work in a bass. Sadowsky has long championed the notion that a solidbody electric’s acoustic response translates into good amplified response, which is in part why his solidbody basses are chambered (the other reason is the weight savings).

As its premier bass model, our review Single Cut signals the debut of spruce on the Sadowsky tonewood option-list.

The Single Cut arrived in a robust Sadowsky-branded gig bag, the pockets stuffed with all kinds of cool documentation and certificates of authenticity. The body’s sinuous contours give the instrument a lithe and compact look. Compared to many other singlecuts I’ve seen, the Sadowsky feels and looks slenderer and more approachable. As I expected, its construction was perfect. Every detail, from the impeccable fretwork, to the assembly of the electronics and hardware, was done with the painstaking attention to detail one expects from a luxury brand and bass.

As Sadowsky fans know, one of the basses’ distinguishing characteristics is the Sadowsky preamp.

The JFET-based circuit is renowned for its polished and buttery sound, due in part to its boost-only design, which diminished the chance for knob-twisting screwups. Our review bass utilizes the Will Lee signature version of the preamp, which adds a selectable midrange boost. Frequency selection is done through control-cavity-cover dip switches, with a mini-toggleswitch on the front handling on/off duties.

The Sadowsky felt great in my

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lap and on a strap. It balanced well, and the position of the bridge near the body’s end put the neck in a near-ideal place for my technique.

The neck profile was meaty, with smoothly rounded corners. Plucking a string prior to plugging in the bass revealed substantial resonance, with a loud and full-bodied acoustic tone.

In this respect, I agree with Roger Sadowsky: Basses that sound good acoustically usually sound good amplified.

I’ve played a whole bunch of Sadowsky basses in my time, and I’ve never met one I didn’t like. That said, each sounded broadly similar to the other; there is definitely a “Sadowsky sound.” The Single Cut, however, was a different beast. It’s difficult to distill which variable contributed most to this result. Perhaps it’s the spruce body, or maybe it’s the increased body contact that the singlecut design enables, but it had a richer and more burnished midrange texture than I recall with other Sadowskys. It also had tremendous sustain, a buoyant and solid low-frequency response, and a slightly bloomy attack, registering as a delicate blossom on the front end of finger-plucked notes.

Overall, the Sadowsky presents far less like a Fender-style bass (after all, why should it?), and much more like a singular boutique instrument with a seductively potent tone all its own. As I was testing the instrument, the words balanced and even kept springing to mind. From the lowest B to the high 24th-fret G, there’s a clarity and evenness that inspires careful and deliberate playing. It’s the sort of instrument that rewards good technique and nuanced plucking-hand dynamics. It’s every bit the special bass Sadowsky set out to make, and it’s a more-than-worthy flagship for the venerable marque. l

Gear Review

Jump Head

G&L

CLF L-1000

By Ed Friedland

O F T H E T H R E E G U I TA R B R A N D S founded by Clarence Leo Fender, G&L remains the dark horse. On the strength of Fender’s original designs, his namesake company has survived multiple (some near-disastrous) ownerships, and his second venture, Music Man, has flourished under the ownership of the Ball family.

The G&L world, though, has a bit of a cultish feel. The die-hard fans are serious geeks when it comes to the instruments’ technology and history, and it’s easy to understand why.

G&L is the final chapter of Leo’s paradigm-altering career, and his office in Fullerton, California, remains untouched since the day he died. For those of us who have made our way through this world playing his creations, the debt owed to him is incalculable, so a little hero worship is to be expected. But in spite of G&L’s devoted fan base, I’ve always felt the company’s profile in the market seemed undeservedly low-key.

Hey, this is Leo Fender we’re talking about! These are his final designs, incorporating experience gleaned from many years of building the most iconic basses and guitars in the world. In my opinion, the instruments he created for G&L were masterworks that paid homage to his early designs, while pushing the electric bass forward. The first bass he created for G&L was the vaunted L-1000, a.k.a.

the L1K or “Wunkay.” It was a return to his first idea regarding pickup placement, and it featured the newly designed MFD humbucker — a passive powerhouse that could flatten a city block. G&L is once again building the L-1000, pairing the original “lawsuit” headstock with modern refinements like a reinforced neck, slimmer ’90s-style body, and six-bolt neck joint. Dubbed the CLF Research model in honor of the company Leo started after selling Fender to CBS in 1966, this updated classic is back in the G&L lineup, ready to encroach on P-Bass territory and win new fans.

The earliest L1Ks were available in ash, mahogany, or (for opaque finishes) poplar, but of those three body woods, only ash (in a natural finish) remains available for the CLF version.

Substituting for mahogany is okoume, a softer, lighter African wood with a tight grain pattern that looks similar to mahogany when stained, and is reported to have similar tonal properties. For the opaque finishes, G&L chose basswood over poplar; the species is abundant, it’s lighter in weight, and its sonic characteristics have been referred to as fat, well balanced, and possessing a muscular midrange. The fingerboard choices are maple (for natural ash and Rally Red body finishes only), or Caribbean rosewood for the Tobacco Sunburst and Pharaoh Gold Firemist finishes.

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G&L CLFL-1000

All necks are made from hard rock maple, with a dual-action trussrod, and stiffened with graphite rods. The 1.625" nut width, slim “C” neck profile, and 9.5" fingerboard radius make the CLF L-1000 a happy medium between a Precision and Jazz neck.

