Carlos Henriques on Bill Cosby show

jtlownds · #1 11-05-2009, 12:17 PM

Caught the Bill Cosby, Mark Twain Award show on PBS last night. The Wynton Marsallis band played on the show, and featured our own Carlos Henriques. Very tasteful and well executed lines. Carlos, what bass were you using on that show? It looked huge on TV.

Paul Warburton · #2 11-05-2009, 08:12 PM

Was it this one, Jim? If it is, it's a big German. I thought about buying it. He did sell it so you may have seen the latest one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdTWR-PJHdA

Jake · #3 11-05-2009, 11:39 PM

I have a question for the old crusty, but fantastic jazz musicians like PW. Do you really like Wynton Marsalis that much? I've never really liked him much or got into his music and I find the thing with fancy suits and his whole schtick kind of lame.

Am I missing something? Is there an album I should check out?

CatfishStudios · #4 11-05-2009, 11:53 PM

Im not an old crusty jazz fanatic...Im not fantastic either..but that was damn good.

Nuno A. · #5 11-06-2009, 12:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jake

I have a question for the old crusty, but fantastic jazz musicians like PW. Do you really like Wynton Marsalis that much? I've never really liked him much or got into his music and I find the thing with fancy suits and his whole schtick kind of lame.

Am I missing something? Is there an album I should check out?

Sorry my question, but what does the "fancy suits thing" got to do with the music? Can't jazz players wear nice suits and be elegant? If they look like mechanics will they sound better?

Nuno

Nathan Parker · #6 11-06-2009, 12:08 AM

I too am neither old or crusty, but I'm bored so I'll reply. I think the reason why most the people that dislike him do so is due to his relationship with Stanley Crouch, and with his very hard lined assertions as to what jazz is. The piano player from Bad Plus has a blog, and he wrote alot about it (he calls it the "Young Lion" movement) and you should check that out. Might give you some insight. I do have a friend that is a professional musician in New York and he says "He put jazz in a museum". Seems to sum it up.

I like his music, and I like the suits. Does it bother you when musicians wear suits?

Ed Fuqua · #7 11-06-2009, 12:13 AM

BLACK CODES FROM THE UNDERGROUND, plus pretty much anything that had Branford and Wynton playing together. He sounds pretty good on the Blakey stuff as well.

salcott · #8 11-06-2009, 12:40 AM

I'm kinda old, fairly crusty, have one nice suit, and have played jazz and a lot of other stuff (the enjoyment of which probably makes me suspect in the eyes of many a purist) in NYC for 30 years. The problem I and many others have with Wynton is that he contemptuously dismisses whole areas of improvised music simply because they doesn't conform to his extremely narrow view of what jazz is. He seems incapable of accepting the fact that jazz today encompasses people like Dave Douglas, Mark Feldman, Mark Dresser, Drew Gress, Don Byron, to name just a few, some of whom can play circles around him in his style, but in whose groups he would not have a clue how to play.

Sam Sherry · #9 11-06-2009, 06:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ed Fuqua

BLACK CODES FROM THE UNDERGROUND . . . .

NOBODY is like PW and I'm a fantasy jazz musician. But:

Generally, I much prefer Branford's music and approach as broader, more adventurous and more fun, but there is much to learn from Wynton's music. From the trumpet-ism standpoint he is truly untouchable.

+ 1 on "Black Codes." Adventurous mainstream modern jazz; "Required Listening" list.

Very young Wynton is also killin' on Chico Freeman's "Destiny's Dance." It's ALL there.

The suits are cool with me. The "Forward Into The Past" rap puts me off.

Next!

jtlownds · #10 11-06-2009, 09:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul Warburton

Was it this one, Jim? If it is, it's a big German. I thought about buying it. He did sell it so you may have seen the latest one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdTWR-PJHdA

Nope, that's not the one, Paul. The one he was playing appeared to be a big 100 year old violun cornered German bass.

Paul Warburton · #11 11-06-2009, 09:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sam Sherry

NOBODY is like PW and I'm a fantasy jazz musician. But:

Generally, I much prefer Branford's music and approach as broader, more adventurous and more fun, but there is much to learn from Wynton's music. From the trumpet-ism standpoint he is truly untouchable.

+ 1 on "Black Codes." Adventurous mainstream modern jazz; "Required Listening" list.

Very young Wynton is also killin' on Chico Freeman's "Destiny's Dance." It's ALL there.

The suits are cool with me. The "Forward Into The Past" rap puts me off.

Next!

