Nathan Watts in Bass Player

[Fire-Starter]

A very nice write up one him, and it's been long over due. Talks about how he got the start for playing with Stevie Wonder, the time he froze up on stage playing a song by Stevie that he called out, but Nathan did not rehearse or know, but had to follow his left hand on the keyboard to pick up the bass line, etc...Very good article!

[JimK]

Yeah, the tune was "Contusion"...which Watts rips up on the recorded version(Songs In The Key Of Life).

[JimK]

On a tangent-
Did you read the short article on French bassist, Francois Moutin?
Reading that made me up two of his albums with the Moutin Reunion Quartet...very cool player, nice band, too.

[Yvon]

Originally Posted by Fire-Starter

A very nice write up one him, and it's been long over due. Talks about how he got the start for playing with Stevie Wonder, the time he froze up on stage playing a song by Stevie that he called out, but Nathan did not rehearse or know, but had to follow his left hand on the keyboard to pick up the bass line, etc...Very good article!

And he did it in front of 250 000 people!!

Nathan watts is an incredible player. It was about time bass player did an insterview with him!

Speaking of him, anybody ever transcribe do I do?

[Lo.]

Originally Posted by Yvon

Speaking of him, anybody ever transcribe do I do?

11 minutes of filthy funk - that would be a labour of love for someone.

[Bruce Lindfield]

Originally Posted by Yvon

Speaking of him, anybody ever transcribe do I do?

I started a thread a while ago about how at Jazz Summerschool, one of the tutors - pro Jazz Pianist/Singer/Educator Pete Churchill - went through some charts he had written.

One of the tunes was "Do I Do" and he had written out complete parts for the whole band - keyboards, horns, guitar, drums and bass.

It was the most amazing chart I have ever seen - loads of pieces of paper stuck together, to give a complete transcribed bass line - it looks horrendous written out - 16th notes everwhere and loads of key changes !!

But we went through it and he explained how he used it as a kind of teaching aid to show how a lot of music is much better explained orally - through singing etc. - rather than as written parts!!

But it was amazing to look at - it made me glad I've never been give an part like that on a gig!!

[dougjwray]

One of the most entertaining aspects of the interview is how Watts refers to Stevie Wonder as "Steve." Cool, or WHAT??!

[Yvon]

Originally Posted by Lo.

11 minutes of filthy funk - that would be a labour of love for someone.

I was thinking about doing it, maybe a few bars a week. It would take 2 or 3 years but that would be a long time project!

[Fire-Starter]

Did you also read the part about when he went to audition for Stevie, there were other bass players there " (in his opinion)" that were more advanced players than he was, but he picked up the parts faster to what stevie was playing so Stevie gave him the job

[JimK]

Originally Posted by Lo.

11 minutes of filthy funk - that would be a labour of love for someone.

One of the best cover bands this area ever had did the tune(all of it) back in the day...the drummer could sing just like "Steve" , the bassist played a MM StingRay very loud & very well(still does).
Didn't know Watts played a MM on "Do I Do" until this interview.

[hands5]

Originally Posted by JimK

One of the best cover bands this area ever had did the tune(all of it) back in the day...the drummer could sing just like "Steve" , the bassist played a MM StingRay very loud & very well(still does).
Didn't know Watts played a MM on "Do I Do" until this interview.

Yep !.Also he played it when I saw him with Stevie in 86 and also in concert on a HBO special that I saw a couple of years later