Martin Pizzarelli

Interesting observations. This is more about "what is the double bass players job" and "why does this guy have a gig".

I know I get hired because of my ability to sit in a pocket and to make it happen on the bandstand. My solos are very immature in comparison to the pocket I can provide so very often when I'm playing with guys that can kill I tend to pass. I don't want to look stupid.

Truth is that I get calls over some guys that can play me into a corner because I show up on time, prepared, properly attired, sober, and I leave my emotional bags at home. I focus on serving the tune, honoring the groove, supporting the soloist. I always follow the singer even if they are wrong (more or less). It's important to make them look good even if they aren't. I see my job as a servant of the song rather than to show myself off. If I've played every lick I know by the end of the night I probably played to much. One note is better than 10 if its exactly the right note at exactly the right time. I try to remember to play each gig as if it were my last and not phone it in even if the gig sucks.

Now I'm not going to get a New York call, and I do get passed over for some gigs here because I should be able to solo with the same maturity as I can groove. Total package player I'm not. Good reason for me to be in a practice room more often.

Maybe Martin's gig is nepotism. Maybe he can kill on a solo but he was off his game that night and thought better of it. Maybe his gear is as good as it gets cause he lives in poverty and can't afford something better. Maybe something else. Hard to see what's up from the tables and chairs.

Good technique is better than bad I suppose but doing the job is what you get hired for. I saw a fellow in Chicago some years ago played the best blues bass I've heard on a Fender Precision. I was wincing watching him play. But when I closed my eyes he killed me. He was singing with his bass through the whole gig.

I saw Ismael Rivera this past summer and his bass player played sitting in a big salsa band with a Fender Jazz playing like an DB straight up and down. Sounded just like a baby bass. He never once showed his ass. Most of the people there were just grooving on Ismael but this guy showed everyone on the bandstand where it was. The charts were a mess. The band sounded like ringers. He held it together like a beacon in the dark. He knew exactly his job and played it with such maturity and precision that he had me shaking my head saying "damn" out loud all night. He took me to school that night but I'll bet most of the folks who were watching didn't notice at all.

He was just doing his job. He was an artist at the top of his game.

 

Good post, Phil - nicely put.

This is my attitude exactly - being cheerful, friendly, reliable, solid and competent gets me gigs...I'm no virtuoso by a long shot. I'm always hearing horror stories about 'great' players who are completely unreliable...some of the stupid tricks they pull are unbelievable (not to mention inexcusable).

 

+1

I love playing bass because of the "groove power". Maybe I shouldn't admit it, but solos just aren't that important to me.

 

It's funny that Bucky and John (dad and son) both have a very clean technichal approach to their instrunment, but brother Martin doesn't. I don't know if he's another guitarist who's playing bass by default or if he just doesn't care about doing anything else but accompanying family. Certainly he and John have been playing together for a long time and that kind of "togetherness" can generally overcome deficiencies in technique or concept. Personally I don't find Michael Moore an "inept" accompanist because he is a wonderful soloist, if anything it's the opposite. Almost every player that I've heard that plays smart, musical, engaging solos ALSO play smart musical, engaging accompaniment.

Tony Tedesco is an extremely solid drummer, I had the good fortune to play a steady Thursday with him behind a singer out in Smithtown Long Island (lo those many years ago); not to draw anything away from Martin, but ANY bassist would have to be incredibly lame for Tony NOT to make it sound groovy.

But given everything, I'm just not sure that Martin would have the gig if his last name was Smith...

 

I have several CD's that feature Martin Pizzarelli on bass and I have to say that while he doesn't solo on any of them (aside from a few brief "walking solos", if you can call them that), his time, intonation and note choices are top notch IMHO. Nepotism aside, I don't think his brother would have used him on almost all of his projects (including CD's with Jessica Molasky and Harry Allen) if his bass playing was not of a professional caliber. Many of John Pizzarelli's CD's feature him with a drummerless trio a la Nat King Cole and Martin's groove and sense of swing are undeniable. Any bassist who's played in group like this knows how challenging it can be. I must agree that Martin's playing technique looks pretty "homegrown" but so did Slam Stewart's, and somehow he always played in tune and swung his ass off, so there you go (and I'm definitely not "anti-technique"). As far as his basses, I belive Martin Pizzarelli rents a bass wherever he goes, so the black painted bass may not have been by choice. I think he records with a Kay bass (again like Slam Stewart who his father Bucky often played with) and he never uses a pickup when he plays live. Frankly, I have come to admire his swinging-yet-selfless approach which is very much rooted in the jazz bass playing of the past.

