Ambient/Post-Rock/Textural bass playing thread

[JES]

I have learned about more new gear and more new music on this thread than any other on TB.

 

[steubig]

I have learned about more new gear and more new music on this thread than any other on TB.

absolutely with you on that.

 

[monsterthompson]

Gotta check this later.


This guy is quickly becoming a favorite resource.

 

[hieronymous]

I've gravitated towards the term "comprovisation" both because so much of the improv-based music I make and listen to is as much composition-based as it is improv-based, but also to disassociate it from the more traditional Jazz [sic] improvisation. The stuff that (I guess) I would consider "post-jazz" has a decidedly more European connection than an African-American connection; its lineage doesn't seem to follow the traditional historical arc of American Jazz (blues to ragtime to swing to blah-blah-blah), but rather imagines a jagged timeline that connects 20th Century modernist approaches to extemporization and experimental Situation/Process compositions and then intersects Jazz right around the time Ornette Coleman and Albert Ayler et al were casting off the yoke of "The Changes" (scare-quotes intentional). So yes, Jazz can be a jumping-off place...but sometimes it's a jumping-on place, and you've leapt to it by way of the Darmstadt School. Or via Harry Partch. Or Pink Floyd.

I always loved CAN's "spontaneous composition" to describe a lot of what they did. And that seemed to be happening in Miles Davis's stuff in that late 60s/early 70s era. And Frank Zappa had his own twisted take on improvisation/composition. King Crimson too - they were one of the few classic "prog" bands that incorporated improvisation. Oh yeah, the Grateful Dead. I think all of these influenced me as an improvisor, though I didn't realize it until much later in my life...

 

[dukeorock]

Gotta check this later.


This guy is quickly becoming a favorite resource.

I’ll be checking this out shortly

 

[dukeorock]

I always loved CAN's "spontaneous composition" to describe a lot of what they did. And that seemed to be happening in Miles Davis's stuff in that late 60s/early 70s era. And Frank Zappa had his own twisted take on improvisation/composition. King Crimson too - they were one of the few classic "prog" bands that incorporated improvisation. Oh yeah, the Grateful Dead. I think all of these influenced me as an improvisor, though I didn't realize it until much later in my life...

All my favorite bands I’ve been in have some sort of improv elements. Sometimes fairly structured bands even, leave room to change up the feel or dynamics. It’s the closest thing to a ‘spiritual’ connection to me when someone instigates something different and everyone reacts to it well. It’s a beautiful thing. I haven’t been in a pure, wholly improvised group in a long time, but it’s really fun to go off the rails even in fairly conventional music

 

[ugly_bassplayer]

Wow, I'm behind on the thread today.....
Got some catching up to do.

Genres/labels..... euh......that's exactly like talking about sex. It always falls short of the real thing.
Or something like that....

 

[monsterthompson]

Well...
For $1,100 this is interesting. The bass contour knob and the 26 3/4" scale puts it on the guitar side of baritone, but it has my attention.
Invalid Link Removed

 

[Spectrum]

Gotta check this later.


This guy is quickly becoming a favorite resource.

That was a pretty good overview. I'm gonna check out a few more of his vids.

 

[steubig]

Wow, I'm behind on the thread today.....
Got some catching up to do.

Genres/labels..... euh......that's exactly like talking about sex. It always falls short of the real thing.
Or something like that....

depends who’s doing the talking. (?)

 

[ugly_bassplayer]

depends who’s doing the talking. (?)

Touché.
Depends on who's listening to the "talk" also.

 

[monsterthompson]

All this baritone and bass vi surging got me thinking today. I got out my old strat to see how well I could play guitar these days. I’ve got much more dexterity than the last time I tried. I might need to move a bass or two and grab a baritone.

 

[hieronymous]

Re: Bass VI - I was kind of obsessed in the 2000s. I lived in Kyoto, Japan from 2002-6, and at that time picked up the Jaguar Bottom Master, which was kind of a 28" scale Bass VI, but I realized I wanted a real 30" Bass VI, which I finally acquired when I moved back to the States - one of the US released MIJ reissues from around 1996. I like it, but have never gotten the bridge to work correctly - it tilts and I can't get it to lock. But I got it for cheap and don't see myself ever getting rid of it. I actually like the way the stock pickups sound on mine. I should get the whole bridge thing worked out...

One of my Bass VI idols is Roy Babbington of later Soft Machine - he plays it with his fingers and it sounds like a P Bass or something - just amazing. And such a beautiful bass - olympic white? - with matching headstock and I love the white pickups too.

 

[steubig]

Sveinung Hovensjø with Terje Rypdal also played a bass vi (and i think jack bruce did as well)

 

[Spectrum]

The bridge is the excuse I keep using to avoid getting a Bass VI. I have a Squier Jaguar guitar with that kind of bridge on it, and it goes out of tune as soon as you look at it. As far as I can tell the Squier VI's also don't lock. One day I was in GC and they had a higher end Fender Jaguar with a locking version of the bridge and it was sweet to play. A vibrato bridge is of limited usefulness to me in any case, especially on a bass; but they are a part of the classic VI setup. If I ever get one I'd have to get a locking replacement immediately methinks.

Eastwood does make a couple of cool VI's but the bridges don't look much better.

 

[Bob_Ross]

Sveinung Hovensjø with Terje Rypdal also played a bass vi

Ha! Whenever the conversation gets to Favorite Bass VI Players ^^^he's the first name that comes to mind! His playing on Rypdal's Odyssey album is a high point in that instrument's repertoire.

Thanks for the video, I'd never seen Hovensjø performing before.

 

[lordradish]

the thread title is probably what it is, it's not perfectly in tune with what happens here, but it keeps the riff-raff out (i JEST)

No jest. There's no dad-band/1987 was the high water mark for rock/what P-bass should I buy? people in here. It's working.

 

[steubig]

The bridge is the excuse I keep using to avoid getting a Bass VI. I have a Squier Jaguar guitar with that kind of bridge on it, and it goes out of tune as soon as you look at it. As far as I can tell the Squier VI's also don't lock. One day I was in GC and they had a higher end Fender Jaguar with a locking version of the bridge and it was sweet to play. A vibrato bridge is of limited usefulness to me in any case, especially on a bass; but they are a part of the classic VI setup. If I ever get one I'd have to get a locking replacement immediately methinks.

Eastwood does make a couple of cool VI's but the bridges don't look much better.

i think the jazzmaster bridge is similar. apparently a lot of the higher end players replace those bridges with something called the mastery bridge, which can cost more than the squier versions of those guitars, but really work.

 

[steubig]

No jest. There's no dad-band/1987 was the high water mark for rock/what P-bass should I buy? people in here. It's working.

ha!

i did get to hear some cool music (and a new fave band) based in a tb thread yesterday. possibly the first time in a decade.

 

[JES]

dad-band

One of my bands is definitely a dad band (I call it my “help my friends realize their artistic vision” band). I also like tort. I am a sleeper agent.