Features
Interview With Bassist Percy Jones
Bassist Percy Jones… KEEPING UP WITH JONES! PERCY, THAT IS…
By David C. Gross (DG) and Tom Semioli (TS)
And now this public service announcement from Percy Jones addressing the negative gossip that permeated social media upon his departure from Brand X:
There were some pretty negative narratives going out when I left Brand X that I’d retired, or that I had stopped playing…that my hands were messed up and I could not play anymore…Those are all rumors! I am in good health…I can play and look forward to doing more recordings and gigs!
Self-taught and greatly inspired by Charles Mingus and British and American rhythm and blues, Percy Jones plies his craft with a repertoire of glissandos, harmonics, and three-finger riffage, among other techniques, in his work as a jazz-fusion prog-rock master. A composer, arranger, sideman, collaborator, multi-instrumentalist, and solo recording artist, Percy has anchored several watershed sides, most notably as a member of Brand X, and with Brian Eno, Roy Harper, Steve Hackett, David Sylvian, and Tunnels to cite a very select few.
From his home somewhere in New York City, Percy ruminated o’er his early years, influences, his gravitation to the fretless bass, Brand X, and Brian Eno’s cake methodology among other topics!
TS: It’s a sad day Percy; we lost Charlie Watts. Your career as a player commenced in the mid-1960s with The Liverpool Scene, talk about the impact that the Rolling Stones had on your generation of musicians.
PJ: When they started out with Brian Jones, they were much more of a rhythm and blues outfit. And to me, it was a lot edgier than they became later on. I preferred the earlier stuff they were doing. After Brian passed, they took a straighter, more rock and roll path. Which is not to criticize them! But to me, they were more interesting then…
TS: Were you aware at that time that Billy Wyman was playing one of the first fretless basses?
PJ: Yes, I’d see him on Top of the Pops and other shows and but was playing a fretted instrument.
TS: Actually Percy, that was a fretless Framus Star bass. Bill pulled the frets out and filled them with putty or a similar substance which gave the appearance of fret lines, but there were no frets!
PJ: Really! I didn’t know that. Kudos to his intonation, he sounded great.
DG: Rock drummers of that era came from the jazz idiom – after all, there was no ‘rock and roll’ – so bass players had to swing as well.
PJ: Exactly!
TS: In your formative years you absorbed British rhythm and blues, the aforementioned Stones, Graham Bond, Alexis Korner, Georgie Fame…then you were turned on to American blues such as Howlin’ Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson, Muddy Waters…what was it about American black music, which was borne of slavery, that appealed to working-class British youth.
PJ: I don’t know exactly why. British musicians somehow related to it, which does not make much sense! There was no slavery in England at that point. I remember an African American friend of mine, and he was complaining about British musicians stealing from blues guys. And I explained to him ‘no, they’re playing that music because they love it!’ Myself included! Certainly, there have been instances where the blues originators were ripped off…but not from the musicians. The British bands reintroduced the blues to America. If not, some of those artists would have remained on the ‘chitlin circuit.’
TS: My wife is African American…
PJ: So is mine!
TS: …and we watch Later… with Jools Holland and marvel at how British artists play rhythm and blues with more conviction than Americans! They have more soul!
PJ: Amy Winehouse was a perfect example of that!
DG: After WWII you had all this American music flowing into Liverpool, London, and the British port cities…. then when the Stones came here, I was twelve. I knew nothing of American blues…but I knew their music because of the British bands. It’s what we refer to as the “big M” – it’s music and either it touches you or not.
PJ: Also the media, in the first half of the sixties, had a limited number of radio stations. In England, it was really just the BBC. They just played pop. The station that really caught my interest and the attention of my peers was Radio Luxembourg. You couldn’t hear them in the daytime. We had to wait until the sun went down so the signal would bounce off the ionosphere. The signal faded in and out…usually when it came to my favorite part of the tune! (laughter) We’d have to re-tune the radio every fifteen minutes or so. But that just reinforced the fact that we were starving for what Radio Luxembourg was playing …Chuck Berry, Booker T… what an education! And this was before the pirate ships off the coast of Great Britain got started…
TS: Pirate radio was a huge influence on the youth of your generation.
PJ: Which was why the BBC shut them down and confiscated all their equipment! But the BBC also poached a lot of their DJs… including John Peel. At that point, the BBC started to ‘smell the coffee’ and realized that they needed to change their format.
DG: If you can’t beat them…. hire them!
PJ: Yes! (laughter) But getting back to your point, African American music had such a huge impact on Britain. No question about it.
TS: Among your early bass mentors was Danny Thompson…
PJ: Yes I was still living in Wales at the time…and me and a couple of mates went to a gig in Hereford to hear Alexis Korner. The rhythm section was Danny Thompson and Terry Cox…which would later go on to Pentangle. The show really caught my attention. Alexis was really a blues guy…yet Danny Thompson was a hybrid of jazz, blues and folk. There was all this fantastic syncopation going on which I hadn’t heard before. I’ll never forget that gig…it started steering me more towards jazz.
DG: I always felt that at a certain point when your playing matures – you just can’t keep doing what you used to do. As Oliver Wendell Holmes says ‘your mind stretches and you can’t go back!’
PJ: Absolutely. You cannot go back…
TS: Tell us about meeting one of your heroes when The Liverpool Scene first came to America.
