Hi all,

I've just posted a new MP3 of Jez Carr and I onto my website - you can get to it via the 'updates' or 'MP3s' links on the home page. The track is another improv, recorded in the same way as the 'Conversations' album but without any looping. It's about 5.3Meg, and is a Christmas pressie from Jez and I to anyone who cares to download it... Hope you enjoy it, and have a great Christmas...

Steve
www.steve-lawson.co.uk

Steve, I downloaded Beauty and the Beast. Very nice.!:)

That's a nice fretless sound there! What strings were you using, out of interest?

Hi Moley,

glad you like the sound - the strings are Bass Centre Elites Flatwounds - if you're interested, phone the shop and ask for Nick - 020 7265 1567 :D

If you want a 6 string set, there's a bit of a wait, but 4s and 5s are doable... I'm looking into selling the 6 string sets direct... possibly... ;)

Steve
www.steve-lawson.co.uk

Hey Steve,

Sounds terrific as usual! Have a great Xmas!

All the best,

Chris Tarry
http://www.christarry.com

Originally posted by Steve Lawson
Hi Moley,

glad you like the sound - the strings are Bass Centre Elites Flatwounds - if you're interested, phone the shop and ask for Nick - 020 7265 1567 :D

If you want a 6 string set, there's a bit of a wait, but 4s and 5s are doable... I'm looking into selling the 6 string sets direct... possibly... ;)

Wow. For some reason they didn't sound like flats to me. They don't sound like my TI Jazz flats, anyway :) Listening back again, I suppose they do sound like flats. You got a really nice mwah, and really nice vibrato there.

Hi Chris - glad you like it! Hope to see you at NAMM in January! :)

Moley - thanks again! The other main factors in the tone I guess are the set up, and the bass itself - the semi-hollow-ness of it makes it resonate in a slightly different way... Recording wise, this was bass into a Behringer desk, into ProTools, no really EQing or anything else. Just reverb added...

Those Elites flats are lovely though... :D

Steve
www.steve-lawson.co.uk

Beautiful work as always, Steve! :)

Hope you, Michael, and everyone at TB have a joyous holiday. :)

Hi Steph,

really glad you like it - and hope you have a great Christmas too...

what's the latest on your teacher/solobass/world domination situation? :D

Steve
www.steve-lawson.co.uk

Originally posted by Steve Lawson
what's the latest on your teacher/solobass/world domination situation? :D


You know, I haven't had a bass lesson in a couple week! :eek: I've been sick and my teacher called off sick last week so hopefully I will have a lesson Tuesday b/c then the next week is Christmas Eve. And let me say this (and hoping my teacher doesn't read this board LOL): He is insane! :D You know one thing he gave me to do at my last lesson (that I'm still working on)? I have to transcribe the bass part to the first 7:50 of Mozart's "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik"! :eek: This has showed me I reallllly need to work on my ear training. At least I've had these couple weeks to work on it. Funny tho, it's a string orchestra with upright bass and I swear I hear two basses in it :confused:

My writing has been ok. Just finished a nice piece I'm happy with. Lots of harmonics in it and very spacious. I just started a new song. Still can't seem to get the songs past the 2-3 minute mark LOL but oh well.

You know, I haven't had a bass lesson in a couple week!

Ahem :rolleyes:

Thank you very much Steve! I have many nice broadband-friendly mp3s I can send you if you like ;)

Have a nice Christmas yourself, are you doing 'the family thang'?

Originally posted by Howard K
Thank you very much Steve! I have many nice broadband-friendly mp3s I can send you if you like ;)

Have a nice Christmas yourself, are you doing 'the family thang'?

yeah, just email them to me, just make sure they are at least 10Meg, so the clog up my email for at least an hour... :D

Nice quiet christmas - bits of teaching, some practice, nothing big. Just getting ready for the US tour! :)

see you in the New Year

Steve
www.steve-lawson.co.uk (MP3 here - a christmas present from Steve and Jez)
www.pillowmountainrecords.co.uk (CDs available here as Christmas presents from me to you in exchange for an £11 Christmas present from you to me... :D )

US tour, sounds exciting, tell us more!

