To escape the London heat I made a trip north recently to present some Bass Masterclasses at the Glasgow and Edinburgh branches of the Academy of Music and Sound.
Here are some pics:
(the mood wasn't as serious at the pics suggest :-)
Here's some of what we covered:
Grooving
Importance of Good Time
Examples of some fav grooves & how the bass fits (ahead, on and behind the drums) examples (Jaco Pastorius “Palladium”, Tower of Power “What Is Hip”, Hip Hop Pete Rock )
Using fills to build musically “Brown Sugar live” D'Angelo (Pino Palladino)
How to improve your timing and grooving
Playing Odd Meter
Soloing
1.Donna Lee– Playing Jazz Changes & learning the fretboard/scales/chords
2.D minor Jam“blues” vs more changes.
3.Space & Time
If you're interested in a course at one of the UK-wide Academies you can check their website here.
The weather's doing some crazy stuff in London at the mo. I couldn't believe it when I woke up and just about tripped over a snowman on the way to the tube last week... and I remember jogging my way through April snow in Alexandra Palace back in the spring too. Go figure that out! Before you know it, Dennis Quaid will be breaking through your Velux window and trying to throw firewood on your christmas candles.
Anyway, if the clock changes and the onset of this 'Day After Tomorrow' jolt into the coming ice age is getting you down, look no further. It's time to roast some chestnuts (for 30m at 200 C - thanks MJ!), get the tea and mince pies out, turn the heating up full (oil prices are down!) and start getting sweaty and greasy with a member of the opposite sex to this filthy groove. Best of all, the cold weather means we bass players will be able to play less notes, which can only be good for the groove! I'm going to be smiling for a good week after watching this for the umpteenth time....
Ok, I was in the middle of practicing 26-2 the other night, when suddenly the thought leapt across my mind:
"Which is the more clever?"
"The cat or the dog?"
( 'cleverer' to be precise, if we're following the grammatically poor stream of conciousness in my mind at that moment in time)
Ok, at first, the obvious answer screaming back was "The DOG you fool!!!" - the heftier beast, bigger brained, able to be domesticated and responsive to training, ....exhibits basic emotions, doesn't (or unlikely to) ravage hands at will without slightest provocation. "What a daft notion!" i thought to myself, even as a lover of both the former beasts, "To think that the cat could rival the domesticated wolf!"
But then, just as I felt satisfied and ready to return to that bit in the bridge where the chords go raj again when thought you had time to breathe; from nowhere a cat's face loomed from the shadows in the back of my mind trying to lobby its case in a reverb-drenched brogue reminiscent of Obi-wan Kenobe. Before I knew it, my notes came to a crashing halt of unresolved 7th chords whilst gruesome pictures of giant light-sabre wielding tabbies chasing rottweilers with tenor saxophones stuck up their rear-ends threatened to engulf my parochial world of naivety and delusion.
"Ok!" - i resolved, "information must be sought, consideration must be given, answers must be found!".
And thus, the following, which I obtained on my merry little sojourn into matters canine and feline, that I present to you below, neither as a complete and considered argument, or as a definitive and final answer to a puzzle which surely warrants serious academic attention:
The brain size of the average cat is 5 centimeters in length and 30 grams. A typical labrador's brain is 12cm in length and 72 grams. However, the Chihuahua with its annoyingly shpaed head has a pathetic pea sized noggin at best - hence round 1... "tie!"
The average cat's brain accounts for 0.9 percent of its total body mass, compared to 1 percent of total body mass in the average dog. "close", i thought, "round 2 to the dog on points though."
Cats learn by trial and error, observation and imitation, recalling certain information much longer than dogs. However one study showed that dogs outperformed cats for short term working memory up to 60 seconds. "I'll give that to the cat."
A recent study surveying dog owners concluded that dogs can feel complex emotions like jealousy, getting in between their owners and other sources of attention. Cats display no such 'human' tendencies. "- As if humanity is the definitive model of intelligence, but.. for the sake of argument - round 4 to the dog"
Dogs have a tendency to eat there own 'solids' to put it nicely. Cats may also, but never in such a public and smug manner. "Round 5 to the cat"
Dogs can be trained to lead the blind. Even if the cat could, the blind would find themselves shopping in fishmongers whether they liked it or not. "hence, round 6 to the dog."
"Ok..." i thought, " 6 rounds have passed and the dog is edging it, albeit precariously at 3-2." Exhausted and my interest waning, I was looking for a clear sign of victory, a knockout blow, a coup de grace to settle this thing once and for all.
And there it was......
'The Charles Mingus Cat Toilet Training Program'
"Eureka!" I cried...."A clear winner!".
