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Any Bassist Makes You Change Things Up?

Matthew_84

Matthew_84

Nov 7, 2010
6,497
5,101
Greater Toronto Area, Canada
#1
I swear every time I hear Jaco, I want to drop whatever I’m working on, put rounds on a fretless Jazz, and learn all of Jaco’s songs. It doesn’t matter what my goals are at the time, I always have second thoughts when I hear Jaco play.

The funny thing is that Jaco isn’t even my favourite bassist. He was great, and certainly one of the most influential, but he isn’t my favourite. Not even in the top 3, and on a typical day I don’t want to play anything like he does... There’s just something about his songs, or energy, or style that really seems to resonate with me every now and hen and compels me to drop whatever I’m working towards and learn his stuff and play like him.

During these stints, I study and listen him for a week or two, and then thankfully, go back to whatever I was working on before. To be honest, I’m on the fence if I even like this or not, lol.

Anyways, what about you guys? Is there a bassist that seems to have this effect on you?
 
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#2
Matthew_84 said:
I swear every time I hear Jaco, I want to drop whatever I’m working on, put rounds on a fretless Jazz, and learn all of Jaco’s songs.
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Please don't. I love Jaco Pastorius, especially what he did with Joe Zawinul, but everytime I hear someone trying to copy his sound and style, it makes me want to kill a duck.

All the bassists I admire have a sound and a style of their own and were innovators at some point. None of them ever made me want to reproduce what they did. On the contrary, they made me want to find my own voice, like if they were saying to me "look boy, you can do the same thing but in your own way, don't be afraid".
 
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#5
All great players mentioned so far and Pino and JJ are both in my top 5. JJ is tied for first (with Geddy) and he influenced my typical style, to a certain extent.

@Vinny_G, I hear you. There are too many Jaco clones, and on a normal day, I don’t want to play anything like him...

Hmm. I think it’s because it’s so different than how I normally want to play (more focus on slower, rhythmic, supportive lines), that it inspires me to try something different, for fun, and play more melodically.
 
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#6
Agreed. Jaco clones must disappear ASAP.
His playing is soooo unique players end being a pale copy or even a parody.

And yes Jaco is in my top players and most of all COMPOSERS ever. He freakn wrote good songs. That's the huge difference between him and other cough cough machine gun chop players..... there songs are unbelievably ##+$-(##(_)#))#4&$#@#/..... forgettable.

;)
 
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#9
When I first started playing I was very easily impressed by anyone who was better than me. I still am and I've been playing for 20 years. That said, I was 19 years old and in my friend's basement where I would listen to old and new music. He got me into Mahavishnu Orchestra; I dug through a bunch of old records and CDs and found anything with John McLaughlin. That's when I heard Matt Garrison. His plucking hand was incredible but his phenomenal and extensive theory knowledge and application through his fretting hand blew me away. I told my buddy I would crash on his couch and lock myself in his basement only to come out for food and bathroom breaks and readjust my playing from a root note player to expanding my knowledge of the fretboard. From that point on, I changed as a bassist, always pushing myself and learning. I dove into a bass coma and came out a changed man. I finally found that inspiration and my "voice".
 
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#10
@Vinny_G, I hear you. There are too many Jaco clones, and on a normal day, I don’t want to play anything like him...


I met up with a drummer a few weeks ago and he told me this story about how this young kid said he was just as good as Jaco and can play just like him. The drummer, without any videos or sound clips booked a music room for an audition. The bassist arrives 45 minutes late to his own audition and doesn't know which amp in the room was the bass amp. The drummer said he's got 15 minutes left on the clock and if he couldn't catch on his groove then he's leaving. The bassist kept insisting you won't be disappointed, I'm the next Jaco. The drummer told me he had to stop playing and unplug the dudes cable because not only did he not sound like Jaco but he was literally slapping, which Jaco does not.

Nothing against people sounding like Jaco but some bassist need to understand that Jaco carved his own path as many other bassists have.
 
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#11
I’ve just come out of a long experimental period where I was trying lots of basses. Now I’m in a big “one bass” phase, where I’m loving my bass and feeling really bonded to it. Right now I feel that a gear change would just be a distraction. I actually really enjoy taking those lines, whatever the tone/bass may be, and making them “my own” on my bass.

I just got “Standing in the shadows of Motown,” so I’m working on some JJ lines, and have been getting reacquainted with George Porter Jr. (but lucky for me, they’re both P bass players ;) )
 
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#15
Not much of a fan of Lemmy or Motorhead, but makes me want to turn up distortion and play with a pick while singing...and use Root 5th 2 string power chords

And Phillip Lynott makes me want to play with a pick and sing

So far so good...though I still play some stuff with fingers and a bit more subtlety and touch
 
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#16
Most recently was Freddie Washington. I saw him in a smaller venue where I was close enough that I was hearing his Aguilar rig, not the PA. It was just him and Ray Parker Jr (using only a Gretsch electric through a Deluxe Reverb, or playing piano). Freddie was using his sunburst Precision. They did a lot of different stuff, from old Motown to "Ghostbusters" of course, and a killer version of Freddie's song "Forget Me Nots". The thing is he was obviously using rounds. But the Motown stuff had all the classic thump it needed, and not one bit of twang nor clank. I took the GHS Precision Flats, which had been on there for well over ten years, off my P the next day and put some nickel rounds on. No, doesn't nail the exact sound of flats, but it fills the correct niche, and gives variations not available with flats. Judicious use of the passive treble cut and attack makes it work.
 
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#17
Last night my band opened a show for Momotombo SF, which is a group composed of former members of Malo and Santana. They put on an incredible show. Their bass player was David Margen, who played with Santana from 1977 to 1982. Watching him was quite an experience. Very fluid player, a real master of the instrument. Made me want to go woodshed for a while, or even take some lessons to clean up my technique.
 
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#18
Craig4003 said:
Last night my band opened a show for Momotombo SF, which is a group composed of former members of Malo and Santana. They put on an incredible show. Their bass player was David Margen, who played with Santana from 1977 to 1982. Watching him was quite an experience. Very fluid player, a real master of the instrument. Made me want to go woodshed for a while, or even take some lessons to clean up my technique.
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I can understand this. A few years ago my wife and I saw Peter Frampton, and his bassist, Stanley Sheldon, was so smooth. In some songs, he was playing pretty busy lines yet his hand only ever looked like it slid up and down the neck.

I left the concert with exact same ambitions, but I didn’t seek out a teacher and didn’t muster to discipline to keep working on it.
 
#20
bradd said:
Julie Slick made me pick up a 5 string. She didn't spend much time below E, but watching her play complicated lines in different positions gave me the insight that it really isn't about those extra notes below E.
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That's great -- but it's kinda funny to me because I remember a conversation I had with her several years ago in which she said she would probably never be a 5-string player because she just couldn't get her head past the idea that the lowest strings is supposed to be E. (How many of us mere mortals have said the same thing?) A year later she was using her new Lakland fiver on tour with Adrian Belew.

The most direct way in which Julie has caused me to "change things up" was to motivate me to learn to play with a pick. I'd been playing for 10 or more years exclusively fingerstyle, but now I play about 50% with a pick and 50% without, and (finally!) I am now equally comfortable with either. (I did a couple of Skype lessons with her along the way to get some tips.)
 
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