PJ: I first came to New York in 1969 with The Liverpool Scene and we played at Ungano’s. That’s when I met Charles Mingus. We did a set for the press…and after we finished playing Mike Evans, the saxophone player, said to me ‘Mingus is here!!!!’ We were both huge fans. I look over at the buffet and there was Charles, filling his plate up with food! He certainly didn’t come here to see us. We went over and talked to him. He was playing at the Vanguard and invited us. We arrived and the place was almost empty. Of course, we sat upfront and it was pretty much just the Mingus band and us!
We had just finished a British tour opening for Led Zeppelin. Our first gig in the U.S. was at Kent State opening for Sly & The Family Stone. A total mismatch. When we walked on stage the audience started laughing at us before we played a note. They sat through our set with ‘polite toleration.’ Sly comes on and the place goes berserk! We also did some dates with the Steve Miller Band, The Who, The Kinks…
When we were in New York, there was a bar on 48th Street called The Haymarket which had Red Barrell, a British beer. All the bands from England would hang out at this place.
TS: Did that plant the seed for your emigrating to New York City?
PJ: I did start thinking about it…all the possibilities. After all, New York was exciting, there was the jazz scene…
TS: Let’s discuss the fretless bass…how did you gravitate to the instrument?
PJ: All the players I was listening to and admired were playing upright. There were a few electric players that I liked…there was a guy with George Fame, Cliff Barton, who played fretted bass who I thought was quite good. I had a hollow-body fretted Gretsch bass – I can’t remember the model number, but it had a spike at the bottom so you could position it like an upright. I filed the frets down. In 1974 I saw an ad in the back of Melody Maker for a fretless Fender Precision bass for only 200 quid. I had just received a publishing advance the week before. I met this guy in North London and it was “in good nick” (British slang for great condition) so I purchased it.
I immediately felt comfortable on it. I started doing things that I could not do on a fretted bass. Of course, my intonation needed work, among other things.
DG: Was it a lined fretless?
PJ: No but it had dots….
TS: That must’ve been rare to find a Fretless P bass in 1974…especially in the UK.
PJ: Absolutely, I had never seen one. It was fortuitous timing…
DG: I paid $160.00 in 1969 in New York City for a fretless P bass… those old P basses had lovely rosewood necks….
PJ: Yes they did. I built a pre-amp and put it in the bass, as the basses had low output in those days. Back then with a passive P bass, the longer the chord you used, the more you lost the high end. My preamp had no EQ, it was just to boost the gain. It still had that classic P bass sound. Brand X didn’t have a record deal at the time. We used to jam in a studio in South London just for fun. Then we got a deal from Island. We had six weeks before our first recording and I made the determination to really learn how to play this bass. I really crammed, practicing for hours every day.
TS: How did playing fretless alter your technique in that now with no metal strips on the neck, it’s all about intonation, intonation, and intonation!
PJ: Intonation was my biggest challenge. But luckily, my left and right-hand techniques didn’t need to change much…
I found that I could express myself much more. I could play quarter notes and deliberately slide into the note, as a singer does. To me, fretless is much more expressive, like the human voice. And you don’t have to worry about fret noise.
TS: You have to be a more deliberate player on fretless. Every note has to mean something.
PJ: Yes. I once had a bad experience right after I moved to New York. I got on this session and the producer took one look at my fretless, and said ‘we don’t need that!” He went in the closet and brought out a fretted Fender P bass, and ordered me to use it. I wasn’t used to it, and I’m not a great reader. I think this was a chord chart. I was totally uncomfortable with frets by then. This producer guy stood over me – he was about six-foot-six and three hundred pounds! I got through it. But I’d realized how far I’d come with the fretless…
TS: In 1976 another fretless player burst upon the scene – Jaco Pastorius. And by ’77, when Brand X did its first album, the sound of the fretless was becoming popular.
PJ: Exactly. Back then there was hardly anyone I knew that played fretless. I think the guy in Canned Heat, Larry Taylor, played fretless.
DG: And let’s not forget Freebo with Bonnie Raitt! What I find interesting about your playing is that you carved an interesting niche – we can hear one phrase and we know it’s Percy! However, there are thousands of Jaco imitators! Were you conscious of him which made you more conscious of where you were headed? Or were you headed there anyway and that guy from Florida was just playing the same instrument?
PJ: I first heard Jaco’s solo record when it came out…with stuff like “Donna Lee.” I thought ‘wow this guy is pretty good!’ You really have to give him the credit for introducing the fretless to the bass community. Certainly, more than I did. Then, later on, I started getting critiques from some people saying that ‘Percy is a Jaco rip-off!’ That was rather disappointing. Of course, I have the utmost respect for Jaco. He was a great, great bass player.
TS: Getting to Brand X, how did Phil Collins have time for the band given that he was busy with Genesis?
PJ: He didn’t! Like I said earlier, we used to get together every week and jam for fun. And there was this guy who used to help us with equipment and somehow he hooked up an audition with Island Records. The A & R guys would listen to us while we were just making stuff up. And loved us and we got signed. We started rehearsing at Island studios and did a record for them with vocals – sort of like Average White Band. We didn’t like the record, so we asked Chris Blackwell if we could do another. We changed the lineup in the band, the original drummer stepped out, he was more of a groove drummer and we needed something different. Danny Wilding, one of the A & R guys suggested we ‘try the guy in Genesis!’ I didn’t know much about them at the time. Bill Bruford came down first, and he turned it down. But Phil liked it and joined the band and we did an all-instrumental album, but Island did not like it. They did not want to put it out. But the Charisma label picked it up, with help from Phil… and that was Unorthodox Behavior (1977). So that record, which broke us, almost never came out!
