Roy Huskey Jr. Saw Bass Notes As Colors

[MT Spaces]

Lately I have been searching out recordings with Roy Huskey Jr. on double bass. I loved his playing on "Will The Circle Be Unbroken - Volume 2" and wanted to find more. I've found about 16 and will keep looking (I think my favorite so far is Hazel Dickens' "It's Hard to Tell the Singer From the Song"). I also got Emmylou Harris & The Nash Ramblers "Live at the Ryman." This was a benefit concert that was instrumental in saving and restoring the venerable country music institution.

Anyhow, in googling around I found this blog entry (http://www.last.fm/user/Ludens/journal/2005/08/14/3839/) quoting Emmylou talking about Roy Jr. :

"… she told me the story of a guy in one of her bands, Roy Huskey Jr., a bass player who told her that he had synaesthesia: He saw musical notes as colors. And she remembered that he'd always say that, alone of all the notes, B flat was very, very, very black, really, really dark. The funny thing is, she then told me, I was reading the paper a while ago, and I came upon a report that black holes are now reported to emit sounds. And that the sound emitted is B flat! It sounded too good to be true, but when I returned home and Googled the matter, it seemed to be quite true."

I also found this on the Emmylou website discussion forum:
http://www.emmylou.net/ehforum/DCForumID1/2196.html

I found this to be fascinating and got side-tracked late last night searching out "synaesthesia." Apparently some people have a "synthesis of the senses" and some musicians see their music as colors and, in other cases, some can taste music. Here are some references I found:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesth...or_synesthesia

http://www.thereminvox.com/story/28

http://www.school-for-champions.com/...ynesthesia.htm

There is a mathematical basis for sound and colors (pretty heavy stuff here): http://home.vicnet.net.au/~colmusic/maistre1.htm


Along with Roy Jr. there are a number of other musical synaesthetes:

http://home.comcast.net/~sean.day/ht...musicians.html

These include Duke Ellington, Stevie Wonder, Elvin Jones, and jazz bassist Ben Wolfe. Especially check out Rimsky-Korsakov. He had synesthetically colored musical keys and named the keys and colors.

I now have a whole new view of the "blues" and a "blue note."

[neal davis]

alot of people who have perfect pitch see music as colours, my wife is one of them. It's a neat thing but if you have good relative pitch it is just as good in my opinion

[M Ramsey]

There was an article in Bluegrass Unlimited about Roy after his passing. Some of the article was written by John Hartford, and it told of Roy's ability to see colors for notes in music.

There was a bit of discussion about this and my son, Aaron, has this same ability. Perfect pitch, like Roy as well. When the article described the colors that Roy saw assigned to certain notes, they were the same for Aaron. We had never discussed this aspect before that article came out.

It seems there were some references to old music books with these same subjects, from back in possibly medival times. The colors lined up the same, everywhere. Roy, my son and the books. If I can locate that magazine at home, I'll quote it directly, to lessen the confusion.

Also in the article it told of Roy's ability to listen to a room upon arriving at a gig, and immediately he knew which notes would be most resonat when he played the bass. He would then be able to tell which notes would be less resonat and thus change his playing to even out the notes he played. His ears and this ability, were his own built in compressor.

He was an amazing musician and is sorely missed.

[mje]

Synesthesia is not too uncommon. A lot of people who have it don't actually realize that it's not something everyone experiences. My brother-in-law and both of my nephews have it, which probably accounts for some of their musical skill. Perfect pitch is a form of synesthesia.

As for black holes emitting sound: This is basically nonsense, and results from a NASA site that used a clumsy metaphor to explain the wavelength of the lowest frequency emissions detected from a black hole as being "57 octaves lower than middle-C". There's no sound, obviously, and 57 octaves below middle C is roughly 0.0000000000000018 Hertz.

[Damon Rondeau]

There's an old Downbeat or Guitar Player interview with John McLaughlin where he talks about feeling colours for certain keys. I must say it's a bit that way myself... (not the perfect pitch part, far from it I think.)

[Kam]

I must be color blind..

It is very cool and interesting to think that there is some correlation between those who see it though..

[MT Spaces]

Originally Posted by M Ramsey

There was an article in Bluegrass Unlimited about Roy after his passing. Some of the article was written by John Hartford, and it told of Roy's ability to see colors for notes in music ..... If I can locate that magazine at home ...... He was an amazing musician and is sorely missed.

Mike, I would really like to get my paws on that article. If you track it down, please let me know. Maybe I can figure out how to get a reprint or something if I know the issue number. Thanks !

[MT Spaces]

Originally Posted by mje

Synesthesia is not too uncommon ...... Perfect pitch is a form of synesthesia.

Thanks for that info .... this is all news to me .

Originally Posted by mje

As for black holes emitting sound: This is basically nonsense .....

Whew .... Again Thanks. I was always under the assumption that stuff only went into a black hole and never came back out .... kinda like the f-holes of my bass .

P.S. I love the story of "Bob The Cat" on your website ... reminds me of a cat I had once.

[Bobby King]

Originally Posted by Bob Knebel

Lately I have been searching out recordings with Roy Huskey Jr. on double bass. I loved his playing on "Will The Circle Be Unbroken - Volume 2" and wanted to find more.

