The Elysian Fields

I wound up getting some time on bass, guitar, and vocals last night.

Worked on a few things on the fretless. Right hand technique is too mongrelized to get smooth speed ~ independently, I can get decent speed from any one of the three, but they really need to play nice together (literally). I should probably do some scales and exercises. Never really did those on the bass. Listening to Steve Bailey the other day (not to mention nearly every other bass player of note) really inspired me.

Played a few different things, some Lefty Valdez stuff, mostly just noodling though, finding a groove here and there. I goofed around with Whitesnake's Still of the Night ~ root on the guitar part, anyway. Never even looked into what Rudy played on that (if it was even Rudy on the album... he might have come in later, like Viv and Adrian did for Sykes).

Switched to guitar after a while, and messed around with some heavier rhythms. Mostly improv, or my old tunes, with a bit of this and that here and there. Noodled about with everything from heavy blues to smooth jazz. Ryan asked if I could play Crazy Train, and I couldn't remember the riff at all ~ been a while since I played it! Brought up some tab for it and played a bit of it, and it sounded off. Found some other tab that was arranged the way I used to play it, and lo, it was much easier and betterer.

Went to karaoke for the first time in a long time. Put in Crazy Train for my first song ~ never sang that one before, and it went over well. Tracey had me sing C is for Cookie as well. Also sang Dude (Looks Like a Lady) and Love Lies Bleeding. Being able to invoke a genuine Wicked Pissa accent helps with the former, and there was a bit of an Elton John theme going on, so I had to go with the latter. Didn't quite nail the James LaBrie/Dream Theater covering Elton John thing that I was aiming for, as my lazy, out-of-practice vocalizer was having some disagreements with me, but that's the fun of it, right?

Here's a live performance of Blue Matter from the 1986 album Blue Matter...

Another great bass line on this one (which I didn't even mention on the other...) and more great phrasing from John:

This video was recorded between 1959 and 1965, when Peterson worked with bassist Ray Brown and drummer Ed Thigpen. Here's a few tunes filmed live at the Newport Jazz Festival:



This trio recorded the album Night Train and the no-longer-available Canadiana Suite, although you can pick up the piano transcription.

Spent most of today watching the Mummers Parade. Starting last year, Deb, aequitaslevitas, and I kept score on the string bands... we didn't quite vote along with the judges or the viewers choice, so we'll see how we do this year! =)

Here's some videos of the string bands from last year's parade...

Up first my first choice for this year as well as one of my favorites from last year, Polish American, with Ghouls Gone Wild:


( Four more string bands, King Kong, leprechauns, and more under the cut... )

I'm in no wise trying to present a history of the mummers, or even an in-depth overview of the parade, but all these guys in these bands are average, every day people - they're not professional musicians, dancers, costume designers, and choreographers. They're plumbers, auto mechanics, electricians, and whatever other trade or profession people in a city might have. There's a few councilmen, judges, and so forth in the bands and clubs, but they're generally rank-and-file members. Many of the clubs are family based and then extend outward to the neighborhood.

~ ~ ~

During one of the Murray Comic Club's presentations, a mummer went into cardiac arrest... as he was playing the devil, and the theme had something to do with Hell freezing over, it wasn't immediately apparent that his fall to the ground wasn't part of the act... no word on who he is or his status but I hope, first off, that he's okay, and, if that fails, at least he went out doing what he loves.

Here, once again, we have Lalah Hathaway and Marcus Miller ~ possibly from the DVD Marcus Miller: Master of All Trades ~ performing Killing Me Softly:

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Omar Awqatty.

They pulled off their clothes, jumped into the Charles River, swam out to the car, smashed its windows, banged on the roof and heard tapping in response, pulled on an arm of a man trapped and struggling 10 feet under water.

For a dozen or so minutes -- just how long, they are not sure -- three would-be rescuers fought the Charles River and the clock in Cambridge Wednesday night in a heroic attempt to rescue two persons whose car had crashed through a guardrail and sunk.

They overcame the cold and the current of the river. But they lost to the clock.

