I started watching a few videos of The Soft MAchine during their "Third" album. They definetly sound like a jazz group with rock influences even though it might be the other way around. Hugh Hopper is a great bassist and really holds it down while playing some very jazzy lines and some great melodic lines.
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Hugh Hopper
- Thread starter bassist15
- Start date
True dat!! Invalid Link Removed is definitely a very unique bassist, majorly cool use of fuzz, very creative player AND composer/conceptualist. My favorite stuff of his (not counting solo) are the second through fourth Soft Machine discs. His solo outings like 1984 and Hoppertunity Box are highly recommended. He also did a project about 2002 or so with Nick Didkovsky (Dr. Nerve) and a drummer called BONE - Uses Wrist Grab" that is very cool. The thing was, they never physically played together, just fed-exed discs back and forth.
Such a drag Hugh's battling lukemia right now. Best wishes for a full recovery to Hugh.
Such a drag Hugh's battling lukemia right now. Best wishes for a full recovery to Hugh.
Like Hugh a lot, I'm probably more of a Kevin Ayers guy though.
How about organist Mike Ratledge, the absurdly unsung hero of that band!
How about organist Mike Ratledge, the absurdly unsung hero of that band!
Yeah, Mike was definitely the mysterious one in the bunch. Gotta love that kazoo-like fuzz organ thing he did! After he left Soft Machine (I think because at that point they devolved into a boring generic fusion-lite thing after Wyatt and Hugh Hopper left) he started composing for soundtracks, commercials and the like plus producing.
Definitely a pre-CBS, with what *seems* like a slab board to me, but I'm really not certain given that my eyesight is far from perfect...
Hope there are still Hugh Hopper fans out there!! I am a bit confused about Hugh's basses. Started out with a Jazz then switched to Peavey. However, Gemtracks says he played a Patriot. I have never seen any pictures of him playing one! I have seen him playing a Foundation. Which is it? Or was it both?
