J

Here’s a look at the first part of the 1971 duet “Where Is The Love” featuring the vocal talents of Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway.  I’ve looked at the intro and the first 8 bars of the A section here.  Stay tuned for the second part of the tune at the end of this week.

This track was the third single to be released on their 1971 duets album “Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway” and when it was released in ‘72, went straight to no. 1 in the US Hot Soul Singles and Adult Contemporary charts, peaking at 5 in the Hot 100.  By this time Roberta Flack had started to get greater success as a solo artist.  Donny Hathaway is a legend in his own right but if there are any young players reading this, be sure to check out “Donny Hathway Live” for some undisputed vocal genius and soul and the super bad bass playing of Willie Weeks also.  Great record.

The bass player on “Where is The Love” is the equally great Chuck Rainey (who we’ve looked at before with Aretha Franklin here).  Chuck played on the whole album and it features some great examples of his session playing:

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Intro

The notes are mainly based around the Roots and 5ths of each chord.  The main thing to watch out for is the note lengths – Chuck plays it pretty staccato giving it more of a bouncy feel than if it was longer & legato.  The other thing to watch out for is the angular feel of the the time, especially when he leaves out the 1 (bars 4, 6 and as this can make it harder to nail in the pocket.  There’s also a nice use of the  range of the bass between bars 6 and 7 here.

A Section

The bass settles down more when the vocals come in.  There’s less rhythmic stuff going on and the notes themselves are longer and smoother or more legato.  Again Chuck uses mainly R’s and 5’s here except a walking run on bar 7 of this section up to the Bb.  If you’re newer to the bass, it’s a great example of using 5ths in your line below the root note – (the obvious 5th being the one above when you first start out).  So here there are 5ths below in the A section in bars 1,2 and 5.

Hope you enjoyed this part and stay tuned for part 2 later in the week.

cheers,

Johnny

Intro

Here’s a look at the bass on the track Whatcha See is Watcha Get from the 2003 album “Up All Night” by the John Scofield Band.  This is one of Sco’s more groove-orientated records compared to the more straight ahead Jazz work on albums like “Works For Me” a few years earlier.  The rhythm section here is one of his regular line-ups for the more groove heavy music and features bass player Andy Hess and drummer Adam Deitch.

Andy’s great bass work has found itself on the records of The Black Crowes, Joan Osbourne and Gov’t Mule.  Meanwhile Adam Deitch is a superb groove drummer that in the words of John Scofield’s ” …’s got that jazz mentality and a ‘take no prisoners’ type of creativity – all combined with the groove of death.”  Thanks to my mate Osk for first getting me into Adam’s stuff in Leeds in 2003 and Ben Macdonald for getting me into this particular album a few years back.

“Up All Night” – The John Scofield Band

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A Section

The A section i’ve looked at here is the second time the groove kicks in over a Bm7 vamp.  The transcription is the first 8 bars of this section.  This starts at around 1:35 into the tune after the first break down.  The main riff is based around the notes of the Bm7 arpeggio with a few extra notes like the E from the minor pentatonic thrown in.  The main things here are the ghost notes which add a lot to the feel and the other thing that sticks out is each bar of riff is always rounded off by the F# (5th) going to a low A (7th) on beat 4.

B Section

The B section is based on the changes of a |III| VI| II| V | in A.  This section starts around 2:17 on the original recording.  Although, Sco starts adding in lots of jazzier language and harmony in this section the bass mainly stays on the R 5 and 7th of each particular chord as they bass.  The rhythms change constantly and are a great example of varying one single idea in a million different ways to keep things interesting but not too random at the same time.

Hope you liked this one, and if you do, be sure to check out Scofield’s earlier album with a similar rhythm section “Uberjam”.

cheers,

Johnny

If you’re not already into their own flavour of Funk, Mandrill (named after the crazy looking monkey of the same name) are a Funk band originally from Brooklyn, New York formed back in 1968.  They’ve released over 20 albums in their career, and I first got into their stuff after hearing Marcus Miller talk about them a few years back, as one of his early influences on bass.  They’re maybe not just as widely known as some of the funk ’supergroups’ of the time like Parliament, Kool and the Gang and Sly & The Family Stone but a lot of their stuff grooves hard and has some funky bass that’s worth a look.