When a tow truck pulled the car out of the water a few minutes later, firefighters found Omar Awqatty, 18, a talented artist and ...

The site that has the newspaper article from June 2, 1989 archived requires registration before they show you the rest, but I know it well ~ I still have the article cut out from the paper.

Amongst other things, what it immediately went on to tell you was that he was also a musician ~ a bass player, to be specific.

What the article doesn't mention is that his girlfriend, who had been driving the car, received a very short sentence, due to her mental state, for his murder, because they didn't know it was anything other than an accident at that time.

When Cliff Burton was killed in a bus accident, two bass players made the short list ~ the one who got the gig and Omar. Some part of me actively disliked Metallica for that, after all, if he got the gig, he'd be on the road, and his girlfriend ~ who misread all his new healthfood kick and upbeat attitude as involving another woman ~ wouldn't have been able to drive him into the Charles and drown him.

There are very few events in my life that had a greater impact on me than when I heard that news within hours of the event.

I turned twenty the day after that article came out, and later that night I found myself in the role of taxi to one of my brothers friends. The drive required me to go along the Charles, and at that time my understanding was the accident had occurred on the Boston side of the river. We sat at a light and both received a chill ~ the effects were visible. The light changed, and we found ourselves driving past the missing section of fence.

A couple days after my birthday, I managed to write Talent Lost.

Almost twenty years later, the guitar he was going to paint for me remains in an unfinished state. The Boston Globe ran his obituary on the front page of the Metro/Region section, with a photograph of a portrait of Einstein he had painted. Had he lived, you might be familiar with his art.

Omar, even if Metallica had refused him, was still destined for musical fame and fortune. We had been discussing the possibility of a band, and I know there was at least one other project he was working on as well. Had he lived, there would have been more, and everyone outside of the Boston music scene would also be aware of his talent.

So, yeah, that is the celebrity death that has given me the biggest emotional hit.

Over the past few days, we've seen McFerrin performing classical music or with a classical ensemble... this is some improvisation in a much jazzier format - just McFerrin and bass player Richard Bona, making it up as they go along:



There's a very good chance that this performance is from the DVD Bobby McFerrin - Live in Montreal, although the only evidence I have of that is a review that indicates McFerrin is joined by Bona and others... =)

Two new songbits tonight.

The first, a walking bass line... nice, mellow... should be played on an upright, but the Warwick does okay with the tone set down smooth and low... fretted basses, however, need not apply. There are three little lines that fit in nicely together. Maybe do a piano trio feel with a piano part; could also work for a horn section.

The second, night and day from the first... crunchy, almost grungy guitar - muted, sliding chord fragments with some unexpected harmonizations... simpler to the ear than to describe. A three riff A section, and a two chord B section. The B sounded good going into some solo fragments, but I need to develop it more and see where it goes. Could be a verse for lyrics, could just be an instrumental. I'm hearing some fragmented horns coming in on it, and some bass lines, but I have to play with it more to try it out.

I'll record both fragments tomorrow if I get half a chance.

Take 3 of 5 on Reserve (it only took 473 takes to get from 2 to 3!) is posted on MySpace.

It's a train wreck, but it's *our* train wreck.

I did the bass track to the drums. We did a bunch of attempts to play sax-guitar-piano live, failed, and proceeded to do a bunch of attempts to do the tracks one by one. After that, we played live again, and it mostly worked. noone234 switched to a better mouthpiece, and did another take, and the rest is history.

Better versions coming soon.

Hopefully.

Yes, I post next to nothing for a whole week, and then, after a couple of posts I revert to videos.

The theme of the day is Bass Players Who Inspire Me. Or Bass Players Who Rule The World. Or something like that.

Up first we have Stu Hamm - a big inspiration for me when I first heard him with Satriani and Vai.



I had the pleasure of seeing him in LA - not just on the stage, where he played alongside the aforementioned guitarists, but up close and personal at the Fender booth. Had a chance to talk to him while he goofed off and played something familiar, especially to those who might have kept an eye out for the Great Pumpkin or sang around a scrawny tree.

( More bottom-line goodness under the cut... )