I have so much going on moosically at the mo too... all very promising, but I guess it's always like that to some degree isn't it... the entire bleedin industry is all mouth & no trousers :D

I've been teaching my housemate a few scales recently. He a listener with really wide tastes - from nu metal to classical (literally) and he just wanted to understand a bit more about music - which I think is a really a good motivation for learning.
It was weird teaching him something I learnt less than a year ago, but I find the basics really easy to explain.

I want another lesson soon actually - I've been saying that for months!!, but I'm still working on the basics from the start of this year...

Originally posted by Howard K
US tour, sounds exciting, tell us more!

just that - lots of dates in the States! :D - some are completely solo (gigs, shop clinics, college masterclasses and anywhere else that will have me!), some are gigs with Michael Manring, some are gigs with Andre LaFosse and Rick Walker, and one is the Winter NAMM Bass Bash with me and Michael, Mike Dimin, Watt, Victor Bailey, Dave Pomeroy, Keith Horne, Trip Wamsley, Todd Johnson and a million other bass players, which promises to be the best after hours bash NAMM has seen in years! :)

I fly out there on the 12th, and am home again on Feb 9th, and it's pretty packed in between. So if you want a lesson before I go, better get it booked in now! :D

have a fab Christmas

Steve
www.steve-lawson.co.uk
www.pillowmountainrecords.co.uk
www.solobassnetwork.org.uk

Hi all,

I've just posted another exclusive MP3 to my site, this time it's a version of Highway 1, with a keyboard player called Patrick Wood (who's very good...) - it's on the MP3s page at my site as always - lemme know what you think!

happy new year!

Steve
www.steve-lawson.co.uk

I really enjoyed the new take on Highway 1 - hearing the music recreated in different performances, with different people involved, gives a good perspective on the song as well as just the bass playing.

Cheers,

Wulf

Thanks Wulf - one of the things I really wish I had a recording of is Gary Husband's impromptu solo piano arrangements of 'The Inner Game' and 'MMFSOG' - he just started playing them in the dressing room at one of the Level 42 gigs, and it really took me by surprise to hear the tunes in a new context! :) Maybe I'll ask him to put them into MP3s so we can all have a listen! LOL

cheers

Steve
www.steve-lawson.co.uk (MP3s here, loads of 'em!)

Sooo, I guess this Jez guy must be real good looking right? ;)

Just listening to the track 'properly' - I know better than to ask, but is that 100% fully improvised?!!

Bits of it remind me of all sorts of stuff, so what's in there somewhere and some generic pink floyd type chords...

It's a whole abundance of melodies used up in one track!!! - that's a whole century of pop idol in there ;)

...anyway, it's bluddy great, i love it :) job's a goodun as they say..

Originally posted by Howard K
Just listening to the track 'properly' - I know better than to ask, but is that 100% fully improvised?!!


It is fully improvised - there may be quotes in there, and will certainly be things that are stylistically fairly straight down the middle - stuff that sounds 'jazzy', 'modal', whatever... Neither of us were consciously quoting from other tunes that I'm aware of, though any track at that kind of tempo with a minor/dorian walking line and floaty piano chords voiced in fourths is going to sound a bit 'So What'ish... :)

Which kind of gets to the nub of what improv is all about - it's not about playing things that have never been played before, in the same way that conversation is not about making up words... :) - it's more to do with listening and reacting to a situation, playing things that are 'right' for the moment, are reflective/directive/sympathetic to the rest of the musicians.

For jez and I, it's normally just a matter of one of us hitting a chord, or a simple motif off the tops of our heads, the other one joining in and then seeing where it goes!

Really glad you're enjoying it...

cheers

Steve
www.steve-lawson.co.uk

Originally posted by Howard K
Sooo, I guess this Jez guy must be real good looking right? ;)

:confused:

fear not, Moley, I think it's the 'beauty and the beast' title that inspired Howard's comment... :D

In true Ali G fashion, it was nearly retitled 'The beauty of my beast', but for obvious reasons of taste and decency, that idea was ditched pretty quickly... :D

Steve
www.steve-lawson.co.uk

Ahhh I see, lol!

