[Martin Sheridan]

Originally Posted by Eric Hochberg

I used to play occasionally with the Chicago Jazz Ensemble that was led by the late Bill Russo, former arranger for Kenton. He always complained about my bass being too loud. I was playing through a tiny combo amp with a 10" speaker and could barely hear myself with the band most of the time. One of the last times I played with the band, we were in a fairly large club, the whole band, including the drums, was miked through the house system except for me. I turned my amp to a reasonable level, or so I thought, and the next thing I know he's telling me to turn the amp off, I'm too loud. Well, give me a break, acoustically I wasn't even in the mix at that point. My bass just isn't that loud.



I can tell you an exception to this is an album Ellington did on Capital Records at Universal Studios in Chicago in 1954. Every sound on that side is huge, especially the bass. Don't know how they recorded it, but the sound of that album stays with me. After hearing it for the first time, I listened to a contemporary big band album recorded in NY with one of the top bands, and the sound didn't even come close to the Universal recording. It sounded puny in comparison.

This phenomenom may be the result of the bass range. Since we are playing low notes they have a hugh wave curve. I think the vibration is breaking out in front of us, so the bass is heard louder a few feet out than it is where we are standing right next to it? We see the same effect when people are playing their music really loud through their car sound system. We actually hear it louder outside the car than they do in it? Thus the director who is standing out in front of the band and the bassist actually hears the bass louder than the player because the note waves are breaking nearer to him? I'm not sure if I'm saying this correctly, but I think the idea is sound. Can anyone elucidate?