Be me.
TBDB thing again. OP was about Carlos' bass. I'm not surprised this came up though.
I played the Nice, France Jazz Festival a couple times after Wynton's band. He was young and so was the band. They acted like jerks.....all of them. But they were young and testing the waters so I'm cool with that.
The thing with Stanley Crotch really prejudiced me. Being a white jazz musician, I had experienced reverse discrimination a couple times. No biggy, except for one European tour with a famous black tenor player. He was more than cool but the other members of that band were not. They almost ruined that tour with their bull ****. They even thought I had impacted the tour because the leader chose to play standard tunes rather than his "hits". I dunno how they thought I had that much power over him. After a few concerts the leader sat them down and asked them if they had ever thought of listening to me play. Actually the audiences weren't real happy with a white bassist in the band, but this guy decided to include a rather long bass solo on the first tune and after that we were fine. (the other guys in the band pouted for the rest of the tour).
The clothes? I think clothes don't mean crap. Miles was quoted as saying that he looked at the way a guy dressed to gain an insight into players he was thinking of hiring. Miles is probably my biggest hero both as a player and a personality, but if that were true Bill Evans, Gil Evans and Vic Feldman weren't exactly clothes horses and they were white. So there ya go tryin' to figure out Miles.
The music. I've listened to Wynton and most of the guys he's used over the years. IMO, something is missing in his playing. I use that word "substance" when I hear a player that I can't connect with. I think alot of it has to do with the player not having had a chance to really gain some real-life experiences.
The times I've been around some of these guys they act like spoiled brats, but that's just IME. They are grown men now and I sense that they've grown up in many ways.
(Except for the Crotch).

TomSauter · #12 11-06-2009, 11:43 AM

This thread is awesome!

Question: Hey Carlos, what type of bass are you using on the Letterman show?

Answer: Wynton sucks!

salcott · #13 11-06-2009, 12:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TomSauter

This thread is awesome!

Question: Hey Carlos, what type of bass are you using on the Letterman show?

Answer: Wynton sucks!

Welcome to TBDB

Mark Carlsen · #14 11-06-2009, 01:03 PM

I believe that was Morelli he bought from me earlier this year, as is.... It was in rough shape and he had Jed Kriegel restore it and then Carlos took it out on the road. I heard he later traded it in at the Bass Garden and then bought a Hawkes... the Morelli was a 7/8's size bass.
Carlos where are you ??????

Paul Warburton · #15 11-06-2009, 04:23 PM

After this whacky thread, below, we may not see him again...............

QuikCallus

That would be a drag. He was really funny on that one.

Before anybody asks again, for the second time the bass in the Letterman clip is a big German that I thought about buying.

rollcall · #16 11-06-2009, 04:26 PM

I played with wynton marsalis. he came and sat in after his gig in santa fe

Johnny L · #17 11-07-2009, 05:05 PM

I think Stanley Crouch was right on in criticizing jazz during the 80's.

There wouldn't be near the excitement for the double bass in jazz today had it not been for Wynton Marsalis, IMO. The music was so great on his early albums with Branford, it was just about impossible not to read Crouch's arguments and hope there would be more great stuff to absorb.

There's really no point in talking about jazz today without acknowledging the Marsalis brothers and their influence...a stronger demand for world-class musicianship on even the smallest of stages, a stronger dedication by musicians to the language of improvisation and articulation strategies, and demand for a stronger understanding of any jazz performance's place within the entire world of jazz.

That's my take, anyway. A book like John Goldsby's The Jazz Bass Book makes perfect sense to me because I've heard Wynton Marsalis play and talk about how he got that great way before I knew anything about DB.

Paul Warburton · #18 11-07-2009, 06:18 PM

To quote Miles Davis about Wynton Marsalis' playing:
"He's got a lot of technique but that's about it".

Mr. Davis to Mr. Marsalis in 1986 at the Vancouver, BC Jazz Festival during Mr. Davis' performance:
"Man, get the f*** off the stage". (And repeated it).

Mr. Crotch on jazz innovator Bill Evans:
"A 'punk' whose playing can scarcely be considered jazz".

Sources: Google, and "Cats of Any Color" by Gene Lees.

Paul Warburton · #19 11-07-2009, 06:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Johnny L

There's really no point in talking about jazz today without acknowledging the Marsalis brothers and their influence...

There is to me. But, go ahead.

BAJO · #20 11-07-2009, 06:37 PM

Hey TB, thank you all for checking me out!! The Bass I am using is a 1895 Hawkes french Concert model. It is very big and I have been really trying hard to get use to it!!
For those who have trouble understanding Wynton, I will try my best to explain the type of musician he is!!
It is very hard as a African American that grew up in the 60's in the south to not have some type of heavy influences towards their culture!! I give him all the respect because he has kept what 'Jazz is' a live and continuing for our young bloods and others further more to come.
Now, JAKE & TOMSAULTER, boy, you guys have to learn about music or about culture..
The reason why Wynton is so rough on his ideas and opinions, is because people have lost the elements that was the key to JAZZ.[ BLUES, SWING, INTERACTION]ETC.... Now, some of you TB users are very light in this feel!!! The very cause of this is because of a very small ego or ignorance towards the cultural foundations of a certain type of music..(JAZZ, in this case) Some of you may never understand what I'm talking about, SORRY.. One example, if you kats wanted to learn latin music would you learn from a Chick Corea album or a Tito Puente Album? Now, if you wanted to learn how to play Jazz, would you learn it from a Chick Corea album or a Louie Armstrong album?
Its basic but at the same time very deep to many!!!