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Double Bass <flamebait>cliches and good quotes</flamebait>

brutuscheezcake

brutuscheezcake

Supporting Member
Nov 8, 2003
226
334
Reno
#1
<flamebait>cliches and good quotes</flamebait>

guys,

i would love to get a few musical quotes or appropriate cliches list going on.

when i play rhythm changes i like to quote

i got rhythm (naturally)
oleo
cottontail
the flintstones

when i play scrapple

honeysuckle rose


when i play the girl from ipanema

desafinado
lucky southern


when i play i-iv-v

jeez, anything blue in a melody
like blue monk
sailors hornpipe
donna lee
scotland the brave (the old spice commercial music)


so... esteemed brothers, what are your favorite musical quotes and where do you use them?

you gotta know, i just want to steal some of your easy licks!

simon
 
#2
Just today I was playing a concert for the Jazz Club of Sarasota. We played the tune "Undecided" and during my bass solo I quoted Slim & Slam's "Flat Foot Floogie". It's a catchy riff and the crowd seemed to dig it. I also played Jimmie Blanton's lick from "Jack The Bear" to end my solo on Duke Ellington's "Just Squeeze Me".

- Steve

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#3
I generally don't plan 'em... they just fly out sometimes, and then I immediately hear Ed Fuqua's voice in my head, berating me.

The one that does seem to pop up a lot is Duke's "Rockin' In Rhythm". But I don't do it much anymore...if I do, I take it as a warning that I'm temporarily not involved enough in the process of making music.
 
#4
Marcus Johnson said:
then I immediately hear Ed Fuqua's voice in my head, berating me.
Click to expand...

Why? Lots of jazz soloists (not just bassists) quote melodies in their solos. I don't think it impedes creativity unless you overdo it and worry more about sticking in the quote than playing a cohesive solo . Slam Stewart always threw quotes into his solos. One of the coolest bass quotes I've ever heard was when Jay Leonhardt played Isreal Crosby's famous counterpoint melody from "But, Not For Me" while soloing on the same song (but in a different key and tempo). I heard it as a little tribute to Isreal Crosby plus a sort of "wink" to other bass players who would recognize the melody.

- Steve

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#5
Blimpdog said:
Why? Lots of jazz soloists (not just bassists) quote melodies in their solos. I don't think it impedes creativity unless you overdo it and worry more about sticking in the quote than playing a cohesive solo . Slam Stewart always threw quotes into his solos. One of the coolest bass quotes I've ever heard was when Jay Leonhardt played Isreal Crosby's famous counterpoint melody from "But, Not For Me" while soloing on the same song (but in a different key and tempo). I heard it as a little tribute to Isreal Crosby plus a sort of "wink" to other bass players who would recognize the melody.

- Steve

Link Removed
Click to expand...

It's just a device that I try to avoid, probably because I relied so heavily on it in times past. Ed has spoken in the past on the subject, though I can't remember the specific threads. That's where the Fuqua reference came from.

I do know that lots of great soloists quote in their solos. Marian McPartland did a show on quoting, and in fact cited "Rockin' in Rhythm" as one that she slips into pretty regularly.

Sometimes I like to take a quote that seemingly won't fit into the changes, something angular, like "Pinocchio", and warp it into shape, and base the subsequent improvisations on that theme. When I pull it off, I feel like Mr. Super Genius. The rest of the time, I feel like Marcus Johnson :rolleyes:.
 
#6
I use 'em when my own ideas are running dry (which is frequently), or sometimes just because its fun and gets a laugh from the other players (that is, when they're not just plain laughing at my playing) .

One quote I keep coming back to is "Swingin' on a Star."
 
#8
RyanHelms said:
"If I Only Had a Brain" from the Scarecrow's bit in The Wizard of Oz seems to pop up all over the place...
Click to expand...

LOL :) I played that one just last night! The female vocalist finished singing "Over The Rainbow" and I played the melody you mentioned as a little bass coda while the last chord was sustaining. I was a little disappointed that only the vibes player noticed it.

- Steve

Link Removed
 
#9
Marcus Johnson said:
Sometimes I like to take a quote that seemingly won't fit into the changes, something angular, like "Pinocchio", and warp it into shape, and base the subsequent improvisations on that theme. When I pull it off, I feel like Mr. Super Genius. The rest of the time, I feel like Marcus Johnson :rolleyes:.
Click to expand...

Change the last two words to "DURRL", and welcome to my world. :)
 
#10
I'm an old fool for this ****....I got a million of 'em.
Paul Desmond and Jim Hall are two of my favorites to listen to for quotes. What's hip with these two is the fact that they have the ability to squeeze them in over the bar lines!
I use to play alot of quotes, then lately i've been noticing that nobody reacts to them....that's because everyone who recognizes the quotes are all dead now! :crying:
 
#11
Jim Hall is the all-time master at the "disguised quote". As Paul mentioned, he rhythmically displaces them and harmonically morphs them so that they're barely recognizable. As a listener, you sometimes don't realize you've been "zinged' until after the fact.

As always, Jim Hall is the man.

Paul..I ain't dead yet... come to Hawai'i and play some quotes for me! Bet I get at least some of 'em....
 
#15
I read a story on Desmond once, where he played a quote from one of Pres' solos. This writer talked to him on a break and thanked him for playing it, and to tell him he recognized it..In the middle of the next set, he played the rest of it. Paul stopped on the way out and said: I thought you might enjoy hearing all of it.!!
 
#16
Marcus Johnson said:
Jim Hall is the all-time master at the "disguised quote". As Paul mentioned, he rhythmically displaces them and harmonically morphs them so that they're barely recognizable. As a listener, you sometimes don't realize you've been "zinged' until after the fact.

As always, Jim Hall is the man.
Click to expand...

It seems to me in the UK, that it's particularly guitarists who like to do this - Jim Mullen is one who I've seen play whole sets of this kind of thing!! :hmm:

But I wonder if Jazz guitarists like doing it as they always play fairly "clean" and have less available for shaping sound and dynamics of a solo, like a Sax player would?
 
#17
Bruce Lindfield said:
It seems to me in the UK, that it's particularly guitarists who like to do this - Jim Mullen is one who I've seen play whole sets of this kind of thing!! :hmm:

But I wonder if Jazz guitarists like doing it as they always play fairly "clean" and have less available for shaping sound and dynamics of a solo, like a Sax player would?
Click to expand...

Bruce, the way you brain works is really fascinating for me.

I mentioned this before I think, but I used to work with an alto player who literally played from quote to quote. He wouldn't do it all the time, but i've heard him really get close.
And, i'm sure we've ALL heard the cat who does a quote and then can't remember what tune he was playing and ends up getting stuck in that one.
Not mentioning any names, there was a fairly famous sax player from my neck of the woods who was famous (among musicians) for doing this.
 
#19
I don't understand how this thread got this far without mentioning Dexter Gordon. As for guitarists, some years ago me and my jazz mates were at a Bill Frisell gig and me being the only one that had heard much pop/rock was the only one that clocked the quotes. That they flew over the jazz-fiends heads didn't seem to detract from their appreciation of Bill. Seeing as Paul has speculated on the subject whaddaya reckon - does putting quotes in that maybe only you know detract? After all, if you think it and think it appropriate or it just springs from your flow of improvisational conciousness why should'nt it? Quotes, whether known or not, work in literature with readers how haven't seen them before - but if the quote is a clever allusion to something then the message is lost. This is still no reason not to use them if you think them - why disrupt your flow because some of the jazz police frown upon it? Yeah - Dex is my man!
 

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