At that time, we were mostly doing one-nighters in the UK, punk clubs in London, sometimes we’d drive up to Manchester. Phil did a lot of those. When we started getting US tours, he could not do them because of Genesis. At one point Phil said ‘if you guys could hang out for a couple of years, I might leave Genesis…and play with you guys full time’ And I responded, ‘no you can’t do that! It would be totally impractical’
I called up Alphonso Johnson in Los Angeles, then I called Kenwood Dennard in New York. I came over a couple of weeks earlier to rehearse with Kenwood. The rest of the guys came over and we had more rehearsals and it shaped out good enough to do the gigs. From then on we used several drummers; Kenwood, Mike Clark, Chuck Burgi, Pierre Moerlen…all great players.
TS: I recall hearing Brand X on FM radio – it was an amazing era in that we had such a wide array of genres in the mainstream. Prog rock, jazz fusion, punk, hard rock, pop, electronic music…
PJ: It was a good period in time. I remember towards the late 70s we started getting a bit of flack from the British press…I remember we played at Knebworth Festival and there was a review in Melody Maker that read ‘Brand X sounded like pebbles on a tin roof!’ Of course, that was when punk was coming on strong. And that was supposed to be the new ‘working class’ music!
I remember going into the Marquee Club where we used to play a lot in the 1970s, and I stuck my head in and the place was jam-packed. A punk band was playing – all fast tempo three-minute songs. Everybody was jumping up and down, beer flying everywhere, sweat… I immediately left and never returned!
DG: And then you move to New York City in the 1980s.
PJ: At the time we were playing here frequently. In fact, we were doing more gigs in the US than Europe. Then I met my wife, who is a New Yorker….so it made more sense to live here.
DG: You were teaching as well.
PJ: Yes, for a while at Drummers Collective. Though I never felt that I was very successful at it. I’m not an academic player. I studied at University of Liverpool – but that was electronic engineering! In terms of music, I am an autodidact. What I know of music I picked up from being around people who know music more than I did…and I’d ask a lot of questions. In a recent version of Brand X I’d been hanging around with Kenny Grohowski and he’d be discussing all sorts of topics such as metric modulations. I had no idea what he was talking about. But if I hear it, I can try and play it!
DG: Your education in electrical engineering intertwined with your bass playing in terms of creating effects, pedals.
PJ: Yes, that was very useful as I built many of my own effects. I don’t use them much now thanks to digital technology. But I’d have two ninety-inch racks…I have yet to find commercial versions of some of the effects I used, so I may have to construct a few more. I kind of miss that ‘analog’ sound I used to get.
DG: Your pull-offs of the G string off the fingerboard, was that a calculated thing or did you just do it one day and think ‘wow this is great!’
PJ: I was actually trying to get a sitar-type sound. I pulled the string until it’s almost off the fingerboard. And it starts ‘buzzing.’ Sometimes I’ll pull it right off the fingerboard –
DG: Right, there is no pitch when you pull it off the fingerboard, but it is an ‘effect.’
PJ: Yes, and the bottom string rattles. For me – all the things I do are trying to express something. I’ve tried putting washers, matchsticks under the strings which would slide down the fretboard… to make different sounds.
DG: John Cage would love that!
PJ: Ah, it was too unpredictable!
TS: PAKT – your latest project features guitarists Alex Skolnick and Tim Motzer and drummer Kenny Grohowski. Your music is available for streaming and download. With digital distribution – is it ‘the best of times or the worst of times in that artist such as yourself, who are ‘out’ of the mainstream, can go directly to your audience rather than submit your work to a record label and hope that they put it out and promote it?
PJ: I have two thoughts about that. On the one hand, it’s good because it makes it easier for artists to get their music out there. In the 60s, 70s, you could get a record out unless a record company behind you. But now you can do it, and control the business side of it as well and not get ripped off by a record company.
Maybe the negative side of it is that there is such a huge volume of music out there that a lot of good-quality stuff gets buried.
DG: How did PAKT come together?
PJ: I stopped playing with Brand X – I could not stand the management anymore. I could not stand the way they were doing business.
We’d reformed in 2016 and I could never get a proper accounting of how much money we earned; how much was spent. It’s important to talk about this – even though it’s negative. In March or April of 2019, I said that I’d give them until October to come up with the accounting, if you don’t I’m not going to continue. October comes, and still nothing. I said to them ‘do you remember our conversation?’ The response was ‘no.’ How could they not remember a discussion like that? I waited a few weeks – nothing. I had spreadsheets – 116 gigs, gas tolls, everything – I never got them back. One of the guys lived in Florida and told me that lightning had struck a tree outside his house and fried his computer that had all the Brand X financial information on it. One conversation it was a laptop, another conversation it was a desktop…and then I just said ‘f’ this – but I still consider myself an owner of the band with John Godsall. And I expect to get royalties. So that was a sad ending for Brand X.
