| Author | Message | ||
| effclef
Intermediate Member Username: effclef Post Number: 137 Registered: 1-2004 |
If you want to try out Stanley's sound, pick this best-of disc up. It has 14 songs on it and really does a great job of showcasing the sound he gets out of his Alembic. It's become one of my favorites, even more than the regular releases of his. Amazon (etc) has it. EffClef | ||
| keavin
Advanced Member Username: keavin Post Number: 300 Registered: 12-2002 |
i listen the contemporary stations(jazz)often & he's not gettin alot of play!!,i wonder whats up with that?,,,,any word yet on some pics of his '30th anniv alembic' yet? mica??val?? | ||
| effclef
Intermediate Member Username: effclef Post Number: 139 Registered: 1-2004 |
Ehhhhh there's no accounting for taste. Half the bands I love (like King's X, Gary Numan) get almost no airplay. EffClef PS Doug Pinnick of King's X played a Hamer 12-string bass (triple strings, low and two identical octaves) on lots of their songs, but nowadays seems to use just plain 4 strings tuned low low low low low. No idea if he's ever tried an Alembic. | ||
| jazzyvee
Intermediate Member Username: jazzyvee Post Number: 105 Registered: 6-2002 |
Well I can rectify the lack of airplay for Stanley. I produce and present a Jazz programme in Birmingham, England called the NotStrictlyazz programme. Since I started the programme about 5 years ago, I always use two of Stanleys tracks, the Programme theme tune is "Blues For Mingus" from the double live album and also "Between Love and Magic from the Bass-ic Collection CD" so as far as my listeners are concerned he is on the radio every week. If you want to catch the programme it is available live over the internet from the web site. Http://www.newstyleradio.co.uk I air the programme every Monday evening between 20:00 and 22:00 GMT. I often play tracks which include him as either band leader or bass player for other musicians. Hope you get to listen. Jazzy vee | ||
| valvil
Moderator Username: valvil Post Number: 434 Registered: 7-2002 |
Well, eventually we will post pictures of Stanley's bass, but first we gotta deliver it to the man. He knows he's getting it, but has no idea what it looks like (well he knows the body shape of course), so we don't want to spoil that surprise. Valentino | ||
| rami
Advanced Member Username: rami Post Number: 338 Registered: 6-2002 |
Does anyone know if Stanley reads anything on the Alembic club site, and if so, where the heck is he???? | ||
| keavin
Advanced Member Username: keavin Post Number: 304 Registered: 12-2002 |
thats a good question! i know he reads the stuff on his interactive web-site & he also answers questions & has a chat room, BUT i think he's busy preparing for "the rite of strings"(all acoustic) tour,which is him ,al dimiola & jean juc ponty, because he hasn't replied to any messages lately,and the tour starts early june ,but have you checked out his site latley?....but i'm pretty sure he does read some of the alembic here on the site. | ||
| the_mule
Member Username: the_mule Post Number: 71 Registered: 1-2004 |
I've been searching around and listening to a lot of Stanley Clarke's recordings, my personal favorites are (no particular order): - (solo) Stanley Clarke - (solo) Live 1976-1977 - (solo) If This Bass Could Only Talk - Return To Forever - Romantic Warrior With the last one being a blasting 'heads up!' for anyone into over-the-top jazz-fusion, symphonic rock and the wonderful music that was both created and killed in the seventies... | ||
| jazzyvee
Intermediate Member Username: jazzyvee Post Number: 108 Registered: 6-2002 |
I love the stuff he was playing on the Romantic Warrior. It was my first expirience of listening to fusion stuff and what these guys were playing it just blew my mind away. As much as Stanley and the other guys in the band have moved on from those heady days I'd still love RTF to get together to do a tour. Clarke, Corea, White and Di Meola.... Would be awesome. However the way accountants and agents get in the way sometimes I doubt if it would happen even if the guys wanted to do it. | ||
| mint_bass
Intermediate Member Username: mint_bass Post Number: 114 Registered: 1-2004 |
i just bought the sujested album last night it is great i really like school days and silly putty and mothership connection i had not heard a lot of stanley clarke before but i really like this journey to love which is also good and i bought charles mingus ah um mingus which is also great | ||
| kmh364
Member Username: kmh364 Post Number: 64 Registered: 9-2003 |
Effclef, Caught King's X last night at the Green Room in Seaside Park down at the Jersey Shore. Show was awesome. I've been a fan since '89 when I heard "Gretchen Goes To Nebraska" on WSOU (Seton Hall's Radio Station), but that was the first time I saw them. Pinnick is playing 4-str. Yamaha's these days. Tuned low, low, low is an understatement...it sounded like he was using a bass synth as the whole club was subsonically resonating, LOL! | ||
