It's still a killer groove and King is still one of the most impressive singing bassists around.
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Level 42: Mark King killing Love Games in 2023
- Thread starter Dr. Cheese
- Start date
It's still a killer groove and King is still one of the most impressive singing bassists around.
Their drummer is amazing! What a groove machine!
I think this is the first time I have seen him play a Fender. He sounds the same. I think his strings are super thin.
I'm fairly certain that it's his signature model Jazz, only 42 of them were made.
Back in the day, his strings were Superwounds 30/50/70/90. No clue on what he uses nowadays, but these strings were a huge part of his signature sound, IMO.
A massive influence on much younger me Mr. King was, and I still hold him in high regard on many levels...pun intended...
It's fun to see him going back to the JayDee basses after all this time. Personally I don't think they sound the same as his more recent instrument collaborations, JayDees are all about mids which his Status basses pretty much had none of. To my ears anyway.
The biggest problem for me is that 17 year old me saw Mark King doing his thing in the 80s and I considered it a legitimate musical goal. Bass players out front as rock stars, turns out, was a brief thing. I would have served myself better listening to Paul Chambers like I was supposed to be.
Sure was great music though. I wish they hadn't pretty much stopped writing.
The biggest problem for me is that 17 year old me saw Mark King doing his thing in the 80s and I considered it a legitimate musical goal. Bass players out front as rock stars, turns out, was a brief thing. I would have served myself better listening to Paul Chambers like I was supposed to be.
Sure was great music though. I wish they hadn't pretty much stopped writing.
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Never regret being moved by music. If you had followed Paul Chambers then, you might have lost interest in the bass. From what I have seen, you ended up an accomplished player, so all is well.
Kind words, thank you.Never regret being moved by music. If you had followed Paul Chambers then, you might have lost interest in the bass. From what I have seen, you ended up an accomplished player, so all is well.
For anyone who is a stereo geek like me, there's a DVD Audio recording he made in about 2001 with his "Grupo Mark King" ensemble. I think it was one of those German Ohne Filter productions.
The 5.1 mix has his bass almost totally isolated into the center channel. Beyond what makes sense, really, unless you actually want to listen and dissect every note. Which I did.
In that one he played a FSO bass by I think Moon, which I've not heard of much since and which had two humbuckers.
The 5.1 mix has his bass almost totally isolated into the center channel. Beyond what makes sense, really, unless you actually want to listen and dissect every note. Which I did.
In that one he played a FSO bass by I think Moon, which I've not heard of much since and which had two humbuckers.
Was it this concert?
That's a GB (Bernie Goodfellow) bass. MK used those for a short period following the release of his One Man album. He did have a Moon bass that he de-fretted...
It's true, there is so little competition in the Virtuoso Chops + Better-Than-Average Singing department when it comes to bassists! Stanley Clarke, Alphonso Johnson, and Jeff Berlin all proved that...to their own discredit.
Nathan East is the only guy who pulls it off better than Mark King imho.
It's true, there is so little competition in the Virtuoso Chops + Better-Than-Average Singing department when it comes to bassists! Stanley Clarke, Alphonso Johnson, and Jeff Berlin all proved that...to their own discredit.
Nathan East is the only guy who pulls it off better than Mark King imho.
I don't know if Nathan East is a better singer than Mark King, but he certainly sings and plays very well. I would say that the original, Larry Graham, is still the best slapping lead singing bassist although Graham and King sound nothing alike. King is very much a Stanley Clarke disciple.
I have an album from one of Altitude's bands, cat is a badass.Never regret being moved by music. If you had followed Paul Chambers then, you might have lost interest in the bass. From what I have seen, you ended up an accomplished player, so all is well.
I don't think it sounds the same. That Jaydee was his best sound ever if you ask me. He had it right from the start. Glad the Jaydee is back. Although he is doing the same thing for the last 30 years ago. No surprises there. But that's where he is good at.
If a musician is doing something people still want to hear after thirty years, that's great!
Sure it is. But I have the feeling he doesn't want to discover new things himself. I have done on interview with him for a bass magazine and asked what he thought of new slap techniques like double thumbing and he said he never heard of it and he didn't seem that interested. Which I thought was strange because it was a well known technique by then.
He already had found his style from the very first Level 42 album and it didn't change much after that I think.
Most bassist's styles/techniques don't change much after a certain point. Makes sense if you think of technique as a means to an end rather than a goal on and of itself. I personally have no desire to hear MK start incorporating double thumbing any more than I have a desire to hear Larry Graham start incorporating MK's left hand techniques.
