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Get off my LAWN! "Grumpy Old Farts"

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I'm in the States now, not entirely happy about it, and never lived in Dublin. My spiritual home is on Achill Island, and I think about Achill every day.


^ looking to the mainland

Took the job with N. America as my region, being here already owing to my relationship with someone whose name is no longer spoken in my presence
and looks like I went native
because now I have a US passport and and pretty stuck here until I figure something out. Fully vaccinated Americans will be able to travel to the EU this summer. This summer sees me circling back to the Second City.

My intention is to be in the States for summer and autumn, and on Achill for winter and spring.

Really didn't believe this return to the states was survivable. It gets harder and harder every time. So now what? In my former line of work, I make darn sure at every site to expect the absolute worst. Seldom disappointed, and everything that isn't an utter disaster is a blessed miracle :hyper: :thumbsup:
I always go in with low expectations. That way I'm never disappointed and if things happen to go 'OK', it seems even better.
 
Band kicks, bass player's excellent. Hate his tone, no bottom.

I’m not sure, but I think the bass player is Gordon Johnson. Every time I saw Gordon Johnson live, he had his bass and rig set up for solos. He is a tour de force on soloing. I agree that his walking part should have been more traditional as far as the way it sounded.

The arrangement was done by Denis DeBlasio (bari and flute). The band had to talk “the boss” into trying out the arrangement since Maynard had never heard of Sesame Street and didn’t want to play a song from a children’s show. When “the boss” saw the public reception to the song, it was in the set list for almost all of their live shows.

Sorry if I sound like a fanbois. As far as I am concerned, Maynard did more to keep young people interested in jazz than any other musician.
 
There are a lot of songs I like to play but hate to listen to. I can play just about anything as long as it is fairly interesting to play.
I 'hear' people bit...er, gripe and moan about playing some 'lame' request. OK, first, try to do some variation to make it "yer own"; second, in less than 5 minutes it'll be over.
EDIT: And it makes someone who you're playing for happy.
 
I 'hear' people bit...er, gripe and moan about playing some lame request. OK, first, try to do some variation to make it "yer own"; second, in less than 5 minutes it'll be over.


Exactly, years ago I played in a mostly original band but we got hired to play a wedding and the bride wanted a certain Kenny Rogers tune, or Bob Seger forget which but it was a slow kind of boring song to play but we played around with it and jammed on it until we ended up actually liking how it came out, we did kind of stray a little bit from the original tune :laugh: but they liked it so we were happy. I played weddings with a three piece band again years ago and we used to have a blast changing songs around on the fly, hey as long as people liked it......
 
I’m not sure, but I think the bass player is Gordon Johnson. Every time I saw Gordon Johnson live, he had his bass and rig set up for solos. He is a tour de force on soloing. I agree that his walking part should have been more traditional as far as the way it sounded.

The arrangement was done by Denis DeBlasio (bari and flute). The band had to talk “the boss” into trying out the arrangement since Maynard had never heard of Sesame Street and didn’t want to play a song from a children’s show. When “the boss” saw the public reception to the song, it was in the set list for almost all of their live shows.

Sorry if I sound like a fanbois. As far as I am concerned, Maynard did more to keep young people interested in jazz than any other musician.
I have heard many jazz bassists use that kind of tone. I don't like it. To me it sounds almost like a guitar down an octave. Yeah, I'm old(school), but I know what I don't like.
 
I’m not sure, but I think the bass player is Gordon Johnson. Every time I saw Gordon Johnson live, he had his bass and rig set up for solos. He is a tour de force on soloing. I agree that his walking part should have been more traditional as far as the way it sounded.

The arrangement was done by Denis DeBlasio (bari and flute). The band had to talk “the boss” into trying out the arrangement since Maynard had never heard of Sesame Street and didn’t want to play a song from a children’s show. When “the boss” saw the public reception to the song, it was in the set list for almost all of their live shows.

Sorry if I sound like a fanbois. As far as I am concerned, Maynard did more to keep young people interested in jazz than any other musician.


My parents saw his band probably 50 years ago and thought they were great.
 
Exactly, years ago I played in a mostly original band but we got hired to play a wedding and the bride wanted a certain Kenny Rogers tune, or Bob Seger forget which but it was a slow kind of boring song to play but we played around with it and jammed on it until we ended up actually liking how it came out, we did kind of stray a little bit from the original tune :laugh: but they liked it so we were happy. I played weddings with a three piece band again years ago and we used to have a blast changing songs around on the fly, hey as long as people liked it......
For many if not most people, if you play 'their' song-even if it ain't just like the original-they're happy.
 
I have heard many jazz bassists use that kind of tone. I don't like it. To me it sounds almost like a guitar down an octave. Yeah, I'm old(school), but I know what I don't like.
A bit of expansion on that: after my Navy time, I was attending Miami-Dade Community college, majoring in something other than music, but keeping my bass clarinet chops up in the concert band. The period after that was jazz/dance band rehearsals. There was only one bass(UB)player available and I had nothing to do that hour, so I volunteered to play in the other 'jazz' band, basically to help them out and improve my bass clef reading. The instructor kept after me to play that kind of tone, which neither my cobbled up bass amp nor I were comfortable with trying(I was playing an EB-3 on Mudbucker-my bass, my choice). The instructor was always criticizing, not teaching. So I decided to un-volunteer. Rehearsal was about to start and I was outside the bandroom. He saw me and asked was I coming in. "No, I don't think so". He didn't ask why and I felt no explanation was warranted. Maybe I shoulda told him my reason, but it wasn't gonna change anything. I'd taken enuff 'orders' the previous 4 years.
 
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The Fender Mustang Bass is a short scale instrument. Short scale helps in playing faster.

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