Kim Stone of The Rippingtons!

[ExaltBass]

Spirogyra's current bassist would be David Dyson - yes, an excellent player.
I am a total fan of Kim Stone. His 'Bob goes to the Store' bass solo at the Guthrie with Spirogyra in the mid 80s absolutely blew my mind! Both Spiro and the Rips have gone a little too soft on the Smooth Jazz perhaps, but sometimes you gotta go commercial to pay the bills.

 

[DWBass]

Spyro Gyra's current bassist would be David Dyson

Wrong. Scott Ambush has been the bassist since 1991 when 'Three Wishes' came out!

 

[ExaltBass]

Wrong. Scott Ambush has been the bassist since 1991 when 'Three Wishes' came out!

You're right Ooops!

 

[KJung]

That's a CLASSIC pop/jazz disc.


KJung you are right ! I just listened to the cuts off of "City Kids" on Amazon's site and yea... I am ordering now !

nice stuff indeed...

Cool! Marcus, Gadd, etc. What's not to like. That disc really is one of the classic recordings of that era. Some of the Grusin recordings from that era (the GRP stuff) are also quite good.

If you like this type of music, the relatively recent Lee Ritenour DVD, called 'Overtime' is a 'tour de force' of 'modern swing, fusion, and pop/jazz. He has three different bands with three amazing bassists for each period of his career (David Carpenter for the more straight ahead stuff, Anthony Jackson for the fusion period... seeing Anthony play Captain Fingers is worth double the price of the disc IMO, and Melvin Davis (YEAH!) doing the slippity/slappity smooth jazz stuff.

All wonderful IMO!

 

[pedulla-2007]

How smokin' it is, to be surrounded by lite jazz enthusiasts that know their sheet, and I am sure are major league players. It totally restores my faith in Talk Bass Forum, and I have enjoyed every posting in this thread, positive or negative. Fodder like this is exactly why I joined TB.

 

[damon106]

Cool! Marcus, Gadd, etc. What's not to like. That disc really is one of the classic recordings of that era. Some of the Grusin recordings from that era (the GRP stuff) is also quite good.

If you like this type of music, the relatively recent Lee Ritenour DVD, called 'Overtime' is a 'tour de force' of 'modern swing, fusion, and pop/jazz. He has three different bands with three amazing bassists for each period of his career (David Carpenter for the more straight ahead stuff, Anthony Jackson for the fusion period... seeing Anthony play Captain Fingers is worth double the price of the disc IMO, and Melvin Davis (YEAH!) doing the slippity/slappity smooth jazz stuff.

All wonderful IMO!

Once again you are on it ! seems like we have similar tastes here... I have that DVD and it is killer ! AJ is a beast on that !damn...{starts walking slowly} let me go on out back to the woodshed...

 

[KJung]

Once again you are on it ! seems like we have similar tastes here... I have that DVD and it is killer ! AJ is a beast on that !damn...{starts walking slowly} let me go on out back to the woodshed...

I love that disc! OK, one more. Are you familiar with the live disc called 'Casino Lights'. That's also at the pinnacle of this type of music to me. Well worth checking out IMO!

OK... one more, and this one is so killer it hurts. It's newer, but still in that 'best of pop/jazz category. Joe Sample... 'Sample This'. Simply amazing, with Marcus and a bunch of other heavy cats. He recut all those great tunes from Rainbow Seeker, etc. as more Latin Funk. And of course, there is Lee Ritenour's 'Festival', one of the best Marcus Miller sideman performances ever.

OK... sorry of the 'Rippingtons' OT.

 

[damon106]

I love that disc! OK, one more. Are you familiar with the live disc called 'Casino Lights'. That's also at the pinnacle of this type of music to me. Well worth checking out IMO!

OK... one more, and this one is so killer it hurts. It's newer, but still in that 'best of pop/jazz category. Joe Sample... 'Sample This'. Simply amazing, with Marcus and a bunch of other heavy cats. He recut all those great tunes from Rainbow Seeker, etc. as more Latin Funk. And of course, there is Lee Ritenour's 'Festival', one of the best Marcus Miller sideman performances ever.

OK... sorry of the 'Rippingtons' OT.

I will check these out... ya' know KJ... we may need to start our own thread...

 

[jerry]

Cool! Marcus, Gadd, etc. What's not to like. That disc really is one of the classic recordings of that era. Some of the Grusin recordings from that era (the GRP stuff) are also quite good.
!

+1, and a +1, for Casino Lights, a lot of great bassist on that album.
IMHO, besides the "Wave" radio format another downfall in that side of jazz was MIDI and sequencing! Once a lot of the producers, especially keyboardist started linking everything together the recordings became one dimensional, and the first thing to suffer, was groove.

sorry for the derail..........

