| Author | Message | ||
| richbass939
Advanced Member Username: richbass939 Post Number: 363 Registered: 11-2004 |
I saw a moment in which someone close to me witnessed something that was musically very inspiring and seems to have sent his interest into overdrive. I'm sure we all have had several of those moments (I know I have). What has happened in your life (for example, seeing or hearing a musician or event) that profoundly affected you as a musician? Rich | ||
| dadabass2001
Senior Member Username: dadabass2001 Post Number: 440 Registered: 6-2002 |
Rich, I've got two from roughly the same period: the incredible ensemble interplay in the Live/Dead recording; and Jack's playing on After Bathing At Baxters. A little later, I got to see Return To Forever touring in support of Romantic Warrior. Jaco! All of these are still major style point influences to me thirty-something years later. Mike (Message edited by dadabass2001 on August 14, 2005) | ||
| hollis
Senior Member Username: hollis Post Number: 639 Registered: 11-2003 |
I may have already told this story, but for me, it bears repeating. When I was 11 my folks took me to see Andre Segovia. He was playing a piece when two women 20 rows back center started talking to each other..... Mr Segovia stopped playing, crossed his hands on top of his guitar, and just stared at the women who after about three minutes finally realized that the whole audience was staring at them.... They shut up and he started playing once again without missing a beat. It was a defining moment in my life. (Message edited by hollis on August 14, 2005) | ||
| 57basstra
Member Username: 57basstra Post Number: 70 Registered: 4-2005 |
I think I may be about to have "one" of those special, defining moments tonight. Last night we got word our dear pastor Bro. Morris Lee, 82 years of age, has had a small stroke. He is OK but cannot preach tonight, or perhaps ever again. His pinch hitter at church this morning was a retired pastor who pastored our small country church -- where all of my foks, including my parents are buried -- 30 years ago. The pinch hitting pastor is the father of a good friend of mine, with whom I played high school football, in the early '70s. His son, my friend, died in a car wreck in July 1974, just before I entered my Senior year of high school. Tonight, this retired pastor is bringing his younger son in with his 5-string banjo. The retired pastor is bringing his Martin Acoustic. I am going to haul in my Englehardt Upright "out of the blue" and accompany them during tonight's service. (I usually don't attend church on Sunday night). Please pray for our ailing pastor, our pinch hitting pastor, and me. God bless you all. (I have a wonderful time reading the intelligent, thoughtful, sincere questions and responses on this site. We are all drawn together here by a remarkable company, their family and employees, and, of course, the Alembic instruments. Even though I will not be playing my Alembics tonight, having them now has brought my playing to a higher, and I hope, deeper, more meaningful level. I am rambling now. Hope everyone has a great rest of the Sunday and a safe, productive, happy week! | ||
| bigredbass
Senior Member Username: bigredbass Post Number: 460 Registered: 9-2002 |
When I was a kid, my piano teacher took me to see the legendary Arthur Rubinstein twice, and I shall never be as thunderstruck as those two shows. The guy could call down the thunder and the lightning, played a set list that would have killed a younger man (he was in his 70s at the time), and afterward left with his two drop-dead young female companions to have his martini. And he never practiced in his later years. It was supernatural, and an unmatched example of genius combined with a lifetime of devotion to one's craft. But the Segovia (I'm sure a similar experience for you) story is just priceless! J o e y | ||
| edwin
Member Username: edwin Post Number: 77 Registered: 5-2002 |
It wasn't until my late 20s that my mom told me about being in the south of France when she was 17 at the home of some friends of her parents. The other house guest was Pablo Casals. She and one other person got a personal performance of the Bach Cello Suites. For me, there have been many moments, but perhaps the most inspiring musician I have ever been in the same room with was my grandfather, a concert pianist and post 12 tone composer. Just an amazing musician, he could read anything and his sense of feel and phrasing was out of this world. Everything he wrote was directly related to his experiences writers and artists (mostly philosophy of a humanist nature). Then, there was getting to play with the likes of Victor Wooten, Darol Anger, Paul McCandless, etc, but those are different stories. Edwin | ||
| dannobasso
Advanced Member Username: dannobasso Post Number: 302 Registered: 3-2004 |
1. Hearing a promotional advance copy on LP of Romantic Warrior. Changed me forever and hooked me on Alembic. 2. The passing of my older brother inspired me to dump loser friends and musicians and never give up on my dream. Went back to school, graduated magna cum laude, got a better job, and kept working on getting a deal. Playing the Roxy on Thursday. He would have loved that. Danno | ||
| 88persuader
Intermediate Member Username: 88persuader Post Number: 146 Registered: 5-2004 |
