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Alembic Club » Miscellaneous » Archive: 2005 » Archive through October 17, 2005 » Archive - 2004 » Archive through December 07, 2004 » Influences & favorites « Previous Next »

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Archive through November 28, 2004bigredbass30 11-28-04  10:31 pm
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mint_bass
Advanced Member
Username: mint_bass

Post Number: 220
Registered: 1-2004
Posted on Monday, November 29, 2004 - 1:14 am:   Edit Post

I am listening to Mudvayne just now the bass player is pretty damn good i listen to a lot of Stanley Clarke, Charles Mingus, Les Claypool, Sikth, jaco and Vivtor Wooten. I am really keen on Micheal Manring plays his dynamics are amazing.

i really like the way the guy from Faith no more Jason plays as well he is cool.

andrew
andrewknight
Junior
Username: andrewknight

Post Number: 14
Registered: 11-2004
Posted on Monday, November 29, 2004 - 2:34 pm:   Edit Post

A response from a guitar player:

Favorite musicians are Jerry Garcia, Bruce Cockburn, Ani DiFranco and Bob Marley.

Favorite guitarists are: Jerry Garcia, Bruce Cockburn, Mark Knopfler, Jeff Beck, Muddy Waters, Kelly Joe Phelps, Ani Difranco and Rupert Bent

I play: Acoustic folk/rock/jam/jazz/blues and electric all of the above with reggae and funk mixed in.

AndrewK
richbass939
Junior
Username: richbass939

Post Number: 15
Registered: 11-2004
Posted on Tuesday, November 30, 2004 - 4:40 pm:   Edit Post

I like any bands and bassists who play good songs and are interesting to listen to. Occasionally, a band has the whole package. A couple that have "done it" for me are ELP and the early Allman Bros. Brain Salad Surgery is definitely my favorite from ELP although I like just about everything they have done. Fillmore East is my favorite from AB. Berry Oakley really inspires me to be creative and explore and also play what the song needs from the bass.
Joey, do you have the CD of BSS from just a few years ago? It has a new twist on the cover as well as lots of narrative about the making of the album and the story behind the cover.
Rich
jagerphan84
Intermediate Member
Username: jagerphan84

Post Number: 128
Registered: 10-2003
Posted on Tuesday, November 30, 2004 - 5:01 pm:   Edit Post

BSS has been playing in my car for the last 2 solid days... good stuff!
richbass939
Junior
Username: richbass939

Post Number: 16
Registered: 11-2004
Posted on Tuesday, November 30, 2004 - 6:16 pm:   Edit Post

I play BSS whenever I get the chance, mainly when my wife is not at home. She's very tolerant of my musical tastes, but she has her limits. I try not to overload her. My kids (10 and 7) love ELP though. One of these days I'm going to buy Pictures At An Exhibition and Tarkus.
I end up playing bass a lot, along with the stereo, when noone is around. Am I the only one who gets onto a CD or two and plays it for 2 weeks straight?
Rich
beelee
New
Username: beelee

Post Number: 5
Registered: 11-2004
Posted on Tuesday, November 30, 2004 - 7:40 pm:   Edit Post

My influences:
John Paul Jones, John Entwistle, Geezer Butler, Geddy Lee, Chris Squire, Boz Burrel, Ross Valory, Jaco, Billy Sheehan, Stu Hamm, the list could go on and on.

as for Favorites.......its hard to say there are so many great bassists, many I haven't even mentioned above anyone that plays unique, inventive, distinct, interesting parts no matter if they are simple or technically over the top like what Michael Manring does.
ELP is great Karnevil #9, and the ABB "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed"

I'm in more than one band so I mainly listen to what I have to play, new material and go over some older material in between that if some thing catches my ear I'll learn it, and read every bass mag on the planet, play bass along with the stereo as well ;o)
B.
bigredbass
Advanced Member
Username: bigredbass

Post Number: 345
Registered: 9-2002
Posted on Tuesday, November 30, 2004 - 9:42 pm:   Edit Post

939:

No, I've not heard this repackage BSS, but I'd like to. Back in my mis-spent youth, BSS and the live album that followed it were a favorite tag team of mine. I always liked how songs morphed once they were played live on the road for a while.

I've often thought the way to REALLY record a new album were to play the tunes on the road, and just at that spot where you're really nailing 'em and haven't got bored with them yet, go in the studio and just mow 'em down. That kind of steam is never devloped any other way.