PAKT came together since I was looking to do something after Brand X. Of course, I had played with Kenny in Brand X but never with Alex or Tim. We played our first ‘gig’ in Brooklyn not knowing if it was going to be successful or not. There was no one in the audience because of COVID restrictions – we were all wearing masks. It was recorded and made it available immediately for download, and it came out pretty good. It’s the first time I’d ever done anything like this. I’m okay with this way of doing things as long as the audio quality is good. (Available on BandCamp.com on MoonJune Records)
I don’t like music that’s heavily compressed.
DG: Are you planning any solo shows in the future?
PJ: Not really, I also have my MJ12 band with Chris Bacas on saxophone, Steven Moses on drums, and Alex on guitars. We have shows coming up…
DG: When are we going to see a reissue of Paranoise “Start A New Race” (1993) which also featured Antony Jackson on contrabass?
PJ: When I first moved to New York City, I had a job moving furniture. Brand X lost our record deal, I was out of work… And I was in the vegetable section of my local supermarket and this guy came up to me and said ‘are you Percy?’ I said ‘yeah…’ ‘Well I’ve got a band, do you want to come down and jam?’ And I went down and played and they were called ‘Noise Are Us.’ And it was good stuff so I started playing with them. Interesting compositions. They had a horn section and a vocalist, doing all sorts of odd time signatures…very adventurous, we used to play CBGBs a lot, which had a fantastic sound system… I played with them for about eighteen months, then Toys Are Us threatened to sue them. Which prompted the name change to Paranoise. They got signed to Island and I played on one album, and Anthony Jackson did some of the tracks. Those were great memories….
TS: What are some of the records that you are most fond of and represent your best performances?
PJ: All the Brand X records, the albums I made with Brian Eno… there’s the title track of Masques (1978) which is just bass and prepared piano…
TS: When you work with someone such as Eno, what do you learn from him that you apply to your role as a bandleader?
PJ: Brian is a very smart individual. What he did with me and the musicians he worked with was to give us slack. He allowed us to be ourselves and to play our own styles. He has a way of directing you to make a contribution to the music that he wanted to hear. He never asked me to play something I was uncomfortable with.
TS: Eno strikes me as a bandleader akin to Miles Davis, wherein he has a knack for bringing people together. Again, I’ll reference Before And After Science (1977) – a bona fide masterpiece is that it’s great to hear your personality in the context of Eno’s artistry. And the musicians don’t overshadow him, they enhance what he was doing. The same goes for Another Green World (1975).
PJ: Agreed! And he recorded a lot of stuff which was not used. I would overdub on electric…upright. It was experimental and a lot of fun.
DG: Brian intended to create background music with such albums as Music For Airports (1978) which was anything but background music!
PJ: I’m still looking for Music For Washing Dishers! (laughter) I was at a session with guitarist Fred Firth and Phil Collins and Brian handed us a piece of paper and instructed us to write down the numbers 1 to 100. The he went: #1 – Percy you play an F#. #2 Phil you hit whatever note you want…. #3 had rhythmic instructions. Then he’d switch on a metronome …and Phil threw water bottles across the room! He was trying to hit a bicycle parked in the studio in time with the click!
Another cool thing about Brian is that he is always open to suggestions. You can’t do that with many bandleaders… On a session, he’d say ‘let’s have some cake.’ And he’d get paper plates from under the desk and bring in a cake and then we’d stand around eating and we’d forget what we were talking about. I wonder if that was a deliberate technique!
When I heard that American Vanity, formerly known as Burn the Jukebox, was gearing up to release a new album this summer, it felt like the perfect moment to catch up with bassist and vocalist Virginia Franks.
With a fresh name unveiled just this past January and a clear shift in musical direction, the band is entering an exciting new chapter, one defined by both sonic evolution and a deeper, more focused message.
In this conversation, Virginia opens up about the inspiration behind the upcoming record, how she crafts her distinctive bass tone, what fans can expect from their upcoming tour, and where she sees both herself and the band heading next.
Join me as we dive into it all.
Here is Virginia Franks.
Photo, Devin Kasparian
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Features
Interview With Bassist Bjorn Meyer on ‘Convergence’ … Exploring Sound, Space, and Innovation
By Guest Contributor, Joe Barth
Joe Barth talks to Bjorn Meyer about his new album and exploring new musical territories with the electric bass.
Above photo courtesy: Björn Meyer © Fredrik Gille / ECM Records
Bjorn Meyer was born in Stockholm, Sweden in 1965 and has lived in Switzerland since 1996.
Starting on the piano, trumpet, and guitar, he turned to the electric bass at age eighteen. In 1996, the Nyckelharpa player Johan Herdin, percussionist Bazar Bia, and Bjorn formed the trio Bazar Bia. Since then, he has worked with Persian harpist Asita Hamidi, oud player Anouar Brahem, and pianist Nik Bartsch. Convergence is Bjorn’s second album on the ECM label.
JB: Before I ask about the new Convergence album, tell me about yourself. You grew up in Stockholm, Sweden. During your teenage years, you played guitar in punk-rock bands, then, at age eighteen, switched to bass. What was musically most helpful in your personal development as a bassist?
BM: My first encounter with the electric bass was pure luck and changed my life in an instant. Music had been an important part of my life from childhood, but always as one of many things I was interested in, like a very rewarding hobby. The bass changed all that. I had finally found my voice, and all the sounds I had heard and accumulated for so long without knowing how to make them real could finally burst out. I gladly spent every free minute of every day exploring this new universe, and that gave me a focused motivation that was hugely important.
