Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
Double Bass Nice Ron McClure interview.
- Thread starter Paul Warburton
- Start date
And also an amazingly articulate speaker! More monologue than interview, he commands your attention and never misses a beat, and all without a script or notes.
Ross Kratter
Supporting Member
- Dec 31, 2010
- 449
- 297
- 33
- Disclosures
- Artist, RS Berkeley, La Bella Strings, Phil Jones Bass Amplification, Remic, Jerry Harvey Audio
Check out a piano/bass recording by Michel Petrucciani "Cold Blues". The bass was recorded with some BP-100 pickup mixed in with the mike, but his expressiveness on this recording is amazing, he plays with a lot of heart, very melodic.
With all due respect to McClure, he does play great, but the sound he gets on this recording (I pulled it up on YouTube) is very distracting to me. Are his strings simply too low? Or is it the aforementioned BP-100 (whatever that is?)?
I don't understand having a great bass and then adjusting it to rattle and buzz as you play it. See Haden with Barron duo.
I think it is an aesthetic thing that maybe at the time it was recorded it was considered a good sound. I remember listening to that album around 1998 and I really liked his playing and sound. Now I'm not so attracted to that sound. When I started playing around 93' I got drawn to the double bass because of Eddie Gomez's playing on Chick Corea's "Three Quartets", now I don't dig that sound very much. Also many times the engineer takes a signal from the pickup besides the mic and that may have a disastrous result in the mixing process.
It is useful sound, it cuts and playing uptempo with drums is really nice with that amplified set up.
His recent recordings have more of an acoustic thing.
His recent recordings have more of an acoustic thing.
The story about Monk and the bow was great.
Ha, ha. . .That was a hoot. I loved it. Come to think of it, I never remember any of Monk's
bass players taking a bowed solo or even bowing an ending.
Thanks for sharing this Paul. That was worth the time spent watching. Great stories and seems like he has a great sense of humor about everything including his own self.
He is one of the greats. Quest is an amazing band, his own records are good and so are the ones he did with Bley.
Kindly, if yer gonna use my ****, Godamn it Trey, do it correctly.
Fixed, without the damn spaces.
Back on topic: I read a Downbeat article in the olden days where Ron said that he owed 90% of his playing to Red Mitchell.
Well that was awesome, and I actually had exactly 21:00 to kill.
If I lived uptown, I'd go bug him at McDonald's.
If I lived uptown, I'd go bug him at McDonald's.
It's downtown, actually. On Broadway below City Hall, near Century 21. I played there once (though not with Ron.) The stage is on a catwalk above the entrance. It's surreal.
I'd eat a McRib and listen to that guy play solo piano any day. I think PW's comment that he was so into Red is key, because I can listen to Ron all day just like Red.
