Please help identify a fusion band and the bass player

[sergebass]

Hello everyone,

It seems like this is my first post here, so far. (though I've been lurking here for quite a few years already)

Well, about 12 years ago I listened to a local FM station and managed to tape an album of some music that I like a lot right off the air, onto my cassette tape recorder (yeah, there were times when one station in our city did just that, broadcasting full albums without any commercials whatsoever ).

I've long wanted to get a high quality CD recording of that band but I cannot figure out what that band's name is, or who is the bass player on the recording. On at least half of the tunes he plays a fretless bass and no matter what he plays, whether solos or just grooves, he's doing it very melodically and emotionally.

This morning I've wiped the dust off from that old cassette and digitized it on my computer. The radio reception on that day was worse than usually and the station had a very weak signal so my appologies for less than HQ-sounding excerpts. I didn't have much time to do any significant noise reduction.

I've uploaded a 11.55 MB zip archive with excerpts of the 10 tracks onto megaupload.com at this link:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=ZW45CJCL

So, does anybody know anything about that band or the bass player on that album?

Very much appreciate your help,
Serge

[VroomVroom]

To my ears, and I've only listened to bits and pieces, it sounds like more than one artist/album is represented in those mp3's. However, I'm definitely hearing some UZEB in there, with the great Alain Caron on bass.

http://www.alaincaron.com/eng/uzeb.htm

Could be that I haven't had my coffee yet, but that's where I'd put my money.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoSydlvu2-Y

And this one is nuts - a fusion 'standard' - "Penny Arcade" - at a blistering pace, and featuring Michael Brecker. Wow. I love youtube!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-lUq...eature=related

[sergebass]

VroomVroom, thank you for the pointers. Yesterday and today I watched many YouTube videos with UZEB and also tried looking up those tracks on Amazon. There's also a sample player for 88 of UZEB's mp3s over there. I had listened to Alain Caron before, just not much. However, after around a hundred of his compositions, I'm not that sure that was him on the recordings. I still believe that those 10 tracks represent a whole album of one band - it's very homogeneous to my ears, despite the mix of ballads and straight-ahead jazz-rock-fusion.

To me, Alain's band tone is somewhat more 'aggressive', if you will. Not that's bad, just different. That album is also quite energetic but a bit smoother.

Now that's getting interesting. What are the other bands performing in a similar genre (jazz-rock-fusion, with a very melodious approach), where the bass player also predominantly plays a fretless bass? Besides, I can definitely hear a low B string in some of the tunes, though I'm not sure about the high C. It's my guess that the bass player plays some fretless 5-string there.

I've had a quick thought about Gary Willis (fretless 5-string came to my mind) but after checking, it doesn't look like that was him...

Does anyone have more suggestions?

[Peter H. Boer]

Originally Posted by sergebass

VroomVroom, thank you for the
To me, Alain's band tone is somewhat more 'aggressive', if you will. Not that's bad, just different. That album is also quite energetic but a bit smoother.

I've had a quick thought about Gary Willis (fretless 5-string came to my mind) but after checking, it doesn't look like that was him...

Does anyone have more suggestions?

Definitely not Uzeb, or one of Alain's solo albums.
It might be him on some tracks, but doubt that too.

Sound more like GRP label fusion, band lead by sax player.

So maybe Yellowjackets (Jimmy Haslip 6-string upside down fretless)
or Rippingtones or Eric Marienthal, or spyro Gyra and bands like that

[sergebass]

Thank you Peter for suggestions!

That's funny, it seems like that's some realy obscure band. I just still cannot find its trace. (I've listened to and learned about quite a few of other nice sounding jazz fusion bands on Youtube, MySpace and other places, though )

Originally Posted by Peter H. Boer

Sound more like GRP label fusion, band lead by sax player.

I could not find anything about that band. The GRP Records is a home for many bands. Is "Fusion" the name of the band? I seem to misunderstand something here...

Originally Posted by Peter H. Boer

So maybe Yellowjackets (Jimmy Haslip 6-string upside down fretless)
or Rippingtones or Eric Marienthal, or spyro Gyra and bands like that

The Rippingtons, Spyro Gyra and Yellowjackets also seem to be out, they sound noticeably different to me. Hmmm...

