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Double Bass John Patitucci

#21
peterpalmieri said:
After rewatching that clinic at the Gage shop I realized I need some serious ear training work.

In the middle of working on intervals a good friend and old teach sent me a msg and said he just got a lesson slot with JP.

I also was in the process of having this bass built when John first appeared with his hollowbody, I copied his pickup choice

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To say the least I've been a big fan for a long time.
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Speaking of John's new bass and pickup choice, it appears to be a Yamaha. Is it? I don't know anything about it, but whenever I hear JP play, I love the tone because there is an aspect of piezo top end to the sound. I hear the same sort of sound with this new bass.... does it include a piezo, and if so, where is it? Inquiring minds.

Back on the subject of JP himself, he's an amazing player whose lyricism overshadows his considerable chops, and in his case, that's really saying something.
 
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#22
Chris Fitzgerald said:
Speaking of John's new bass and pickup choice, it appears to be a Yamaha. Is it? I don't know anything about it, but whenever I hear JP play, I love the tone because there is an aspect of piezo top end to the sound. I hear the same sort of sound with this new bass.... does it include a piezo, and if so, where is it? Inquiring minds.

Back on the subject of JP himself, he's an amazing player whose lyricism overshadows his considerable chops, and in his case, that's really saying something.
Click to expand...
Pretty sure there's no piezo on the hollow body
 
#23
Chris Fitzgerald said:
Speaking of John's new bass and pickup choice, it appears to be a Yamaha. Is it? I don't know anything about it, but whenever I hear JP play, I love the tone because there is an aspect of piezo top end to the sound. I hear the same sort of sound with this new bass.... does it include a piezo, and if so, where is it? Inquiring minds.

Back on the subject of JP himself, he's an amazing player whose lyricism overshadows his considerable chops, and in his case, that's really saying something.
Click to expand...

John's new bass is a Yamaha but it was a one off made by their in house luthier who I believe just works with the high profile artists, I contacted him and he said it was just a one off for JP. There is a bit about it in the Back In Brooklyn Documentary. The pickups are Aguilar DCBs and to my knowledge the bass is passive with no piezo, but I could be wrong. I have a piezo in my bass and I'm not a big fan, I think they are better suited to a fretless or at least nylon strings. The combo of steel strings and frets never sits well with me on a piezo. I have some clips on my youtube page of my bass being played by a couple different people and I think there is a commonality.

I agree 100% on John, he has a lot of beautiful things to say with his instrument both electric and upright. He also has full control of the instrument to express himself and most importantly really knows how to keep that voice unique to electric or upright. In addition to Brooklyn, Children of the Light with Danilo Perex and Brian Blade is unbelievable as is the Wayne Shorter stuff he's done in the last few years. But I believe on the electric bass side Brooklyn is about as lyrical an album as I've heard with the voice he has created.
 
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#24
Stratro said:
Moving on with an early recording taken from JP`s bass workshop, playing a Ken Smith 6 string bass..
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I tried to watch that last night, I think I wore out the VHS tape 25 years ago, so dated in so many ways but at the time seemed eye opening. I had never heard of people like Anthony Jackson at the time and the Smith logo was disguised. I had to rummage through magazines to find out who made it....

I couldn't afford the Yamaha JP signature model back then, but I will date myself too. Maybe 1995 is my guess

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#27
Now, i totally understand why many of you get off to the " double thumb" Wooten 16th notes allover the place slap and pop style. It sounds cool, looks cool, it gets the crowd going...

Personally, I never did like that because the technique itself is 90% octaves and thirds out of which 90% are played in E min key, but that`s just me.

Although Jaco never ever slapped a string (and never needed to) I totally agree that a modern bass player should know (at to some point) learn how to basically to slap and pop the bass, but my personal upper limit in spending time on this stuff is almost the same as JP`s...modest but rock solid.

Most of JP`s slap and pop grooves can be played by an average bass player and thats a good thing because they are very solid, well thought out and do the job perfectly in the song. His monster TRB6P sound helps a lot of course.

Check this live recording of 99 Flavors played by CC Elektiric band and see what i`m on about.
 
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#32
Stratro said:
...and he`s pretty good at playing with a bow too.
I remember reading in an interview few years ago that he`s still attending classes from an 80 year old classical music bass player...Bow technique in specific..




As i said, there`s a good reason why he`s the best (and most complete) bass player of all..
Not to mention his composing skills..
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When he's available, in the NY area, and a chair is open... he subs in the Bass Section of the New York Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. Yeah... one needs some serious bow skills for that gig. And a tux, too.
 
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#38
All members of the Chick Corea Elektric Band were very cool and obviously had fun on the stage of Hong Kong's Jazz World Live Series gig.

Patitucci's new Yammy bass is amazzzzzing as was he. No upright... I know it's the "Elektric" band, but come on, Chick still played acoustic piano, Marienthal was playing an acoustic sax and not an "e-reed" instrument, the drums weren't electronic but acoustic, and Gambale had an acoustic guitar... No Upright.


Twas still grand!
 
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