 

[skb5string]

This Thread is LOOONG over due! I'm a huge Kim Stone fan and a huge fan of the Ripps! I class Kim as one of my top infuences and the Ripps as my number one instrumental group! I have always admired Kims groove and at times his simplicity Tone, always loved his tone with his Roscoes and the Fender. I've seen them live a bunch of times and he would always have the Six string Roscoe out playinf it on the older tunes from the 90's and using the Fender on the newer ones (Hey, the guy had an endorsement!) Yeah, I was bummed when I heard he had left the Ripps, but after close to 20 years I'm sure he wanted to go in another direction. We will see how the new guy fills those shoes!

Hey if anyones interested I have a Custom Roscoe SKB 3006/5006 for sale here in the classifieds. Its a 2000 custom build using the 5006 body style (Like Kims!) but its a bolt on. Cedar Body, Burl Maple top Spalted Purple Heart Board. JIM WILLIAMS AUDIO UPGRADES PRE (just Like Kims) This thing has killer tone. Check it out.


I always loved how Kim would take one of Russ's Midi Sequenced Bass tracks and keep the integrity of the track yet add his own Personal touch making it much more alive and organic.

Kudos to Kim and Russ and the rest of the Ripps. To me though the ripps will NOT be the same with out Kim.

 

[DWBass]

To me though the Ripps will NOT be the same with out Kim.

I agree with this! While the new guy (Rico Belled) is a very capable player, I feel he is way out of his element musically. There are some new vids up and dude has the goofiest swag and headbob when playing. There is another vid of him soloing and it's got to be one of the worst solos I ever heard. I'm up for giving him a chance but all in all, The Ripps are not the same entity from 10-15 years ago. I miss the original guys. Mark Portmann, Steve Reid and Tony Morales and I miss the more challenging stuff they played back then. I am glad Jeff Kashiwa is back. PT and Eric Marienthal are really good players but I didn't think they were suited to the band.

 

[Chad Michael]

Kim on fretless, @ ~ 2:30 you can see his bass - any one care to id that axe ?



This song has a certain emotion to it, reminds me that sadness is part of life. The power of music (such as this) will never cease to amaze me.

 

[Chad Michael]

OK but why did radio stations all over America do away with the smooth Jazz format?

Maybe because it doesn't sell to the masses... . That would be my guess.

BTW - I saw Spyro Gyra live with Oscar Cartaya around 1988 - amazing performance by the whole band, impeccable live sound mix, acoustically perfect venue, brilliant solos by all band members, but Oscar's solo brought the entire house to their feet.

 

[KeithPas]

OK but why did radio stations all over America do away with the smooth Jazz format?

I don;t know about anyplace other than Seattle; where I live and the smooth jazz station KJZ is bigger than ever here. Besides, he is just saying that he likes it and not commenting on its current popularity. Personally I like some stuff but I prefer my music with a little more attitude.

 

[DWBass]

Kim on fretless, @ ~ 2:30 you can see his bass - any one care to id that axe ?



This song has a certain emotion to it, reminds me that sadness is part of life. The power of music (such as this) will never cease to amaze me.

Looks like a Zon to me.

 

[DWBass]

I don;t know about anyplace other than Seattle; where I live and the smooth jazz station KJZ is bigger than ever here. Besides, he is just saying that he likes it and not commenting on its current popularity. Personally I like some stuff but I prefer my music with a little more attitude.

Smooth Jazz in itself is still a profitable genre. What doesn't sell are those idiotic, clueless corporate station owners mixing r&b and pop vocals into the format even going as far as dictating to artists to have mandatory vocal tunes on their records! Even the 'Jazz' festivals are littered with R&B stars! Why call it a Jazz Festival? Seattle, California, Colorado & Florida still have a huge market for jazz performers as well as Jazz cruises. The radio format HAS to change. It was a disservice for Corporations like Clear Channel to buy all those private stations, terminate on air personalities and then hire smooth jazz stars as radio jocks! And an even further disservice for the artists themselves to conform to the format!

 

[JAUQO III-X]

he is just saying that he likes it and not commenting on its current popularity. Personally I like some stuff but I prefer my music with a little more attitude.

I knew what he was saying I was just pointing out that even though there are a lot of listeners that dig that genre it really doesn't matter to those who claim to want to get it out to the masses,when it seem to be so easy for them to discard it and it's dj's.


And I'm not being sarcastic.

 

[KeithPas]

I knew what he was saying I was just pointing out that even though there are a lot of listeners that dig that genre it really doesn't matter to those who claim to want to get it out to the masses,when it seem to be so easy for them to discard it and it's dj's.


And I'm not being sarcastic.

I don;t put anything past the people that are in charge of getting music out to the masses. I wasn't quite understanding your previous post, thanks for clarifying.

 

[JAUQO III-X]

I don;t put anything past the people that are in charge of getting music out to the masses. I wasn't quite understanding your previous post, thanks for clarifying.

You're very welcome Keith.

 

[Supertanker]

OK but why did radio stations all over America do away with the smooth Jazz format?

Because it's not commercially viable.

If you've ever listened to "smooth jazz"
radio, it's like eating baby food. Same consistency, different colors.

You can't eat baby food forever or you're gonna have problems...