you know why Will Lee is great?

[c-ba55]

Originally Posted by a. meyer

As a classical bass player, I spend most of my time "regurgitating" (I've never heard it put so elegantly) other peoples bass lines; people like Bach, Mozart, etc. What a waste of time! They didn't even know how to slap!
I could have been making up super-cool pentatonic licks! Or learning how to shred!

You're not wasting your time if that's what you like doing. I just don't have much respect for it. I'm sure I do stuff you don't respect, like playing golf or something.

[a. meyer]

So what is it that you do that's so awesomely original? Music is about communication, not stringing together some combination of notes that no one's heard before (not that that's even possible).

[c-ba55]

Originally Posted by a. meyer

So what is it that you do that's so awesomely original? Music is about communication, not stringing together some combination of notes that no one's heard before (not that that's even possible).

It's not about me and my playing. I just feel it's close to pointless to play something exactly as it was already played on a record. The record exists and can be listened to.

[Dr. Cheese]

As a historian by trade, I find it laughable that you wouldn't respect a scribe. They were highly skilled people who responsibile for maintaining much of the knowledge we have of the world before printing and other ways to communicate or reproduce information. Go to a museum and look at a handmade Bible, Koran, or Torah, they are beautiful works of art. Much of the musical knowledge that I assume you use to be creative would have been lost were it not for people like these.

As for Will Lee, I have admired him since the late 1970's. His body of work is as diverse as that of any bassist I think of. He did create many original basslines. As I have said before, i eally loved his playing with Chaka Khan on "I Am Every Woman" and "Life is a Dance" from her first solo album. I loved his seventies tone when he was slapping a P-bass and using a flanger ala Anthony Jackson.

[a. meyer]

Right; so you play those notes differently. You use the same notes to say something else.

[Dr. Cheese]

As for playing something that has been recorded, I think that every time a person plays a cover, even note for note, that player's personality and perspective becomes involved in the music. I know I always sound like me whatever I play. Furthermore, it would be boring to sit around just hear recordings. I am happy that folks get out and play live music. If all musicians only played originals, thee would never be the comfort of hearing an old favorite replayed or a cool update of classic, or the even making something likeable that you hated the first time around. I have all the respect in the world for great studio bassists like Will Lee that manage to put spunk in commercial music.

[c-ba55]

I knew people would take this the wrong way. Will Lee, I respect. The topic of the thread is "You know why Will Lee is great?" OP said it was because he plays exactly like the record. That is one reason Will has a good career, but that is not at all why he is a great musician. Putting spunk in commercial music IS a reason he's great. But that's not what the thread's about.

Scribes served an important function, and provided value to society. Certainly. The artistic respect I would give them, is a tiny tiny tiny fraction of that of the actual writer. Now that we have printing presses, a scribe is even less relevant. Similarly, if a cover-band bassist plays a bassline just like the record, well bully for him. It's nothing a machine couldn't do. (I'm thinking of a record-playing machine, not some MIDI contraption).

I'm not saying covers are bad, that only original music should be played. Interpreting music is something that can be done extremely interestingly. Bill Evans played nursery rhymes and was interesting. If I transcribed that note-for-note, and played it with all Bill Evans's expression, that wouldn't serve a lot of purpose, except maybe to my own development. As far as something to listen to, nobody would care, even if I actually pulled it off perfectly.

[MAJOR METAL]

Originally Posted by JimK

No Jazz?!
No Sadowskys!?


...ever hear the story about the P-bass that Lee "Frankestein'd"
with about 5 or 6 pickups?

Will has a Sadosky P bass with 2 J pickups in a warwick position.

[fivestringdan]

Originally Posted by corinpills

I gurantee you that Anthony Jackson has to listen to wedding band bass players try to update his bass lines all the time and it must make him cringe.

For me, changing an Anthony Jackson bass line would be like changing a Bach bass line. What's the point? Wont make it any "better".

[PhatBasstard]

Originally Posted by willgroove2

...will lee was/is a major studio cat in nyc for many years but most people wouldn't know who he is if he wasn't on lettermen.hub has played on more records than you think but is a member of a grammy award winning band...

Oh PUH-LEEEEEZE!

1. Will Lee is a major studio cat.....and was long before the Letterman gig.

2. Saying "most people (bassists or general populace?) wouldn't know who he is if he wasn't on Letterman" is like saying most (bassists) wouldn't know who Chuck Rainey or Anthony Jackson is.

3. As many albums, jingles, soundtracks, etc. as Will has played on (and probably has some writing credits), I'd be very surprised if he doesn't have several Grammys on his walls.

4. Hub probably will never get asked to do something as musically sophisticated as a Brecker Bros. album...........and probably couldn't hang, even if his licorice stick depended on it.

All that said, Check out an album of Great Pop done by Will and a couple of his studio buddies called BFD from the early/mid 90s. Great songs and Uncle Will sings several of them too.