While G&L suggests the neck has the “slick feel of an old gloss finish,” your mileage may vary depending on your body chemistry and the temperate zone you inhabit.

One of the hallmarks of the G&L sound is the Magnetic Field Design (MFD) humbucker. When introduced, it represented a huge leap forward in bass technology, offering a wider frequency response with greater output than what was previously available. Unlike its two-pickup younger sibling the L-2000, the L-1000 employs this beast in a completely passive instrument. The 3-way mini-toggle puts the pickup coils in parallel, single, or OMG modes — the latter is often mistaken for series mode because of the volume bump.

“OMG mode” is achieved by adding a 0.1µf capacitor across one of the pickup coils, drastically cutting the high frequencies, which effectively acts like a bass boost. Although both coils are on, they are no longer running equally, which creates some single-coil-type hum. The CLF L-1000

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sports the old-style top-loaded control plate with chrome knobs, with a swanky red rubber tip covering the mini-toggle. The ever-present G&L Saddle Lock bridge is stable and dense; the chrome-plated brass saddles are held snugly together by a set screw. Standard G&L Ultra-Lite tuners, medium jumbo Jescar 57110 fret wire, and a hardshell case complete the package.

While it pains me to think of a bass from 1980 as “vintage,” exceptional deals on early G&Ls can be found on the collector’s market. Problem is, many of the old instruments were plagued with neck issues and weighed a metric fuckton (roughly ten shit-loads). I was on the hunt for an old L-1000 when I first heard of the CLF reissue, and I decided I’d give it a try before continuing the search. I first received the basswood version in Firemist Gold and immediately felt at home. I have several G&Ls, and have owned several more; I suppose that makes me a fan, but the neck profile felt closer to my treasured “B-neck” ’70s Fender P-Bass. The basswood body contributed to a comfortable weight in the 8.5- to 9-pound range, and with the lightweight tuners, neckdive was slightly better than expected for this type of instrument. At home, my space is limited and neigh-

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bors exist, so I plugged the L1K into my tiny Phil Jones Bass Cub BG100 combo amp for an initial workout.

Stocked from the factory with D’Addario rounds, the instrument had an enjoyable grindy texture, and I found it extremely slap-friendly in parallel mode. Single-coil mode seemed uninteresting at the time, so I quickly went for OMG. Even with the PJB’s relatively underplayed low-end response, you could hear an immediate bump “down there,” and I was hooked.

As a former bassist-at-large, I used to favor instruments that offered a lot of choices; this way, I could always find a tone that worked on any gig. Now that I’m gainfully employed by one band, I’ve homed in on what I specifically need to do that job, and I heard it the moment I flipped that switch. Put bluntly: I need a P-Bass. The texture, weight, and note density that a Precision Bass produces fits my gig requirements perfectly, and I’m obviously not alone in that opinion. The L1K was Leo’s final take on the Precision, and while it has its own voice with several texture options (and about 30% more output), it does the P thing quite well — the two coils fall right into the sweet spots Leo decided on for the split-coil P-style pickup.

I immediately started thinking about

SPECS taking the CLF with me on the road, but first I had to see how it responded to flatwound strings. You see, that’s the other thing about my gig ...

I dug up a set of DR Strings Legends and cut a 3.5" x 1" chunk of soft foam rubber to shove under the strings at the bridge to kill the G&L’s legendary sustain. Would this baby thump, or would Leo’s best efforts to improve his original conception smooth it out too much? Flat-strung and foamchoked, pumped up in OMG mode with the treble rolled off, the Wunkay dished out plump blooms of boomy goodness. I knew then, this bass is coming with me.

Last year, the Mavericks (not the basketball team) released a Christmas CD, and we set aside Thanksgiving to mid December as the “Hey Merry Christmas” Tour. As we were focusing on the seasonal material, which also offered more opportunities to play electric bass (opposed to my Azola Baby Bass), I figured this would be a good time to introduce a new axe. It also meant that I would hear the L1K through my tour rig, a Genzler Magellan 800 powering a Greenboy Audio F215. This rig is the rare combination of brutally powerful and uncompromisingly true, and the CLF became another beast entirely upon cranking it. First, that MFD humbucker is MF loud! I had to cut back my gain on the amp as well as the master volume in order to maintain some semblance of my previous levels. But the Greenboy’s ability to handle the G&L’s girth showed me just how low you can go with only four strings. In a group context, playing at full bore, the G&L L-1000 supported the nine-piece band with a thick layer of low end that articulated clean and punchy. I heard every note with greater nuance and clarity — and it reminded me that in-

deed, things have improved a bit since 1951. In the course of the two-week run, I used the L-1000 on 11 shows, two radio spots, and an appearance on the CBS This Morning: Saturday show. In each setting, the bass gave me what I needed, with the extra benefit of hearing myself more clearly.

Since the CLF L-1000 is being offered in three different wood types, I asked G&L to send okoume and ash samples to review. My impression of the basswood model was that it thumped nicely. It felt alive, bouncy, and ready to respond. The ash L-1000 had scooped mids that made it my favorite for slapping, but the frequency dip created the impression that it was slightly quieter. I took an allen wrench to the MFD’s adjustable polepieces and brought them up one-quarter turn, which was enough to give the ash body a feeling of parity with the other two. The classic “100% natural” vibe of the ash/maple combination made this bass visually irresistible.