J o e y
bigredbass
Advanced Member
Username: bigredbass

Post Number: 346
Registered: 9-2002
Posted on Tuesday, November 30, 2004 - 9:51 pm:   Edit Post

PS

Maybe not so much a bass influence, but a REAL influence as to what a rock and roll band was supposed to be:

The pre-video J.Geils Band. Peter Wolf fronting, J, Magic Dick, and Seth Justman, and the hammer-like rhythm section of Danny Klein and Steven Jo Bladd. I followed them across 4 dates in Texas in 1972, and they were without a doubt the best live band I ever saw. On Atlantic, naturally, "Full House" is the most smokin' live album I ever heard, and the double disc "Blow Your Face Out" is a close second.
Highly recommended for you old-schoolers into what we used to call blues rock. As bracing as warm Thunderbird on a cold night.

Of course, when MTV changed the game, we get into "Centerfold", etc., and the wheels came off shortly thereafter.

J o e y
kungfusheriff
Advanced Member
Username: kungfusheriff

Post Number: 214
Registered: 8-2003
Posted on Tuesday, November 30, 2004 - 11:25 pm:   Edit Post

I have little time to enjoy music at home these days--almost strictly a car activity--so I end up listening to way too much radio; it's like eating lunch at McD's.
You're all going to hate me for this, but an all-acoustic band from Austin, TX called the Asylum Street Spankers is the greatest band in the world right now. They disavowed electricity until last year, when the larger venues they were playing forced their hand to microphones.
Wanna hear NIN's "Closer" as 30s hot jazz? It's on the list. Country meets hip-hop? Yep. The Hokey Pokey? Are you kidding? Fantastic band.
Other than them, I dig a lot of the non-prog artists already mentioned (Ani's the Queen Bee), plus the legendary Mike Watt. He should be up there with Jaco, Bootsy and Jamerson in my opinion. Nobody working today wrings more expression from four strings or has worked harder for their honor.
811952
Advanced Member
Username: 811952

Post Number: 325
Registered: 10-2003
Posted on Wednesday, December 01, 2004 - 5:54 am:   Edit Post

The bass line of Chicago's "Dialogue Pt. I" is pure genius. I wish Pete Cetera still bothered to play like that. Mel Schacher (?) of Grand Funk did some nice stuff. Tyran Porter's (Doobie Brothers) lines have a lyric bent to them. Kasim Sultan with Utopia played some really great rock bass. The RA album with Kasim is full of splendid bass work. Whoever played bass for Elvis Costello in the early '80s was tough as well. And of course, Stan's "Rocks, Pebbles and Sand" had some BIG bass sounds. Animal Logic has Stan doing some very restrained-yet-not-restrained stuff. "Another Place" from their second CD has one of my favorite opening bass riffs. This is a great thread, because it's making me revisit lots of very good music.
John
dadabass2001
Advanced Member
Username: dadabass2001

Post Number: 299
Registered: 6-2002
Posted on Wednesday, December 01, 2004 - 10:29 am:   Edit Post

Okay, lyrical and expressive ... Jaco's work with Joni Mitchell on Hegira (Refuge of the Road) and Don Juan's Reckless Daughter (his intro to Cotton Avenue); and (various players) sooo many Steely Dan tracks I couldn't list them all.
Mike
andrewknight
Junior
Username: andrewknight

Post Number: 22
Registered: 11-2004
Posted on Wednesday, December 01, 2004 - 12:34 pm:   Edit Post

I'm kind of surprised that their aren't more reggae bassists listed, although all that are listed are great. As a guitar player, reggae makes me want to play bass. Burning spear has some great rythm section stuff, and then Cat from Third World plays some really nice bass on Rydim of Life from their album 96 degrees in the shade. With the rythm section so prominent, I figured more of the bassists would into it. Another note, sorry I don't know his name, but will ask my bro, the bassist for the Tony Furtado Band out of Colorado is amazing. He was matching the speed and accuracy that Furtado had finger picking a banjo. Incredible stuff...I'll try to get that guy's name.