Two important things helped me on my way and shaped me a lot at that time:
First of all, I realized that so much music that I was really interested in, as a guitar player, had resonated with me mainly because of the bass players involved! As a newly emerged bass player, I had a big library of music I could revisit. I learnt many important lessons by figuring out what made the music I loved work.
Second and definitely not less important: at the time I lived close to a house where many great musicians from Stockholm had their rehearsal spaces, jam sessions, and a general meeting point. Often there was a bassplayer missing — and I was five minutes away — so from the very early days as a bassist I could play with fantastic, experienced musicians from many different styles. From the very beginning, I was surrounded by role models and mentors who later on became colleagues and bandmates.
JB: Bjorn, to learn more about what shaped your musical values on the bass, to you, what are the three most influential bassists, and please give us a particular album they appeared on that you really connected with?
BM: There could obviously be many more than three, but – and this connects to the answer above! (Bass players “behind” guitar players)
Bass player: Jimmy Johnson
Album: Alan Holdsworth – Metal Fatigue.
I was (and still am) absolutely fascinated by Alan’s playing and compositions but the real magic was when I realized what Jimmy was doing to keep it all together, weaving fully logical basslines through “impossible” chord changes! And then there are these two very short fills at around 2:55 in the title track. 2 times 2 bars that I still remember the very first time I heard on Swedish radio. Time stopped, and I found myself trying to understand how to create such bass parts and how to adapt Alan’s unique chord voicings for the bass.
Bass player: Carles Benavent
Album: Paco De Lucia Sextet – Live One Summer Night
I had been intrigued by flamenco and the work of Paco De Lucia for a long time. My sister gave me the LP for Christmas, and this sextet redefined anything I had imagined possible. It taught me a lot about how to approach strong musical traditions with deep respect and still find my own space within and make the music even stronger.
It is absolutely incredible how Carles takes part in every function in the group – from rhythm and chords to melody and harmony – without ever losing the bass function of keeping all the sounds together and allowing the others to shine.
The bass solo in “Alta Mar”, the comping — if you can call it that — in Solo Qiero Caminar”.
Also, the studio album Solo Qiero Caminar was a game changer, just listen to the duo version of “Monasterio de sal.”
Bass player: Anthony Jackson
Album: (for once not a guitar player) Michel Camillo – Why Not!
I had been a fan from hearing Live In Central Park by Simon & Garfunkel but his playing with Michel Camillo was another ear-opener for me. Maybe also because my main working band at the time was a Latin-jazz band, so I guess it was a good match.
Having said that, Anthony was a huge inspiration across styles and genres over all the years we were fortunate enough to have him with us!
… that was already three … and I didn’t even get to mention Steve Swallow, Marcus Miller, Aston Barrett, Jaco Pastorius, Skuli Sverrison, Meshell N’Degeocello, Carol Kaye, Pino Palladino, and all the fabulous upright players that have inspired me so much – Charlie Haden, Palle Danielsson, Scott La Faro, Miroslav Vitous, and Eberhard Weber.
.. but the three I mentioned were definitely very important at the time!
JB: Convergence is you recording alone with your six-string bass. Your music has (for lack of better words) a very ethereal sound. How do you describe your music?
BM: The idea of an electric bass as a solo instrument triggers very diverse and often contradictory expectations. Many people have some idea of what a bass can do, and they expect anything from “root notes and fifths” to fast, equilibristic slapping frenzies with the comment, “How can you do that for more than three minutes per show?”
If I were to describe this program, I tend to use a few different approaches depending on who I am talking to:
Electric bass in acoustic space — I think it sums it up very well and gives some idea of what to expect without putting the music in a certain genre. For me, it is very important to share the music’s acoustic experience rather than focusing on the instrument’s electric character.
This music is also a mirror of my musical and personal journey through this life. The bass allows me to express myself without the risk of having my words misunderstood, and everything has a place in this music. Even though there are compositions, performing solo allows a unique freedom of interpretation depending on my state of mind that day.
Generally, I would be very happy to just say – new music for electric bass guitar!
JB: The album opens with “Convergence,” a song with deep textures, loops, and very staccato melodic figures. Talk about this.
BM: The album starts with a distorted chord progression – somewhat inspired by Alan Holdsworth – that I simultaneously feed into a loop through a shimmer reverb that I slowly fade in, played backwards. I find this texture very inspiring, and since it is all created live, it always turns out a bit different.
A pattern in 14/8 is presented – like a teaser – before an improvised part takes off in another direction. The pattern comes back in two versions: the original 14/8 (28/16) and a shortened 27/16 version. I loop the shorter version and play the original one on top, creating the rhythmical displacements you hear at the end.
I find such layering of patterns of different lengths very interesting, and it is a natural part of my vocabulary after many years of playing various kinds of minimal music with Don Li’s Tonus, Nik Bärtsch’s Ronin, NEN, and many others.
JB: The album consists of nine of your compositions. Were these songs all composed for this project? Talk about that process.
BM: Yes and no. I didn’t sit down to deliberately compose a fully new repertoire with this album in mind.
However, from the very first concert I played to release my first solo album, Provenance, in 2017, I noticed that the material and my playing were already shifting. Creative accidents happened, and new ideas emerged during concerts, soundchecks, and travels. After almost six years and many concerts, I had a tour in Japan and realized that there was nothing left of Provenance in the program. Then it took some time for Convergenceto emerge — during which the material continued to evolve.
