3 bassists, 3 bucks (Marcus, Veasley, Wobble)

[DigMe]

I was at the pawn shop yesterday and they were having a "buy one get two free" sale so I picked up three CD's with great bassists for 3 bucks.

The first was The Jamaica Boys CD with Marcus Miller. This was a bit dissappointing. The music isn't that great IMO and there are only a couple of interesting bass moments. Marcus' playing is more of his studio style playing than his own solo style. There are a couple of nice moments though and he grooves all the way through of course.

The second CD is the Zawinul Syndicate's "Lost Tribes" with Gerald Veasley on bass. This was a little more interesting than the J Boys CD despite the fact that the bass gets lost in the mix in most of the songs. There are a couple of songs of note though that make it more than worth the 1 dollar purchase price. Track 2 is kind of an African sounding tune so Veasley appropriately dialed in a dead-on Bakithi Kumalo fretless tone. Sounds sweet and the bass is about as prominent as it gets on this track. There's another track (number 8 I think) that features a long bass solo from Veasley. It's a flamenco kind of thing and it starts out with Zawinul playing this "flamenco guitar solo" on synth. It sounds really terrible and is obviously synth and not guitar. The tone sounds a little better though when he starts up the "strums" and the bass comes in. Veasley has a pretty sweet solo in that whole flamenco style. I'm sure you can imagine the feel pretty easily.

The last and best disc is Jah Wobble and Invaders of the Soul's "Take Me to God." This is really excellent and kicks off with an awesome, huge bass groove and takes you everywhere and in between with great bass playing all the way through. I like this much better than Wobble's "Rising Above Bedlam" although I know some may disagree. I would pay more than a buck for this album and recommend it to anyone who wants to expand their musical horizons.

Well...that's my take. Not bad for 3 bucks.

brad cook

[Andrew Jones]

Yo

Ill give 5 bucks for the marcus. I shedded that album hard when it first came out on vinal I would love to have it again. Its the one that brown with th masks on the front right?

AJ