Great article on electric bass in straight ahead jazz

[Chansey]

Hi everyone,

I am not sure if this has been posted before, but I thought that this article might be interesting for BG players in jazz.

http://www.christrinidad.com/pdf/ct-cme-462-cfbg.pdf

Simply put, the article contains many gems which come in useful to beginning jazz players on BG like myself. These include:

a) Understanding the controversy behind the place of the electric bass in jazz. Great quotes from masters like Anthony Jackson/Steve Swallow about their instrument of choice.

b) A tremendous section on gaining the "swing" in your lines. It took some time for me to digest, but there is alot of amazing detail in there on learning to swing. IMO, having that rhythmic propulsion is half the fight won in playing jazz.

c) Emulation of organ bass/upright sounds. Not so much in how to get THE defining upright tone (yes impossible I know), but learning how to use the versatility of the bass guitar to your advantage in coping different vibes of the above instruments.

d) Best of all, an excellent recommended listening list of electric bass playing in straight ahead settings. Also included: upright and organ albums.

[Lobster11]

Thanks for the post -- I enjoyed the article!

[Asher S]

Thanks for posting this. Do you know when this was published?

[LM Bass]

Chris Trinidad is a friend of mine, and I think he wrote this about 5 years ago for a music educators conference in BC. He is a fine bass player, drummer, and singer, and he just landed a plum choral directing job in the Bay area.

[Terry Funk]

Fantastic article. Thanks.

[PRUNEFACE]

It raises some interesting points. I completely understand why tuba was dropped (I played sousaphone for a day -requires so much air compared to the baritone horn you'd make a better swimmer than Michael Phelps!) but it makes me wonder why the bass equivalent to the electric guitar hadn't already come about.