Jaco, Bill Dickens, Marcus, or Wooten

Fire-Starter · #1 01-25-2003, 08:04 PM

I know all of the above bass players have there own special talents, (and many more players who are not mentioned) if you had to choose one to teach you what-ever it was you wanted to learn, or had questions about, which ONE would it be and why???

1 Jaco (if he were still alive)

2 Bill (the budah) Dickens

3 Marcus Miller

4 Victor Wooten

5 who-ever you think is best for you!

"(if the words IF AND BUT were candy and nuts,
we could all have a merry christmas!"

BassWizard55 · #2 01-25-2003, 08:09 PM

Probably vic, because he seems to be an all-around great musician. Mabye Marcus though.

Wrong Robot · #3 01-25-2003, 08:12 PM

Jaco....mainly because I believe that though he was erratic and bizzare he still had the most indefatigable passion for music and bass, that I feel I could probably learn more from him than anyone else.
Although Victor would be my second choice because he definatly has some great ideas and he is a brilliant player.

Your list is a little bias as vic,marcus and buddha are all known for their slap tech. wheras jaco is known for never having endorsed slap.

Fire-Starter · #4 01-25-2003, 08:59 PM

quote

Your list is a little bias as vic,marcus and buddha are all known for their slap tech. wheras jaco is known for never having endorsed slap.

You bring up a very interesting point, I have had the chance to see Bill Dickens at the local G/C, and I can tell you that he plays fingers style as awsome as he slaps, I never have seen Marcus, or Vic, but from hearing there music and seeing them on a video etc, these guys are not lacking in the finger style department one bit. It is interesting that even though these guys are well rounded bass players, they are usually mentioned in the same sentence as SLAP BASS. As for Joco, they way he played the bass, I am sure if he wanted to be known for slapp he could have, ON A FRETLESS! OH YEAH!! I do wonder if Joco was still around, if he would have migrated to a five or six,seven string as his main ax?

Wrong Robot · #5 01-25-2003, 09:50 PM

I highly doubt jaco would be playing more than 4 strings....5 strings were around when he was(he even owned one) So if he really wanted to play 5s as his main axe then he could have...I'm not sure about 6 strings back then.

I saw Vic last night and it was the most incredible thing I've ever seen, it was my 4th time seeing him perform but it was the first time I had seen the live in america band(I saw him twice with mike stern and once with the flecktones)....they pulled out ALL the stops, and I mean it, the show was just amazing...super amazing.

Jaco could slap, he just didn't like to.

Marcus and buddha and vic are all very well rounded players indeed, but definatly marcus miller is known for his great slap tone and lines, Victor is known for double thump(which involves slap) and Buddha, at least all I know of him is regarded as the fastest slap bass player ever.

luisnovelo · #6 01-25-2003, 10:05 PM

Jaco, or maaaaaaaybe Vic.

Lovebown · #7 01-26-2003, 04:14 AM

Jaco and secondhand Marcus Miller... THEY really got/had their **** together and great all around musicians who can play convincingly in diffrent styles.

Victor and Buddha may be able to groove on some stuff but the stuff I've heard from them in a improvise/jazz playing has been WANKING to make up for lack of ideas. Watched a Bill Dickens solo on the net ... was about 8 minutes long and he kept in interesting for about 30 min... then it was all wankery...

/Lovebown

shon · #8 01-26-2003, 06:02 PM

Quote:

[i]I saw Vic last night and it was the most incredible thing I've ever seen, it was my 4th time seeing him perform but it was the first time I had seen the live in america band(I saw him twice with mike stern and once with the flecktones)....they pulled out ALL the stops, and I mean it, the show was just amazing...super amazing.[/b]

I saw that show on the 22nd. I agree with you. When he pulled out that LED fodera, my eyes just about bugged out of my face. Lol. WHat a great show that was.

I'd deffinately have to go with Vic as my teacher, because he isn't just about the slap...He has mad tapping skills. That's where I want to be at the spectrum. Ya know?

moley · #9 01-27-2003, 04:14 AM

To be honest, of those four, the only one I can say I'm familiar with is Jaco.

But - I play fretless, and I'm not a fan of slapping, so perhaps Marcus Miller & Vic wouldn't be the ones to choose.

Bruce Lindfield · #10 01-27-2003, 04:21 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by moley
To be honest, of those four, the only one I can say I'm familiar with is Jaco.

