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Bill Bartolini: Something to Share
Meet Bill Bartolini –
This article was published in the Tri-Valley Herald (Livermore, CA area) in the late ’60’s or early ’70’s. I have lost the original and cannot credit it properly from the dog-eared copy I found recently.
The Sound of History
Ray Orrock
As I get older, I keep bumping into bits of information that I feel I should have known all my life, but which no one ever bothered to tell me.
For example, this year marks the 70th anniversary of the invention of the loudspeaker, a device that is now an integral part of our daily lives. Edison’s original phonograph was a purely mechanical device, and the sound it produced was mechanically enhanced by the use of a large goosenecked horn. Until 1915, so was the sound emanating from any sonic device – a weak sound, incapable of being heard clearly from a distance of more than a few feet.
It wasn’t until the loudspeaker was invented, to electronically amplify these puny mechanical vibrations, that the groundwork was laid for the panoply of sound that currently surrounds us – radio in our cars, television and stereo speakers in our homes, ghetto blasters on the street, public address systems at the ballpark, all the voices and all the music that now inform and entertain us every day.
And it wasn’t until just last week that I learned the loudspeaker was invented in my old hometown, just a few blocks from where I grew up.
My hometown is Napa, and the revelation came by way of an article in the Napa Register, by staff writer Kevin Courtney, earlier this month.
From it, I discovered that the human voice was amplified for the first time by two men working out of a farmhouse on F Street in Napa. I suppose I passed that little house hundreds of times in my youth without ever being aware of the history that had been made there.
The two men were Edwin Pridham and Peter Jensen, a pair of San Francisco inventors who came to Napa in 1911 because it was “an isolated place” and, as Jensen later wrote, “permitted us to work along with a single purpose in mind, undisturbed by expert technical advice and by businessmen who certainly could predict nothing but ultimate failure for our new adventure.”
Pridham and Jensen had originally set out to invent a wireless telephone receiver. When that went nowhere, they tried to improve the conventional telephone, but their final device was so bulky no one would buy it.
One day a blacksmith friend of theirs named Ray Galbreath suggested they might put a horn on their telephone and make it talk louder. This set them thinking about a process that might amplify any sort of sound, and they began to work out a system for doing it.
They took a horn from an Edison cylinder phonograph, microphones from some of their earlier unsuccessful experiments, a transformer and a 12-volt battery and wired them together into what – even though they didn’t know it at the time – was the equivalent of a 25-watt sound system.
Then they turned the rig on and spoke into the microphone – and the sound nearly blew the roof off the house.
It tickles me to think about that moment. It’s hard to imagine what the first amplified sounds must have done to the mind of someone who had never heard amplified sound before.
In his journal, Jensen wrote: “The howling was probably thousands of times louder that any we had heard before, and it burst upon us so unexpectedly that we were amazed.”
“We disconnected the system again, but we knew now we stood on the threshold of something great. In the shortest possible time, we ran a line up to the roof of our bungalow and we placed the loudspeaker on top of the chimney, with the horn pointing northwest, out towards the open country.”
Jensen stood outside, and Pridham spoke into the mike. “It sounded like a voice not of this earth,” Jensen recalled. “Had I closed my eyes it would have been easy to imagine that a supernatural colossus was shouting up the chimney.”
And then, overcome with excitement and elation, Jensen began to run. He ran down roads, across open fields-almost a full mile before he could no longer clearly hear his partners voice.
And when, breathless, he finally got back to the little house, Pridham ran outside, jumped on his bicycle, and began to pedal away from the source of the sound.
“There was great jubilation among us that day,” wrote Jensen. “We felt sure we had taken part in history in the making, for on that winter day in Napa we had heard a human voice which was far louder than any ever heard before anywhere in the world.”
The company Pridham and Jensen formed to market their invention was the one we know today as Magnavox (Latin for “great voice”). Pridham stayed with that company all his life; Jensen later established the Jensen speaker empire.
But there was another entry in Jensen’s journal that delighted me. “The nights in Napa Valley are frequently surprisingly quiet, and conditions are very favorable for sending sound through the air over great distances. Using our powerful sound system, we often played music in the early evening for the entertainment of all the townspeople. We would put the loudspeaker on the chimney and point it towards the town and our music could be heard plainly all over.”
