Stevie Wonder 'Hotter Than July'

[C20Dog]

Gagging to find out what synth Stevie is using on 'Lately' and 'Do Like You'. The former sounds remarkably like a double bassist right down to inflections and the latter like a bad ass fretless player. All Stevie's left hand apparently but on what synth?!?

[markjazzbassist]

i love this record. rocket love, do like you, so many good songs, great grooves, VERY underrated album.

i think nathan watts played on a couple tunes, but yeah the majority sounds like synth bass or synth bass with doubling from nathan watts.

[C20Dog]

Yeah Nathan plays his bad self on a few tracks but the ones credited with stevie on bass synth reveal a sublime understanding of how a true bassist molds his tone with touch and note length. All on a synth!! Apparently?!? Darn mystery to me. Respect

[chuck3]

the person who created those synths for Stevie was Malcolm Cecil, himself an excellent upright bass player.

link: Malcolm Cecil - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



I had the pleasure of hearing Malcolm play up close at a small place in the Hudson Valley a few months ago.

So when you hear those sounds, even though they are synths, be aware that a bass player created them.

[C20Dog]

Ah ha! That makes so much sense. Thanks for the info. I will check Malcolm out for sure. Truly amazing synthesizer patches.

[chuck3]

Originally Posted by C20Dog

Ah ha! That makes so much sense. Thanks for the info. I will check Malcolm out for sure. Truly amazing synthesizer patches.

My pleasure. To expand on how I learned this, I went into a little joint near my house upstate because there was a jazz trio playing there. Within 60 seconds I was transfixed by the upright bass player's playing. (I double on both upright and bass guitar.) He's a GREAT jazz upright player with a very distinctive style that's hard to describe, but def. his own. The other guys in the trio were OK but Malcolm's playing blew me away. I got his name and immediately asked some questions of my music friends up there ... very quickly came back that he is also an electronics genius and a legend for creating Stevie's synths of that era. Apparently a very nice guy as well. That night (before I was aware of who he is), I went up to him and chatted about his bass and his playing.

So I always had the same questions you did, until that night a few months ago when I got the answer. Here is a link to a more detailed article about him:


http://www.jrobertlennon.com/articles/malcolmcecil/

[C20Dog]

WOW!!!! thanks chuck, I read through the article. Amazing life for one guy. I am also a double and electric bassist with a passion for electronic music, particularly analog sound. I would love to play something like TONTO. Very inspiring.