This time, I decided to look at the bass grooves on the tune “Fencewalk” from their 1973 album “Composite Truth”.  The band has featured a couple of bassplayers in Fudgie Kae Solomon and Bundy Cenac since it’s beginnings.  I’m not sure exactly who’s on this track (it’s getting hard to tell nowadays when the mp3 you get from iTunes doesn’t come with liner notes but it’s some nice grooving all the same.

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Intro & A section

The intro kicks off with quite a crazy disonant chord combination of notes in the horns and guitar and bass underneath it.  The harmony instruments spell out a Ebdim7 sound over the first two bars, with the bass holding down a G.  A G here is a kind of ‘crazy’ note as it’s not in the chord or the scale that comes with it.  It makes for a pretty juicy sound and a in your face start to the tune though.  It’s the same effect as Hendrix using a 7#9 but on steroids!

After that, the main bass groove kicks in.  Some of the things that stand out are the fact there’s no “one” at the start of each 4 bars, but he hits the and as well.  It’s a cool example of making that work and adding to the funk soup.  There’s a lot of space too (bar 2) and some nice 9ths (bar3) over the minor sound.    The other main thing that stands out is just how consistent the groove is played.  It’s pretty much the same groove played with no variations for the whole of the first section of the tune.  And this was before the days of samplers in hip-hop or digital recording studios….  In common with some of my favourite funk tunes is how the horn parts and the bass don’t really play the same figure but bounce off each other in such a sweet but sparse way.

B section

What i’ve called the B section is the hits section that the bass and guitar and follow when the held organ comes in.  The notes here could be thought of as coming from the A minor pentatonic.  The organ goes between a bar of Am | Dm | Am | E  here.  As the band builds and the guitar solo and horn parts come in the bass eventually plays a few fills.  I’ve put a couple down here.

Fill 1 is just a trill between the b7 and high root of the Am pentatonic, and fill 2 is another nice pentatonic fill based on Am.  The tricky part is nailing the next A right on the one after the trill up the dusty end of the neck!  After this section, it’s back to the A section and your pretty much home and dry except for a final hit on a low A.

Hope you enjoyed this little landing on planet-funk and see you again soon.

peace,

J

Here’s a look at some live hip-hop bass on US rapper Common’s track “Real People”, from his 2004 album “Be”. This version is from a live performance on the US David Letterman show. It’s a great example of a real band making hip-hop work live and some skanky bass holds down the bottom end throughout.

I learned this originally for the the London hip-hop collective “spread-luv” for a gig back in Camden, London 2009. This track caught my ears because it’s almost got a hint of the bridge section to ‘what’s going on’ by Marvin Gaye, at its core but a great example of that era of 70’s bass brought right into the present day. If you haven’t heard much of common before he’s well worth a look, especially given him using a lot of live musicians and real grooves in his music, while there’s the more sampled and synth direction a lot of hip-hop is currently headed in.

So…

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Intro

The whole piece has the swung 16th note feel.  What’s cool here is that the bass player plays that quite loosely so that it swings in different amounts over the track for a more human sleazy vibe.  Over the sus chords (Cb/Db) the line’s mainly made up of R,5,R and a high 9th.  Proof too that it’s always worth checking out the 5ths below too (like in bar 2).

A Section

Here the chords shift to m7 or m9ths type vibes.  Having the two m9 chords apart on different roots is a real staple of the hip-hop RnB sound.  It’s worth noting that the bass riff kind of follows a |A|B|A|B| type pattern.  i.e. one bar of hook riff and then one bar with slightly varying fills.  Like i mentioned in another post that kind of structure can help the bass from meandering away on some tunes into a total improvised line.  Especially in hip hop, I think it’s good to keep a fair bit of the groove consistent with fewer fills, to try and go for more of a sampled vibe. It’s great to break your own rules though too, – i totally ignored this in my jam at the end of the video.

B Section

Here the band goes down to a Abm9.  I like the way he chucks in a nice 11th here in bar 2 of this part and then the bass goes simple to just roots on the Db in the final bar.

For reference, here’s a link to the original performance on letterman, where you can hear the whole track:

Thanks for stopping by at my little groove hub, and hope to see you again soon!

peace,

J

This week’s transcription is a look at the funky grooves of Paul Jackson on the track “Hang up your hang Ups” from Herbie Hancock’s 1975 album Man-Child.