In hindsight, I can see many stages of the development of Convergence that were definitely meant to become a new repertoire in its own right. One aspect of the name of the album reflects the convergence of ideas, moods, emotions, life, and time into this moment.
JB: Talk about the six-string bass you used in this recording. Did you use amplification, or was it mainly recorded directly?
BM: I play an MTD 635 (#160), an instrument that found its way to me by very lucky coincidence in New York in late 1995. I have played this very instrument on everything involving electric bass ever since.
As I mentioned earlier, the acoustic component is very important to me, and I am very lucky to have the support of producer Manfred Eicher for this approach. We recorded in a big, wonderful-sounding room that often hosts symphony orchestras and recordings of large film-music projects. The sound engineer Michael Hinreiner knows the room very well and was also very keen on the idea of making an acoustic-style recording.
I had a pair of Genelec 8030 Studio monitors and a small subwoofer behind me for the full signal (bass and effects) and a pair of satellite speakers further away, where I sent effects only (delays, reverbs, etc., but no direct bass signal) in order to fill the room and have a spatial experience.
This setup was then recorded using a lot of microphones to pick up all the aspects of the room, but also close miking on the instrument to pick up the acoustic sound. Much like you would approach a serious recording of any acoustic instrument, like a classical guitar or a cello.
Obviously, the line outputs of the bass and the effects were also recorded, but very little of that was used in the mix. I am very happy with the result, and I think you can really have the experience of sitting in the room with me when listening to the album.
JB: “Drift” is filled with harmonics. Tell us about that song.
BM: After Jaco’s “Portrait of Tracy,” anything involving harmonics on the bass is a bit sensitive. However, the range of the six-string and playing harmonics with a bit of a scraping sound with the plectrum does add another texture that I find very inspiring.
The piece started out as a reflection on the ice breaking on a river after a strong winter. Deep cracks forming, small pieces of ice breaking loose into the stream. Obviously, that is only my very personal picture. Some have said that it reminds them of northern lights, which is also a beautiful thought!
B: I love the sense of movement you create in the song “Motion.” Talk about this composition.
BM: Thanks! It took me a long time to become fluent in playing it and for the piece to develop to its current form. It started with the plucking pattern in 11/8 and the first two chords. For a long time, I couldn’t find a way out of this tonality, but the more my right hand started feeling comfortable in any tempo, I started hearing a harmonic development that the left hand was kind enough to accommodate.
“Motion” is a good example of two things that inspire me: I like it when odd meters still can have a dancing quality to them, and I often find this kind of incremental approach to harmony very interesting.
JB: This is your second ECM album. What do you appreciate about working with producer Manfred Eicher and ECM Records?
BM: It is my second solo album on ECM, but I have been lucky enough to work with Manfred on four albums with Nik Bärtsch’s Ronin and two albums with Anouar Brahem. All very different productions.
I am fascinated by his enormous dedication to music and very inspired by his way of listening. Knowing that he is listening changes my focus as a player. From being concerned with playing “right” it becomes all about playing in a way that allows for a deeper level of experience. Taking risks and adapting the performance so that the music translates well to someone who is attentively listening. He has the ability to ask or suggest things that allow me to shift focus away from the microcosm of “my composition” to the macrocosmic dramaturgy of the music.
This overview also applies to the full album, in how he balances the tracks and puts the track list together. For example, the idea of opening with “Convergence” was far from my original plan, but it turned out exactly right. Not to mention the choice of cover picture, a very unexpected but perfect match for me.
JB: Do you view the entire album as a kind of symphony or tone poem with multiple movements?
BM: I definitely see the album as a whole body of work in itself and a thoughtfully curated dramaturgical statement. But I still see it as a collection of separate compositions rather than multiple movements. The album has one sequence, but in a concert situation, I can freely choose another path to adapt the dramaturgy to the room, the audience, and the setting.
Having grown up listening to LPs, it is very important to me that listening to the full album adds an extra dimension to each song’s experience. Especially in this age of streaming and separate songs put together in more or less random playlists, I think it is more important than ever to at least try and compose as deep listening experiences as we possibly can.
JB: The album ends with the reflective “Nesodden.” Is there any connection with the peninsula in Norway?
BM: Yes – the song was written in a small cottage at Nesodden, overlooking the fjord running into Oslo. I was performing at the jazz festival there and arrived a day early due to travel issues. Sitting there, I saw a family of geese and two canoe paddlers in a beautifully respectful interaction. I guess it had something to do with who could land first or something, but all of a sudden, this whole tune had formed. I did rework some minor details over time, but the song was like a gift from Nesodden. It very seldom happens in that way.
JB: You moved to Switzerland a few years ago. Talk about the gigs you do in Europe and how you make a career in music work for you.
BM: You are kind – it has already been 30 years.
One thing I really appreciated coming from Sweden was how well-connected Switzerland is. In four to five hours, you reach Paris, Milano, Munich, and many other comparatively large cities by train or car! This makes touring so much easier than from Stockholm, where you either spend a full day just to reach the country’s border, or you have to fly all the time, which I don’t really like.
Interestingly, both Sweden and Switzerland are quite small countries, yet they have very strong, yet distinct and creative music scenes. There are also many interesting venues and festivals. Since I am involved in quite a few different projects all across Europe, Iran, and North Africa, my touring schedule will depend on which projects are active at the time. At the moment, my focus is on my large ensemble, Garden of Silence — 9 Musicians from 3 continents — on the one hand, and the solo project on the other.