The okoume version surprised me with its warm, present midrange — claims of tonal similarity to mahogany are well-founded. The sunburst finish and darker rosewood fingerboard gave it a traditional-but-sexy appeal. The immediacy of the attack, backed up by midrange punch and a thick bed of lows, made the okoume my personal favorite of the trio.

G&L has also released a CLF version of the two-pickup, active/ passive hybrid L-2000 bass, sporting the delicious original headstock.

The L2K has a well-deserved reputation for being one of the most versatile instruments around, but I for one am happy to see the return to the lineup of the all-passive L-1000—a modern-era classic that can fill many roles and give the hallowed P-Bass a run for its money. l

CLF L-1000 STREET $1599 CONSTRUCTION Bolt-on BODY Lightweight Basswood for Pharaoh Gold Metallic and Rally Red, Swamp Ash for Natural, Okoume for Old School Tobacco Sunburst NECK Hard Rock Maple FINGERBOARD Maple FRETS Medium Jumbo NUT Bone BRIDGE Leo Fender-designed G&L Saddle Lock with chrome-plated brass saddles TUNERS Custom G&L “UltraLite” with aluminum tapered string posts SCALE LENGTH 34" PICKUPS G&L Magnetic Field humbucking pickup CONTROLS 3-position mini toggle for parallel/split/OMG pickup modes, volume, treble, bass MADE IN U.S.A. CONTACT glguitars.com

CO N N E C T CHECK IT OUT

Ed Friedland reviews the G&L

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Jazz Concepts | By John Goldsby

The Suite Spot: Bach For Bassists

“Y

ou don’t really know your scales — even your major scales.” Unfortunately, I’ve had to say these words to many bass students over the years.

Sometimes I try to smooth out the painful critique with some positive reinforcement: “I dig your shoes, though. Where did you get those?” Or, I might use a more pedagogically productive approach: “I hear what you’re trying to do, but let’s polish things to make your presentation more convincing.” All of my comments ultimately return to the harsh reality: Bass players should be able to play scales all over the bass.

Scales are not music, but scales are essential musical building blocks. When you’ve mastered scales over the range of the bass, you’ll have musical options under your fingers at all times. To simplify things: Most Ex. 1

technical problems on the bass occur during a string crossing (switching from one string to another), or while shifting positions (moving up or down the neck). We can tackle these problems specifically by practicing scales, scale patterns, and arpeggios.

One important step when internalizing the major scale is to learn simple patterns in all 12 keys. Let’s revisit a masterpiece of classical music — and steal a scale pattern! Example 1 is the opening statement from Suite No. 3 in C Major for Violoncello Solo, BWV 1009, composed by Johann Sebastian Bach in the early 18th century. Put Bach’s lick in 4/4 and it creates a nice practice pattern: a descending C major scale, ending with a triad arpeggio (Ex. 2). Play the pattern through all 12 keys, beginning on the root of each major scale (Ex. 3). If the arpeggio at the end of the line goes too low Ex. 2

C

Flowing, steady and dream-like

5

4 2

5 3 2

5 3

Slowly & accurately

3 0 3

3

5

4

2

5

3

2

5

3

3

0

3

3

CO N N E C T John Goldsby has been writing for bass magazines since 1991!

Check out his new video lesson series at DiscoverDoubleBass. com and johngoldsby. com.

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CHECK IT OUT

Various editions of J.S. Bach’s Cello Suites (BWV 1007–1012) are available from the IMSLP–Petrucci Music Library, a repository of public-domain sheet music.

CHECK IT OUT

Rinat Ibragimov, principal double bassist of the London Symphony Orchestra, performs a spot-on arco version of Bach’s Cello Suite No. 3, Movement 1.

CHECK IT OUT

Mario D’Amato plays his elegant electric bass rendition of the Cello Suite No. 3, from the DVD J.S. Bach: Five Suites for Cello Solo.

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The Suite Spot

for your instrument, transpose the lowest note up an octave, as shown in the pattern in the key of Bb major. Bach wouldn’t mind.

To work the pattern through all 12 keys, we can use a series of variations from the suite. Example 4 begins with a similar pattern from the 3rd of the C major scale (the note E), moving down the scale to a 2nd-inversion C major triad (the notes E, C, G, C, E). In bar 2, the pattern begins on the 5th of the C major scale (the note G), moving down the scale to a 3rd-inversion C major triad (the notes G, E, C, E, G). Bar 3 of Ex. 4 is the original pattern, this time from a high C, way up in the nosebleed section of the bass. Bar 4 moves to a

Ex. 3

F

10 8 7 5

8

8 5 8

10 9 7 5 3 2

3

3

3

7 5

8 6 5

1210 9

1210 7

8

17 1614

7 10

F/C

5

8 7 5

8 6 5 1

3

5

8 6 1

0

1

8

1

7 5

3 2

1 5

171514

1715

5 3

5 1 5

3

8 6 5

151215

15 1412

15

8 6

6 3 6

6

10 9 7

15141210 8

10 7 10

8

F7

F

5 3 2

continue through all 12 keys

C7

C

12 10 9

2

F/A

7

8

8

C/G

C/E

9 7

Ex. 5

Eb

Bb

10 9 7

Ex. 4

C7 chord. The pattern changes to start on the b7th of the C Mixolydian scale (the note Bb).

This change from C major to C7 prepares the move to F major in Ex. 5.

