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Happy Player… Sad Player… by Igor Saavedra
Considering that music is an Art form, and that “Art” is probably the most sublime way to express the very essentials of our existence, then it seems obvious that through playing music that we can learn very much about “The Art of Living…”
What I’ll write here is just my opinion…
There are trillions of questions in this world to be made, and I’m convinced that all of them have some kind of answer, with just one exception….
As a form of a psychological exercise…
- If you ask somebody why they would choose a particular house, you might get the answer, “Because it’s big!”
- If you then ask why they need a big home, they might respond, “Because it can fit the whole family!”
- If you ask again why this is important, the answer can be, “Because this is good for creating links between all the family individuals and supporting each other.”
- The next question will be, why is creating links and supporting each other is important? And the answer will be, “Because you will constantly feel that you are not alone in this world and that you are going to get help when you need it and also be able to provide it to the others.”
- Which leads you to ask, why do you like to feel supported and at the same time provide support to your family? And the answer will be, “Because it makes me happy!”
- The final question is obvious…. Why do you want to be happy? That question has no answer…
In my opinion, the purpose of this life is happiness itself, that purpose has no secondary purpose… it’s the final achievement, and you don’t need a ‘reason’ to be happy!
That being said, IF happiness is the most important thing in life (even further than Love itself because the question “Why to love” has an obvious answer, then in my opinion that means we can measure intelligence based on “The ability of any human being to live through happiness…” and not on the ability to know, solve or achieve any other thing in life.
That’s REAL intelligence for me!
What is happiness? Well in my opinion, it is something very simple… “Happiness is an attitude.”
Life is what it is, and highly overused phrases like “Looking for happiness”, “The search of happiness”, “Trying to find happiness”, etc., really misguide people, because happiness is not something you have to look for, instead happiness is something you have to LIVE right and here right now; every hour, minute and second of your life!
The key is very simple: “Developing the ability to always find and focus on the goodness ‘within’ the goodness and mostly, the goodness ‘within the badness”
Have you met a rich person that is never satisfied? For example… that 17-year-old daughter that receives a brand new red Ferrari for her birthday and when she sees it she starts screaming and crying because that was not the color she wanted. She begins to blame her father for not listening to her and explains to him that all of her friends have red Ferraris and that she wants to be the only one with a different color! This young lady didn’t invent this behavior; she has seen it many times throughout the years in her parents and friend’s attitudes.
“That’s the ability to see the badness within the goodness… the most perfect way to achieve unhappiness in your life”
At the same time, have you meet this very poor people that are really in trouble, seriously sick, have almost nothing, and yet for some unknown reason always have a smile on their faces and a handy joke on their mouths every five seconds?
“That’s the ability to find the goodness within the badness… the most perfect way to achieve happiness in your life”
But the real truth is that you are probably not ultra-rich or super-poor, instead you are probably a normal human being, a normal musician trying to live and be happy like most of us. And you find yourself asking, what has all this philosophical matter have to do with music?
Everything!
As I’ve learned throughout my life as a musician, music MUST be one of the maximum expressions of joy and happiness that a human being can feel and experience. While you play it, music has the power to reveal in just a second what kind of human being you are. In relation to this, we have mainly two types of musicians that I’m certain you’ll be able to immediately recognize within your friends, bass colleagues and music heroes.
“The Unhappy Musician” That bitter being who’s always complaining about everything, who never likes or is satisfied with what he hears from himself or from others (mostly from the others hahaha). The kind of guy that when it comes to play, immediately behaves like a selfish and bitter human being, scared about everything, worrying if the other players are making him look bad because they are really bad or too good… complaining about a thousand things and transforming the whole musical experience in something very similar to a military context.
“The Happy Musician” That positive being that is always happy to play and really doesn’t care if somebody is not making him look good and not doing the proper thing. Or if somebody plays better than him, he is the kind of guy who is not thinking as a teacher while he plays and evaluating and correcting everything he hears and prefers to share and live the experience from a radically different perspective, that being to see the others as brothers and not as bad behaved sons, students or subjects…. that means through love and happiness!
Take a look and see if any of your friends… and mostly yourself fit within either of these two descriptions. And mainly, think about the importance of happiness in life, “Be intelligent /be happy”, don’t be searching for happiness, “Just live it night now!”
See you guys on the next…
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
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