(Message edited by andrewknight on December 01, 2004)
effclef
Advanced Member
Username: effclef

Post Number: 273
Registered: 1-2004
Posted on Wednesday, December 01, 2004 - 3:37 pm:   Edit Post

Reggae, yeah! Some great reggae bass albums:

1) Natty Dread by Bob Marley
2) LKJ in Dub by Linton Kwesi Johnson
3) Red by Black Uhuru
4) Marcus Garvey/Garvey's Ghost double album by Burning Spear

The LKJ one is a must...like most reggae there's not much treble to the bass recording but it's clear and bouncy.

EffClef
richbass939
Junior
Username: richbass939

Post Number: 17
Registered: 11-2004
Posted on Wednesday, December 01, 2004 - 4:25 pm:   Edit Post

I'm not surprised that Alembic people are into every genre of music. I wonder if there are any types of music where you won't find Alembics recorded.
Joey, the Brain Salad Surgery I got is Rhino # R2 72459 reissued in 1996. I asked around in music stores several years ago and was told that BSS wasn't on CD. I gave up on it until one time as a fluke I asked again. The store had one in stock. Man, have I enjoyed it. It's like meeting an old friend you haven't seen in 20 years. The cover on the CD is both the inside front and outside front covers put together. The CD case has one of those oscillating-type, 3D-type things on the cover. I can't really describe it but it is really cool how the 2 covers work together.
It sounds like you and I were running around TX at about the same time. I had a lot of fun and saw a lot of bands in the early '70s.
Rich
the_mule
Advanced Member
Username: the_mule

Post Number: 344
Registered: 1-2004
Posted on Wednesday, December 01, 2004 - 11:58 pm:   Edit Post

My influences are Grateful Dead, Phish, King Crimson, Primus/Les Claypool, P-Funk, Gov't Mule, ABB, Stanley Clarke, Return to Forever, TOOL, Sonic Youth, Tea Party, YES, Rush and Frank Zappa for the musicianship, but also artists/bands like Guided by Voices, Belle & Sebastian and Drive-By Truckers for the songwriting. There isn't a genre of music that isn't part of my collection actually...

Wilfred
andrewknight
Junior
Username: andrewknight

Post Number: 24
Registered: 11-2004
Posted on Thursday, December 02, 2004 - 8:12 am:   Edit Post

Wilfred,

With King Crimson as an influence, do you play the Ferguson Stick as well as the bass, or guitar? If so, how long did it take you on the Stick to get to where you were playing well?

Andrew
the_mule
Advanced Member
Username: the_mule

Post Number: 347
Registered: 1-2004
Posted on Thursday, December 02, 2004 - 10:11 am:   Edit Post

Andrew, although I think they're very cool instruments, I'm not playing the Stick (yet), as at first I've got to learn to play the bass properly... ;-) Do you play the Stick?

Wilfred
andrewknight
Junior
Username: andrewknight

Post Number: 27
Registered: 11-2004
Posted on Thursday, December 02, 2004 - 12:05 pm:   Edit Post

Wifred,

Nope I do not, but I saw it played with King Crimson and Fergus Marsh played the Stick at two Bruce Cockburn shows that I saw. I have been interested ever since, but have not made the plunge yet. From reading about it on their website it is not too difficult of a transition. I was fairly amazed by what Fergus Marsh could do with the thing and he also stated to me after the gig that it was pretty easy to learn how to play it. Then again, he is one of those people that might just be good at anything he picks up. During the show he also played the bass, a trumpet and a conch shell.

Andrew
beelee
New
Username: beelee

Post Number: 6
Registered: 11-2004
Posted on Thursday, December 02, 2004 - 5:12 pm:   Edit Post

Hi Wilfred & Andrew
The Chapman Stick is an awesome instrument, I saw one for the first time on American Bandstand when Mathiew Wilder performed in the late 70's I believe, as for how easy it is to play, some guitar and bass techniques don't really apply the same way.
its keyboard like as well, and there are many different tunings ( you can choose from many)
Standard ( classic ) Stick tuning at the 7th fret is (bass strings) ( high to low strings) B, E, A, D, G and ( chord/melody strings) ( low to high strings) C#, F#, B, E, A on a 10 string Stick.
Its like playing a bass backwords while playing a guitar fowards, tapping everything, no picking, you should see Emmet Chapman play, get the "Hands Across the Board " video, He makes it look effortless, I was blown away when I saw it, like any instrument you have to really dedicate time to it, I play Stick a little, and some keys, and a little gtr but more bass than anything, I wish someday I could play the Stick as good as Emmet or one of the other players I've seen, I don't think I'd ever play any other instrument ever again but the Stick.........

