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Alembic Club » Alembic Basses & Guitars » Archive: 2008 » Archive through June 20, 2008 » Phil Lesh in Bass Player magazine « Previous Next »

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hieronymous
Advanced Member
Username: hieronymous

Post Number: 297
Registered: 1-2005
Posted on Tuesday, April 08, 2008 - 10:08 pm:   Edit Post

In the April issue of Bass Player there's a transcription of Phil's part in "Scarlet Begonias" and a short analysis. Has anyone ever seen a musicological analysis of his playing? That would be something!

Then, I discovered that an older article from 2000 is available over at the Bass Player website:
Lesh is More!
Anthem of the Tone

They even mention Alembic in part 2! Every now and again people complain that Bass Player ignores Alembic, but they couldn't for this one...
bassman10096
Senior Member
Username: bassman10096

Post Number: 1111
Registered: 7-2003
Posted on Saturday, April 12, 2008 - 5:20 pm:   Edit Post

Good link. I think I might have seen the earlier article years back, but I think BP did Phil a fair turn as his own musician - not as a representative of the whole GD phenomenon.
glocke
Advanced Member
Username: glocke

Post Number: 362
Registered: 9-2002
Posted on Sunday, April 13, 2008 - 11:12 am:   Edit Post

I have those issues. They published it over two months.

Phil is great. I gotta admit though, looking at that transcription of scarlet makes my head hurt. Im glad Im able to pick his stuff up by ear.
hieronymous
Advanced Member
Username: hieronymous

Post Number: 298
Registered: 1-2005
Posted on Sunday, April 13, 2008 - 4:04 pm:   Edit Post

"I gotta admit though, looking at that transcription of scarlet makes my head hurt. Im glad Im able to pick his stuff up by ear."

I enjoyed reading along while listening to the track - let's you pick out some of the cool little things he does in there.
glocke
Advanced Member
Username: glocke

Post Number: 364
Registered: 9-2002
Posted on Monday, April 14, 2008 - 7:07 am:   Edit Post

I did that also Harry, it does make it interesting. I just cant read the more complicated, syncopated rythyms very fluently, at least not without getting frustrate after about ten minutes.
hieronymous
Advanced Member
Username: hieronymous

Post Number: 299
Registered: 1-2005
Posted on Monday, April 14, 2008 - 7:42 am:   Edit Post

Yeah, it goes by pretty fast huh?!! I definitely got lost a bunch of times!

Here's one of my favorite quotes from the first article:

“I went in with the idea I didn’t want to be a standard bassist,” he says. “At that time, who played anything interesting in rock & roll bass? There wasn’t anything going on, and I didn’t want to be relegated to the role of just thumping along. I wanted to bring a more fluid, melodic approach to the instrument.” With little background in pop music, Lesh drew instead on his classical training—particularly contrapuntal composers such as Bach and Palestrina—for inspiration. “In counterpoint the bass line is a melody, as are all the other lines, yet they all fit together. They move at different speeds sometimes, but it’s always interesting, and it’s always linear. The voices always lead somewhere.”

There were at least a couple of people doing interesting things on bass - not sure exactly when he's talking about, maybe 1965 or '66? But Paul McCartney was definitely not a standard bassist even at that time. But like the article says, Phil wasn't listening to pop music, which is part of his charm as a bass player.
glocke
Advanced Member
Username: glocke

Post Number: 365
Registered: 9-2002
Posted on Monday, April 14, 2008 - 7:53 am:   Edit Post

That qoute threw me off a little also, as jamerson was around at that time. But like you said, maybe its due to Phil being isolated from pop music. But than I recall another interview where he said he was driving a postal truck and would listen to the beatles on AM radio. Who knows....

One of my favorite qoutes from Phil is when asked if he had any interest in teaching or writing about his playing style, and basically his reply was that he didnt, and that most musicians would be able to figure out what hes doing by listening anyway.

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