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Are Bass Albums Boring?

#63
Bass_Thumper said:
Let's not confuse an album that has a bassist as the band leader with a solo bass album.

Guys like Dave Holland, Michael Formanek, Mingus and Jaco to me are really just great musicians/composers that happen to play the bass. Composition is the key and not pyrotechnic although all of the guys at this level certainly have the skill to do whatever they want on the intrument.
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+1

I don't mind solos that make sense within the context of the tune. I dislike soloing for the sake of soloing.

Bass isn't really suited for melody work. The frequency range, especially with 4 string basses, is too low for it. Of course there are exception but after a while most bass solos tend to sound to me like whales humping.
 
#64
Barkless Dog said:
Solo bass is different from bass solo to me.
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Thanks for saying this Barkless Dog, they should be two different things to EVERYBODY yet many class 'bass as the lead instrument' albums etc as solo bass. There are so many great solo bassists around yet people seem either very ill informed about the genre, or just haven't discovered them yet. I can agree that not all of it is to everyone's tastes, but art is subjective. As a musician i like well constructed, interesting music...whether it involves 1 instrument or 1000.
 
#68
To answer the question, YES. And the mere thought of 6 & 8 string "basses" gives me the heebie-jeebies. The only thing else that could be this bad would be a drummer's album from some clown with a double kick bass set. Frightening and BORING. If it came down to it, I'd rather watch somebody masturbate than have to listen to them do it.
 
#69
Gaius46 said:
+1

I don't mind solos that make sense within the context of the tune. I dislike soloing for the sake of soloing.

Bass isn't really suited for melody work. The frequency range, especially with 4 string basses, is too low for it. Of course there are exception but after a while most bass solos tend to sound to me like whales humping.
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Wow, I totally disagree. Bass is one of the most sonorous rich sounding instruments, which makes it ideally suited for solos. It absolutely *excels* at single notes because of its range, which provides a rich full set of harmonics for every note. Great sounding single notes => good solos potential. Few instruments, well played, sound as rich and full and awesome as bass. Now the size of the instrument makes it a bit harder to play with virtuosity, granted. But the inherent tone is hard to beat.

One more thing- lots of love in this thread for Richard Bona. I bought one of his solo CDs, recommended by BP mag, and it's ok, but it's very smooth jazzy and most of the compositions on it were utterly unmemorable. Definitely not my thing, although he is a great player and a fantastic singer. I feel Victor's "A Show Of Hands" is a much stronger CD strictly from the standpoint of the songs being memorable and having meaning.
 
#72
Most solo albums by virtuoso bass players and guitar players sound like a massive mastubatory wankfest to me. It is one of the types of music/albums that I will turn off the fastest. It's not that I don't like the person. It is not fun to listen to and seems devoid of any emotion.

For bass players the only one I can tolerate is Squarepusher. I got into Squarepusher, AFX and Autechre in the very late 90s. Looooong before I was playing bass. It has been interesting rediscovering all my old Squarepusher albums from a different perspective.

For guitar players I can tolerate SOME Buckethead in very small doses. Mostly Colma. Put on Vai or Satriani and I'm cringing.
 
#74
HolmeBass said:
Wow, I totally disagree. Bass is one of the most sonorous rich sounding instruments, which makes it ideally suited for solos. It absolutely *excels* at single notes because of its range, which provides a rich full set of harmonics for every note. Great sounding single notes => good solos potential. Few instruments, well played, sound as rich and full and awesome as bass. Now the size of the instrument makes it a bit harder to play with virtuosity, granted. But the inherent tone is hard to beat.
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Perhaps, but I just don't care for most of the solo bass work I hear and what I do like tends to be in the higher registers of the instrument.

I started playing guitar a few years ago, after playing only bass guitar for 3 decades specifically because I found it impossible to play things solo that were pleasing to non musicians. Maybe that's a failing in me.
 
#76
I seem to be on the minority side here. I really like John Patitucci solo CDs. I also like a lot Zon Zander, Jeff Smidth and Micheal Manring.

But I hate Marcus Miller solo CD, too much 4/4 R&B beat ( wich ruined SMV CD for me ).

Victor Wooten is nice when he doen't have lyric in his song.

but it is me.
 
#79
I didn't read the entire thread, but I agree that the bass needs to be balanced out by everything else musically, or else it just seems like someone is masturbating and everyone else is sort of sitting around watching...

I would suggest listening to Esperanza Spalding. I haven't heard her first one "Junjo", but her second album "Esperanza" is fantastic, musically very diverse and interesting, and some very mature and tasty bass playing (upright, mind you)
 

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