But - I play fretless, and I'm not a fan of slapping, so perhaps Marcus Miller & Vic wouldn't be the ones to choose.

I've heard both play some very nice fretless stuff - so Marcus was very influenced by Jaco and wrote a tribute called Mr. Pastorius - he often played fretless but people picked up on his slapping from sessions.

Victor Wooten has often said that he owes most of his technique to Stanley Clarke - who is probably the one I would want as a teacher - but I think you have to bear in mind that great musicians don't always make great teachers.

Great teachers might not be so famous, but would probably be the best people to ask!!

wulf · #11 01-27-2003, 04:43 AM

There's a great article by Marcus Miller about Jaco Pastorious on the Jaco website:

http://www.jacopastorius.com/feature...rcusmiller.asp

If I had to choose one of those mentioned, Miller would probably get my vote, although it's a tough call. When it comes down to it, if it was in my power to get a session with one, why not just work out how to use that power to spend time with all four

Marcus Miller is definitely about far more than just slapping - how many of the other three are also known for their skills playing bass clarinet (as just a small example of his versatility)?

Wulf

Fire-Starter · #12 01-27-2003, 06:19 AM

There's a great article by Marcus Miller about Jaco Pastorious on the Jaco website:

http://www.jacopastorius.com/featur...arcusmiller.asp

Nice article on Jaco!

Bruce Lindfield · #13 01-27-2003, 06:32 AM

Well it illustrates quite nicely how Marcus had lessons from Jaco and learned quite a lot from him!

shon · #14 01-27-2003, 06:21 PM

But Vic and his wicked tapping skills! You can't forget him. I don't understand why people dig slapping more than tapping. I'm going to need to do something about that...

Wrong Robot · #15 01-27-2003, 06:30 PM

Tapping is definatly a cool technique....but after I learned the 1-5-9-10(11) pattern from Vic thats pretty much the basis of everything he does....

how about Manring? I would love to get lessons from him.

shon · #16 01-27-2003, 09:15 PM

Yeah...Michael Manring is another one of the people that should be on that list. I'd take a lesson from him any day. Hehe. Him and Steve Lawson. I'm in luck, because they have their own forum!

!!!

Fire-Starter · #17 01-28-2003, 12:09 AM

I notice that slap and tap come up quite a bit, side bar.....

I sat down the other day and listened to some older stuff with bass line minus the tap and slap, for example, James taylors "How sweet it is to be loved by you" and a couple more of his songs, and I really liked how the bass just held held things together, and they were nice lines, not fancy, just nice, the kind that makes you just rock back and forth and side to side, now leaving side bar.....

So can we think of any more players that play great bass lines, without the taps or slaps, but still makes you want to PICK UP YOUR AX AND PLAY!

btw, I do love tap and slap, but some one once told me "the bass players main job is to just stay in the pocket and hold the groove down, regardless of your technique, just hold everything together" so I will edit the post to open it up to Your Favorite bass player to take lesson from and why.

Bruce Lindfield · #18 01-28-2003, 03:07 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by shon
Yeah...Michael Manring is another one of the people that should be on that list. I'd take a lesson from him any day. Hehe. Him and Steve Lawson. I'm in luck, because they have their own forum! !!!

I know that two of our UK members, CS and Howard K do have lessons with Steve Lawson - I'll leave it to them to say how good he is as a teacher.

But I saw a clinic with Steve and Michael, before Xmas and they answered questions about technique and did demonstrations - some amazing stuff!! I'm sure from that, that both would be very inspiring to have as teachers!!

bassist31588 · #19 01-28-2003, 03:27 PM

Its a tie between Marcus and Jaco. Their Emotion is very apparent in their compositions. I just dig emotion in music. Wooten and Dickens are just too crazy. I love them an try to be them, but I just think it takes more courage to write with emotion rather than technique in mind. I have heard many emotional Wooten songs, but he's more of a technical player, that's his focus. I can't say too much about Dickens as I haven't heard more than 7 tunes by him, but from those, I think he's another Tecnique Master. I aspire to technique masters, but I dig emotion. Emotional music sounds best if you have tecghnique first.

My opinion

TravellinMan · #20 01-30-2003, 08:27 AM

Actually in an off sort of way, I am studing with one of Bill Dickens former student's! And he's great!