Dueling Bassists

[MD]

Well...it's NOT rock, and it's upright bass, but
Ray Brown has a recording called "Super Bass".
He plays with two other bassists; Christian McBride and
John Clayton. Also in the jazz vain is Ron Carter who
plays a piccolo bass along with Buster Williams on URB.

 

[Matthew West]

Originally posted by Rockinjc
Does morphine count? How bout the Tap?
jc

Um, Morphine only had three members. Bass, sax and drums.

 

[Dave Castelo]

I saw a video from Girls Against Boys called "Kill the sexplayer" and there were two bassplayers...I don´t know if they do that often.

 

[Hary]

I don't know any bands with a lineup like this, but i've thought about it several times. Because most bands have two guitarists, but only one bassist. Some kinds of music are really good with bass solos and rhythm parts. So why not put the two together?

 

[Matthew West]

Originally posted by Les Claypool
I saw a video from Girls Against Boys called "Kill the sexplayer" and there were two bassplayers...I don´t know if they do that often.

That's their normal line-up.

 

[Bruce Lindfield]

Originally posted by kickassrocker
I have had that idea before myself. Symphony orchestras have several basses, each with thier own bass line. Why can't rock groups have more than one bass. One bass would be strickly bottom end while the other would be more melodic and be more alto. Ed Freiland plays the piccolo bass!

In the vast majority of orchestral scores there is only one bass part - all the basses play the same thing - the nunbers are needed to balance the volume.

I think there is a difficulty with having more than one bass player - a lot of bass lines use chromatic passing notes and if two players play a semi-tone apart, it sounds really bad! The only way it can work I think, is if the parts are carefully arranged and probably if they occupy different areas of the audio spectrum or the overall sound will lose clarity and become unbearably "muddy".

 

[rickbass]

I think there is a difficulty with having more than one bass player - a lot of bass lines use chromatic passing notes and if two players play a semi-tone apart, it sounds really bad! The only way it can work I think, is if the parts are carefully arranged and probably if they occupy different areas of the audio spectrum or the overall sound will lose clarity and become unbearably "muddy".



Bruce- You are so right. We were trading stuff using one of these new ZOOM Palmtop Studios and it's like, "Well, you use your Stingray in the lower registers and I'll use my Rick to run around on top, but where the hell do the rhythm guitar/keyboards come in now?"

[Edited by rickbass1 on 01-31-2001 at 06:27 PM]

 

[Tom_Hamilton_fan]

i think it's boys vs girls or girls vs boys. can't remembe. saw a video clip for it once...sure enough 2 bassists.

 

[gruffpuppy]

Patsy Cline had two bass players.

 

[SantosL.Halper]

Well, I remember a band called the Soft Boys (Robin Hitchcocks old band). Had a cool song called Leppo and the Jooves that used 2 basses I think. In 3/4 time no less...

 

[rickbass]

In the latest issue of Bass Player, in his contribution titled, "10 Things I Hope Not To See In The Future," SWR's Bryan Beller includes, "4. Bands with more than one bassist...."

Now, I know this is COOL!!!

 

[JDBJJJP]

Here is one, they are from mexico, they also did an article in bass player magazine about three years ago. the link:

Invalid Link Removed


good luck P.S. leave each other a lot of space and work on the counterpoint

 

[JDBJJJP]

if the link doesn't work the band is called, MOLOTOV

 

[XavierG]

I was listening to some Matt Garrison tonight, and it struck me that he, as have other bassists, records himself laying the groove, and on a separate track, plays a melody line. Sounds pretty good actually. Of course, that's still just one bassist.

 

[Yvon]

Check out

bass contrebass
from Alain Caron and Michel Donato.

I don't really like Alain but that album is good.
Of course it's jazz.

 

[JMX]

Avantgarde/free jazz guitarist Sonny Sharrock used to have 2 bassists (Melvin Gibbs among them) - and 2 drummers

 

[JimK]

Originally posted by Bruce Lindfield I think there is a difficulty with having more than one bass player - a lot of bass lines use chromatic passing notes and if two players play a semi-tone apart, it sounds really bad! The only way it can work I think, is if the parts are carefully arranged and probably if they occupy different areas of the audio spectrum or the overall sound will lose clarity and become unbearably "muddy".

...I totally agree. If the parts are "arranged", it will work; & that means no improv-ing/jamming(usually). FPE, things are bad enough when playing with a guitarist who likes ROOT position chord voicings. That means, if said-guitarist plays a G13 with the ROOT @the 3rd fret(E-string), my choice of notes becomes "something less". Thank you, no.
IMHO, the only thing worse than two bass players in a band is two drummers in a band.

That said & FWIW, Ornette Coleman's FREE JAZZ album, with two 4-tets(2 saxes, 2 trumpets, 2 bassists, 2 drummers)is happenin'.
Hmmmm, no chords to clutter things up.

 

[JDBJJJP]

i think that there is little differnce having two bass player is an imporvation band as there are having two of any instrument. The whole point is that you have to be knowledgable and pay attention to your fellow section players and really fit into the situation and give each other to improvise. I think that the part of the reason that the bass isn't being featured in a lot of situations is the attitude of the bass players a lot of the time. We need more people who believe in it as an instrument that can do anthing it's not just a function. As Micheal Manring once said "bass guitar is a beautiful instrument". And now i'll get down off my soap box.