Unless you’re new to the bass, you’ll probably know all about Paul who’s playing is one of the biggest influences on many players that came after him.  All his work with Herbie Hancock, from Headhunters onwards is staple-stuff for the hungry bass groover and a lot of his grooves and fills have found there way into the styles of other players from the 70’s onwards.

Some of the other tunes which feature his playing which are particular faves of mine are things like “Chameleon (outro)” from the Headhunters album, and the classic “Spank-a-lee” and “actual proof” from the album “Thrust”.

Although he uses a bunch of different basses these days, it’s probably a P-bass on this record as i think that was his main bass at the time.

Enough.  On with the funk!

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Intro

The intro lick of the intro has some big jumps and doesn’t jump out as obvious when you first here the track.  It’s probably the only fingering to get these wide jumps though and a great introduction to what makes him such a legend.  It ain’t all about soloing!  The E’s that start the 1st and 3rd bar of the intro fall on the 2nd 16th with a ghost note before.  Nailing these in the groove is quite a challenge.

Riff and Fill A

The main riff is interesting and noteable for where in the bar he lays down the fat low E (on the and of the 2nd bar).  The off beat b7th to root pattern in the first bar is sweet and the whole riff combines to a danceworthy piece of bottom end beef!  The fill on the last beat is pretty awkward, but here, timing and attitude are probably more important than ‘clean’ notes and nice articulation.  Sometimes he plays them more muted, other times you can hear the true notes ring out more.

B Section

This is pretty straight forward.  The only thing to watch out for is the pushed C# into the last time.  It happens a 16th earlier.  If you check out the video you should be able to hear it pretty obvious.  At the end of this section, I haven’t noted it down but he uses the normal fill on beat 4 to take it back into the riff.

C Section

This is probably the most straight forward part of the tune, – it’s really just focusing on the overall band and placement of the other instruments in the groove and then trying to lock it all down (or up!! – whichever way you like to think).

Solo Section

I haven’t looked at this, – you’re on your own here.  But basically there a lot of one note – a high G (12th fret of E str) played in a consistently funky-ass pattern that’s well worth checking out.

Good luck, have fun and see you next time.

J

At the start of July I did a Bass Masterclass mini-tour of the ‘Academy of Music & Sound’ in Birmingham, Southampton and Swindon.

The Academy of Music and Sound is one of the UK’s leading music colleges offering players all over the UK the chance of a good start towards eventually working as a pro in the Industry.

The Academies specialise in Guitar, Bass, Drums and Vocals and combine top-notch facilities like practice rooms, recording rooms and live areas with some great instrumental tuition and the chance to learn from players established in the music world.

I took workshops with bass students on the 2-year diploma course and here’s a look at some things we covered:

Intro – A lifetime career in music

The main theme of the workshop was giving yourself a good chance to have a lifetime career in music.  Beginning with a quote from Steve Smith:

“The first and foremost thing is to become the best musician you can be because that is your product – your own personal musicianship.  That means being a good independent musician, rather than just being a member of a successful band.  I always had my goal on being the best musician that I could be and then working on having a long-term career in music.  Those goals never go out of style.  If somebody has the goal of becoming a great musician and develops their musical skills, then they have a really good shot at having a lifetime career in music.  There is always work for a truly good bassist, drummer or guitar player.”

Steve Smith – Drummer (Vital Information, Mariah Carey, Journey, Steps Ahead)

A lot of the younger students on the course tended to see being in a signed band as the only path to doing music & enjoying it for a living. The aim of the talk was to look at the alternative of being an in-demand working musician; something you can maintain throughout your life, developing as a player on the way.

I got Steve Smith’s quote from my drummer-friend Chris Peacock’s (LAMA) book “The Pyschology of Drumming” (ft. interviews with Steve Gadd, Peter Erskine Jimmy Cobb and many more of the world’s top drummers).  He’s my mate and I’m bound to plug his book , but I highly recommend it for some inspiring & fun stories from some of the top names in drumming, overcoming tough points in their careers when they even questioned staying in music.

