just got turned on to Medeski Martin and Wood, and i am really digging them. anybody have suggestions on some good basslines in jazz, or just good to listen to? i grew up on rock, and matured into funk, now its jazz.
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I feel that the walking bass line is one of the most important bass lines to learn because you utilize the entire scale and if you learn it you will truly know your harmony. Jamey Ambersold albums are good to study because you can isolate the bass for easy transcribing. Also the players on the recordings are always top guys like Carter or Reid to name a few. They have a useful Scale Syllabus that shows you when and where to apply the scales and arpeggios. Go to Jazz club and if you like the bassist take a lesson. Take a beginning college course in Jazz Improvisation. If you are in high school look for a night course at a nearby college. If you play electric dont let anyone tell you that you have no business playing jazz as Anthony Jackson put Ron Carter in his place on that issue in an old Bass Player Magazine.
All of those are great; none of them are jazz.A few that I like:
Greyboy Allstars
Down to the Bone
Lettuce
Galactic
Jazz Crusaders
Chris Potter .
Great record. He followed it up with a live recording, "Follow The Red Line" which, IIRC, has none of the same songs and sounds just as cool.Check out Chris Potter's Underground. There is no bass player because this group has an organ player that writes some very groovy basslines.
All of those are great; none of them are jazz.
Check out Joshua Redman, a sax player whose music I find to be very accessible, easy to listen to, and yet integral. He's the straight-ahead guy I play when my wife is in the car.
There's lots of categories of jazz, but if you like MMW you might want to tune into the jazz from the close of the cool period into the hard bop period, maybe bleeding into the modal jazz period that was more free like MMW is - this stuff is the ancestor of today's acid jazz. Some examples:
Kind of Blue, Miles Davis
Blue Train, John Coltrane
Moanin', Art Blakey
Herbie Hancock Greatest Hits or "The New Standard"
Mingus Ah Um, Charles Mingus
Guys that are playing like that now include Chris Potter, Terence Blanchard, Christian McBride, maybe Dave Douglas.
Jazz is a whole wonderful world. Welcome. The wikipedia entry is pretty helpful too.