Jamiroquai - A Tale of Two Bassists!!

I guess most will agree.

Nowadays Jamiroquai is Jay's vehicle only.
He lost much more than only a bassist when Stuart left.

We've seen this before, haven't we (Simply Red)?

 

simply red suck, and when a band is doing nothing more than being told finger positions by the snugglemuffin in the hat then it is time to wonder ...do you want to sacrifice all your self respect for the sake of a pay check?

 

I know someone who knows someone who is the drummer for one of these type of bands and the money they get for a short tour

Back on topic, Stuart Zender did make a difference IMHO. A band is about teamwork, leading a band is about getting the best out of everyone.

I run a band and dont play bass in it. I dont tell my bassplayer what or how to play. I have even stopped playing bass on the song demos, its his job and he does it well.

In my church band nobody tells me how to play bass.

all IMHO of course.

 

I didn't see it, but it sounds like a shame if what you're saying is right. Given that the new bassist can play Zender's lines spot on, and considering Jay Kay's ever expanding ego (redhotbassist's description is very accurate. ), it would appear that the new bloke is being told what to do. It's quite disappointing, especially since Zender's basslines were usually the main backbone in Jamiroquai.

 

He IS being told what to play. Case in point, didn't you notice how fresh and alive the bassline from "Where Do We Go From Here?" on the Synkronized album was? He went in and did it alone without the band. Just him and the engineer. Even "Love Foolosophy" is cool. The rest of the basslines are just Jay's orders. Stuart has quite an ego himself, however, he refused to be told how and what to play, which led to some incredible basslines, but also the ruin of a great band.

 

I'm gathering that if I want to hear "the good" Jamiroquai with Stuart's quality bass playing, I should get Traveling Without Moving and Synkronized? Am I correct in this assumption?

 

it is a shame the way joomajiequai has gone, the travelling without moving album is a pretty good fusion of diffirent sounds, indeed all the ones that has success had no dijireeeedooodaa but still, when the whole band works together a better overall sound is produced, that is what being ina band is about, if not you should get some seession mucisians and be a solo guy

 

IMHO, if you want to hear their best stuff, pick up "Return of the Space Cowboy" and "Emergency on Planet Earth". Those two CDs blow away anything else they've done.

I was really pissed when I heard that Zender was leaving. However, I never heard what happened to him. Is he playing with anyone now?

 

Hey Superduck, get TWM, Emergency On Planet Earth, and Return Of The Space Cowboy. Those are the ones that Stu played on.

PB, he and Melanie Blatt, ex All Saints, have a kid together, and she has a solo career. He's playing for and producing her albums. Also, he has a production company called Zensa, he helped produced Omar's CD, "Best By Far", and he's playing bass on the song "Something Real", and guitar and keys on about 6 of the other songs. He actaully started out on guitar, because his uncle was a jazz guiatrist.

 

I totally agree with you Bruce, i've just been waiting for someone else to notice!!!!

what was also interesting is that Nick was hidden behind the backing singers......well i remember a TOTP performance when things were good between Jay K and Stuart, and Stuart was right at the front grooving with Jay......i guess this kinda mirrors the way the two different bass players "play"

Also "Superduck" Synkrenized has Nick playing on it, not stuart....i think.

For stuart you be wanting "emergancy on planet earth"

Love & Peace

 

I have a feeling that Jamiroquai have lost it a little. In losing Zender, they lost one of the world's best musicians. However, all credit to Fyffe- come on, he was only 19 when they recorded Synkronized. I personally think that it is Jay Kay that 'controls' the basslines, and it is sad that Jamiroquai have become little more than an engine for Jay. He's only been really famous since he started gettin' it on with Denise van Outen. Before that, you'd never have seen him in the pages of Hello!

What Synkronized and A Funk Oddessy represent to me is a populist move away from the original funk/soul/disco/electronica/didgeridoo Jamiroquai into just a funk/disco band. The loss of the environmental, political aspect is the most disappointing part- the songs are just lacking in originality.

There. I've got that off my chest now.

 

I'd say Space Cowboy is my favourite album for bass-playing, followed very closely by Emergency and TWM. I think that Nick Fyffe is a really good bassist and I do like some of the stuff he plays, but I see what you're saying, it has got a bit of a 'session' feel to it. Still, it can't be an easy job, following someone like Stuart Zender.

Stuart played on most of Emergency on Planet Earth, just not the first song, "When you Gonna Learn." He'd only been playing bass for about 2 years as well when they recorded that album!!!!!

By the way, anyone heard any info about his solo project, Azur? It seems to have put off indefinitely.

 

What single you talking about Bruce?

 

Perhaps a big part of it was that Jay found a bassist who would settle for a much smaller cut of the pie, basslines be damned. In a "Bassist" mag last year, Zender made no secret of the fact that Jay's ego was encroaching on the other band members' slices of the pie as well as the spotlight.

Kay needs to come back from outer space, (what's with that trip of his, anyway???.....leave the Pink Floyd alone and stick to disco as it should have been played, fer chrissakes! )

Last I heard of Zender was that he did a cut he did with Omar, "Something Real." I guess Azur won't ever get off the ground.

 

That would be 26, wouldn't it?

 

Stuart was 19 when they did the first album. Oysterman's right, Nick was 26.
As for Azur, Stu said that it had been scrapped. Virgin chose to put out Tyrese's piece o' crap, instead of the Azur album, and they wouldn't give him a release date, so he said to hell with it. I've been nagging him to hear some the the Azur material, but nothing has come of it.....YET!
I'll tell you something funny that Stu said. He said that Jay would take some tape, and put "X's" on the stage for each band member to stand at. Just to piss him off, Stu wouldn't do it. I was backstage during their last stop in Atlanta, and the band, except for Toby, acted like they were afraid of him. They rode in a van, while Jay was being driven around in a limo. The one thing that really got me was in the Synkronized credits, members of the band were thanking Jay for "allowing us to play on such a fine album" What a load of arse piffle!

 

I saw the Jools Holland show too- it's funny how Nick Fyffe seems to be playing a different bass every time they play live(Musicman, Zon, Bass Collection, Yamaha.....)
he must have quite few endorsement deals going.

it looks like Jay Kay doesn't want any band members sharing the spotlight either on record or on stage like Zender did any more.