Chicago (Band) Bassists

[dbsfgyd1]

I know it's a yawner if you already know (if you know, you know), but this is the second time that music that's been there since I was a kid has revealed how much I just never realized what was going on with the bass even though I've heard the songs a million times. The first time, I had to learn a set of Beatles songs...never a real fan but obviously familiar from listening. Learning songs was a real eye opener...and more interesting and enjoyable than I thought going in.

Well, here I am again...now I have to learn several Chicago songs for a corporate gig and I've got 3 and a half weeks. I'm really marveling at what's been under the hood all this time. I learn by ear and usually like to find live versions for more involved songs...often easier to pick things out. When I first got the list and started listening, I gave a quick listen to You're The Inspiration, I thought okay that one doesn't have much going on, I'll just set it aside. Well, I got to it and holy crap! Once it gets going, the studio version barely repeats exactly the same thing twice (which is the great crutch of learning songs quickly). Thank God for all of the AI isolated tracks and play along bass covers on youtube. What I thought was going to be the easiest is probably going to be the toughest to get committed to memory. There are some bigwigs involved and not that I don't generally want to do well, I really want to nail these.

And as I go through live performances, I'm really enjoying listening to Jason Scheff's take on Cetera's writing.

I’m not sure that is a bass guitar on that that cut, it’s likely a synth. As I understand it Cetera and Foster had a few (bumps) in their relationship with Cetera at one point deciding he wasn’t going to play bass any more.

I’ve covered a lot of Chicago songs over the last 50 years nd have alway enjoyed Cetera’s work as a bassist. But, I can understand coupling an hyper anal arranger and basically a free form artist of a bassist going off like a nuke.

Have fun. It’s great material.

 

[PhillipHolbrook]

That would be really nice but no, they've hired Neil Donell and Mark Rivera as featured and we're the backing band. So, horns will be our keyboard player plus sax, not a horn section. Donell has incredible range and his claim to fame is actually in being a vocal chameleon, sounding reminiscent of varied voices when he wants to, so it'll be interesting to hear his go at Cetera, Lamm's leads, Peter Gabriel, Lou Gramm and Paul Rodgers when we play. I would have liked to have heard him doing Billy Joel, but Rivera likes to sing, so I'm sure hell be doing those.

I've seen a couple of videos with Neil singing a couple of Cetera songs and he is great!

 

[JimmyM]

We did Beginnings as well. Great song but the guitarist never played the intro correctly and didn't use an acoustic guitar. Annoyed the hell outta me! LOL!

You really don’t need an acoustic guitar as long as they play the part right. The only time I ever played it in a band with an acoustic was doing a couple all acoustic shows.

 

[drpepper]

I’m not sure that is a bass guitar on that that cut, it’s likely a synth. As I understand it Cetera and Foster had a few (bumps) in their relationship with Cetera at one point deciding he wasn’t going to play bass any more.

I’ve covered a lot of Chicago songs over the last 50 years nd have alway enjoyed Cetera’s work as a bassist. But, I can understand coupling an hyper anal arranger and basically a free form artist of a bassist going off like a nuke.

Have fun. It’s great material.

Yes. Regardless of how it came to be, You're The Inspiration's studio versions bass line was on synth bass, but it's played live on BG. Going keyboard lines to BG can sometimes come with its own hitches because of the way certain things do or don't fall naturally under the hands on one or the other (prime e.g., the Alannah Myles - Black Velvet Eb fill that's always flummoxing bass players).

Anyway, it's been played a lot of ways with the different singers over time and definitely streamlined partly because three of the four were playing bass while singing it live. I had started with this note-for-note play along video and committed tribute covers like Leonid & Friends that can be good for making out bass lines (and why I was freaking out a little) but settled up on patterning after what the current Chicago bass player has been doing live.

 

[drpepper]

You really don’t need an acoustic guitar as long as they play the part right. The only time I ever played it in a band with an acoustic was doing a couple all acoustic shows.

Yep, I've been fine with it on electric while we've been working it up. It'll be on 12-string acoustic at the show, which he broke out at the final rehearsal to give it a dry run...it was nice, and I think it will be cool at the show, but I don't know how far beyond us appreciation of it will go. Likely a difference that won't really be the difference for anyone in the audience.

 

[dbsfgyd1]

Yes. Regardless of how it came to be, You're The Inspiration's studio versions bass line was on synth bass, but it's played live on BG. Going keyboard lines to BG can sometimes come with its own hitches because of the way certain things do or don't fall naturally under the hands on one or the other (prime e.g., the Alannah Myles - Black Velvet Eb fill that's always flummoxing bass players).

