Yes. The trick is, don't play it. Learn it, when you have time, for a future gig.
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Double Bass Bass and Sax Duo
- Thread starter bandito
- Start date
Solar should sound awesome in that setting. I love Nostalgia In Times Square. Good melody to play on bass too. Also good to see some Monk in there. Sounds like it'll be a good gig 
all the best
all the best
My son Dylan is a pretty decent college sax player. We grew up playing together. Sax and bass duo is a beautiful sound.
My approach begins with the wise words of Brother Fuqua: 'Play with the the people who are with you, not with the record you hear in your head.' For me, that often means that I am likely to be more active in my walking -- more pops and rakes than I might play if I were in a piano-and-sax quartet. Also, you didn't say what horn your partner plays. You're going to play differently backing a bari than behind a sop, certainly in terms of where you play on the bass but possibly in terms of activity as well.
Duo offers the tremendous advantage that you can take off anywhere you like, at any moment: Head into waltz-time, drop in on 7/4, pop a vamp in the middle of a tune. On the other hand, as my friend Mark Kleinhaut used to say, "It is all held together by one thin string." You have to make sure to bring your audience with you. If you leave them behind, you're out on a shrinking iceberg, man.
As far as repertoire is concerned the only advice I'll offer is that unless you are Brian Bromberg's missing twin shifting chords over pedal points are a challenge. So Jobim's "If You Never Come To Me" can sound fine, but "Dolphin Dance" misses a lot of harmonic nuance if you're as infirm a player as I am.
Have fun, make tapes and please report back if you feel like it.
My approach begins with the wise words of Brother Fuqua: 'Play with the the people who are with you, not with the record you hear in your head.' For me, that often means that I am likely to be more active in my walking -- more pops and rakes than I might play if I were in a piano-and-sax quartet. Also, you didn't say what horn your partner plays. You're going to play differently backing a bari than behind a sop, certainly in terms of where you play on the bass but possibly in terms of activity as well.
Duo offers the tremendous advantage that you can take off anywhere you like, at any moment: Head into waltz-time, drop in on 7/4, pop a vamp in the middle of a tune. On the other hand, as my friend Mark Kleinhaut used to say, "It is all held together by one thin string." You have to make sure to bring your audience with you. If you leave them behind, you're out on a shrinking iceberg, man.
As far as repertoire is concerned the only advice I'll offer is that unless you are Brian Bromberg's missing twin shifting chords over pedal points are a challenge. So Jobim's "If You Never Come To Me" can sound fine, but "Dolphin Dance" misses a lot of harmonic nuance if you're as infirm a player as I am.
Have fun, make tapes and please report back if you feel like it.
Learn to play the harmony of any tune you are learning in double stops, and then be very judicious about where you use them. I do a lot of playing in duos and trios without a chordal instrument, and when you feel like you can play the double stops in tune, they can be a really nice texture to use for variety while supplying some extra harmonic information. The rub is that when they're out of tune, they usually make everything sound worse. Still doesn't hurt to practice them, though, as you never know when they'll pass the tipping point and be usable.
Also, listen to as many duo/chordless trio recordings as you can and check out what other players do. I found that this really helped, especially because before I did this I imagined they were doing all kinds of impossibly difficult things when in truth there was much less of that on the recordings than i imagined. Last, be patient. I've been on a kick for a while now doing duo sessions with Dave Klingman (a great local clarinet player), and when it's on, the results are some of the best music I've ever been a part of. Something about all of that space brings out creativity once you get past the fear of too much space.
Also, listen to as many duo/chordless trio recordings as you can and check out what other players do. I found that this really helped, especially because before I did this I imagined they were doing all kinds of impossibly difficult things when in truth there was much less of that on the recordings than i imagined. Last, be patient. I've been on a kick for a while now doing duo sessions with Dave Klingman (a great local clarinet player), and when it's on, the results are some of the best music I've ever been a part of. Something about all of that space brings out creativity once you get past the fear of too much space.
He's an alto player. I do a lot more rakes, ghost notes, fills, whole/half notes when we play together than when I'm in my schools jazz band. I don't play chords or double stops that much though, mainly because I don't have the strongest left hand yet but I'm working at it and I'll definatly use them when I stop cramping up as much.
+1
The underlining is mine.
I wish more players appreciated this. Thanks, Chris.
A double stop is when you play two notes at the same time.
In the low register of the double bass, the intervals most easily heard are the octave, the fifth, and the tenth. However, other intervals can be used, depending on the effect you want to create.
In my music room, mostly. We haven't found a gig for bass/clarinet yet, but if we do, we'll take it and run with it.
ah, that's a shame. one of the first albums i heard was a banjo-bass-clarinet trio. so when i hear the words "bass" and "clarinet" together i perk up. which is, perhaps ironically, the opposite of what happens when i hear the word "bass clarinet."
EDIT: back on topic, i've been wondering much the same lately. i usually play with four other guys, but we've decided to start splitting up into differently assembled duos/trios since that's a more convenient size. and also, as students, just to gain experience in different settings. i really love the double stop stuff. and i actually recently got a few sax trio albums (sax-bass-drums) to learn from though i haven't cracked them open yet (may do that today). while the double stop stuff is really cool (especially when i saw red mitchell throw seemingly random double stops mid-walking line. sounded great), i really also think there's something cool to be said for two independent single-note lines making the entire song.
i just realized there's a first page to this thread and someone already recommended the red mitchell-clark terry duo. that was the one i alluded to up there. would definitely recommend checking it out.
EDIT: back on topic, i've been wondering much the same lately. i usually play with four other guys, but we've decided to start splitting up into differently assembled duos/trios since that's a more convenient size. and also, as students, just to gain experience in different settings. i really love the double stop stuff. and i actually recently got a few sax trio albums (sax-bass-drums) to learn from though i haven't cracked them open yet (may do that today). while the double stop stuff is really cool (especially when i saw red mitchell throw seemingly random double stops mid-walking line. sounded great), i really also think there's something cool to be said for two independent single-note lines making the entire song.
i just realized there's a first page to this thread and someone already recommended the red mitchell-clark terry duo. that was the one i alluded to up there. would definitely recommend checking it out.
I justed watched a Sonny Rollins DVD earlier today called 'Live in '65 & '68' or something like that (through NetFlix). The show from '65 is a trio with Niels Pedersen on bass, and a drummer I didn't recognize. It was really awesome! Though in reality, most anything with either Sonny or Niels great, the two of them together is even better.
It went alright. We played a lot better live than in practice definatly. We were really over prepared for it definatly and there was a lot of tosts so we really stretched out our set. We only got 35$ each in tips but were just a couple of 17 year olds. I did give out a bunch of my business cards out though and everyone really liked us, so I think we'll get some more gigs from this. I'm pretty glad we did it because we now have a lot of repitoure as a duo now and it can only get bigger/better. I think I'm going to put an add for us on craigslist.
Ruby Braff and George Barnes rehearsed their quartet for 8 weeks in advance of their 40 set at the Newport Jazz Festival.
They rehearsed a Gershwin tribute for 3 weeks in club performances and then went into a recording studio. The did an entire album, 10 tunes with arrangements, in 3 hours, an amazing feat.
"Over prepared" is a relative judgement.
Sounds like a good learning experience for you. Glad you could have it.
Me and my sax player have been practicing weekly for the past 2-3 months together because our drummer lives far away so we really had most of it down already by the 2 week notice period. And I slap the 2 and the 4 on latin stuff, and I notice I kind of reply to my phrases by slapping the fretboard during my solos.