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Important areas for the working player

After a quick bit of bass playing from myself, we went on to talk briefly about possible areas of work:

GIGS – (Touring, West End, Theatre, Original stuff…. etc)
TEACHING – (In schools, private, masterclasses, coming back to your school as instructor top gun stylee)
RECORDING – (less session work than in the heydays, getting into recording at home etc….)

We went through four of the main areas that I feel are important if your aim is a lifetime career in music as a bassist & looked at ways of developing them:

1 – Studying the History, Styles and Players

We talked about getting into transcribing by ear.  A lot of the students use TAB and while it can be useful and get you playing parts quickly, I also think it’s only when you transcribe by ear that the music sinks in to your playing and you develop your inner musician.

For me, learning a piece of music by TAB is like learning a poem’s words without understanding what it means. I suggested making playlists on your iTunes “groovesmith playlists”.  Fully trancribing 5 tunes in a lot of different styles is a great way to start expanding your session chops.

As well as making playlists of different styles, you could for different time feels (16th, 8th, 5/4, etc…) or players.

e.g. Shuffles Playlist

• How Sweet It Is – Marving Gaye
• Jimmy Mack – Martha & The Vandellas
• Isn’t She Lovely – Stevie Wonder
• Fannie Mae – Jaco Pastorius
• Keep Marchin’ – Raphael Saadiq

2. Time & Groove

We talked about how important good time is for a working bass player.  The rhythm pyramid returned here!  For more info about this, see my earlier post “My Top 5 Timing Exercises“.

For the students at the class, we mainly focused on changing between steady 16th notes and 8th note triplets (bottom of pyramid) as I’ve found working on this single change in your rhythmical mind has the biggest effect on your time.

If you can switch solidly between these at 35bpm your subdividing skills should be getting pretty good.

3. Reading
Reading is really important if you’re looking at working in Theatre, West End or even some function & show band type gigs.

Here are 3 books I’ve found really helpful for building your reading skills:

Bach Cello Suites - (great for learning to find notes)

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Modern Reading Text - (great for syncopations)

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Standing in The Shadows of Motown (notes, rhythms & funk!)

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4. Ear Training

A great exercise for ear training is to just create a loop of a simple chord.  e.g. – C major with a drum groove.  Then try and sing a bass line of a few notes in your head, and then see if you can play it back exactly on the bass.

A lot of people do this, but in a more soloistic style – singing melodic lines and then try and play them back on the bass.  That’s good too, but can you sing more bass line “standard vocab” type parts like wide octaves and fifths and 9ths and really imagine their sound before they come out of the instrument.  To me, this is almost harder than singing and playing a melodic idea.

As well as this intuitive approach, I also recommend Gary Willis book on ear-training to get you started with the fundamentals.

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Hope you enjoyed this, thanks to all at the Academy and see you again soon! J

In 1991, after the success of his two world music albums Graceland and Rhythm of The Saints, Paul Simon staged his second famous concert in Central Park NYC, 10 years on from the famous Simon and Garfunkel concert of the same name.  This 1991 gig featured a host of musicians from South America and Africa, many of whom had contributed to the brilliant cultural mix of sounds on the aforementioned LPs.

On August 15th 1991, over 750,000 crammed into central park to witness an epic show – amongst the throng was my own sister Mo (now also a bass player!).  I have it on good authority from Mo that it was an amazing show, and i’ve watched the video of the gig plenty of times.  The band that day reads like a who’s who on their respective instruments at that time and featured greats like; Steve Gadd on drums, Michael Brecker on sax, Richard Tee on keys, Cyro Baptista on percussion, Ray Phiri on guitar amongst many others of equally high standing.

The bass player on that day was Cameroon born bass legend Armand Sabal-Lecco.  It’s well worth checking out the CD of the gig where you can here Armand grooving his ass off, playing the sweetest fills and also interesting to see how he plays Bakithi’s bass parts with his own spin and where he stays the same and where he puts his own stamp on the gig.  If you can find the video, even better.  The dance Ray Phiri pulls off near the end is legendary!

My favourite track from the show was ‘Proof’ a driving 12/8 tune with some classic west-african played rhythms running right through it.

Guitar Intro

Although there’s no bass on the intro I included it because it was a good challenge for me trying to figure out how the pulse worked and where all the guitar stabs fitted in with that pulse.  Heard on its own, the syncopations and off beat notes threw me off the scent for a while until I sat down, tried learning all the notes, fitting them over 12/8 and then went……..”aaa”.  It’s prob easier to hear, looking at the music and playing along with the slow versions on my video.  When you do get it, be wary, you may start shaking your ass like a violently funky mofo!