- Steve

My web page

 

I was in New York for a friend's wedding the first weekend in December and I left just before John Pizzarelli started playing Birdland again. I would have loved to have seen them. He will be down here in Florida in January and I hope to catch them then. I wanted to see some live jazz while I was in the city but the guys in the bachelor party had other ideas (can you say "Scores"?). BTW, I'm a native New Yorker but after twenty years in Florida I can't take the cold anymore. It's below 60 out now...brrrr

- Steve

My web page

 

I've noticed this phenomenon locally - i.e. that a lot of Jazz guitarists will also have a DB - presumably because they know about chords, how it all works and can construct good lines - but they never play solos...

 

Or the converse...a lot of jazz bassists, like me, have a guitar because we know chords, etc., but never solo. Pizzarelli is a great guitarist which is sometimes downplayed to the public in favor of his vocals. He's also very funny, especially when he recalls learning guitar from his father.

 

The jazz guitarist I work with also plays electric bass and he always picks up my upright and plays the intro to "Jack the Bear". He sometimes sits in on upright and then tries in vain to receive sypmathy from me for his blistered fingertips.

BTW Martin Pizzarelli isn't a guitarist but started on electric bass. There is a discussion page on John Pizzarelli's website and both John and Martin have answered some of the questions I have posted there. Martin recently released a solo album with his father on guitar and pianist Ray Kennedy.

Here's the link

- Steve

My web page

 

Speaking of Nat King Cole...on John Pizzarelli's CD Dear Mr. Cole, the only track with drums is the only track Martin plays on. The rest of the CD is Guitar/Vocals, Piano and Bass played by Christian McBride.

Martin does sound good, but talk about groove and swing...wow. CM not only grooves great along with John's rhythm playing but walks AND keeps the accent/feel on 2 and 4 while John's solos. I love bass and drums but this CD is a great example of the bass player being the anchor. Good bass solos too. Great stuff if you like standards.

 

I knew Tony back in college. Are you saying that he doesn't solo on the bass anymore? That would be too bad. I remember he always had a big grin when he was playing.

 

+1

There is a lot more to being a professional musician than musical skill.

 

Tony was an eb player at NT and I remember that he picked up the URB in maybe his 3rd yr or so. I believe he taught himself to play it. I remember not seeing him for a while and then he emerged playing the URB and playing it well (technique aside). Like I said, he always had this big grin on when he was playing.

 

I saw Martin with John and Harry Allen, I think it was at Mohegan Sun. He just layed it down but handled all the tempos, some of them frighteningly fast, with a really good feel that was definitely more old timey like the Nat King Cole Trio. His solo was in the fast walking style that Jimmy miller used to play.

 

This is from the liner notes of Martin Pizzarelli's CD "Triple Play" written by his brother John:

"I have heard the sound of Martin's bass in my sleep. When I play a ballad, a jump number or a swinger, the beat he supplies informs the groove. Without him in my trio, there is no trio. The bass playing you'll hear on this record may not be the flashy, above the 12th fret type of bass playing you might be acustomed to, but it the reason you'll be tapping your foot after you press play. It is the very center of any group I've heard Martin play in and why shouldn't it be? He's grown up with people like Major Holley, Slam Stewart, Ray Brown and Bob Haggart in his house. He's listened and he's learned. He's returned 'time playing' back to the art it should have always stayed AND he's refused to lower his action or put a pickup on his bass. Wow! Think of it...two and four live!! As our friend drummer Tony Tedesco has said, 'You have to protect the quarter note.' With my brother, Martin, it's safe and sound and in great hands" - John Pizzarelli

Well said, IMO, although I doubt Martin's bass has a "12th fret"

The CD itself is worth checking out if you like John Pizzarelli/Nat King Cole Trio recordings. No vocals of course, but Martin's bass is often up front playing melodies and solos, the latter frequently in the "walking solo" style reminiscent of Leroy Vinnegar, John Kirby, Walter Page and Johnny Miller.

- Steve

My web page

 

It's nice to know that that kind of approach is still appreciated.

 

+1