I feel so very blessed to have the opportunity to present this music to so many fantastic audiences and to be part of so many inspiring collaborations.
Like everywhere, the economic situation for live music is changing quite rapidly, also here. However, I am confident that we will always need this form of human interaction, being in the same space at the same moment in time, sharing the same experience. Music is such a strong healing power, and we need it more than ever.
Photo: Self-portrait by Melissa Auf Der Maur
Melissa Auf Der Maur is a Canadian bassist who played with Tinker, Hole, and The Smashing Pumpkins. She released her own work and is a photographer with photos published in Nylon, Bust, and National Geographic. She released her ‘90s Rock Memoir “Even The Good Girls Will Cry” on 17 March 2026.
KB: Did you always want to be a singer-musician growing up?
I’ve played music my whole life. In school, I played trumpet and sang in a children’s choir, so music was always within me. My mother was the first female disc jockey on the Montreal airwaves; her record collection played a huge role in my inspiration and love of music.
KB: When did you start playing bass, and why this instrument?
When I was 19, the early 90s music explosion began to percolate in tiny clubs around the world. I was lucky to be a ticket girl at Montreal’s underground music club. In one year, I saw Hole, Sonic Youth, Smashing Pumpkins, White Zombie, and The Breeders – all had female bass players. That’s when the seed was planted. By the age of 22, I was the bass player of Hole.
KB: Which brands of basses have you used in your career, and which one are you using now?
The first bass that I learned on was a vintage Squier Precision. Hole was sponsored by Fender guitars, so I upgraded to Fender Custom Shop Precisions. That is all I play, but I have a cool vintage 8-string Greco that I use on recordings to thicken up guitar parts.
KB: What equipment do you use or have you used with your basses?
Ampeg SVT amps and cabinets, a couple of Sans-Amp pedals, and that is it.
KB: How did you become a member of Hole, and what is your fondest memory of that time?
Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins was helping scout a replacement for (RIP) Kristen Pfaff, Hole’s bass player. My band, Tinker, opened for them on the Siamese Dream tour, so Billy had seen me play and could vouch for me. Courtney trusted her talented friend, and that was it. I initially said “no thank you” due to my commitment to my photographic studies and the drama and chaos surrounding the band during the “Live Through This” album release. Courtney took it as a good sign that I said no, so convinced me to reconsider, and soon after, I accepted their invitation, in the name of helping put females in the male-dominated landscape of rock music. My fondest memory is every show we played as a mostly female band, symbolizing what a woman could do in a rock band. Every show had a purpose: get more women to play music.
KB: You are a photographer as well. What makes a great picture? Do you shoot in color or b/w?
I started shooting photographs at age 15. Initially only shot black & white and worked in the art school darkroom. In university, I took a color photography course, and shifted mostly and forever to that, because it was easier to process film on the road when I joined a rock band. I experimented with many cameras, point and shoots, manual, polaroids, medium format, and vintage finds. The trick to a good photograph is to shoot many and all the time – the magic is in the edit and selection process.
KB: Are there artists you would love to collaborate with or wish you had?
??I’ve been lucky to collaborate with some of my favorite musicians in my career. I would still love to collaborate with a new generation heavy electronic artist on an analog bass, heavy electronic drums, and synths collaboration project. Take me out of my usual zone, merging the past and future: my love of 80s dark new wave and new artists exploring that genre. It was very futuristic back then, and we are now, after all, living in the future. I am in the mood to play bass to heavy beats I want to dance to.
KB: What are your 7 favorite bass lines in music across all genres? And why these 7?
“Mountain Song” – Jane’s Addiction (love a rambling, rolling bass line – feels like the ocean waves)
“Black Top – Helmet” (was the first bass line I taught myself)
“Gold Dust Woman” – Hole from “The Crow 2” Soundtrack (it was my first bass line contribution to the band)
“Get Ready” – The Temptations (Motown just feels so good, because of the bass)
“Lucretia My Reflection” – Sisters of Mercy (makes me want to hit the dance floor and play bass simultaneously)
“Be My Druidess” – Type O Negative (full chord bass playing at its best by iconic, demonic, Peter Steele, RIP)
“Romantic Rights” – Death from Above (1979 – unique distorted overdriven tone, combined dance rhythm and melodic intelligence, all in one shot – also! Shout out to a bass & drum only band, which is awesome, and we should have more of, but the bass player needs to be a killer to fill that role.
KB: What are you currently up to?
Releasing my ‘90s Rock Memoir “EVEN THE GOOD GIRLS WILL CRY”. Visceral healing process, it was to get it out of me and write it, but I suspect the real magic will begin by putting it into the world and reflecting with others on what the magic of the ‘90s was all about. Powerful music decade that carried us into what is now a brave new world of digital corporate weirdness – may the past shed a light on our future. That’s my hope for this book release and tour.
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Harvie S is an American jazz double-bassist. He recorded numerous albums as a leader and co-leader, with over 400 recordings as a sideman. He has been a professor of jazz bass and ensembles at the Manhattan School of Music since 1984. He has a new album coming out on 20 March: “Bright Dawn”, where he features the bass as a melodic instrument.
KB: Did you always want to be a musician growing up?
