Connect with us

Latest

Ray Brown’s Bass line from Surrey with the Fringe on Top

Published

on

by Alex Wilkerson –

This month’s transcription is Ray Brown’s Bass line from “Surrey with the Fringe on Top” (Download: Surrey – Ray Brown – Transcription), off Barney Kessel’s album The Poll Winners Ride Again! This is a trio, and as such, makes an agreed upon harmony difficult.  There are standard changes that a tune can abide by, but there are so many common variations that are widely accepted, it makes it hard to know when chord changes are altered or if one person is just implying an alteration.  In a trio, this can be very difficult.  For instance, the musicians might be thinking of the song as having four measures on the one chord.  In this situation however, there are a dizzying amount of alterations that can and will be applied.  One such example as found in this piece is to play the one chord on measures one and three, and the five chord on measures two and four.  Another common approach for this tune is to play one measure on the one chord, the next on the two chord, the next on three, and back to the two chord.  Sliding in a “two-five” to your target chord is an extremely common technique that bass players can use at any time, even if no one else strictly observes these new alterations.  In a trio, when there are only two harmonic instruments, and one of them is taking a solo, it makes it impossible to tell whether alterations were intended to be hinted at, or if they are thought of as firm deviations.  What’s the difference?  The difference is in knowing when to use the idea.  If Ray Brown was implying a chord on top of a different chord, then that is how you would use the idea in your own playing.  In this transcription, I did my best to notate the chord changes that would be the most likely agreed upon by the musicians, and the most helpful to us to learn from Ray Brown’s lines.

There are two main points that we can take from this recording.  One is to take licks from Brown’s solo, analyze them against the written chord symbols, memorize the idea, and add it to your bag of tricks.  The other is to listen to the recording, make note of certain measures where you like the walking line, analyze by the numbers what the idea is and apply to your own walking lines.  For instance, if you particularly liked measure 70, you would take the notes A, G, F#, D, and apply those notes to their chord symbols.  This would give you 1, b7, 3, 8 (same as 1).  Now take this idea, memorize it, and try to use it on all the 2-5’s that are a measure long during your practice time.  It’s important to apply them to walking through a real song.  Taking the idea through all 12 keys is good, but it must be applied to a real tune before you will find it easy available to use in a real situation.

One interesting idea is that instead of thinking chord scales for a solo, you can use color notes.  For instance, in the key of F major, the D chord is a minor seven chord.  If you see a 3-6-2-5 chord progression where the six chord is a dominant chord, such as D7 in the key of F major, this chord is only different from the F major scale by one note.  Instead of thinking mixolydian flat 13, you could just keep soloing in F major, but be sure to play an F# in the place of all F notes.  This will spell out the major third of your D7 without requiring you to think of an entirely new chord scale.  This can be particularly handy if the D7 lasts for only two beats and you are playing over 250 bpm.  Try this idea out..  Now for any jazz guys who are reading this and thinking that the 9 and 13 are also different, this is sometimes true, but only if you want to imply a temporary minor key center. If the changes are fast enough, it might be more prudent to stick to a generally major key center for the entire 3-6-2-5-1.

That’s it for this month.  Hope you enjoyed the tune, see you next time.

Download: Surrey – Ray Brown

Bass Videos

Interview With Bassist Erick “Jesus” Coomes

Published

on

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

Visit Online

www.lettucefunk.com
IG @jesuscsuperstar
FB@jesuscoomes
FB @lettucefunk

Continue Reading

Bass Videos

Working-Class Zeros: Episode #2 – Financial Elements of Working Musicians

Published

on

WORKING-CLASS ZEROS With Steve Rosati and Shawn Cav

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

Continue Reading

Latest

This Week’s Top 10 Basses on Instagram

Published

on

TOP 10 Basses of the week

Check out our top 10 favorite basses on Instagram this week…

Click to follow Bass Musician on Instagram @bassmusicianmag

FEATURED @foderaguitars @overwaterbasses @mgbassguitars @bqwbassguitar @marleaux_bassguitars @sugi_guitars @mikelullcustomguitars @ramabass.ok @chris_seldon_guitars @gullone.bajos

View More Bass Gear News

Continue Reading

Bass CDs

New Album: Jake Leckie, Planter of Seeds

Published

on

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. 

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.”

Continue Reading

Bass CDs

Debut Album: Nate Sabat, Bass Fiddler

Published

on

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

Continue Reading