Also, watch the bass pick up at the end of the intro.  It’s on the 2nd beat of an 8th note triplet.  The hit on the drums half way through the guitar intro also has a low G (3rd fret E string).  Once you’ve nailed this part over the pulse, maybe have a go at landing on the hit and Steven Gadd’s lone kick drum.

It’s hard to come in on the right place of this intro as there’s no count on the record. I did it on the video by pretty much guessing – which you might be able to tell.

B Section

The chords for the A section are G for 4 beats, then C for 2 beats and D for 2 beats.  The bass only plays the Root on beat 1 and then bounces between the higher and lower 5th on the other beats.  This happens quite a bit in African pop – I saw Makomborero Fungisai with the Zimbabwe Gospel Choir recently and the bassist was doing this a lot with her too.  On the C the bass outlines the chord with a R, 3rd then low root pattern and then moves this up for the D.  The fills at the end of each phrase follow the sweet syncopation of the main guitar line.  Getting them to groove, especially any that fall on the 2nd or 3rd triplet is the challenge.

Hop you enjoyed this and check back again soon for some more ‘Low End Theory’!

peace,

J

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Here’s a look at some of Marcus Miller’s earlier work, as a session bassplayer for Chaka Khan on the track ‘Naughty’ from her 1980 album ‘Clouds’.

Marcus is well known for his trademark sound and style, which came to the fore first with Miles Davis and then developed even more on all his subsequent solo records.  But, if you’re a fan of one of the world’s best ever groove players it’s well worth checking out his earlier session stuff from the beginning of his career.  He was one of the busiest session players of the time and played great session bass on hundreds of cuts.  There are some real gems out there, where you really hear his own style developing and this is a great example.

This track also features the top notch groove drumming of Steve Ferrone, the late Michael Brecker playing awesome sax on the outro and scottish guitarist Hamish Stuart, former Average White Band member, all of whom recorded with Chaka widely in the early 80s and late 70s.

A Section

The Transcription here starts at the end of the intro slap section of the track.  One of the main reasons I picked this track is because the part Marcus plays here is just a little bit left-field and crazy, but really adds to the vibe of this section.  It’s way more bouncy and improvised sounding than you might usually find on a pop tune, but the feel of Marcus and Steve Ferrone is so solid the bottom end and groove is always there.

Over the D maj7 it begins with a nice root on the one before a sweet fill using the 5th and 9th to approach the top R octave and then a R, 5 R going down the way, then a C # octave pattern as a passing note to take down to the next chord.  The fill over the Bm9 is pretty quirky and worth remembering and trying to fit on your next session!  Then theres an E before Marcus follows the figure the keys plays as well to take it up to the G/A.

The second four bars are very close to the first but there’s some syncopation action on the Bm9 which is pretty grooving and a slightly busier section on the Bm7/E.

B Section

The B section is mainly slapped with a few fingerstyle fills.  The notes are mostly octaves for the slapped section.  The thing worth checking out is the rhythms that Marcus used here and the great feel with which he plays them.  Marcus has said he checked out a lot of snare drum and other drum parts when working out his slap style and the way it fits in to the song is tight.  It can help to think of your bass more like a drum when working on the time feel of slap parts, so imagine your thumb hitting a kick and snare skin hard and then belt those notes out!

If you’re new to slap, one of the things that’s always worth checking out is that your Thumb (T) and Plucked (P) parts are at a well matched volume, – or if they’re not, that they’re at different levels for a reason.  - It’s all too easy to have loud popped notes and nothing on your slap, or vice versa.  Marcus has one of the cleanest, beefiest slapped notes around!

hope you enjoyed this and see you again soon,

peace,

Johnny

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The idea was proven by scientists in the 60’s (using atomic clocks and planes), but is best known in the example of the astronaut on a super-fast Spaceship.  He sets out on his journey at a massive speed and after one year of time (on his clock on board) he returns home, to find that 10 years of time have passed on Earth (shown on an earth clock).  (see pic below)

This might seem far fetched, but every day above our heads hundreds of satellites need to have their clocks continually reprogrammed to reset to the ‘right’ Earth time because of the warping effects of Space-Time…. Good job too; imagine if they started transmitting Desperate Housewives when you were about to tune into the World Cup?  Seriously though, it’s a kinda mad concept when you think about it.