What a marvel that must have been to anyone who heard it.
How come nobody in Napa ever told me about that when I was a kid? Until last week, I’d never heard it mentioned.
Bass Videos
Interview With Bassist Erick “Jesus” Coomes
Bassist Erick “Jesus” Coomes…
It is always great to meet a super busy bassist who simply exudes a love for music and his instrument. Erick “Jesus” Coomes fits this description exactly. Hailing from Southern California, “Jesus” co-founded and plays bass for Lettuce and has found his groove playing with numerous other musicians.
Join us as we hear of his musical journey, how he gets his sound, his ongoing projects, and his plans for the future.
Photo, Bob Forte
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Visit Online
www.lettucefunk.com
IG @jesuscsuperstar
FB@jesuscoomes
FB @lettucefunk
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Working-Class Zeros: Episode #2 – Financial Elements of Working Musicians
Working-Class Zeros: Episode #2 – Financial Elements of Working Musicians
“These stories from the front are with real-life, day-to-day musicians who deal with work life and gigging and how they make it work out. Each month, topics may include… the kind of gigs you get, the money, dealing with less-than-ideal rooms, as well as the gear you need to get the job done… and the list goes on from there.” – Steve the Bass Guy and Shawn Cav
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This Week’s Top 10 Basses on Instagram
Check out our top 10 favorite basses on Instagram this week…
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New Album: Jake Leckie, Planter of Seeds
Bassist Jake Leckie and The Guide Trio Unveil New Album Planter of Seeds,
to be released on June 7, 2024
Planter of Seeds is bassist/composer Jake Leckie’s third release as a bandleader and explores what beauty can come tomorrow from the seeds we plant today.
What are we putting in the ground? What are we building? What is the village we want to bring our children up in? At the core of the ensemble is The Guide Trio, his working band with guitarist Nadav Peled and drummer Beth Goodfellow, who played on Leckie’s second album, The Guide, a rootsy funky acoustic analog folk-jazz recording released on Ropeadope records in 2022. For Planter of Seeds, the ensemble is augmented by Cathlene Pineda (piano), Randal Fisher (tenor saxophone), and Darius Christian (trombone), who infuse freedom and soul into the already tightly established ensemble.
Eight original compositions were pristinely recorded live off the floor of Studio 3 at East West Studios in Hollywood CA, and mastered by A.T. Michael MacDonald. The cover art is by internationally acclaimed visual artist Wayne White. Whereas his previous work has been compared to Charles Mingus, and Keith Jarrett’s American Quartet with Charlie Haden, Leckie’s new collection sits comfortably between the funky odd time signatures of the Dave Holland Quintet and the modern folk-jazz of the Brian Blade Fellowship Band with a respectful nod towards the late 1950s classic recordings of Ahmad Jamal and Miles Davis.
The title track, “Planter of Seeds,” is dedicated to a close family friend, who was originally from Trinidad, and whenever she visited family or friends at their homes, without anyone knowing, she would plant seeds she kept in her pocket in their gardens, so the next season beautiful flowers would pop up. It was a small altruistic anonymous act of kindness that brought just a little more beauty into the world. The rhythm is a tribute to Ahmad Jamal, who we also lost around the same time, and whose theme song Poinciana is about a tree from the Caribbean.
“Big Sur Jade” was written on a trip Leckie took with his wife to Big Sur, CA, and is a celebration of his family and community. This swinging 5/4 blues opens with an unaccompanied bass solo, and gives an opportunity for each of the musicians to share their improvisational voices. “Clear Skies” is a cathartic up-tempo release of collective creative energies in fiery improvisational freedom. “The Aquatic Uncle” features Randal Fisher’s saxophone and is named after an Italo Calvino short story which contemplates if one can embrace the new ways while being in tune with tradition. In ancient times, before a rudder, the Starboard side of the ship was where it was steered from with a steering oar. In this meditative quartet performance, the bass is like the steering oar of the ensemble: it can control the direction of the music, and when things begin to unravel or become unhinged, a simple pedal note keeps everything grounded.