B.
811952
Advanced Member
Username: 811952

Post Number: 326
Registered: 10-2003
Posted on Thursday, December 02, 2004 - 6:55 pm:   Edit Post

I played a Chapman stick for a bit in the 1980s and have to say that it was definitely a mind-opening experience. It is fairly easy to get things going on the bass side with a little practice. The first tune I played onstage with it was "I Want a New Drug" by Huey Lewis, which had a nice ostinato I could get my brain and fingers around. Before too long I was playing masses with it and taking it to jam sessions, but I never did have much luck using the treble side for anything. I simply don't think fast or well enough to not have sounded very distracted. As it turns out, I think my first wife pawned it (and a few basses) to buy acid, but that's another story. Funny thing though, a year or so ago I went to a jam session at a friend's house and a guy was there with an old G&L bass that still had all my stickers on the case from before the ex pawned it out from under me in another state all those years ago. I wish it had been the stick. Go figger...
John
andrewknight
Junior
Username: andrewknight

Post Number: 31
Registered: 11-2004
Posted on Friday, December 03, 2004 - 5:07 pm:   Edit Post

wow! I guess finding an old friend like that would be a trip...she got her acid too...two trips for one lousy thing to do. If someone saw one of my guitars and could show that it was previously his (without having sold it to me) and had a story like yours, I'd probably hand it over. Not a big follower of kharmic stuff, but some things are just right.
alembic76407
Advanced Member
Username: alembic76407

Post Number: 346
Registered: 5-2002
Posted on Saturday, December 04, 2004 - 4:52 am:   Edit Post

Paul McCartney is the reason I started playing Bass, I wanted to be a Beatle, I never cared much for his taste in basses, but his playing is outstanding
811952
Advanced Member
Username: 811952

Post Number: 330
Registered: 10-2003
Posted on Saturday, December 04, 2004 - 7:36 am:   Edit Post

David,
You'll appreciate this. The very first thing I ever learned to play was the melody to "Yesterday" and I spent all day sounding it out on my first bass, a mid-60's Hofner I bought from my older brother for $200. McCartney is a genius. Or some would argue that he at least was at one time. His playing IS outstanding..

Andrew,
It's in good hands. The new owner is relatively young (early 20's) and only beginning to learn how to play music. He knows the history of the instrument now, and is very into becoming a listenable musician. It's all good.

John
richbass939
Junior
Username: richbass939

Post Number: 23
Registered: 11-2004
Posted on Saturday, December 04, 2004 - 7:51 am:   Edit Post

John,
As far as Paul's playing, what a musical imagination he has. Back in the days when most bass parts were just thumping the root note along with the bass drum, Paul was really innovating. He broke open what a bass could do.
I wish I still had all those Beatle cards I got when I was 8. If I had only known.
Rich
senmen
Advanced Member
Username: senmen

Post Number: 399
Registered: 7-2003
Posted on Sunday, December 05, 2004 - 3:15 am:   Edit Post

Guys,
my influences?
JE - who else!

Oliver (Spyderman)
bigredbass
Advanced Member
Username: bigredbass

Post Number: 347
Registered: 9-2002
Posted on Monday, December 06, 2004 - 10:41 am:   Edit Post

After a long argument about players with a good friend who was a total Geddy Lee disciple, I told him I'd LOVE to be as 'simplistic' as Paul McCartney, and name me anyone who played those lines, that style, on a toy bass like his Hofners, before Paul . . . he couldn't.

Of course, the Dan is a great influence, and it's really mindbending that Walter plays very good bass AND terrific guitar on a lot of their records, especially their latter day releases.

J o e y
gare
Intermediate Member
Username: gare

Post Number: 108
Registered: 11-2003
Posted on Tuesday, December 07, 2004 - 6:32 am:   Edit Post

McCartney was also the main reason I learned bass. I religiously learned every album from Revolver on,wor e out several Srgt.Pepper albums. Even had to have a Hofner and a Vox T-60.
Another combination that always amazed me was Terry Kath and Pete Cetera..Kath live was mesmerizing.
Someone else I havent seen mentioned is James Jamerson,who seems to have influenced a great deal of players.

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