| effclef
Intermediate Member Username: effclef Post Number: 149 Registered: 1-2004 |
KMH - great to hear they are still rocking! It is funny that King's X fans come out of the woodwork and it is all a shock to hear that someone else likes them. I saw "It's Love" on MTV back when that was new, and was hooked. I think around the same time I saw a Bass Player column that showed him with his 12-string Hamer bass. I've seen them twice in concert, each at fairly small clubs. I feel bad that they don't get much airplay, but they must enjoy what they do to do so much touring. Dogman is still their hardest, and my favorite, work. Coincidence: I just listened to Black Like Sunday last night! (Ty and Doug's solo projects are pretty good, and I just picked up Jerry Gaskill's solo, but haven't heard it yet.) Whether Doug has played an Alembic, I am not sure. You can imagine what King's X might sound like with a Series in his hands. It's almost like we should take up a collection and buy an inexpensive Epic off eBay for all our dream bassists, to ....uh.... infect them with the Alembic bug! EffClef | ||
| adriaan
Advanced Member Username: adriaan Post Number: 223 Registered: 6-2002 |
As one of that perhaps rare (at least for this particular thread) breed of older music afficionados, may I second mint_bass in his choosing "Mingus Ah-Um". Anyone with ears attached AND the presumption that they know good music MUST know "Goodbye Pork-Pie Hat". The rendition on "Mingus Ah-Um" is mighty impressive, and I daresay the one on "Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus" is terribly sad-and-wise-and-therefore-incomparably-beautiful too (at my funeral they will play either this, or Charles Ives, "Three Places in New England", part 3). How one can even consider spending any amount of time listening to a band with a name like King's X (so I gather they've been to London by train - it obviously meant a big deal to them at the time but I don't care much for London railway stations, personally) while there is Mingus music to experience, is beyond me. Okay, if 1950s music is not your cup of tea, try "Sue's Changes". Or try the ever-cool "East Coasting" album. | ||
| davehouck
Senior Member Username: davehouck Post Number: 519 Registered: 5-2002 |
I love Goodbye Pork-Pie Hat. I wanted to work it up for a trio a couple years back; but I couldn't work out the chords satisfactorily enough to show it to my guitar player. Perhaps someone might have some suggestions. Here are the chords from the lead sheet I have; I suppose there are some alternate voicings that I'm not thinking of: (b = flat) F7 Db7 | Gbmaj7 B7 | Eb7 Db7 | Eb7 F7 | Bb-7 Db7 | G-7 C7 | D7 G7 | Db7 Gbmaj7 | B7 Bb7 | C7 Eb7 | F7 Db7 | Gbmaj7 B7 :|| | ||
| davehouck
Senior Member Username: davehouck Post Number: 520 Registered: 5-2002 |
Well I have to admit that, if I'm familiar with Three Places In New England, I can't seem to remember it. | ||
| bob
Advanced Member Username: bob Post Number: 209 Registered: 11-2002 |
Mingus Ah Um is one of my all-time favorites. I've also spent a little time (not nearly enough...) on Pork Pie Hat, using the following chords: Head: | Eb 7 B9 | EM7 A7b5 | Db 9 B9 | Db 9 Eb 7 | | Ab m7 B13#11 | Fm7 Bb 7#5#9 | C7b5 F13 | B7 EM7 | | A7b5 Ab 7 | Bb 7 Db 9 | Eb 7 B7 | EM7 A7b5 | Solo: | Ebm9M7 Abm9 | % | % | Ebm9M7 Eb7#9 | | Ab m9 | B13#11 Bb 7#5#9 | Eb m9M7 Ab 7b5 | % | | Cm7b5 x x F7#5#9 | F#m9 x B9b5 Bb 7#5#9 | Eb m9M7 Ab 13 | Eb m9M7 Bb 7#5 | Looks like we must be working in different keys, but I think it's pretty well accepted that Mingus used Eb. For other alternatives and further discussion, try a Google search of Usenet Groups, specifically rec.music.bluenote. As a starting point, anything you see by a guy named Marc Sabatella is probably good, though there are quite a few other extremely knowledgable people. (m = minor, M = Major, some odd spacing so I don't read Eb7 as E with a flatted seventh == E7) | ||
| kmh364
Member Username: kmh364 Post Number: 70 Registered: 9-2003 |
Adriaan: It's all good! I love music of all styles: a great player is a great player irregardless of musical genre. Like Effclef, It is rare to find a King's X afficianado. Give them a listen, you might just like 'em. Effclef: Yeah, they still rock. Doug is well into his fifties and still sounds great. Ty may be the most underated guitarist in music, and the self-taught Jerry absolutely kills the drums. I Had an extra ticket I couldn't give away. Everyone I asked said who are they? That is one band that never compromised their sound to sell records or gain airplay. After I heard "over my head" in '89, I was hooked. BTW, they did play "Dogman" and it rocked! I only have their first five albums (cds? LOL). After this show, I gotta finish my collection and buy the rest. If you go on their website, you can access their old MTV videos, and bootlegs of shows throughout their career amongst other things. | ||