Anyway, it's been played a lot of ways with the different singers over time and definitely streamlined partly because three of the four were playing bass while singing it live. I had started with this note-for-note play along video and committed tribute covers like Leonid & Friends that can be good for making out bass lines (and why I was freaking out a little) but settled up on patterning after what the current Chicago bass player has been doing live.

Good post. I appreciate your response.

 

[PhillipHolbrook]

That would be really nice but no, they've hired Neil Donell and Mark Rivera as featured and we're the backing band. So, horns will be our keyboard player plus sax, not a horn section. Donell has incredible range and his claim to fame is actually in being a vocal chameleon, sounding reminiscent of varied voices when he wants to, so it'll be interesting to hear his go at Cetera, Lamm's leads, Peter Gabriel, Lou Gramm and Paul Rodgers when we play. I would have liked to have heard him doing Billy Joel, but Rivera likes to sing, so I'm sure hell be doing those.

What will your main bass be?

 

[drpepper]

What will your main bass be?

Funny because that was another thing that turned from "P bass, of course" into yet another thing for me to wrestle with. Since I don't like switching basses, for me, as soon as a couple of songs call for a 5er, that means I'm playing a 5er for the night. My Ps are 4-string, so I'm playing my Brubaker Brute JJX5...I just painted it, so I'm digging it currently

 

[DWBass]

You really don’t need an acoustic guitar as long as they play the part right. The only time I ever played it in a band with an acoustic was doing a couple all acoustic shows.

You're right. We had a sub one time and he played it correctly on electric guitar. Question though......why don't ALL guitarists own an A/E guitar? I've been in many bands over the years and exactly 1 band the guitarist owned an A/E guitar. Similar question...........why don't ALL vocalists own a mic?? These are the folks I get to play with. Sad!

Sorry for the derail. Carry on.

 

[PhillipHolbrook]

Funny because that was another thing that turned from "P bass, of course" into yet another thing for me to wrestle with. Since I don't like switching basses, for me, as soon as a couple of songs call for a 5er, that means I'm playing a 5er for the night. My Ps are 4-string, so I'm playing my Brubaker Brute JJX5...I just painted it, so I'm digging it currently

That's cool! I would play a 5 too.

 

[JimmyM]

You're right. We had a sub one time and he played it correctly on electric guitar. Question though......why don't ALL guitarists own an A/E guitar? I've been in many bands over the years and exactly 1 band the guitarist owned an A/E guitar. Similar question...........why don't ALL vocalists own a mic?? These are the folks I get to play with. Sad!

Sorry for the derail. Carry on.

I think they do own them but they don’t want to use them on gigs because it’s more work and more gear you need.

 

[PhillipHolbrook]

Funny because that was another thing that turned from "P bass, of course" into yet another thing for me to wrestle with. Since I don't like switching basses, for me, as soon as a couple of songs call for a 5er, that means I'm playing a 5er for the night. My Ps are 4-string, so I'm playing my Brubaker Brute JJX5...I just painted it, so I'm digging it currently

Please let us know how tonight went. I know you're very busy on the road, but if you would when you have the time we would all love to hear about it.

 

[PhillipHolbrook]

I think they do own them but they don’t want to use them on gigs because it’s more work and more gear you need.

I've never known a singer to own a mic unless they were either full pros touring or a non professional singer who does some traveling and owns their own sound system.

 

[drpepper]

Please let us know how tonight went. I know you're very busy on the road, but if you would when you have the time we would all love to hear about it.

It was fantastic on a number of levels...weird, but day-of rehearsals with these absolute pros might have been my favorite part of the day, getting to really listen to each other and communicate. That was just an amazing part of the experience for me and it will be memorable. The hang during the whole day and until 2:00 AM after we played was incredible...Mark's history is a friggin encyclopedia and there were endless stories, anecdotes and hilarious jokes about gigs and sessions and other projects ranging from Billy Joel to Yoko Ono. But he didn't just talk about himself; my story got to be part of the evening, and he's very big on "if not for" moments that we can be thankful for in making up our paths (mine that he pointed out and really loved as I was telling him how I cam to be there was that if not for my son's taking guitar lessons with my childhood friend who got me started originally when we were 11, I wouldn't have been or had any of the experiences leading up to it...I stopped playing some time just after high school and that sparked my picking it back up around 25 years later)

There were video, lighting and (personal IEM) issues, but it was still fantastic for me personally. We had setup for a two-camera shoot (unmanned, wide and tighter) but both recordings failed (both operator error). The landscape on the terrace (mostly concrete planter/tree boxes) created limitations and challenges for the lighting company and in the end, no truss could be setup for hair light. There were up lights at the back of the stage, but by the time we started, those were gone too, so the lighting had a flat, deer-in-the-headlights, unprofessional look to it. The band brought its IEM rig but used the sound company's transmitters and packs. Something got screwed up at some point, and once we hit the stage, I didn't have control of my mix and it had an overpowering drum overhead in it. I had to pull my buds and ask the monitor engineer to at least put more of my vocals in the downstage wedges in front of me and just deal with the result the whole two hours (there was no break for me).