Judging by the whole album tone, I would guess that was recorded somewhere in 1980s. That "soaring up high" guitar, dreamy synths and fretless melodies... I may be wrong though.

By the way, I cannot avoid that feeling that in that band the bass player is not just a "walk-in" type bassist. He not only holds down the bottom, but takes solos frequently and the bass tone is really up-front in the mix which is not that frequent with "regular" bass players. It seems to me he's got a very solid seat in there (I keep thinking of players like Nathan East - you feel him there all the time while listening - whatever they play (I mean Fourplay))

Besides, speaking of Nathan East, he's one of those players who like to sing along while playing. In tune #2 (of the archive at http://www.megaupload.com/?d=ZW45CJCL) the bass player does the same.

Now, for me the quest is to find a "visible" fretless bass player, singing along :-)

I guess we could make up a list of possible candidates and narrow it down, one by one. Maybe then we'll finally pinpoint that elusive one.

So, does anybody think of someone fitting here?

Serge

[Peter H. Boer]

Originally Posted by sergebass

Thank you Peter for suggestions!




I could not find anything about that band. The GRP Records is a home for many bands. Is "Fusion" the name of the band? I seem to misunderstand something here...
Serge

I meant any band on the GRP label, as they all seem to play likewise type of "jazz/rock fusion"

Peter

[sergebass]

Thank you Peter, I guess I will just have to page through all of the GRP-released stuff to see if it's there...

But my point about singing fretless bass player still stays: What about some other bassists in this genre worth listening to?

[DWBass]

Wow! That's a tough one. I have a huge contemporary jazz collection and this one has stumped me. It is definitely a guitarist led band. At first I was thinking Kilauea or Porcupine but those aren't guitar led bands. Maybe Lee Ritenour, Scofield or Daryl Stuemer or somebody in that vein...

Maybe Turning Point?

[sergebass]

Originally Posted by DWBass

Wow! That's a tough one. I have a huge contemporary jazz collection and this one has stumped me. It is definitely a guitarist led band.

Actually, I prefer guitar jazz to a sax one any time
Too much screaming saxophone makes my ears tired way too fast. (And they do like to scream loud! )
In this case, the guitar playing is very tasty, in my opinion. And the bass player has definitely his say, so it's not like guitar player's dominance going on.

In fact, I like Lee Ritenour's playing too. Too bad he's left Fourplay (while I like to listen to Larry Carlton as well, something just does not click in me the way it did with Lee)

The other guitar player that got me interested during all of this search is Frank Gambale. His playing is also very melodical even in the highly technical moments.

That's the problem with my search: I'm always on the lookout of the players/bands who are musicians first and virtuozzos only second. Too many bands are either cheezy pop-jazz with brainlessly programmed automated percussion or avant-garde hard-core atonal guys trying to race against their metronome, extracting as many notes as possible per minute of playing while covering all possible scales in 7/8, 5/4 and 23/4 at the same time.

Sorry guys, didn't want to offend anyone here. Just had to pour that out of my inner self

In my opinion, that unidentified recording in question keeps the golden middle ground between the extremes: it's very musical yet not boring. Well, at least to me. YMMV, as usual.

Going back to bass to keep it in-context, what are your favorite fretless players that can groove, solo and sing like that?

[DWBass]

Originally Posted by sergebass

That's the problem with my search: I'm always on the lookout of the players/bands who are musicians first and virtuozzos only second. Too many bands are either cheezy pop-jazz with brainlessly programmed automated percussion or avant-garde hard-core atonal guys trying to race against their metronome, extracting as many notes as possible per minute of playing while covering all possible scales in 7/8, 5/4 and 23/4 at the same time.

Just have to know where to look! It's out there. Tons of it! I'm willing to say it just may be Turning Point or a similar band or a guitarist led ensemble.

Edit: Just listened to some Turning Point material and there is no sax so I don't think it's them.

[Peter H. Boer]

Some more oiptions:
Bill Evans sax player, he recorded with Mark Egan (known for his fretless work)

Or some band with Brian Bromberg on bass

[DWBass]

Originally Posted by Peter H. Boer

Some more oiptions:
Bill Evans sax player, he recorded with Mark Egan (known for his fretless work)

Or some band with Brian Bromberg on bass

I don't think it's Bromberg. Not enough notes being played in the solo which he's known for.