The pattern is now on a journey through all 12 keys. To practice this exercise effectively, play one key at a time over and over.

When you can ace the four-measure exercise in one key, proceed through the cycle to the next key.

Ex. 5 follows the same structure: F/A, F/C, F, F7. Ex. 6 modulates to Bb major. The pattern follows the same structure in the key of Bb: Bb/D, Bb/F, Bb, Bb7. Ex. 7 moves to the key of Eb major: Eb/G, Eb/Bb, Eb, Eb7. Ex. 8 gives

10 8 7 5

8

8 5 8

8

8

7

10 8 7

10 8 6

8 5 8

6

Ex. 6 Bb/D

7

5

Bb/F

8 7 5

8 6 5

6 1

1 5

10 8 7

Bb

10 8 7

10 8 5

6

5 8

15 1412

Bb7

151312

1513

131013

13

13 1210

131210

13 11

131013

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The Suite Spot

you the first measure: Ab/C. Then you’re on your own to continue the exercise through all 12 keys: Ab/C, Ab/Eb, Ab, Ab7, Db/F, Db/Ab, Db, Db7, and so on around the cycle.

Take it slowly, making sure your fingerings are logical and your shifting precise.

Then speed things up — but don’t set your neck on fire by playing too fast! Once you’ve mastered this exercise, you’ll be moving around the neck with ease.

For inspiration, check out examples of

Ex. 7

12 10 8

Ex. 8

12 10 8 6 5

6

6

6

5

8 6 5

8 6 5

8 6 3

6

8 7 5 3 6

Ab/C

5

120

Eb

Eb/Bb

Eb/G

3

continue through all 12 keys

6

5

3

6

4

3

4

6

4

bassists playing the Bach Cello Suites. The six suites are among the most recognizable and popular works of classical music literature.

They have been interpreted by musicians like cellist Pablo Casals [Bach: Cello Suites, 2011, Warner Classics] and bassists Edgar Meyer [Bach: Unaccompanied Cello Suites, Performed on Double Bass, 2000, Sony Classical] and John Patitucci [Heart of the Bass, track: “Bach Prelude in G,” 1992, Concord].

Scales upon scales upon scales! l

3

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Eb7

8 6 5

8 6

6 3 6

6

6 5

8 6 5

8 6 4

6 3 6

4

The Inquirer | By Jonathan Herrera

To the Future of Bass!

T

his has been a crazy year. That our political system seems to be imploding isn’t helping, but still, I’d be complaining of my personal year’s craziness even without the backdrop of incessant governmental lunacy. I moved my entire studio.

My car was totaled. A long-term relationship ended. All manner of challenges seemed to characterize my daily existence. So, it was in this context of personal and professional transition and upheval that the news arrived about the demise of our old magazine. To say I didn’t see it coming would be a lie. My tenure there was long enough to include the days when we had a large staff and would send multiple editors on days-long, all-expenses-paid trips for interviews and events — but we soon found things steadily shrinking, with staff and budgets being cut in a painfully slow attrition that was too obvious to ignore. Still, I never would have imagined that the brand I worked so hard to help cultivate and refine would be eviscerated and repurposed as the U.S. title of a British bass magazine that has almost nothing in common with the original. That was an unfortunate surprise.

I mention all of this to convey that our new enterprise, Bass Magazine, is not only something that I think the bass world needs, but something that I need. Putting together a magazine is a serious undertaking; I wish all

of our readers could know just how much effort, passion, and enthusiasm went into each issue. This was 100% due to the quality of the people behind the magazine. It was just too depressing for words to imagine, if only for a moment, that this staff — with over a century of combined experience illuminating the music and culture of bass — would not only be jobless, but without an outlet for its hardearned expertise. I am so heartened that in a matter of months, the team has pulled off this extraordinary feat. Moreover, Bass Magazine promises to offer so much more than our former publication ever could. As a digital venture, the opportunity to modernize our content is exciting and long overdue. The strictures of print, not to mention the limited imagination of our former corporate overlords, have long diminished the chance for many of our best ideas to see the light of day.

No longer.

In future installments of The Inquirer, I hope to utilize the full potential of this space to bring you a more engaging and instructive resource to learn about our instrument.

While I do mourn the losses this past year has brought, I am also bolstered by the liberating feeling that comes with change. I hope you are as excited as I am to go on this journey.

Please be in touch at jon.herrera@gmail.com and let me know how you think this column can best work for you. l

An accomplished player and former editor-in-chief, Contributing Editor Jonathan Herrera has been a full-time musician and producer since 2010. His latest endeavor is San Francisco Bay Area recording studio Dime Studios.

Catch up with him at jonherrera.com and at thedimestudios.com.

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Alternatives | By Karl Coryat

Don’t Knock The Tribute Life

G

Bass Magazine’s copy editor, Karl Coryat, has been playing bass for 40 years and has been editing bass magazines for 30.

For all things musical, he goes by the name Eddie Current.

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reetings! I’m excited to begin a new column to explore a diverse range of topics. I’m calling it Alternatives, because I have been known (and accused) of often having a different perspective on things, compared to the mainstream take shared by the masses. It’s always good to be exposed to a new angle on a subject, and I hope you will find this column stimulating — even if my alternative perspectives may, at times, rub you the wrong way.

