Was that L’Air du temps? I know Alain used to play there sometimes. I’m not a UZEB fan at all but (to my surprise) I really enjoyed seeing Alain with his band a few years ago.
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Alain Caron
- Thread starter Raman
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On St-Denis, just a couple buildings north of Le St-Sulpice. There used to be a 2 storey cafè-bar there... Can't remember the name.
Okay, I don’t know which bar that would have been. What a scene there was here back in the day.
I think it was called Le Grand Café...Okay, I don’t know which bar that would have been. What a scene there was here back in the day.
So many venues closed down in the last decade. Many, it turns out, never had the proper permits and were vulnerable to neighbours complaining about noise. Doesn't make sense for a city with so many talented bands!
The actual mayor also seems bent on chasing people away from downtown.
Alain is one of the very best bassists around. He is a true master of the instrument, a near-unparalleled talent. Tremendous playing, incredible tone and a catalogue of fabulous music spanning over four decades.
Him and Mark King both. Maybe they should start a band together where they switch back-and-forth.
Was just listening to Slam the Clown live...
Gotta say though, one thing that annoys me with this whole era and genre is the bloody use a the synth effect on bass. I happen to actually love the sound of the bass, and having it masquerade as another synth in the band is a total turn off for me.
One very sad example is when Caron teamed up with double bassist virtuosi Michel Donato to record Basse Contrebasse. I'd seen them play a couple songs on tv to preview the album. And it sounded awesome! Just pure bass against double bass! So naturally, I ran to the store as soon as the album came out. ...And it was completely ruined for me by Caron playing through a synth emulator.
Here's the actual tv show I'd seen (insynthed)
Gotta say though, one thing that annoys me with this whole era and genre is the bloody use a the synth effect on bass. I happen to actually love the sound of the bass, and having it masquerade as another synth in the band is a total turn off for me.
One very sad example is when Caron teamed up with double bassist virtuosi Michel Donato to record Basse Contrebasse. I'd seen them play a couple songs on tv to preview the album. And it sounded awesome! Just pure bass against double bass! So naturally, I ran to the store as soon as the album came out. ...And it was completely ruined for me by Caron playing through a synth emulator.
Here's the actual tv show I'd seen (insynthed)
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Alain, Pattitucci and Kim stone are the ones who made me want to play a 6 string. I've never looked back. All 3 are killer players. Alain, however, is my favorite. He was doing things in the 80s and 90s that were way ahead of their time.
Ah-ha, so that might explain why his time is so rock-solid. Guy can groove like a machine!
He explains how he was frustrated not having the possibility to play notes on drums. He figured out he could drum notes on a bass. And so he invented slap on his own, not knowing at first it already existed.
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There are a lot of jazz and fusion albums where 80's technology did them no favors, synth axe anyone? There was a TB thread asking about an Omar Hakim solo album and I broke it out after not listening to it for a very long time, I couldn't get through it, the gates on the drums were horrible.
Not a huge fan of the synth stuff either, but pretty easy to overlook when you hear what he is playing. I think his use of synth may have come from his UZEB days. They were doing a lot of synth and midi stuff in their music. Even the drummer had pads set up with synth tones.