My 1st concert when i was a kid, Led Zep! And when I was around 17 seeing the original Mahavishnu O. Thoses were the biggies for me, major eye openers. Both shows my jaw was on the ground the whole show ... like seeing god! | ||
| 57basstra
Member Username: 57basstra Post Number: 71 Registered: 4-2005 |
I did get my chance last night to play my upright with two old time Bluegrass gospel musicians: a guitar picking retired Baptist minister in his 70s and his son, a 5-string banjo player, at our little country church. No better audience, fellow musicians, or reason to play. Some of the best musicians I have ever seen or heard, like this banjo player, who also plays mandolin, piano, fiddle, guitar, are folks who are in your midst. | ||
| karl
Junior Username: karl Post Number: 48 Registered: 7-2002 |
I saw the great jazz drummer Elvin Jones play at the 100 Club in London a couple of years ago. He was in his 70s at the time and looked so frail: he was hunched over, could hardly walk and needed help just to get up across the stage to his drum stool at the start of the show. We all held our breath. He took out his sticks and seemed almost too weak to lift them. But his playing that night was nothing short of miraculous: with minimal movement, he was all over the kit, rattling out rolls and flams and crashes with a speed and intensity that would have floored a 20 year old. He was a force of nature behind the kit. After a three hour show and a standing ovation, he put up his sticks and hobbled offstage. A truly awe-inspiring performance and an affirmation of the invigorating power of music. Sadly, Elvin Jones passed away in May 2004. But the sight and sound of him behind the kit will live on in the hearts and minds of everyone who saw him that night, or, indeed, at any of his shows. | ||
| davehouck
Moderator Username: davehouck Post Number: 2220 Registered: 5-2002 |
You played with Victor Wooten, Darol Anger, and Paul McCandless????!!!! | ||
| bracheen
Senior Member Username: bracheen Post Number: 792 Registered: 11-2003 |
I've been to a lot of live performances that made me want to run home and practice, both big names and very good local acts. There have been some recordings such as Jaco's album that were inspirational. But the one moment that stopped me dead in my tracks was from a busker in Dublin. My wife and I were strolling up Grafton St looking for creative ways to spend more money when I heard Mozart's 40th wafting in the breeze. Looking around I saw a guy sitting on the curb with an accordian playing one of my favorite symphonies. It was truly amazing the sounds that man was getting out of his accordian. I was frozen in front on him almost mezmerized. That was in 1998 and I can still hear it. Sam | ||
| gare
Advanced Member Username: gare Post Number: 237 Registered: 11-2003 |
I had the opportunity in 1971 to meet and speak to Arron Copeland..very inspirational. I also remember a concert in '72..Yes was the warm up act for ELP, Yes had just released Fragile (think that was 72) anyway..3rd row Auditorium Theater in Chicago. I was absolutely mezmerized by those 8 great musicians. I was also lucky enough to see Terry Kath play live several times. Gary | ||
| jeffrey
New Username: jeffrey Post Number: 4 Registered: 8-2005 |
If anyone would like to attend an inspiring performance, I would not hesitate to recommend the jazz trio Medeski, Martin and Wood. These 3 play with more concentration and intensity than any other I have ever witnessed. They command your attention and its as if they pull the musical ideas out of thin air on demand. | ||
| j_gary
Member Username: j_gary Post Number: 81 Registered: 6-2005 |
Gentlemen, you guys are killing me with all these monster players that ignited you passion for the musical art form. I'm almost embarrassed to admit that my moment of clarity came via the Ed Sullivan show and a relatively unknown band calling themselves the Beatles. I did not own a single recording nor was I interested at the time. That had a profound effect on me as I have been broke ever since. | ||
| richbass939
Advanced Member Username: richbass939 Post Number: 371 Registered: 11-2004 |
J. Gary, that's interesting. I remember so well when Ed Sullivan introduced them. That was really the first of several life changing events for me. Never before had I seen anything like them. I felt like I was looking at something from another planet, something I hadn't even imagined. I saw in them something that I wanted to be, not just musically, as I hadn't previously persued music at all. It was the catalyst for much of what I have done in the last 40+ years. BTW, the event I spoke of at the top of this thread was my 11 year old (a pretty talented pianist) watching my recently acquired DVD of ELP. Adam had never seen a keyboard player that he thought was cool. He has listened to ELP all his life but has never before seen them playing live. Now he is amazed and inspired by KE's musical ability, showmanship, and coolness. Rich | ||
| j_gary
Member Username: j_gary Post Number: 82 Registered: 6-2005 |
