This version is taken from a live rendition if found on Youtube which you can check out here. The original doesn’t have the pumping intro and uses a more notesy bass riff and has a slower groove. What i’ve done here is combine the intro I liked with the famous groove on the original. The fill at the end is the fill you can here on the original version near the end after they’ve moved up a semitone into the key of Db.

Click on the thumbmails below for the transcription….

Intro

The intro begins with sparse hits from the b7 to the Root of the C7 chord.  Then it goes straight into a pretty cool unison section based around C minor.  Kind of reminds me of some of the cool hits section D’Angelo did with the Soultronics in recent times.

Main Riff

The main riff is pretty quick so the timing of the 16ths is quite a challenge.  Usually I find rocking your head, whole body and anything else you can find in rhythm and doing this before you even play is key to getting in that groove.

Outro Fill

This is based around a Db 7 chord using a pretty standard blues type patter but with the funky twist at the end. R 3 5 R b7 6 5 3 etc…

Get “Fire” album here….

Get at Amazon.co.uk
Get at Amazon.com

J

Tunes are “Jean Pierre” (video) and footprints (audio)…….

“Footprints” by Wayne Shorter (live)

One of the best things a mate of mine told me about when I moved to London was the mini-transcription books you can buy in Foyle’s bookshop off Charing Cross road.  They’re perfect for taking on the tube if you want to transcribe some shit but can’t handle knocking commuters elbows out of the way with the usual A4 pad.  Here’s a look at a recent transcription i finished on the tube –  Bill Evan’s first two choruses on the tune “Peri’s Scope” from his 1960 album, ‘Portrait in Jazz’.

The Transcription

I’m limited in time with the amount of detail I can go into the transcription but, if you’re able to play this, you probably already know a good deal of what you’re dealing with. ;-)

Bill’s style was heavily influenced by Bud Powell and Nat Cole, both heavy bebop players so most of his lines are based around the true harmony of the tune with a lot of chord tones, enclosures and heavy bebop harmony.

One of the good things you can take is Bill’s ability to simplify the changes to make them more playable – i.e. using a massive Dm 11 arpeggio on the D-7 to G7 in the 3rd and 4th last bars of the first chorus.  Also check how he uses common tones (here C) on the progression D-7 to G7, E half dim to A 7 on the 19th 20th bar where he just repeats C….

But that C means alternately m7, sus 4, b6 and then sharp 9.

The section over the B7 to Bb7 to A7alt in the first chorus is scary – that’s how to solo over dropping 7th chords. holy sheeet!!

Building the loop from scratch following Calvin’s original parts was fun but quite slow to watch, so here I cut forward to 2 minutes when I added in the legendary fat bass line.

J

The track eventually went on to become an icon on MTV (winning 5 awards) in the 1980′s and is famous for it’s breakdancing legs video.

For TAB and dots see transcription below….

Enjoy, J

I spent a couple of hours making some pretty random loop versions of jazz standards playing all the parts (not sure the bass excels at that – or maybe it’s just me – early days!).

Anyway, I ended up jamming a few funk things, and this one above is ＃2.

Here’s a clip of Jaco Pastorius showing how it should be done, tearing up a great solo with a looper back in 1979 with Joni Mitchell.  The original video version is on “Shadows and Light” the DVD.  This is the full solo, but the looped part starts about 3 minutes from the end.  Watch out…!

Nick Drake (1948 1974) is becoming more and more known as an icon from 1970′s english folk music. Although he suffered from insomnia and depression throughout his life and died too young (26) his 3 studio albums have influenced so many since his death he’ll always be remembered.

This arrangement features my Overwater fretless on melody, Taylor acoustic on the original guitar part i did my best to learn ;-) and a bit of egg shaker and xylophone to boot.  The photos in vid were taken throughout the course tracking the sun across the sky on Christmas day 2010 at my parent’s home village in Scotland, UK….

Hope you enjoy, J

PS Pink Moon is an amazing album which you should check out if you don’t already know….

Birmingham Bass Clinic

Yesterday’s Bass Clinic in Birmingham was great fun and as well as covering topics like Timing, Sound and Listening I also performed for the students a new tune I wrote “Play Don’t Play” (…really an old tune I recently finished) with the prize of an Easter Egg to the clever student who got the closest guess of the correct time signature.  For the bassists of the class (and anyone reading this now) that wants to know more about the riff, see it on paper or play it themselves I’ve done a quick transcription of the part below.

The idea for “Play Don’t Play” was inspired by a night in the Jazz Bar in Edinburgh 5 years ago (in the early stages of playing pro) when I got one of the hardest but best musical lessons I’ve ever had on stage from one of my favourite ever drummers (you know who you are!) ;-).  The story is long and I’d happily tell it in person to do it justice, but I was left on stage smouldering in burning embers with no Idea where or when to …..”Play!” or indeed….”Don’t Play!”  Trying to play this riff now gives me a similar vibe of not quite knowing when to play that next note.

Kinlochbervie

I wrote the initial riff in a cottage up in the far North West of Scotland in a tiny village called Kinlochbervie.  If you ever want true seclusion and peace & quiet to create something artistic this is the place to go….  Pure Rock, air, water and lots of peat smoke.

I think the Peat Smoke was a bit thick in my lungs when I came back to the cottage one day after a long walk to Sandwood Bay (one of the most stunning but remote beaches in Europe) as it took me til the early hours to link up a melody I liked with the Riff….

