Hi guys, I thought I should give a heads up to the fantastic Jim Barr. Some of you may have heard of him as the touring bassist from Portishead for which he has done since the beginning for that legendary band but it is his work with (Get) The Blessing that I wanted to draw your attention to.
The Blessing (they have had to add the Get for copyright reasons) are one of the most fabulous bands I have ever seen. They are ostensibly a jazz band but with a huge difference. The thing that makes them interesting is that there is a bassist, drummer, sax and trumpet. No keys, no guitar etc The drummer is the legendary Clive Deamer (Portishead, Roni Size, and most recently, Robert Plant). They won the coveted album of the year at the BBC Jazz awards 2008.
Jim mostly plays electric bass swapping between a regular jazz, a short scale bass and a baritone guitar with bass strings on. He kind of plays punky, grindy lines that are really inventive and propel the band forward with a delicious momentum. He gets this terrific sound (he's an ampeg man) partly due to the room available in the midrange due to the lack of guitar/keys.
Their YouTube channel is
here
Check out the irresistable Bleach Cake!
Be great to hear from any of you as I go potty when I listen to this great band!