For five years in the San Francisco Bay Area (until I was recently forced to move because of, ahem, work-related issues), I fronted a tribute band called Joyride. We played songs by the Cars, with more or less notefor note accuracy, but with a twist: We also played three-song mini-sets by other bands, also note-for-note, inside our Cars sets. Tribute bands carry a stigma, with many musicians turning up their noses at them for having abandoned any and all musical integrity. Some feel that it’s what musicians do when they get old and have given up.

Admittedly, there’s some truth to that. As a 50-something rocker, I’m at peace with the dream being over. And I’m here to argue the alternative viewpoint that it’s okay.

Not only is playing in a tribute band tons of fun, it’s more rewarding than you might expect. It’s highly educational, and it can also be financially lucrative. I understand why tribute acts get a bad rap; the tribute thing is ever-growing in popularity, not only among aging Boomers and Gen-Xers, but also a surprising number of Millennials. With this shift, original-music artists are getting crowded out of live opportunities on their local scenes. This is an unfortunate re-

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ality — but hey. If you can’t beat ’em, consider joining ’em. I did, and I never had a better time playing live music.

When you think of what a tribute band means, you might imagine a group that not only sounds like a particular famous band, but also tries to look, move, and behave like the original, creating a faithful reproduction of all aspects of its live concert. For example, I once saw a U2 tribute whose looks-accurate singer did a Bono shtick between songs, with the “Dooblin” accent and everything. (The idiom was more or less invented in the ’70s by a Broadway show called Beatlemania, which was billed as “not the Beatles, but an incredible simulation.” The musician–actors wore mop-top wigs and collarless suits; you get the idea.) However, many modern tribute bands don’t do the look, just the music — my band included. I don’t have the hair to pull off Benjamin Orr or Ric Ocasek, and I would find wearing a wig onstage ridiculous except for a Halloween show. If that kind of thing turns you off as a performer, know that it isn’t a requirement. In my band we usually stuck to a Cars-friendly color palette of black, white, and red, but no one ever came up after a show to complain that we weren’t wearing ’80s outfits with shiny jackets and shoulder pads. You want to look like you’re ready for the stage, but for people who come out to these shows, the music is what matters most.

Whereas a cover band typically approximates the original performances by a variety of artists, in a tribute band, you’re expected to sound just like the originals, and you usually tribute only one (occasionally two) artists, or at least you confine yourself to a highly specific subgenre, like late-’80s hair

Alternatives

metal. What’s the point for the musicians?

What’s the appeal for listeners?

First, there’s the nostalgia factor. I can’t tell you how many folks, when they heard I was in a Cars band, said, “Oh, I love the Cars!” So, people came to the shows specifically to hear the Cars songs they love, probably from their youth, recreated in real time by live musicians rocking out, being too loud, and having a blast. When combined with a little marketing and social media, it’s almost like you have a built-in fan base. Do your job well, and fans of the original artist will go crazy for your performance. Complete strangers will sing along, knowing all of the words, and they’ll come up afterward to gush (something I’ve never experienced in any original band I’ve been in).

Second, as a tribute band, you know — before anyone hears a note — that the raw material is pre-approved. The songs are great, at least in some people’s opinion, which takes off a lot of the pressure. In a “legit” band, you have to win fans by writing songs (which is hard) and working your asses off. Until that happens, if it ever does, you play lots of shows to few people, who mostly stand there like statues. If you have the energy and hunger to do that, great! Best of luck to you. But if both you and the empty dive bars are getting old, tributing offers a way out. There’s nothing like playing for a packed house that loves what you’re doing, where they’re singing and having a great time. At bigger venues, it’s like a fantasy-camp rock & roll experience.

Third, learning songs for a tribute band is an amazing musical exercise. In music magazines, you may have read (many times) that transcribing is a valuable way to im-

prove your skills. In a tribute band, not only do you have to transcribe the parts from recordings, you also have to play them. A lot!

And, if you’re dedicated to your craft, as you should be, you go back to the records from time to time to re-listen and fine-tune your parts. Tributing takes the transcribing thing to a whole new level.

There are downsides, of course. When you’re tributing a band that no longer puts out hit records, there’s a finite catalog of songs that casual fans know from the radio and TV. For them, the deep album cuts become the tribute equivalent of, “This next song is off our new record!” With prolific hit-makers like the Beatles or the Eagles, this isn’t much of a problem, but for something like the Cars or Nirvana, you’re pushing it to get together one solid set of well-loved songs that are part of the collective consciousness.

That’s a reason why my band did the minisets: They filled out some time, but more important, they kept us fresh, engaged, and always learning new things.

Another downside, of course, is there’s a ceiling on a tribute band’s success. I never expected Joyride to appear on Saturday Night Live, and it would have been absurd for us to make and sell records. However, there are well-known cases of famous old bands recruiting a replacement member from a local tribute. While it’s remote, for a tribute musician there is a possibility of going from fan to actually joining the band that you worship.

So, get those YouTube videos up there!

Next time, I’ll discuss the subtleties that go into being a tribute musician. They’re deeper and heavier than you might think.

(Yeah, that’s a Cars reference.) l

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Beginner Bass Base | By Patrick Pfeiffer

Fretting-Hand Finger Permutations

Y

Patrick is a professional bassist, bass educator, clinician, composer and author, having published several classic bass books, among them Bass Guitar for Dummies, Bass Guitar Exercises For Dummies, Improve Your Groove: The Ultimate Guide For Bass and Daily Grooves for Bass.