Well said Rich, I think our experience may parallel your son's. I was 10 when I saw that first Beatles show. I was at a buddies house playing a board game. At that time of my life the world was very small. Pardon the drama, but I feel their performance yanked me out of childhood and thrust me into the world. It was my first recollection of thinking,wow, what the heck is going on out there? The sound,harmonies and show were perfect. I was knocked out that just four guys could do so much, so well, and have a ball doing it. It lit a passion and interest in me that carried me through the troublesome teens with little time for foolishness, and into adulthood. I think when a young person, such as your boy, developes an interest in something that challenges and inspires them, they have a greater chance of becoming a contributing adult, verses the crowd that spends their time hanging out at the mall. It seems that he is off to a great start, good luck! Stay Low, Gary | ||
| ttwatts
New Username: ttwatts Post Number: 3 Registered: 9-2004 |
Just seeing Louis Johnson (Brothers Johnson) play Thunder Thumbs and Lightning Licks live did it for me. I have been hooked ever since. ttwatts | ||
| richbass939
Advanced Member Username: richbass939 Post Number: 378 Registered: 11-2004 |
Hi, Kenneth. Killeen, huh? I grew up in Temple and lived there for 22 years. When I was there in July, I wanted to go by Cutter Brandenburg's museum of Stevie Ray Vaughn's stuff. Ran out of time though. Maybe next year in July. You probably are wondering why I would pick July to go to TX. No, I haven't forgotten the summer temps. Relatives seem to pick July when scheduling events. Speaking of relatives, Rose and Robert Watts of Temple were old family friends of ours. Any relation? Rich | ||
| kungfusheriff
Advanced Member Username: kungfusheriff Post Number: 375 Registered: 8-2003 |
Every time I get to see Mike Watt play live...he and I happen to disagree on the virtue of Alembics, but if you want to talk about players who are forces of nature...wow. Just wow. Most recently, seeing about half of the original Funk Brothers play live about ten feet from me (and I got paid to see the show! Yes!) and beating my brains out on Jaco's "Teen Town" for the last two days. | ||
| gbarchus
Intermediate Member Username: gbarchus Post Number: 116 Registered: 6-2002 |
Jaco wanting to talk with me and play my factory Fender Precision fretless after a shound check, not knowing who he was until after watching his opening set for MY (nobody anyone would know) band's show at the Flying Machine in Ft. Lauderdale in 1971! | ||
| gbarchus
Intermediate Member Username: gbarchus Post Number: 117 Registered: 6-2002 |
richbass, I played at Cutter's outside of Temple, TX! He's got some great stories to tell (living under the stage of the Armadillo World Headquarters, the Bee Gees) and SRV artifacts. Gale | ||
| gbarchus
Intermediate Member Username: gbarchus Post Number: 118 Registered: 6-2002 |
I think the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show was a defining moment (like Kennedy's assasination) in the lives of many of the "old" folks around here. For me, the Beatles helped me believe I could be a musician. The next year, when I was 13, I saw a band called, "Boy Blue and the Moonmen" perform "You Can't Do That" on Galveston beach and I was hooked. There wasn't anything else I wanted to do with my life but play music. Then I learned about women! Gale | ||
| 82daion
New Username: 82daion Post Number: 9 Registered: 5-2005 |
Hearing the work of John Entwistle, John Paul Jones, and Geddy Lee(on record) in 2004 really blew me away, and made me think, "Hey-maybe I should take bass more seriously!" However, seeing the Talking Heads' Stop Making Sense concerts(on DVD) really made me want to play live music. | ||
| lothartu
Intermediate Member Username: lothartu Post Number: 108 Registered: 8-2003 |
Well here's my little story. When I was in high school I played in the jazz band one year. I didn't read so I just made a copy of the guitar charts and winged my way through the changes. I had a lot of fun but I was just a young kid who played KISS and Zep tunes in a bad garage band and I didn't have much musical confidence even though I really dug playing. The jazz band had a "competiton" one weekend in another town so we loaded up and headed off. We got there late so we didn't have any time to warm up. We were about to get off the bus when our teacher says "Look, I didn't want to tell you before because I didn't want you to be nervous but I don't want you to walk out there and freak out so here the deal, the judges for the competition are Dizzy Gillespie and Slide Hampton." Dead silence. So we unload and are standing around backstage while the band before us is on stange playing. They get done and Dizzy and Slide tear them appart. They didn't pull any punches. When it came to music Dizzy and Slide were the definition of "brutally honest". So we're shaking in our boots because we're standing back stage hearing all this and now we have to go out and play. No warmup, just got off the bus, just found out that we have to play in front of Dizzy and Slide and just heard the band before us, who we thought sounded pretty good, get torn apart in the critique. We go out and play. I swear, we played better than we had ever played before. It was pure joy. Twenty players who all were feeling it at the same time just feeding off each other. That set we played was magical. We were all playing and looking at each other and we couldn't believe what was happening. So then we get done. Now we come back to reality because Dizzy and Slide are walking up to work us over... and they liked us. They really dug it. Now here's the part of the story that's important to me. Dizzy and Slide tell me that they think that I'm a good player and that I've got a really good feel. They liked that I didn't play the notes on the "official" bass chart and that instead I just winged it. This really changed my view of my musical self image. It gave me a lot of confidence when I was just a scruffy little "rocker" in high school. | ||
