• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Jaco come on come over

Gab124

Gab124

The path is greater than the destination
Supporting Member
Dec 30, 2006
1,800
888
56
Tulsa
#1
Hey all, hope this is the right forum.. I would like a little direction with this song, and please do not point me toward some tab - I can't stand learning anything from tab :rollno:
So, I have the main riff down with no problem, it is the chorus I believe my problems lie. I know it is in D, anyone know more specifically the exact chord? Also, if there is an idea as to what kind of scale he is working out of here, I think i can do the rest by ear. I am not looking for note for note or anything like that. I have always had a hard time figuring out what approach to use with his playing. Any help would be most appreciated.
 
#2
I don't have it in front of me, but if memory serves it's a D7 chord... he's playing around in D mixolydian (just a D major scale with a flat 7). At the beginning of each phrase, he's touching on the D and then going to an A on the 2nd eighth note and pivoting around to C and B. On these things he liked to throw in a flat 3rd (in this case, F natural) as a blue note...
Hope this helps... someone else can correct me, or add something else...
 
#3
That helps, I was missing the flat 7th for sure. This is generally not the style music I play, so it is a good practice for me to expand out of my ruts.
thanks,
 
#6
"Doing anything Jaco note for note is not always easy"

That is a fact!! I really don't care about doing it note for note - what I really want to do is get the general feel and put my signature on it - but I have a long ways to go as far as knowing the theory to base this type of music/playing style upon. That is why I asked about what scales to work out of - just need the theory to backup what I am doing so I can apply to other areas. I have done the lessons and learned all the modes etc - but this will help to use them in an artistic musical manner instead of just playing scales :D

Any other tunes you all think would be good to work on is also appreciated.
 
#7
Gab124 said:
...but I have a long ways to go as far as knowing the theory to base this type of music/playing style upon.
Click to expand...
The "theory" (or vibe) is 1/16th note finger funk

That is why I asked about what scales to work out of - just need the theory to backup what I am doing...
Click to expand...
More vibe/feel than "theory", per say...you will hear more 7th, 9th, & 13th chords in within this idiom vs. most things in, say, mainstream Rock.

Any other tunes you all think would be good to work on is also appreciated.
Click to expand...
Tower Of Power would be a great start...and finish. ;)
 
#10
"Barbary Coast"...from Weather Report's Black Market is another Jaco-finger funk fest.
It is more mid-tempo & should be a bit easier than the uptempo stuff.

"The Chicken" is another, "I Can Dig It, Baby" by Little Beaver (w/ Jaco) is another.
You should hear some similar devices being used by Jaco in all of these examples (including "Come On, Come Over").

Bootsy Collins' James Brown stuff; "Sex Machine" is an example of vamping on 1-chord in this style.

Gary Willis, Paul Jackson, Chuck Rainey, Jimmy Haslip, Oteil Burbridge, Victor Wooten, Christian McBride are other Finger Funk masters.
Check out Wooten on the Jaco cover called "Beaver Patrol"
...Willis on Tribal Tech's "Face First"...Paul Jackson on The Headhunters' "Actual Proof"...Burbridge on ARU's "No Egos Underwater"...Rainey on Aretha Frankin's "Rock Steady", McBride on "The Ballad of Little Girl Dancer",

Hell, check out Flea on the chorus to "Apache Rose Peacock". :)
 
#12
Thanks for the tips - Most of the artists you have listed have been things I have listened to, just never tried to figure them out. I whole heartedly agree that it is more feel than "theory" - though if one is not sure where they are at or going it makes it hard to feel it. With the tips given for come on come over I was very quickly able to "head in the right direction" as it were. I am always guilty of putting too many notes into the rock band I am in, so this style should help me let a little of that steam off.
 
#13
Gab124 said:
Any other tunes you all think would be good to work on is also appreciated.
Click to expand...

Get a copy of B. B. King's "Completey Well", the live King Curtis & The All Stars at the Filmore, and the live Aretha Franklin at the Fillmore. All three albums have one of Jaco's primary influences, Jerry Jemmott, on them. That stuttering 16th note pulse Jaco loved so much can be traced directly to Jerry Jemmott. Jaco once talked about sneaking into Criteria recording studio and hid in a closet listening to Jemmott "making the sounds I wanted to be making".

The King Curtis and Aretha albums were recorded at the same gigs. Aretha used King Curtis and his band as her band at those concerts. Curtis & The All Stars opened each night, then played for Aretha. Atlantic records was able to justify the expense of recording the shows because they'd get two albums out of it. From the perspective of a bassist's into that 16th note groove, I think they're indispensible.

John
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back