The two trio tunes on the album are proof that the establishment of his consistent working band The Guide Trio has been a fruitful collaboration. “Santa Teresa”, a bouncy samba-blues in ? time, embodies the winding streets and stairways of the bohemian neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro it is named for. The swampy drum feel on “String Song” pays homage to Levon Helm of The Band, a group where you can’t always tell who wrote the song or who the bandleader is, proving that the sum is greater than the individual parts. Early jazz reflected egalitarianism in collective improvisation, and this group dynamic is an expression of that kind of inclusivity and democracy.
“The Daughters of the Moon” rounds out the album, putting book ends on the naturalist themes. This composition is named after magical surrealist Italo Calvino’s short story about consumerism, in which a mythical modern society that values only buying shiny new things throws away the moon like it is a piece of garbage and the daughters of the moon save it and resurrect it. It’s an eco-feminist take on how women are going to save the world. Pineda’s piano outro is a hauntingly beautiful lunar voyage, blinding us with love. Leckie dedicates this song to his daughter: “My hope is that my daughter becomes a daughter of the moon, helping to make the world a more beautiful and verdant place to live.”
Bass CDs
Debut Album: Nate Sabat, Bass Fiddler
In a thrilling solo debut, bassist Nate Sabat combines instrumental virtuosity with a songwriter’s heart on Bass Fiddler…
The upright bass and the human voice. Two essential musical instruments, one with roots in 15th century Europe, the other as old as humanity itself.
On Bass Fiddler (Adhyâropa Records ÂR00057), the debut album from Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter and bass virtuoso Nate Sabat, the scope is narrowed down a bit. Drawing from the rich and thriving tradition of American folk music, Sabat delivers expertly crafted original songs and choice covers with the upright bass as his lone tool for accompaniment.
The concept was born a decade ago when Sabat began studying with the legendary old-time fiddler Bruce Molsky at Berklee College of Music. “One of Bruce’s specialties is singing and playing fiddle at the same time. The second I heard it I was hooked,” recalls Sabat. “I thought, how can I do this on the bass?” From there, he was off to the races, arranging original and traditional material with Molsky as his guide. “Fast forward to 2020, and I — like so many other musicians — was thinking of how to best spend my time. I sat down with the goal of writing some new songs and arranging some new covers, and an entire record came out.” When the time came to make the album, it was evident that Molsky would be the ideal producer. Sabat asked him if he’d be interested, and luckily he was. “What an inspiration to work with an artist like Nate,” says Molsky. “Right at the beginning, he came to this project with a strong, personal and unique vision. Plus he had the guts to try for a complete and compelling cycle of music with nothing but a bass and a voice. You’ll hear right away that it’s engaging, sometimes serious, sometimes fun, and beautifully thought out from top to bottom.”
While this record is, at its core, a folk music album, Sabat uses the term broadly. Some tracks lean more rock (‘In the Shade’), some more pop (‘White Marble’, ‘Rabid Thoughts’), some more jazz (‘Fade Away’), but the setting ties them all together. “There’s something inherently folksy about a musician singing songs with their instrument, no matter the influences behind the compositions themselves,” Sabat notes. To be sure, there are plenty of folk songs (‘Louise’ ‘Sometimes’, ‘Eli’) and fiddling (‘Year of the Ox’) to be had here — the folk music fan won’t go hungry. There’s a healthy dose of bluegrass too (‘Orphan Annie’, ‘Lonesome Night’), clean and simple, the way Mr. Bill Monroe intended.
All in all, this album shines a light on an instrument that often goes overlooked in the folk music world, enveloping the listener in its myriad sounds, textures, and colors. “There’s nothing I love more than playing the upright bass,” exclaims Sabat. “My hope is that listeners take the time to sit with this album front to back — I want them to take in the full scope of the work. I have a feeling they’ll hear something they haven’t heard before.”
Available online at natesabat.bandcamp.com/album/walking-away
Interview With Bassist Erick “Jesus” Coomes
Working-Class Zeros: Episode #2 – Financial Elements of Working Musicians
Tour Touch Base (Bass) with Ian Allison
New Gear: Spector Woodstock Custom Collection Volume II
New Gear: The Dingwall John Taylor Signature Model
This Week’s Top 10 Basses on Instagram
Working-Class Zeros: Episode #2 – Financial Elements of Working Musicians
New Gear: Esopus Guitars Launches New Acoustic/Electric Bass
Interview With Bassist Erick “Jesus” Coomes