| richbass939
Senior Member Username: richbass939 Post Number: 404 Registered: 11-2004 |
Very cool story. Rich | ||
| lbpesq
Senior Member Username: lbpesq Post Number: 681 Registered: 7-2004 |
A few years before he died, Dizzy played the old Yoshi's in Berkeley - a room about the size of a good sized living room - great place. A friend and I were sitting there waiting for the late show when a couple came up and asked to share our table. As we talked we discovered that the guy was a bass player who had played with Dizzy and the woman was a jazz singer. After an amazing show, as the crowd filed out, Dizzy and other band members made a bee line for our table and started pulling up chairs. Next thing I know I'm getting introduced: "Dizzy, this is Billy, Billy, this is Dizzy". And I'm thinking HOLY S**T, THIS IS DIZZY GILLESPIE!" We shot the bull for about an hour or so. He was very down to earth. It was like hanging out with your cool grandfather. Bill, tgo | ||
| davehouck
Moderator Username: davehouck Post Number: 2384 Registered: 5-2002 |
So Bill, who was the bass player? | ||
| lbpesq
Senior Member Username: lbpesq Post Number: 683 Registered: 7-2004 |
I don't remember, but not anyone I'd heard of and, as many of you have often pointed out around here, guitar players don't notice bass players anyway. nyuk, nyuk. I do remember one bass player quite well, though. When I first moved to Californina in 1973, the community college I was attending (Mt.SAC, east of L.A.) put on a small concert with Ray Brown and Shelley Mann. I didn't know much about them at the time, but I was very glad I went. Bill, tgo | ||
| flaxattack
Senior Member Username: flaxattack Post Number: 603 Registered: 4-2004 |
obviously my first dead show 9/28/72 stanley theatre second- sitting behind john lennon at a jerry-merl show at the bottom line in 74. everybody stood and hoisted a drink to john and he stood and thanked us all. when the big man came out, there was that nod of hello between them and the night was magical.... third- pink floyd -radio city 1973- it was 3 dead shows,the riders,and floyd all in one week... (Message edited by flaxattack on September 21, 2005) | ||
| rklisme
Advanced Member Username: rklisme Post Number: 244 Registered: 5-2004 |
Probably in this order for me, The Beatles my first bass was a copy of violin style bass. Jimi Hendrix followed by Earth, Wind, and Fire live in the 70's. Verdine White was flying through the air playing bass while attached to a cable, I was hooked. Rare Earth was on the same bill playing Getting Ready(If you were a bass player you had to play that solo) and Yo Love is Fading. Then came Larry Graham and Graham Central Station and my life changed forever(I am sure glad platform shoes went out of style, tough playing bass in those things)! As I grew older and more mature I saw Stanley Clarke with Return to Forever and thought now there is someone who plays just like me! Then I woke up. I have been lucky to see so many in my time I could keep going for quite sometime. Jaco live at a small venue in SF was a total disappointment, Alphonso Johnson with Billy Cobham kicked butt, Marcus Miller with Lenny White blew my socks off, Rocco with TOP at New Years in SF I still have a hangover 30 years later! Willie Weeks with Donny Hathaway another solo to learn. I have been inspired by so many it is hard to just pick one but if I had to I would have to go with Stanley Clarke! Rory | ||
| keith_h
Intermediate Member Username: keith_h Post Number: 193 Registered: 2-2005 |
I would say first was my older cousin John. I saw him play with his band in the late 60's and it just stuck with me. After that Stanley Clarke. Saw him with the original RTF, the classic RTF line up and solo. Of course Jaco. Never saw him with Weather Report but did see him solo. Keith | ||
| ajdover
Advanced Member Username: ajdover Post Number: 241 Registered: 11-2003 |
For me ... Wanting to play with our "neighborhood" band, and the only instrument left was bass. Started out playing the lower four strings of my brother's Teisco guitar (bought at Uncle Bill's, a discount store in Cleveland, Ohio, by my father for my brother, along with a 20 watt amp). Sold my clarinet to buy a mail order EB3 copy, which I promptly put Gene Simmons stickers on from the Rock and Roll Over album. Inspiring? Wanting to impress my parents and friends. Simple as that. I'm still trying. Alan | ||
| 811952
Senior Member Username: 811952 Post Number: 511 Registered: 10-2003 |
Watching my older brother, Mark, everytime I got to hear him play the old Hofner. He shared everything he had with me, and pretty much still does. Our styles are completely different, and I think we learn something from each other whenever we get together to play. And watching my little brother, Pete, sit down at the piano for the very first time one day and simply start playing. They are both awesome musicians, and I am truly blessed to even know them. They're both terribly nice people, too. John |