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ou are a bass player. Perhaps you’ve just recently discovered this magnificent instrument, or perhaps you’ve been playing a long time and are glancing at this page to see if you need to fill in any gaps.

Whatever the case, welcome to Beginner Bass Base. This column is designed to make you a better bassist. It is focused on beginners — the players who are full of passion for rhythmic low frequencies and who are seeking the tools to express themselves as musicians.

About all I expect you to know is that when you strap on your bass, make sure that your strings are on the outside. My fervent hope is to reach you with content that will instill good habits, before you have the chance to develop any bad ones.

This month’s étude, Fretting-Hand Finger Permutations, is a collection of exercises that strengthen your fretting hand and help you gain finger independence so you can play any groove, lick, riff, or phrase with ease and authority. It is one of my personal all-time favorites and something I put myself through every single day … because it works. Place your fretting hand (your left, unless you’re playing lefty, in which case it’s your right hand) on your bass neck with your fingertips on the E string. (For novices, that’s the thickest string, which is closest to you as you look down.) Start with your index finger in the space behind the 3rd fret of the E string.

The note name is G. Now, spread your fingers to cover four frets, one finger per fret. This

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means that all your fingers are on the E string and they cover the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th frets: The index finger covers the 3rd fret, the middle finger the 4th, the ring finger the 5th, and the pinkie covers the 6th fret. The notes are G, G#, A, and A#. Don’t worry if you feel your hand doesn’t stretch enough. It’s more important to keep the fretting hand somewhat relaxed and to use “mini-shifts” to reach each fret with the correct fingers. Ideally, each finger should land just behind the fret to produce the cleanest note.

Each finger is assigned a number: 1 – Index 2 – Middle 3 – Ring 4 – Pinkie Now, play fingers 1, 2, 3, and 4 in succession. Cross to the next string, the A string, and repeat the sequence. Do the same on the D string and the G string. (Hey, I heard that snicker when you read G string. Keep it clean!) When you complete the G string, reverse course and work your way back down with the same finger combination, all the way to the E string. This will help your fingers become accustomed to moving across the strings in both directions.

There are a total of 24 permutations. You need to practice them all so that you develop the ability to easily move in any direction from any point on your fingerboard. This will

Patrick Pfeiffer

also help you avoid giving preference to one finger over the others. You can divide the permutations into four columns, each starting with a different finger.

1234 1 243 1324 1342 1423 1 432

1

2134 2 1 43 2314 2341 2413 243 1

2 3

3124 3142 3214 3241 3412 3421

4 etc.

3 4 5 6

3 4 5 6

3 4 5 6

Work your way down from the top of the first column, and then go on to the top of the next column. Check out the notation shown here and follow along, as well (you’re reading music!). You’ll find the positive results are practically instantaneous, so keep at it. As you get more comfortable, add a metronome starting at a slow tempo, and play along to the click. This étude forms the basis for an entire arsenal of exercises, which means you might as well get on friendly terms with it.

Enjoy and savor the low frequencies! l

4123 4132 4213 4231 43 1 2 432 1

1 2

3 4 5 6

3

4 etc.

3 4 5 6

1

3 4 5 6

3 4 5 6

3 4 5 6

2

4

3 etc.

3 4 6 5

3 4 6 5

3 4 6 5

3 4 6 5

4

1 2

4

3 etc.

3 4 6 5

1 3

3 4 6 5

3 4 6 5

3 4 6 5

2

4 etc.

3 5 4 6

3 5 4 6

3 5 4 6

1 3 2

3 5 4 6

4 etc.

3 5 4 6

3 5 4 6

3 5 4 6

3 5 4 6

7

1 3

4

2 etc.

3 5 6 4

3 5 6 4

3 5 6 4

3 5

6 4

1 3

4 2 etc.

3 5

6 4

3 5 6 4

1

3 5 6 4

3 5 6 4

4

2

3 etc.

3 6 4 5

3 6 4 5

3 6 4 5

3 6 4 5

10

1

4 2

3 etc.

3 64 5

3 6 4 5

1

3 6 4 5

4

3

2 etc.

3 6 4 5 3 6 5 4

3 6 5 4

3 6 5 4

3 6 54

1

4

3 2 etc.

3 6 54

3 6 5 4

3 6 5 4

3 6 5 4

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Beginner Bass Base

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2

1 3

4 etc.

4 35 6

4 35 6

4 35 6

4 35

2

1 3

4 etc.

6 4 35

6

2

4 35 6

4 35 6

4 35 6

1

4

3 etc.

4 3 6 5

4 3 6 5

4 3 6 5

4 3 6 5

16

2

1

4

4 3

3 etc.

6 5

2 3

4 3 6 5

4 3 6 5

4 3 6 5

1

4 etc.

45 3 6

2 3

45 3 6

45 3 6

1

4 etc.

45 3 6 45 3

6

45 3 6

45 3 6

45 3 6

19

2 3

4

1 etc.

45 6 3

45 6 3

45 6 3

45

2 3

4

6 3 45

1 etc.

6 3

45 6 3

2

45 6 3

45 6 3

4

1

3 etc.

4 6 3 5

4 6 3 5

4 6 3 5

4 6 3 5

22

2

4

1

4 6

3 etc.

3 5

4 6 3 5

2

4 6 3 5

4 6 3 5

4

3

1 etc.

