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Expanding your Vocabulary with MIDI: Extended Bass With Al Caldwell
I have a band called the Traveling Black Hillbilly’s. I play Banjo and Bass in the band. We played for a festival in Ohio in September and the show was great. When we finished, the sponsor asked if we could play one more song, so I grabbed my 11 string and set it to Harmonica. I thought of Stevie Wonder and his song “Fingertips”. He could work a crowd with just a Harmonica. Thank God for my trusty MPC 1000 drum machine.
We started jamming and the crowd was dancing and I realized that if I played with tons of chops, I would have lost the crowd. This started out as a sit down concert until I played some new material from an unreleased CD. They jumped up and started to dance; I didn’t have a clue that we were a dance band.
I thought of every harmonica motif that I could think of as well as sax riffs and horn lines since the last thing that I wanted to do was play a bass line with the bass set on harmonica. I get overwhelmed sometimes and change the settings in a song to show the audience that my bass can play tons of sounds, but I can feel when I’ve lost them. I regret my poor choice of “Brilliant Stage Thoughts”. This time I realized that they felt what I was doing and all they wanted was for the music to stay funky. That’s when I decided to sing a riff from one of my other songs. I was nervous as hell and my pitch started to drift. My brain said to run back to the harmonica and save yourself; I did and they danced.
I’m still learning how and when to use this new tool, as note selection and taste will always be paramount in making the right decision onstage. I still feel like a kid with a new toy. This bass has a role in the future development of tomorrows expanding musicians. I’ve heard music in my head since I was a little kid. Being able to find the sound you want and blend it with your bass sound or other keyboard sounds is unbelievable. The hardest thing is to control yourself.
I wanted you to see me have fun on a gig and to watch the live thought process when you have choices. I didn’t have a clue what I would do, but I do have a large vocabulary of riffs and lines, and I knew that “back in the day”, if you found a riff that worked, you drove it down their throat!! It seems that everyone plays everything that they know in three songs; we have to learn to pace ourselves. I’ve been in music for 37 years and I’m still learning when to make the right moves. I always hear too much. I feel like I’m 16 years old again with this MIDI bass. I have a great bass collection and I love my 5 string bass, but I’ve played “honest bass” for so many years that I have the hardest time leaving that respectful world. When I play Motown, I play like James Jameson or Bob Babbitt. I don’t try to improve what those masters played. It’s a hit song because of what they did. When I play Vanessa’s hit songs, I don’t stick in a lot of runs or put my stamp on the music. Her songs were hits before I came on board. The 2 CD’s that I recorded with her allowed me to play the 9 string bass (because of the tone and lower range), but I stayed true to the style of the musicians who were there before me. You must have respect for the situation. I played bass on a rock fusion project with Greg Howe. The CD was “Introspection”. I’m on 6 tracks. The song” Jump= Start” was a joy to play on. Check it out on “Youtube”. Greg plays so much tastefully fast guitar that you don’t have to overplay to put your stamp on it.
I sound like a guitar player sometimes now. I used to take that as an insult in the past. I sound like a trumpet player (I started as a classical trumpet player) and I’m learning to sound like a host of instrumentalists. My house is filled with instructional DVD’s. The point that I’m trying to make is to expand your vocabulary. In the new world of Extended Range Bass, the rules are being written everyday. You have so many people to listen to and to be inspired by. Some people play their basses like a Chapman stick. Some people, like Avon Lucas, can play his bass and sound like a symphony. I think that this new batch of musicians could change the world. Youtube has taught us that everyone can play fast if they practice enough.
The most beloved musicians were always inspiring because they could speak musically to the masses. Melody and taste always wins as the richest musicians play slow and tasteful. The fastest musicians play with themselves or other speed demons. I have nothing against speed. I’m old and I can still play fast as hell. I just want bassist and musicians to think about substance. That’s what keeps your phone ringing. If you can outplay most of your pals and your not working, then think about what I said. Music is new to me again. I feel like a kid again and have so much to learn again. This year alone, I have bought four guitars. I’m learning how guitars get such great tone, and am learning how patterns that we’ve heard on guitars for years lay so differently on bass. I’m learning how a mandolin player phrases. I’m learning country fiddle. I need to learn more bluegrass. It has so much to offer to a guy who grew up playing funk and jazz.
I too still need to continue to “Expand my Vocabulary…”
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
Featured Videos
Visit Online
www.lettucefunk.com
IG @jesuscsuperstar
FB@jesuscoomes
FB @lettucefunk
Bass Videos
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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Bass CDs
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
Debut Album: Nate Sabat, Bass Fiddler
