I just watched Steve Miller playing a live gig... and he has a dude playing keyboard bass.

Austin city limits. Yea, made me wanna puke

 

That's okay......I saw Steve Winwood and there was NO bass!

There was a saxophonist who sometimes played a bass sax.

Steve also was playing a B3 and his feet were moving faster than Rabbitt Bundrick with The Who the date after Entwhistle died.

Interesting to hear Winwood with this setup.

Didn't miss it. Was waiting to hear that I would, but never happened.

Let the whipping begin....

 

Organ pedal bass can be pretty amazing.

 

Funny thing is it was probably Joseph Wooten playing keys (Victor's brother). I don't know if he's still with them but he was for years.

 

It was Joseph on Austin City Limits with Miller.

 

Reattach player and a great guy. (Everyone in that family is just so nice.) But I have never seen him cover bass on keys. The two times I saw the band live they had a bass player.

 

Barbara Dennerlein kicking the sticks:


That box on top of her B-3 takes a midi signal from the pedals and makes them sound like a double bass.

 

During the long stretches when Traffic was a trio, it was the same. Chris Wood would play the organ when Winwood was on guitar. Over the entire history of that band, they never had a steady bassist.

We all know why bands drop the bass player: $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ Expenses are up, revenues are down. Neither Steve Miller or Steve Winwood is cranking out big hits or playing arenas as a headliner any more.

I've seen it happen with local bands, where choosing between staying a a quartet making $75 each vs. becoming a trio making $100 each is a heartbreaking decision. I was once in a sextet...female vocalist, guitar/vocals/BL, bass, drums, two horns and sometimes if the pay was good we added a piano. When the female vocalist dropped out to have a baby, the clubs we were working in wouldn't book us any more even though the guitarist could handle vocals for the night. To keep working at all, the guitarist pared it down to a trio.

 

Saw SM live (with a bass player) years ago. Hands down most boring show I've ever been to!

Last time I saw Jimmy Vaughan, he was touring without a bass player. Bass was covered by the left hand of the guy playing a Hammond B3. Sounded pretty sweet.

 

He sad thing is, I always remember Miller touring with a badass bassist like Gerald Johnson.

 

I saw the same episode of ASL. Maybe the bass-dude was barfing up bad Mexi-feast backstage and couldn't stand up long enough to do the gig? Otherwise, yeah....can the backing vox dude and get a real bassist-at least for one televised gig. Wow.

 

If it sounded good who cares

 

Maybe something happened and the bassist just couldn't play at the last minute. These guys are such pro-level musicians that they just adjusted and on with the show. You should call Mr. Miller and ask him.

 

One thing I'm proud of is Steve Miller has never asked me not to play bass so he could use a keyboard player.

 

While I would've preferred an actual bass player, I've got to give Joseph Wooten props. It was almost schizophrenic at times watching him play a decent bass line with his left hand and a legit organ part with his right, both with different feels.

EDIT: As to the question of why Miller didn't use a real bass player, the answer may lie in the fact that 90% of the audience probably didn't realize that he hadn't!