In the late '80s there was a duo called The O'Kanes -- Jamie O'Hara and Kieren Kane. They did one or two albums, their first one was really good and it featured Roy on bass. If you haven't heard that one, try and check it out.

I had the pleasure of hiring Roy to play on a CD that I produced for my wife, Ellen Britton, back in 1995. I've attached an mp3 (I had to fade it out after the bridge since I can only upload 2.0 mb, email me if you want the whole thing). This is "Take Me To Heart", written by Ellen and myself, and it features Roy, David Hungate on rhythm guitars, John Willis on electric and Kenny Malone on drums.

[mrpc]

Sweethearts of the Rodeo "Rodeo Waltz" 1993 on Sugar Hill features Roy. Their version of "Get Rythym" features some real nice slap style bass.

[Jeremy Allen]

Synaesthesia ain't some fancy thing that you have to be gifted to experience. Anytime an experience gets mixed up with a couple of different strong sensory responses, it happens. Smell a flower while a church bell is ringing and you can "smell the sound" and "hear the flower;" eat an ice cream cone while walking barefoot on the beach and the taste and tactile sensations become part of one thing. It's something that happens to everyone every now and again.

I have difficulty separating the notes I play from the tactile experience of playing them, which I found to be true on the bass and on the trombone. And although I don't have colors in mind for notes, I think many of us hear notes as we see colors--that is, distinctly, with the fundamental (no pun intended) characteristic of the note being perceived. Eb major just feels so different from C major, from the simple standpoint of the vibrations coming against your body as you play the bass.

[Bruce Lindfield]

The great French composer Olivier Messiaen had Synaesthesia and wrote several pieces based on this or about it - like "Chronochromie".

[MT Spaces]

Originally Posted by Bobby King

In the late '80s there was a duo called The O'Kanes -- Jamie O'Hara and Kieren Kane. They did one or two albums, their first one was really good and it featured Roy on bass. If you haven't heard that one, try and check it out.

Thanks Bobby, I will. In searching around I ran into an O'Kanes reference here: http://www.spoonercentral.com/RS/StillHere2.html but didn't know which album to get. I really like the quote in there from Roy Jr. "JUST RUN THE NUMBER, HERE'S THE TIME". The mark of a solid, take-charge bass player .

I also like this quote: "I never heard him play a note he didn't mean..." from Dave Pomeroy, of his late fellow Nashville bassist, Roy Huskey, Jr., From his column in Bass Player Magazine (See Great Bass Quotes at: http://www.jeffnet.org/~addicott/quotes.html)

This is also a touching tribute to Roy Jr.:
http://www.nodepression.net/issues/nd12/farther.html

Originally Posted by Bobby King

I had the pleasure of hiring Roy to play on a CD that I produced for my wife, Ellen Britton, back in 1995. I've attached an mp3 (I had to fade it out after the bridge since I can only upload 2.0 mb, email me if you want the whole thing). This is "Take Me To Heart", written by Ellen and myself, and it features Roy, David Hungate on rhythm guitars, John Willis on electric and Kenny Malone on drums.

Great, I will probably take you up on that offer ... I'll send you a PM.

Also, Thanks go to MRPC for his lead on a Roy Jr. recording. I have added it to my list. If anyone else has good suggested Roy Jr. recordings, please PM me and I will update my list .

[Bobby King]

Bob

Here's an Amazon link for that O'Kanes CD:

http://www.amazon.com/OKanes/dp/B000...8730976&sr=1-2

[mje]

Originally Posted by Jeremy Allen

Synaesthesia ain't some fancy thing that you have to be gifted to experience. Anytime an experience gets mixed up with a couple of different strong sensory responses, it happens. Smell a flower while a church bell is ringing and you can "smell the sound" and "hear the flower;" ...

That's not synesthesia; that's merely learned association. There's a huge qualitative difference.

True synesthesia is not a learned response, but something inborn. It's not necessarily a "gift", and it comes in varying degrees. It may be very mild, or it may result in almost all sensory experiences resulting in a barrage of stimuli. Some people with synesthesia can barely stand to listen to music.

To someone with synesthesia, all notes have a secondary quality as well- usually a color, though it may be something else. This usually extends to other sensory qualia as well. One of my nephews told me that all numbers have a color quality for him as well.

[mrpc]

It has more to do with each individuals awareness, than it has to do with scientific analysis. Science has no place in defining the inner experience of individual human beings.

[mcnaire2004]

I remember watching a feature on 20/20 last december or so about people with twisted sences. For example, they had people who say shapes as colors, and even a piano player who see's notes as colors. Though, I do recal her saying that when she saw black she knew it was a C

[mrpc]

I believe the term is "twisted senses". Twisted sentences are another matter!

"My analyst told me that I was right out of my head
The way he described it he said I'd be better dead than live
I didn't listen to his jive
I knew all along that he was all wrong
And I knew that he thought I was crazy
But I'm not, oh no" -Annie Ross and Wardell Gray

[wallydoesbass]

Bob, I'd add the first two Iris Dement releases to your Roy Jr. list - "Infamous Angel" and "My Life". Exceptional bass playing.

[wallydoesbass]

Never mind - on further inspection I see you already have the Iris Dement recordings listed. Anyway, I highly recommend them.