Playing Jazz

[Richard Prowse]

Originally Posted by Anselm Hauke

well, hm, sometimes, now and then

Anselm, my dear friend, sometimes getting information out of you is like trying to get blood out of a stone!
I did a short tour with Gordon Brisker once. Unfortunately, my dad died and I had to leave the tour early. He told me that he liked my swing feel. We played in Auckland (the night my dad died, but I didn't know until the next day). Gordon had really cold hands and my wife tried to warm them for him. I guess that playing with Gordon was the high point of my jazz career. Some of his charts were quite badly written and were very hard to read. We played a ballad at each performance that we (the band) always seemed to muck up - in reality it was because we couldn't read the chart. We got it right at the last concert and Gordon turned and gave us the thumbs up.

[Anselm Hauke]

great story.
i know you will find a good band again.

[Marcus Johnson]

I like that Diz quote. Good advice. I was doing a session once long ago, playing my stuff, and the producer came on the phones and said "You're playing some great ****....... now could you please cut about half that **** out!" That stuck in my mind. Self editing....

Richard.... I've spent a bunch of time playing mostly jazz...coming up on 40 years now. Yikes. In that time, I've looked at a LOT of real books, fake books, done a boatload of transcribing, wrote originals, and blew through a lot of my folk's $$$ as a "music major". Looking back, two things advanced my playing as a jazz bassist the most.

-The first one was playing jazz at a really young age with my dad, who immersed me in live work as soon as he discerned that I was into it. There's no replacement for the hard knocks school. It just takes time, a lifetime in my case, and it leads to the second thing, which is;

-incessant listening to the Masters. And what a pleasurable way to absorb great information. It's really all I had as a very young kid, before I even picked up a bass as an adolescent. Dad's vinyl, thank god for that! As nice as it it is to have all the real books and media available for clarification, I think that the only way to play jazz is to learn it as an aural tradition. I'm not sure jazz can be taught without the student having some sense of the language, gleaned from listening to a whole bunch of live and/or recorded music. It's hard to teach someone to swing!

For me, that would involve a lot of stuff that isn't bass music..... Dexter Gordon, Billie Holiday, Max Roach, Miles, and so many more.... all have been an immeasurable influence on the way that I play the bass. I'm really thankful that, even though I play jazz bass just about every night, I'm still a student and a fan of greatness.

I hope your studies are going well, bro. Great thread.

[Richard Prowse]

Thanks Marcus, that was great advice.
I remember Bobby Shew saying at a clinic, many years ago, that he wore out all his record covers because he used to play brushes on them as he listened to his records.
Bobby did a lot for jazz down under in the early 1980s. I was so inspired by him that I took up the trumpet. Well, in truth, I was inspired by Roy Eldridge (sp!) and Dizzy first but Bobby delivered the knockout punch. In those days we seldom got to talk to top players or see them play close up.
I've just been working on There Is No Greater Love after reading about Ken playing with John Clayton (on another thread). It's a tune I've never really checked out in detail.

[Marcus Johnson]

Actually, John is a strong advocate of learning material by listening to it. He's a great teacher.

One other thing that can really help in absorbing and internalizing a tune is to learn the head. Lots of bassists don't seem to do that. It may be the best way to get to know it well enough to solo over the changes. Taking it one step further, it's not a bad idea to learn the lyrics of the tune as well.... anything to help give you context for your improvisations.

[Richard Prowse]

Originally Posted by Marcus Johnson

Actually, John is a strong advocate of learning material by listening to it. He's a great teacher.

One other thing that can really help in absorbing and internalizing a tune is to learn the head. Lots of bassists don't seem to do that. It may be the best way to get to know it well enough to solo over the changes. Taking it one step further, it's not a bad idea to learn the lyrics of the tune as well.... anything to help give you context for your improvisations.

All true. Very true.

[Richard Prowse]

It's raining and bitterly cold. I have something resembling the flu. I can't take time off school because it's too busy.
The good news? I have a week and a half off, starting next Saturday.
My beloved has lined up a few jobs so that I don't get bored - even though I emphatically informed her that I love being bored!
I plan to put the first Monday of this break aside for what I am calling
"Richard's Big Bass Improvement Day' - I thought up the name myself.
I know that Rome wasn't built in a day and that practising flat out for one day is not the answer to anything. Nevertheless, that's what I intend to do. I intend to immerse myself in bass for one day. I'll be like a one man workshop...
"Hi all, and thanks for coming. Let's start off with some questions - yes the guy at the back." Richard kicks proceedings off.
"Hi, my name is Richard. I just want to ask what Richard's Big Bass Improvement Day will cover." asks Richard.
"Good question. I intend to cover everything." Richard replies.
"But... but, that doesn't seem really possible. Not in one day." Richard retorts.
"Well," Richard replies to the man at the back, "firstly I'll be looking at time, tuning, bowing articulation and pizz. Then we'll take pieces from your repertoire and look at how we can improve tone and improvisation skills. We'll also stop, from time to time, to review our progress."
"Okay, sounds good." Richard replies.
"Are there any more questions?" asks Richard.