Yeah T, that's a nice one.
Another observation...again, I don't wanna sound like I'm into tearing musical performances apart. The reason I am kinda doing this is in the interest of our younger players, like Kev...tryin' to maybe give my perspective from the time I worked with Bill and Joe.
I was about 23, and I'm thinking Niels was about the same age at this point. I was hanging on by my shirttails, just trying to make it through the gig each night without dying of fright or from a musical overload of pure beauty. Only a rare remark from Bill of "yeah Paul", after a bass solo, kept me from running away, screaming, into the night.
Niels was already an established, internationally known jazz bassist. He was way more advanced than me in so many ways.
Anyway, when you have a verbal conversation with another person, hopefully, you don't plan out the In's and outs of where it's gonna go....For me, it's the same with playing music with another person. As Ed often says, you can only be yourself.
With Philly Joe Jones on drums, our musical conversation was a bit different right outta the gate, from the clips with Alan on drums. Bill and Joe were very tight, personally. They knew each other very well, and had a whole lot in common. I doubt, but don't really know, that Bill and Alan had this intimate connection.
Alan, to me plays a bit understated, prolly because of Bill's overrated rep for being so sensitive in his playing. This, in turn, IMO, made Bill pull back in regards to his sound on the piano. Joe knew that Bill could rise to a more aggressive attack in his touch. I've mentioned on the board, when asked what was the first thing that came to my mind when I first played with Bill....that was his sound. I was shocked at how BIG it was. This, to me, was a combination of his fantastic touch and the way he voiced his chords. Most of this was due, prolly, to Joe being on board. To further demonstrate my point, you don't hang with Miles, Cannonball, and Trane and escape with your life with some kind of ultra sensitive touch on a piano.
Rather than using brushes, like Alan does, in the clip above, Joe would, sometimes, use sticks right off the bat. This changed the approach to the tune dramatically. It also shows Scott's abilities to rise to the ocassion, in terms of his sound and swnging in four, kickin' ass all the way on some black market tapes I've heard of Bill Scott and Joe.
IMHO. And please don't take ANY of this as gospel. This is just the way I saw it as a young, frightened, but awestruck, jazz bassist.