Problems aside, I was happy with my sound, playing and backing vocals that we had all worked our asses off on not knowing who would sings what day-of, which I did end up doing some as we had rehearsed...some got taken by Mark or switched to the band's lead singer (getting to sing the third on Saturday In The Park "Slow motion riders..." and then go up to the high on the last lines "all is not lost" behind Neil was a definite highlight). More importantly Mark was happy with the playing, tone and feel...and is a new friend. Neil didn't comment on me specifically but said he liked the band a lot, and both he and Mark are down to put the same package together for future corprate gigs.

As a matter of fact, some back and forth between Neil and Mark just came in as I'm sitting here...

Neil sang All Right Now and Black Magic Woman and took them both places that floored everyone.

We are incredibly bummed about not getting any of the video we had planned for, so we'll see what we can pull and salvage from cell phone videos that we can get our hands on.

Here's a snippet from the keyboard players wife (who understandably focuses on him and less understandably doesn't necessarily record whole songs and seems to move her hand around on the phone's mic ) Not good sound (not good lighting) and not the whole song, but proof it happened

 

[jerry]

It was fantastic on a number of levels...weird, but day-of rehearsals with these absolute pros might have been my favorite part of the day, getting to really listen to each other and communicate. That was just an amazing part of the experience for me and it will be memorable. The hang during the whole day and until 2:00 AM after we played was incredible...Mark's history is a friggin encyclopedia and there were endless stories, anecdotes and hilarious jokes about gigs and sessions and other projects ranging from Billy Joel to Yoko Ono. But he didn't just talk about himself; my story got to be part of the evening, and he's very big on "if not for" moments that we can be thankful for in making up our paths (mine that he pointed out and really loved as I was telling him how I cam to be there was that if not for my son's taking guitar lessons with my childhood friend who got me started originally when we were 11, I wouldn't have been or had any of the experiences leading up to it...I stopped playing some time just after high school and that sparked my picking it back up around 25 years later)

There were video, lighting and (personal IEM) issues, but it was still fantastic for me personally. We had setup for a two-camera shoot (unmanned, wide and tighter) but both recordings failed (both operator error). The landscape on the terrace (mostly concrete planter/tree boxes) created limitations and challenges for the lighting company and in the end, no truss could be setup for hair light. There were up lights at the back of the stage, but by the time we started, those were gone too, so the lighting had a flat, deer-in-the-headlights, unprofessional look to it. The band brought its IEM rig but used the sound company's transmitters and packs. Something got screwed up at some point, and once we hit the stage, I didn't have control of my mix and it had an overpowering drum overhead in it. I had to pull my buds and ask the monitor engineer to at least put more of my vocals in the downstage wedges in front of me and just deal with the result the whole two hours (there was no break for me).

Problems aside, I was happy with my sound, playing and backing vocals that we had all worked our asses off on not knowing who would sings what day-of, which I did end up doing some as we had rehearsed...some got taken by Mark or switched to the band's lead singer (getting to sing the third on Saturday In The Park "Slow motion riders..." and then go up to the high on the last lines "all is not lost" behind Neil was a definite highlight). More importantly Mark was happy with the playing, tone and feel...and is a new friend. Neil didn't comment on me specifically but said he liked the band a lot, and both he and Mark are down to put the same package together for future corprate gigs.

As a matter of fact, some back and forth between Neil and Mark just came in as I'm sitting here...

View attachment 7143212

Neil sang All Right Now and Black Magic Woman and took them both places that floored everyone.

We are incredibly bummed about not getting any of the video we had planned for, so we'll see what we can pull and salvage from cell phone videos that we can get our hands on.

Here's a snippet from the keyboard players wife (who understandably focuses on him and less understandably doesn't necessarily record whole songs and seems to move her hand around on the phone's mic ) Not good sound (not good lighting) and not the whole song, but proof it happened

You sound great, and so does the band! Happy for you man!

 

[drpepper]

You sound great, and so does the band! Happy for you man!

Thank you, sir

 

[JimmyM]

I've never known a singer to own a mic unless they were either full pros touring or a non professional singer who does some traveling and owns their own sound system.

I thought we were mostly talking about acoustic guitars.

 

[DWBass]

I thought we were mostly talking about acoustic guitars.

My bad. My derail. Carry on.