4 6 5 3

4 6 5 3

2

4 6 5 3

4

3

1 etc.

4 6 5 3 4 6 5 3

4 6 5 3

4 6 5 3

4 6 5 3

25

3 1

2

4 etc.

53 4 6

5 3 4 6

3

5 3 4 6

1 2

4 etc.

5 34 6 5 34 6

5 3 4 6

3 1

5 3 4 6

5 3 4 6

4

2 etc.

53 6 4

5 3 6 4

5 3 6 4

5 3 64

28

3

1

4 2 etc.

5 3 6 4

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5 3 6 4

3

5 3 6 4

5 3 6 4

2

1

4 etc.

5 4 3 6

5 4 3 6

3 2

5 4 3 6

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4 etc.

5 4 3 6 54 3 6

5 4 3 6

5 4 3 6

5 4 3 6

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3

2

4

1 etc.

3 2

5 4 6 3

5 4 6 3

5 4 6 3

4

1 etc.

5 4 6 3 5 4 6 3

3

5 4 6 3

5 4 6 3

5 4 6 3

4 1

2 etc.

5 6 3 4

5 6 3 4

5 6 3 4

5 6 3 4

34

3

4

5

1 2 etc.

6 3 4

5 6 3 4

3

5 6 3 4

5 6 3 4

4

2

1 etc.

5 6 4 3

5 6 4 3

5 6 4 3

5

3

4 2

6 4 3 5

1 etc.

6 4 3

5 6 4 3

5 6 4 3

5 6 4 3

37

4

1

2

3 etc.

6 3 4 5

6 3 4 5

6 34 5

63 4 5

4

1 2

3 etc.

6 34 5

6 3 4 5

4

63 4 5

63 4 5

1

3

2 etc.

6 3 5 4

63 5 4

63 5 4

6 3 54

40

4

1

3

2 etc.

6 3 5 4

4

6 3 5 4

63 5 4

2

1

3 etc.

63 5 4

6 4 3 5

64 5 3

64 5 3

6 4 3 5

6 4 3 5

4 2

64 3 5

1

3 etc.

64 3 5

6 4 3 5

64 3 5

6 4 3 5

43

4

2

3

1 etc.

6 4 5 3

6 4 5 3

6 4 5 3

4 2

3

1 etc.

6 4 5 3

4

6 4 5 3

6 4 5 3

3

1

2 etc.

6 5 3 4

6 5 3 4

6 53 4

6

5 34

46

4

3

1 2 etc.

6 5 34

6 53 4

4

6 5 3 4

6 53 4

3

2

1 etc.

6 5 4 3

6 5 4 3

6 5 4 3

6 54 3

4

3 2

1 etc.

6 5 4 3

6 5 4 3

6 5 4 3

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Berklee Bass Babylon | By Steve Bailey

Go Produce Yourself!

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Steve Bailey is the Chairman of the Bass Department at Berklee and the grand master of the fretless 6-string as a veteran sideman, author, educator, and solo artist.

In addition to participating in Victor Wooten’s Wooten Woods Experience Tour, he is close to releasing his next solo record, a collection of duets with a wide array of artists.

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student made an appointment with me, as many do just before they graduate. They are nervous about the “real world” and want to come talk about what the future holds, knowing my history in the business might help shed some light on what they are about to face. When they enter my office, I have a series of questions from a list that I call, “You Are Not Ready For the Real World IF….” This list is based on my personal experience along with what I have learned from others who have traveled the same road, before me and after me. Most of the criteria on that list pertains to music: repertoire, reading skills, ear-training (the real world kind, on the bandstand: learn a song in one pass—not solfege, which I have never heard on a gig), improvising, rhythmic consistency, groove, and so on.

Then come my other questions, which seemingly have very little to do with music, but in reality they have much to do with being successful. One of these mini-quizzes is I have the student open their laptop and I send them an email. The attachment to the email is an MP3 of a track that has no bass on it. They look at me puzzled, and I say, “‘You Are Not Ready For the Real World IF…’ you cannot deliver a finished bass track at 24/48 that I can drop into my session, and it will sync from the git-go.” It’s scary for me to admit this, but academia—with all the emphasis on playing well and with all the right intentions—is not preparing most of our aspiring performers to make the most of their skills.

With these recording skills, the working bassist can create a potential revenue stream that will allow them to generate income at any hour of the day, virtually anywhere in the world. The basic functions can be learned in just a few hours, and it’s so easy to practice your “technique” in a plane, train, car (back-

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seat), or just about anytime a laptop and headphones can be used.

Additionally, this unleashes one of the greatest practice tools, as we can analyze our playing at a microscopic level. We can measure our attacks, sustain, and accuracy by viewing the waveforms of our recorded lines.

We can enter loop mode and practice timing exercises by utilizing a click track or loop that we simply drag into the timeline.

In the Berklee Bass Department we now offer a class called The Self Producing Bassist. In 14 weeks, meeting just one hour per week, students get a solid foothold of these skills. Some are even opening their own “recording shop” while still in school, promoting themselves through social media, and generating income. We have coordinated with the Contemporary Writing and Arranging faculty and their students, enabling our Self Producing Bassists to send their products back and forth for free, through email or many other web-based platforms designed to send larger files.