| davehouck
Senior Member Username: davehouck Post Number: 521 Registered: 5-2002 |
Bob; thanks!! That works much better! I don't know where the lead sheet I have came from, but your chords make a lot more sense. | ||
| adriaan
Advanced Member Username: adriaan Post Number: 224 Registered: 6-2002 |
Dave, Is that a start for a new string of ANEC jokes, are you trying to convey a dislike for Charles Ives, or is it an honest confession? I'll go for the last option ... Part two has the famous colliding brass bands but part three is very high on atmosphere: he evokes some magnificent landscape vignettes with a very personal touch. The lines of poetry he added in the score indicate an early environmentalist concern, and you can sort of hear the pollution creeping in. Michael Tilson Thomas did a great recording with the San Francisco Symphony (Charles Ives, An American Journey). KMH, Though I cannot agree that "it" is all good (that would imply I have no dislikes) I sure agree many a thing of beauty is waiting beyond one's horizon. However, I must draw the line at guitar heroics: though obviously there are guitarists around who are great musicians, most guitar heroes make music with little or no emotional charge - that is: as far as I can make out. But to each his own, and so enjoy what you can. Bob, Thanks for the changes! I've been trying by ear at the piano for ages, but never got anywhere near convincing myself I was close. | ||
| davehouck
Senior Member Username: davehouck Post Number: 524 Registered: 5-2002 |
Adriann; no, I do not have a dislike for Charles Ives. My CD collection is sorely lacking of a lot of things that I think it should have and wish that it did have. As a result, there are pieces of music that I like for which I don't have a copy, often don't know the name, and am sometimes even unsure of the composer. An example is Aaron Copeland; I like a lot of his stuff but don't have one CD. There is a melody from a Shaker hymn of the mid 19th century that Aaron Copeland adapted in his Appalachian Spring Suite; a love that piece of music and play a crude arrangement of it on my bass. It would be nice to have a copy of Copeland's arrangement; but it would be nice to have a copy of a lot of things. So yes, it's an honest confession. There is simply more great music than there is available time to listen and money to spend. And yes, thanks again Bob! I spent some enjoyable time this afternoon working on voicings. | ||
| adriaan
Advanced Member Username: adriaan Post Number: 226 Registered: 6-2002 |
Hm, I was thinking I had one Copland recording, but it turns out it's Antheil's Ballet Mécanique conducted by HK Gruber (who is also known for his work with Mingus material). A few years ago I went to hear Leonard Slatkin conduct the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam with a modern American programme. There was a boring trombone concerto (Rouse?), Adams' Short Ride in a Fast Machine and an Ives' symphony - must have been Nr 4. The Adams piece was nice and entertaining, but clearly it's already dated, and the Ives was just timeless. There was a second conductor to help out with the shifting rhythmic planes, there was a second concert grand tuned sharp - huge orchestra and chorus - simply an astounding event. Eventhough it was the oldest piece being played, it certainly didn't sound as if it was, and it got the biggest response from the audience. | ||
| effclef
Intermediate Member Username: effclef Post Number: 158 Registered: 1-2004 |
Adriaan: music is music is music. Whatever someone likes is good to _them_ and that's all that matters. But would you believe I found a copy of Mingus Ah Um at a flea market, before reading your suggestion, just a week ago? It is still in line for playing but I am looking forward to hearing and enjoying it. I do have one other Mingus disc around here somewhere. I believe that music of all types has value and different players resonate with different listeners. There is only "good" and "bad" based on the subjective viewpoint. What was bad yesterday is good today and vice versa. That being said, I also believe that a musical ear can mature and grow over time, and because of this, the listener can then seek out and enjoy new and different musical forms (like Mingus) once he has explored all he can of bands with power chords and 4/4 rhythm! When you say London train station, are you referring to King's Cross? The name King's X has been debated for years and I don't even know if the band itself has admitted how