Maybe.....early Steps Ahead?

[gre107]

I listened to it but you've got me on this one.
It's not UZEB or Bromberg that's for sure.
The sax is very familiar. Rippingtons or Yellow jackets sax player?
Hmmm.... you've really got me stumped on this...

[DWBass]

Originally Posted by gre107

I listened to it but you've got me on this one.
It's not UZEB or Bromberg that's for sure.
The sax is very familiar. Rippingtons or Yellow jackets sax player?
Hmmm.... you've really got me stumped on this...

Definitely not Rippingtons. I have every one of their cd's. It's not Jimmy Haslip. Not his 'sound' or style.

[DWBass]

Originally Posted by Peter H. Boer

Some more oiptions:
Bill Evans sax player, he recorded with Mark Egan (known for his fretless work)

What was the name of the band that Bill Evans was in? They recorded only 1 cd.........."Petite Blond" maybe?

Or Bill Evans & Push live in Europe?

[dmusic148]

Dunno. Bassist sounds an awful lot like Jaco, but obviously it's not him. I was gonna say the guitarist reminds me a little of Alan Holdsworth, but listening again, I don't think so.

[MikeBass]

Originally Posted by DWBass

What was the name of the band that Bill Evans was in? They recorded only 1 cd.........."Petite Blond" maybe?

Or Bill Evans & Push live in Europe?

Victor Bailey played on that disc....Great disc!
I'll give it a listen later.

[sergebass]

Wow! This thread has become alive!

I really appreciate all of your suggestions.

I'm currently at my work desk but they have cut our internet audio streaming with a nasty proxy so I have resorted to my trusty EDGE connection via my phone But with a speed of around 100-120 kbps you won't hear much audio...

So far, Mark Egan does sound to me very similar (and I only did a brief preview of his clips, my YouTube video gets choked every couple of seconds, because of the low speed connection). I'll be able to tell definitely when I´m back home. Well, even if that's not him, I will definitely add him as a favorite to my amazon wish list. Worth buying a couple of CDs for sure.

As for Turning Point, their sound is also appealing to my tastes.
However, I'm a bit confused as there seems to be a mention of it in Wikipedia as a 1970s band from UK and there's a page on myspace (therealturningpoint) saying "Arizona, US". There's also "an American straight-edge hardcore band" but I won't consider it here.

So, which Turning Point is the right one?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turning_Point_(UK_band)
http://www.myspace.com/therealturningpoint

Serge

[sergebass]

I'd also like to add an easy way to check someone's sound: via amazon preview player: (this is a preview for Mark Egan's 58 songs in mp3)

http://www.amazon.com/s/qid=12506038...ds=Mark%20Egan

Serge

(P.S. I'm still hunting that album performers but I guess Mark fits my description of a melodical fretless player very well. I'll have to check his earlier works, especially those where he was the band leader)

[DWBass]

Originally Posted by sergebass

Wow! This thread has become alive!

I really appreciate all of your suggestions.

I'm currently at my work desk but they have cut our internet audio streaming with a nasty proxy so I have resorted to my trusty EDGE connection via my phone But with a speed of around 100-120 kbps you won't hear much audio...

So far, Mark Egan does sound to me very similar (and I only did a brief preview of his clips, my YouTube video gets choked every couple of seconds, because of the low speed connection). I'll be able to tell definitely when I´m back home. Well, even if that's not him, I will definitely add him as a favorite to my amazon wish list. Worth buying a couple of CDs for sure.

As for Turning Point, their sound is also appealing to my tastes.
However, I'm a bit confused as there seems to be a mention of it in Wikipedia as a 1970s band from UK and there's a page on myspace (therealturningpoint) saying "Arizona, US". There's also "an American straight-edge hardcore band" but I won't consider it here.

So, which Turning Point is the right one?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turning_Point_(UK_band)
http://www.myspace.com/therealturningpoint

Serge

The Myspace page is the real band. They were led by 2 brothers (guitarist and bassist, IIRC). I think they are Greek. I bought one of their cd's on a whim years ago while I was on vacation in a tourist shop. What a surprise!