The reality, however, is that one does NOT need a class to learn this. There are great, free videos online, and many low cost A-Z courses. Once you spend a few hours on the basics, the creative potential of this skill starts to manifest itself. In addition to creating bass lines, you will have the skills to record other instruments, create loops, arrange, compose, and mix. As the benefits and application of this skill-set expand, it becomes addictive. And you can start with a one-channel interface/preamp for less than $200.00.

So while you work on your modes, scales, grooves, and solos, give some energy to how you are going to apply these skills to “today’s” industry. And in the case of recording chops, how you are going to creatively translate those rhythms and notes into an “at your convenience” means to pay your bills. l

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Partners | By Jim Roberts

Leo Fender & the “Group of Guys”

T

Jim Roberts was the founding editor of Bass Player and also served as the magazine’s publisher and group publisher.

He is the author of How the Fender Bass Changed the World and American Basses: An Illustrated History & Player’s Guide (both published

by Backbeat Books/ Hal Leonard).

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he history of the bass guitar is a story of partnerships. For more than a half-century, instrument makers have been working closely with bass players as they conceived and built basses, searching for the best combinations of playability, flexibility, and good sound. In this column series, I’ll be looking at those partnerships and showing how builders and bassists have collaborated over the years to get us to where we are now, with an amazing variety of basses available in different configurations with different capabilities.

As I chronicled in my book How the Fender Bass Changed the World [Backbeat/Hal Leonard], there were a number of early attempts to build an electric bass that could overcome the limitations of the acoustic bass, including such instruments as the Rickenbacker Electro Bass-Viol and the Gibson Electric Bass Guitar, both of which were played upright. The most significant development was Paul Tutmarc’s Audiovox Model 376, introduced in 1935, an electric bass guitar played in the horizontal position. It was the right idea but had little impact; only about 100 were made, and it was not used on any significant recordings.

The instrument that changed everything, of course, was the Fender Precision Bass, introduced in late 1951. Where did the idea come from? As Leo Fender told Tom Wheeler in an interview published in Tom’s book American Guitars [Harper Perennial], he wanted to “free the bass player from the big doghouse, the acoustic bass. That thing was usually confined to the back of the band, and the bass player couldn’t get up to the mike to sing. And … guitar players would have an advantage if they could have an instrument with frets that would make doubling on bass easier for them.”

I recently asked Richard R. Smith, the renowned Fender expert and author of Fender: The Sound Heard ’round the World [Garfish],

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if he knew of any musicians who helped Leo develop the concept behind the P-Bass. “Leo had this group of guys who were hanging around the factory in Fullerton,” he told me.

“They would talk to him about what they saw as the answer to their problem — and the answer to their problem was getting work.” It’s impossible to say whether one of those players was the crucial influence behind Leo’s idea for a bass guitar, but what he told Tom Wheeler clearly indicates that somebody had talked to him about the problem of getting work.

Many of the “group of guys” that Leo knew played in Western swing bands, and seeing those bands undoubtedly influenced Leo’s thinking. One of the Western swing bass players that Smith is aware of was Jack Kelleher, who played in bands led by Spade Cooley and Jimmy Wakely and knew Leo’s friend and collaborator Bill Carson. While Kelleher may have been one important influence, Smith says he tends to think it was “multiple players” who inspired Leo’s invention. In any case, Smith says, “as soon as the instrument came out and people started playing it, it kind of shook up the group.”

Another early influence on Leo’s thinking was Oscar Moore, the guitarist in the Nat

Partners

King Cole Trio. According to Smith’s book, Moore tried out a P-Bass prototype — an account, he confirms, that came directly from Leo Fender himself. Other jazz players also played early P-Basses, including Roy Johnson with Lionel Hampton’s band, as was famously reported by Leonard Feather in a July 1952 article in Down Beat. There were some inroads in country music as well; Nashville bassist Joel Price is credited with being the first electric bass player at the Grand Ole Opry in 1952. In his recent book The Bass Space [Schiffer], veteran music journalist Willie Moseley mentions a photo showing a bassist holding a P-Bass onstage with Hank Williams in 1952. The photo appears in the book Snapshots from the Lost Highway by Colin Escott [Da Capo]; the image is fuzzy, but it could be Price. There are many other photos and film clips of bass players using P-Basses in the early ’50s, including ones backing Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard.

Unfortunately, Leo Fender died in 1991, so we can’t ask him how much feedback he got from players as he developed and im-

proved the Precision Bass. It’s clear, though, that his thinking continued to evolve, because he made significant changes to the instrument throughout the ’50s. Player input must have been a factor. It’s also important to remember, as Richard Smith points out, that “in those days, when people talked about the Fender bass, they were referring to both the bass and the amplifier that went with it.”

Leo certainly saw it that way, and he worked hard for many years to improve both the instrument and the amp in his attempt to find the best alternative to “the doghouse.”

In future columns, I will chronicle other stories about how builders and players have worked together to make better basses. Do you have one? If you’re a player who has worked with a luthier to create or modify a bass to suit your playing style, I want to hear from you.

Send me your story — with photos, video, or other supporting material: jim@bassmagazine. com. While I can’t guarantee coverage, I will try to cover as many of these “partnership” stories as I can. l

CO N N E C T CHECK IT OUT

How the Fender Bass Changed the World CHECK IT OUT

American Guitars CHECK IT OUT

Fender: The Sound Heard ’round the World CHECK IT OUT

The Bass Space

The original patent drawing of the Fender Precision and an early advertisement. Opposite page, Leo Fender

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