Let's face it, you ain't never gonna see a dog do that. And if you did, it would quite possibly be the most horrific thing one could possibly imagine. In some way in Mr Mingus photo above, the cat seems quite regal perched on the old privy seat there.... calm, peaceful and serene. Almost about to pick up a copy of 'Private Eye' and wait for nature to take its course. However, humour me for a moment and try to entertain this grotesque notion. If instead, we were to return from a hard day's work and idle up the stairs towards the bathroom, and open the door.... only to find none other than our 'prized' pooch up there on his haunches, balancing on the newly varnished lavvy seat, tongue out, panting and a cheeky grin in his eye (or even worse god forbid, having helped himself to the facilities without the decency to flush...!!), that would probably be just about it. I mean it wouldn't take much more to break a man.
Whoah - there comes a time when only a fat bar of groove can make your day and lift your head!
The culprit: Anthony Jackson
The Song: Clouds - Chaka Khan (go and find the tune on the album 'Naughty'). If you can't be arsed, this youtube clip will have to do if you can forgive the stuttering sound......
This month I've been working on a cool track for Dutch drummer Sebastiaan Cornelissen's next album. Sebastiaan is a phenomenal drummer (and a really nice guy!) so I'm grateful to have been asked on board.
Seb's previous albums and bands have included some great players like Randy Brecker, Gary Willis, Steve Hunt and Gerard Presencer and he's just about to head off on a tour around Europe and across America with his trio including great Dutch bass player Frans Vollink.
This latest CD is going to feature a real mix of musicians and styles including players like Gerard Presencer, Gary Husband, Steve Hunt and Marc Guillermont. The track I've been recording on is 'Mo Bread' which has one of the craziest drum grooves I've ever had to work with! At the moment Steve Hunt is laying down some piano on the track so i'll hopefully be able to put it up here soon.
Stay tuned for next month's podcast where I speak to Sebastiaan, talk about the album and hopefully play some examples of the track as its evolving.
Something that I keep returning to in music whenever I'm looking to improve as a player, writer or producer is remarkable in its simplicity, yet it seems so often forgotten by the majority of us whilst we search elsewhere for answers and remedies...
ear1 - "the organ of hearing in humans consisting of an external ear that gathers sound vibrations, a middle ear in which the vibrations resonate against the tympanic membrane, and a fluid-filled internal ear that conducts the tympanic vibrations to the auditory nerve, which transmits them as impulses to the brain."
That's right - listening!
Ok - we all have ears, and making music of any sort would be a struggle (Evelyn Glennie amongst notable exceptions) without working ones, but how often do we flail away, thinking about chords, notes, where to put our fingers, what the music/tab says, how fit the girl in the front row is etc...... with our good old ear friends in 50% mode.
The reason I'm writing about this today was that I learnt a lot about listening at the recent recording session we did with one of the groups I play in, Sonic Butterfly. All the great musicians from Miles to Jaco always stressed great listening as a prerequisite for great playing and I don't doubt them! It's something that I've resolved to spend more and more time conciously developing.
It's brilliantly put across in the video below. Maybe a little cheesy for some, but inspiration comes from the weirdest places sometimes. Listen (!) to what Lionel Richie says at 1:10 ......
Nathan East, Lionel Ritchie, Quincy Jones and more...
Whenever you find yourself asking "how'd that sound?" it's time to get working on that listening!
One of the groups I currently play with is Sonic Butterfly; a pretty eclectic sounding band in which I'm lucky enough play with some of Scotland's top Jazz musicians. We've been brewing up a unique mix of 'celtic-world-jazz-folk' recently at gigs in Manchester, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Glasgow (Oxford and Birmingham soon to follow).
This February we were at the legendary Sound Cafe recording studios, under the Pentland hills (www.sound-cafe.co.uk) and got down on tape our debut album of original compositions by band leader, drummer and composer Jim Whyte.
My experiences in the Pentlands have been hitherto, shall we say, mixed, with closer acquaintances amongst you maybe recalling an incident involving a sheet of ice, a steep mountain path, and a mobile phone eating bog..... (new number 07825 711855 in case you're wondering).
Well, this was the ideal riposte to that mischievous smirk of the mountains behind us as we spent two days in idyllic surroundings recording 14 tunes, with unbroken sunshine (lunch alfresco in February...!), inspiring scenery, copious amounts of tea, juggling and John Burgess' best gags.
The album is being mixed as we speak and will hopefully be out in the next month or so - clips when I get them on the website. Before I sign off then, a big thanks to Dave at the Sound Cafe for all the help, patience and cups of tea.
Photos: - On left (from left: myself, Tom Gibbs hiding, Kevin Mackenzie looking focused)
One of the groups I currently play with is Sonic Butterfly; a pretty eclectic sounding band in which I'm lucky enough play with some of Scotland's top Jazz musicians. We've been brewing up a unique mix of 'c