Johnny

His piano pieces ranges from the pure violent energy and fire of the Etudes/Piano Studies (Op 10 no 1 in C major – doesn’t get much better) through to the sorrow of pieces like the Nocture In G Minor Op. 15 No 3 ( – which George Dzundza plays in the Deer Hunter in the bar, right before they leave for Vietnam).

I’ve read a few books on Chopin, but recently got this one :

  “Chopin – Pianist and Teacher (as seen by his pupils)” by J. Eigeldinger

Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com

Inside are some really inspiring gems about his teaching style and methods, and memories from his pupils.  This book got me wondering – what would a bass lesson with the wee man have been like? So I’ve come up with 5 ideas inspired by the book which Frederyk would perhaps have applied to the bass ;-).

I Basic Technique (Touch)

Touch was the foundation on which everything else Chopin taught was based.  This is equally important on the bass to get a good sound.  I’ve used the LH piano figure of Chopin’s G major Prelude Op. 28 No 3 as a short study (looping 4 bars from 3 to 6) changing a little to make it fit in the bass range….

See Tab below along with original score:

II Technique (Dynamics & Accents)

I used the same 4 bar etude here but first of all tried to use a FULL range of dynamics on the bass and then picking one steady volume level (mf) then played the same again but with accents on the different 4 16ths of every beat.

You can here the original piece in full here

III Imagination – ‘an angel is passing over the sky’

According to one pupil, Chopin didn’t hesitate to use imagery and the imagination of the musician to try and come up with some kind of genuine performance.

“…..It seems to me that you don’t dare to express yourself as you feel.  Be bolder, let yourself go more.  Imagine you’re at the conservatoire, listening to the most beautiful performance in the world. Forget you’re being listened to and always listen to yourself.” 

He also once suggested to another student to achieve the right feel, that during a scection in Weber’s Sonata in A flat

“…..An angel is passing over the sky”

IV Blind Man’s Buff 

Try playing anything you know on the bass well, with your eyes shut or even with an eye mask on, or the lights off in your shed.

Chopin believed:

“….As soon as you know a piece from memory, practice it at night in the dark!  When the eyes can see neither the notes nor keys, when all disappears, only then does the hearing function with all its sensitivity; then you can really hear yourself, noticing every fault, while the hand acquires an assurance that it cannot find when the player is constantly looking…..”

Try improvising this way too – it will really help get away from “gibing” (wiggling your fingers and hoping for the best), and trying to follow the right notes visually through solos (yawn….)

V Soul

Chopin was a soulful cat in his own way I’m sure.  People get really upset about the word soul sometimes, especially more fusion & technical orientated musicians.  It’s a dumb argument really.  Some highly technical music (say Coltrane or Charlie Parker, Chopin) is overflowing with the person’s soul and some simple music (no names!) can have no soul too.  What it boils down at any instant in the music I feel is…

Are you trying to play something you really feel inside and trying to open up something inside to others or are the notes coming from a different place, e.g. – trying to impress the other bassist, trying to prove something, trying to make your lines mathematically correct or solve some puzzle in which the demands are extra-musical…..I think you can normally tell.

To quote the book ‘….dry and inexpressive playing was equally unbearable to him, and in such cases he would implore the student….’

“…..Put ALL your soul into it!”

Gnawa is a mix of sub-Saharan African, Berber, and Sufi Muslim songs, used in prayer and in celebration of life. If you’ve heard it,  you’ll already know the unique ‘in between the cracks’ feel of the rhythms in the music.

Hearing Gnawa musicians play live is a treat and I got a chance to speak to a couple of musicians who were busking in the Kasbah town and then have a short jam with them on the tradtional Gnaoua castanets. I later bought a pair at a music shop one of the back streets of the Medina market and have been trying to play them using the ‘in between feel’ since I got home.

The castanets (large and heavy made of iron) normally play one of two common rhythms and a three -string lute known commonly as a hajhuj (or gimbri) lays out the harmonic part.  This has a drone on the root and 5th and then melodies played in their own scales over the top.

Jamming with some Gnauoa Musicians

I’ve got a quick recording of the jam I had with the musicians I met in the Kasbah on my iPhone below….





You can hear me struggling to keep up with the castanet master in the blue robe.  The reason the rhythm feels so hard and tricky to latch on to, is that it’s in between two obvious metric beats that we would divide pretty easily in western music.

I went to a cafe for a Tagine to recover from the mind melting rhythms and came up with the transcription below which was my attempt at finding a way to play the foreign feel in a subdivided way – but ultimately, this is a poor man’s version.  They feel the vibe of the half swing/ half straight in their own unique way, and surely the only way to pick it up would be to spend time in Morocco and hours immersed in a Gnauoa groove with the real musicians learning from the source.

Fig 1 and 2 are not Gnaoua rhythms they are just the two simplest western rhythms which the castanet parts fall between. Fig 3 shows one way of dividing the pulse to approximate the way the locals feel the groove. But it’s at best a cheap copy!

Transferring to The Bass

The video above, includes a quick demo of using different techniques along with a metronome set to 3:2:2 to try and emulate the pulse of gnaoua at different tempos. Here I just used C major pentatonic scale as the basis for the examples. The piece at the start is a tune I recorded with the castanets I bought at Bob’s Music in Marrakech and my Bass when I got home – along with some more photos from the trip.