they chose it. I think "King's X" is also related to a game of hide-and-seek. At the least, their rock is more cerebral than lots of what is out there today, and the three guys do harmony vocals fairly well. kmh: well as you go forward in your King's X collection you will hear the de-tuning degeneration of Doug! But it does work, in places. I still wish he'd hang an Alembic around his neck and record. Ty, I agree, is under-appreciated. He has had some amazingly prolific solo projects: Platypus, Jelly Jam, Jughead, his own self-titled discs... Doug has done Supershine and Poundhound. It seems that they make just as much music with other people as they do together, but maybe that is what KEEPS them together. EffClef | ||
| dannobasso
Junior Username: dannobasso Post Number: 30 Registered: 3-2004 |
Big fan of both Stanley and King's X. Last I checked Doug had a deal with Yamaha. They were always airtight live and Doug's strong vocals against his rhythmic bass lines still inspire me. Although they parted ways with Sam Taylor who produced them Galatic Cowboys and Atomic Opera, they still put out good cd's. I've seen a few shows with both King's X and Galactic. Amazing. BTW on a related note Alembic lover and bassist from another planet Trip Wamsley has joined Atomic Opera. That will be something to look forward to IMO. Danno | ||
| effclef
Intermediate Member Username: effclef Post Number: 163 Registered: 1-2004 |
Danno, yeah, the Yamaha deal is surely what drives it. Actually Ty has his own signature Yamaha guitar line, too. As to Trip, any Alembic fan should pick up his CD called IT'S BETTER THIS WAY. Great sound, a few Alembics used on it (including the individually tuned 8 string pictured on Bass Central's site sometime back) and as a bonus, Michael Manring's on it, too. EffClef | ||
| palembic
Senior Member Username: palembic Post Number: 1349 Registered: 9-2002 |
Trips bass is here: http://www.alembic.com/info/fc_trip.html PTBO | ||
| valvil
Moderator Username: valvil Post Number: 460 Registered: 7-2002 |
Just saw the discussion on Goodbye Pork Pie Hat. I have been studying that song on guitar for the last year. I have the sheet music for it, from "Mingus: more than a fake book"; my teacher worked out an arrangement with melody and chords played together; very hard, but grat sounding. First chord there is Eb#9 then B13. If anyone is interested in the whole thing, drop me a line. I played it (read: butchered it) at a recital my teacher organized last month. I got great audience response, though I thought I had been terrible; I had never played that bad in practice, so of course I had to suck at the recital. My teacher said it was ok, but agreed that I had always played it better than that. Oh well. I'll do better next time. Valentino | ||
| mint_bass
Intermediate Member Username: mint_bass Post Number: 178 Registered: 1-2004 |
hi guys have not posted for a while as i have finished at university for a while my friend did a solo bass version of goodbye porkpie hat for his grading that was well recived | ||
| bob
Advanced Member Username: bob Post Number: 240 Registered: 11-2002 |
Well there you go, Val, maybe you should have tried it on bass instead! Look, I can't tell from your post whether you were really bummed, or taking it in stride. In fact, just earlier tonight I was thinking about how this thread came to an end on a sad note, but then minty brought it back to life. It's a hard song, man. I wouldn't have the nerve to try more than the first few bars, in front of a good and non-judgemental friend... Your comments remind me of one of the last times I played in public. This was back around 8th grade, roughly 35 years ago, and I played Malaguena (there's a wavy thing over the 'n') as a solo on classical guitar in the annual talent show. It was a large school, so the audience was over 800, and it was a bit of a shock when these huge curtains drew back across the stage and the gymnasium was packed wall to wall. My best friend, who got me started on guitar back in 3rd grade by teaching me the theme song to the TV show 'Bonanza' (which I thought was really cool at the time) came up to me afterwards and said he had never heard me play that well. Sometimes the pressure helps, sometimes it hurts, but it's best to just ignore it as much as possible and get into the song. I think that's especially advised with something like Pork Pie Hat - you've got to just feel it, not try to repeat a carefully practiced sequence of fingerings. To this day, people are still analyzing the structure and theory, trying to dissect the progressions and scales of this song, and I can't help thinking that Mingus must be laughing in his grave. It's more of an emotion, than a composition, in my mind. Don't think about whether you'll 'do better next time' - just sing. -bob |