In my childhood days, I wanted to be a professional football player. When I hit my early teens, I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but I finally decided that music was calling me. No one supported my decision, especially my guidance counselor at my High School. I decided to go to Berklee College and enrolled as a pianist.
KB: Why did you pick the double bass?
I was always listening to Jazz in High School, but I had a cheap stereo and the bass never came through, so I was not into the bass. I bought the Riverside Bill Evans “Waltz for Debby” recording and could hear the bass on that. Scott LaFaro made a huge impact on me. I realized what you could do on the bass through that.
In my first year at Berklee, I made the decision to get a bass and give it a try. No lessons, but I started working immediately and took to the instrument fast, even though I really didn’t quite know what I was doing. Berklee at the time didn’t really have much of a bass department (they do now), so I stayed as a composition major and piano minor. I was doing gigs on both instruments, but leaning towards the bass. In my senior year, my hero, George Mraz, graduated, and I was chosen to replace him. I was amazed by that, but it inspired me to do better.
KB: What double basses have you used over the years? Which one are you using now?
Good question. I have owned over 30 basses in my life. I would buy and sell a lot, and quite truthfully, I let some great basses go. About 12 years ago, I got a Jusek bass made in the 1920’s that Barrie Kolstein had completely restored after it was in an accident. He made it better than it ever was. I love this bass. He then turned me onto a Prague 100-year-old bass. I decided on this bass to use a gut G string and added a C-extention. This is my power bass, and my Jusek is great for trio work I do with Alan Broadbent and others. It bows really nicely. I used it on my new recording. I also have a Busetto bass, which is kind of a travel bass with a small body, and I use it around town and can take it on the bus. It sounds so real. Probably isn’t made anymore.
KB: What equipment do you use with your double bass?
I am very concerned about equipment. So concerned that I invented a bass amp called the “Upshot”. It is a completely different design where the sound goes up rather than straight out. For some reason, it projects perfectly and sounds like there is no amp, but has plenty of volume.
I also designed it to fit in a backpack which frees your arms when you carry the bass. It only weighs about 13 pounds. Acoustic Image was making it, but unfortunately, the owner, Rick Jones, passed away, and the company disappeared. I have some spares, so I can still use it. I use Heritage strings because I was involved with the development. Great strings, but maybe hard to get now. I use the Planet Wing pick-up, which, in my estimation, is the best there is, and it is such a simple design.
I use Weidoeft rosin, which Barrie Kolstein invented. Best rosin I ever used.
KB: You are teaching bass at Manhattan School of Music: What is the first thing you teach someone who is new to bass playing?
I really spend a lot of time working on how to get a sound. After that, timing and intonation.Then a lot more.
KB: Are there people you would love to collaborate with or wish you had?
I never got to play with Billy Higgins or Jack DeJohnette. I would have really liked that. I’ve been blessed and have gotten to play with many of my heroes. On my website, you can see the list.
KB: What are your 7 favorite bass lines in all music genres, and why these?
Hard question to answer, but I love the bass lines Ron Carter played on the Miles Davis recordings.
Israel Crosby with Ahmad Jamal
Ray Brown with Oscar Peterson and others
Luizão Maia & Elis Regina
Bobby Rodriguez with Tito Puente and Alegre All Stars
Scott LaFaro with Bill Evans
James Jamerson with everybody
Gene Taylor with Blue Mitchell
Butch Warren with Herbie Hancock
Thelonius Monk (with Wilbur Ware) on everything he ever did
I know I left out a lot, but it’s a good start.
KB: You have a new CD coming out in March… What can you tell me about it? How excited are you?
I’ve made over 20 recordings as a leader and over 20 recordings as a co-leader, but I never did a bass feature project. On “Bright Dawn,” I decided to feature the bass as a melodic instrument. I don’t play all the melodies, but more than in the past. That’s for sure. I wrote all but 2 compositions. I carefully picked the band and was able to get Peter Bernstein, Matt Wilson, and Miki Hayama for the date. I know their playing and have recorded separately with them in the past. I tried to make the music fit with their style so they could shine (and they did).
I am very happy with the result, and I was involved with the mix. Actually, in the past 10 years, I have assisted many musicians in mixing their recordings. I believe the mix to be essential in getting the message across. I have also been doing recordings, and I have recorded over 12 CDs as a recording engineer, mixing assistant, and producer. I enjoy the process so much. I like a hands-on approach to music that I record, and it has been working very well.
The importance of music to me is to tell a story and inspire others to fulfill their potential. Just playing notes is not the way for me. I’ve had a hard road to travel all my life, but I wouldn’t want it any other way. I’ve had a blessed life.
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Since 2012, Tom Doyle has been holding down the low end for UK alt-rock heavyweights Don Broco, helping to shape the band’s groove-driven, genre-blurring sound into one of the most distinctive in modern British rock. With thunderous tone, razor-sharp precision, and an instinct for hooks that hit just as hard as the riffs, Doyle has become a crucial force behind the band’s ever-evolving sonic identity.
As Don Broco gear up to unleash their highly anticipated new album, Nightmare Tripping, this feels like the perfect moment to dive into the mind of the man anchoring the chaos. From his musical roots and influences to the gear and techniques that craft his signature sound, Doyle opens up about the journey so far and what lies ahead.
Join me as we explore Tom’s evolution as a musician, the creative process behind Nightmare Tripping, and his vision for the future in a band that refuses to stand still.
Here is Tom Doyle.
Photos by Ton Pullen