Originally posted by Steve Lawson
Thanks Wulf - one of the things I really wish I had a recording of is Gary Husband's impromptu solo piano arrangements of 'The Inner Game' and 'MMFSOG' - he just started playing them in the dressing room at one of the Level 42 gigs, and it really took me by surprise to hear the tunes in a new context! :) Maybe I'll ask him to put them into MP3s so we can all have a listen! LOL

cheers

Steve
www.steve-lawson.co.uk (MP3s here, loads of 'em!)

Unfortunately I have no facility to play MP3s, but I know Gary Husband is a great "improvisor"!! ;)

He was playing drums at a gig at Brighton Jazz Club and broke his bass drum pedal during a solo! So he picked it up and carried on with the solo - hitting the bass drum with stick(s) - it was a very interesting solo. He only mentiond the problem at the end, but I was close enough to see - I think some of the audience were totaly unaware of his problems!! ;)

Don't you use Windows? Windows Media Player will play MP3s.

For jez and I, it's normally just a matter of one of us hitting a chord, or a simple motif off the tops of our heads, the other one joining in and then seeing where it goes!

i knew it was improv really, but i had to ask cause it flows so nicely.

i jam in the same way with a guitarist from one of my bands.. we've known each other for 20 odd years so it's more down to knowing each other than being great players i think... plus he's stuck in pent minor, which gives makes it a bit easier ;)

i was listening to the ozell tapes - marcus miller live - cd earlier and they break out into the shaft theme in the middle of a track.. nice! - difficult to know if it's improv or not, but if it is you can hear the preceding notes etc that lead them into it, you can hear it coming - i like that :)

Steve, am so completely skint at the mo (still!) it's not funny... but I've been "studying" bits and bobs a bit recently and am in need of some answers! i'll give you a call when you're back from cloud nine... i mean tour! :D

moley.. i meant that if Jez was beauty then... err.. just kidding.

Beauty Of My Beast... LOL!! - a whole iron maiden album in concept!

totally off topic... has anyone heard that mp3 of engwie malmstein freaking out on an aeroplane? it's hilarious - he's making some idiotic homophobic comments and some other passenger chucks her drink over him - he freaks and shouts "do you know who i am? - you've really done it now.. you've unleashed the fury!!!"

ha! what a total arse!!!

Originally posted by moley
Don't you use Windows? Windows Media Player will play MP3s.

I only have a "work" laptop which has all the useful features disabled!! And I don't have administrator rights!!

Originally posted by Bruce Lindfield


I only have a "work" laptop which has all the useful features disabled!! And I don't have administrator rights!!

Ahh. That's gotta piss you off!

Originally posted by Bruce Lindfield


Unfortunately I have no facility to play MP3s, but I know Gary Husband is a great "improvisor"!! ;)

He was playing drums at a gig at Brighton Jazz Club and broke his bass drum pedal during a solo! So he picked it up and carried on with the solo - hitting the bass drum with stick(s) - it was a very interesting solo. He only mentiond the problem at the end, but I was close enough to see - I think some of the audience were totaly unaware of his problems!! ;)

Gary is a REMARKABLE musician. I mean, to be that good on one instrument is pretty outstanding, but to be world class on two (in his case, drums and piano) is just mind blowing.

For those of you that can listen to stuff on your computer, try this link (http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/jazz/jon3/jon3010803fhusband.shtml) for some real video footage of GAry and his trio live, recorded by the BBC - it's marvellous!

cheers

Steve
www.steve-lawson.co.uk
(CA gig dates here)

That's a brilliant link, Steve! I'd expected three or four minutes of playing but instead it's almost forty minutes of fine music.

Good old Beeb ;)

Wulf

Forty minutes!... I think i'd best wait till the boss is "OOO"!!

Nice one :)

Yes, I've got Gary Husband's CD "From the Heart" - which is over an hour of Jazz piano trio stuff, plus guests like Jack Bruce.