Thankfully when we play music, we’re normally on the surface of the same planet and travelling at the same speed….  We don’t have the excuse of the time-distorting effects of Relativity to rely upon if the music doesn’t groove.  Until the day when we’re able to jam with E.T.s on Starships or Satellites we don’t need to worry that time isn’t a constant.  Down here it is – it’s how we relate to it that matters.  Great time seems to be synonymous with great musicians and for bassists it’s one of the most important parts of music.  Too often though, it can seem like we or the others we play with are on different ’satellites-spaceships’ of time when we play.

For me there are THREE main areas of Time:

• Overall Tempo (over a piece of music: staying at a steady tempo, speeding up or slowing down)
• Subdivisions (playing rhythms within a bar accurately or in a particular slanted way)
• Feel (playing Ahead, On or Behind the main pulse of the music)

All three can be worked on and so here are my Top 5 Timing Rituals:

1. Metronomic Meditation (Overall Tempo)

Play one note for 30 minutes at 35bm.  You must only play one note.  This is hard.  Most people find their minds wandering away… If you do start thinking about the cute girl you met at the shops then bring it back to focusing everything on the sound of your note.  After 15 minutes you should find yourself really homing in on the consistent time.  Then try without metronome also.

2. Invisible Click (overall tempo)

Make a metronome that clicks for 8 beats, then is silent for 8 but remains keeping time in the background.  Play a groove over the two bars of click, then play some funky-ass fills in the two bars of space and try and feel the pulse still beating hard inside your chest.  Then see if you can land on the one.

This can be made easier or harder depending on how much space you use.  Victor Wooten recommends woring up to 1 click every 16 bars.  Jazz pianist Dan Tepfer also recommends attempting this (1 click for every 16 bars), but soloing over a jazz tune.  Hard.  In the video I took my inspiration from Pino Palladion’s line on the track ‘Vigilante’ by PSP.

3. Ancient Pyramid of Time (subdivisions)

Playing different subdivisions of a consistent pulse, switching quickly between them but trying to remain constant over the beat is one of the best ways to firm up your subdivisions.  You train your time-brain to learn to divide the same chunk of time into different equal parts.  Which is what playing rhythm is really.  Here are some subdivisions worth trying.  There are many more, but the ones I get the best results with are switching between 8ths, 8th triplets and 16ths and back.  I recommend staying on one note to keep the focus on the time:

4. Drums (subdivisions)

What do Marcus Miller, Victor Bailey, Will Lee & Jaco Pastorius all have in common?  - They all played drums as well as bass.  They also all groove their ass off.  Drums are the ultimate rhythmic test – 4 of your limbs playing different subdivisions and rhythms in (hopefully) perfect time.  Buy a couple of drum sticks, get hold of this book ‘The New Breed’ by Gary Chester:

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and practice the rudiments @ 40 bpm, singing along with the rhythms.  All you need is a pillow to hit and to tap your feet on the floor. Real drums even better.

5. Elastic Time (feel)

Kinky…!  Learning to feel the beat and be able to play AHEAD, ON and SLIGHTLY BEHIND, is one of the hardest parts of Time to master.  It can’t be ignored though.  This doesn’t mean playing a 16th or 32nd note ahead or behind, but much smaller, feeling your notes still in the pocket but pushing to the front of it (ahead) or pulling to the very back (behind).  Modern R&B (D’Angelo, Erykah Badu) often goes for a behind the beat bass feel, whereas a lot of Pop sessions would require more on the beat (Runaway – Jamiroquai..), a lot of Jaco Pastorius tunes have him playing way up ahead of the beat (Palladium).

Play a C major scale in 8th notes with a click, and try and push ahead of the beat, relax back onto it and then relax even more and let the beat drag your notes along.

In the video, I start on for 4 bars, then ahead for 4, then on again for 4, then behind for 4 and finish back on the beat for 4.

Ok, that’s about all for now on the subject of time.  Except that if you haven’t read the book I mentioned it’s well worth tackling now:

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Good luck with all this, and until next time…:)

peace,

J