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Double Bass Recommended Albums For Transcription

L

le-gasp

May 5, 2007
81
0
#1
Hi,

I am an electric bass player and was directed here from the miscallaneous music forum for my question

I've started working on transcribing because I want to become a jazz player and people told me along with practice, listening and such is important

my only real specification is that the bass is audible and clear, i find in a lot of jazz recordings i own the bass is rather buried and muddy sounding, so its difficult to transcribe (or maybe my ear is bad)


Thanks,
Jake
 
#2
le-gasp said:
Hi,

I am an electric bass player and was directed here from the miscallaneous music forum for my question

I've started working on transcribing because I want to become a jazz player and people told me along with practice, listening and such is important

my only real specification is that the bass is audible and clear, i find in a lot of jazz recordings i own the bass is rather buried and muddy sounding, so its difficult to transcribe (or maybe my ear is bad)


Thanks,
Jake
Click to expand...


I like to transcribe Aebersold Albums, they have worked great for me. Its a good start.
 
#3
le-gasp said:
my only real specification is that the bass is audible and clear, i find in a lot of jazz recordings i own the bass is rather buried and muddy sounding, so its difficult to transcribe (or maybe my ear is bad)
Thanks,
Jake
Click to expand...
Maybe not so much BAD as it is
1. inexperienced
2. accustomed to a MUCH different sonic picture

Sure, there are bad recordings out there, but the more you listen to this music, the easier it is to pick stuff out of the mix. The more you transcribe, the easier to hear what you're transcribing.

You might want to start with records that have the bass more "exposed"; trio records (tenor bass and drums) like MOTION or WAY OUT WEST, songs or records that have a lot of walking bass with no comping like Sonny Rollins' BLUE SEVEN (two or three choruses of walking over blues form with just bass and drums) or pretty much ANY of Monk's LIVE AT THE "IT" CLUB (pretty much every tune has a bass solo that starts with Larry Gale walking over the form of the tune).
 
#4
Ed Fuqua said:
Maybe not so much BAD as it is
1. inexperienced
2. accustomed to a MUCH different sonic picture

Sure, there are bad recordings out there, but the more you listen to this music, the easier it is to pick stuff out of the mix. The more you transcribe, the easier to hear what you're transcribing.
Click to expand...

you have a good point, and thanks
 
#5
Two words:

Paul. Chambers.

OK, maybe more words would be helpful. The Miles Davis recordings from Prestige and Columbia are pretty clear. And PC's lines are typically simple, but always right on the money. You'll train your ear to hear, AND you'll get a feel for that ingenious line construction.
 
#6
The first I can think of is Monks' album called "Thelonious Monk plays Duke Ellington". Oscar Pettiford is a beautiful musician to check out, and the sound on this particular date (and his sound in general) is quite clear. I've been playing for a good while and I'm still checking him out!
 
#7
You really can not go wrong transcribing the gentleman, the myth, the legend: Ray Brown.
To my ears, his sound, swing-feel, note selection, approach to ballads, and drops epitomize rock solid jazz bass playing. When I listen to him, everything he does sounds so "standard", rational, natural and bluesy, and classic...while he is obviously focused on actively listening to the entire group, staying interactive and responsive to the moment.
As far as hearing great mixes where the bass is out front and perfectly audible, I would recommend anything from the Oscar Peterson Trio. Since it's a trio without a drummer, the bass really stands out and propels the time.

For transcribing check out:
The OP Trio at the Shakespearean Jazz Festival.
The OP Trio, "We Get Requests"
Or a recent disc with Christian McBride's hand picked ray tracks called Ray Brown, "Ultimate Ray Brown"


You would also enjoy Paul Chambers' playing on Oliver Nelson's "The Blues and the Abstract Truth" Which is really a desert island disc. GET IT! (...or any of his work with Miles, really)
Another impressive drummer-less trio is Roy Hargrove, Christian McBride, and Steven Scott's tribute to Charlie Parker called "Parker's Mood". It's really worth checking out.


...I hope that helps!
 
#9
Wilbur Ware on "Thelonious Monk w/ John Coltrane" is good too. You could also hear him on Sonny Rollin's "A Night At The Village Vanguard", though the sound might not be quite as clear to your ears compared to the Monk album and other such studio dates.
Ahmad Jamal trio with Israel Crosby and Vernel Fournier. Israel Crosby is an amazing musician, and you'll indirectly be checking out Bach too (at least that's what I think of when I hear his bass lines)....and the groove these guys had was something real special.
 
#10
+1 for Wilbur. Add also Charlie Haden, esp. on those Paul Motian 'On Broadway' sides on JMT (which I think have been re-issued recently). Those guys say more with two notes than almost anybody else.
 
#13
dkziemann said:
If you want some relatively easy stuff to transcribe that's melodic check out Ray Brown (and John Clayton too). Check out the album Superbass, it's 3 bass players playing very well known standards.
Click to expand...

Superbass is a little tougher to transcribe because all 3 basses to an untrained ear blend together a lot easier. It's sometimes kind of tough to single out one guy you want to transcribe (for instance John Clayton's solo on Mack the Knife) without getting confused with the comping lines.
 
#15
It also helps to have a good (hi-fi) sound system. I don't know what you have got, but boom-boxes or cheap satellite systems with "subwoofer" might have a lot of bass, but it's typically a lot of boom and hard to hear what's going on.

Not all of us can spend loads of money on a hi-fi system, but the good news is that a good set of headphones will get you there too.

Good luck! :bassist:
 
#16
i'm digging pretty much anything pc did with red garland. there's a number of red garland trio and quintet discs out there. pc solos on most every tune and a lot of them are blues numbers...and we all know how much of a master pc was with the blues...or any tune for that matter.

oh, and a couple arco solos on there as well. his arco always amazes and intrigues me.
 
#18
Another useful thing is to get software on your computer that can slow down the music yet retain the pitch, AND can loop over a section of music. A bunch of programs do this. I like the "amazing slower downer", which will set you back $30 or so. For a while that program could not play songs downloaded from iTunes, but that may have changed. It handles mp3's no problem.

In a slightly different direction: the program called SmartMusic comes with 20 or so decent jazz charts, "standards". You can speed up, slow down, change keys. When you play the song, you can choose to turn off various instruments-- piano, bass, drums. You can read the bass part on screen while playing back, OR, get the version of the chart that just has the chord changes. It also has a mode that highlights the current measure. Helpful if you find you are getting lost. As is being able to slow it down.

And in yet a different direction, you can find the Rufus Reid transcription book that goes along with the Aebersold books volume 1 and 3. To get around copyrights, he changed the names of all the songs, but you can tell from the title. Here's the link:
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Finally, the book Ron Carter's Building Basslines takes you through basic walking bass (as the title suggest), with a playalong CD. The second half of the book takes you though Blues in every key. You can read note for note, play along with Ron, or turn off one side of your stereo and just play with the piano and drums. Here is the link:
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In all cases here, someone else has done the transcription for you. You still gotta do your own! You ought to get a few funk jazz tunes too--- Watermellon Man and Chameleon from Herbie Hancock. Standard repertoire, and really not too difficult. Probaby harder to get the rhythm written down than the notes themselves.

:bassist:
 
#19
Along with transcribing, check out the book Modern Walking Bass Technique by Mike Richmond. Mike transcribed A LOT of Ray Brown and Ron Carter, so it'll help get your ear used to some of the various harmonic and rhythmic devices jazz players use. Transcribing will be easier, and it stimulates your brain from a different angle.

I also started that book when I started playing a book of transcribed Paul Chamber's solos, as well as studying classical simandl exercises. Those three things work really well together to give you some basic vocabulary.
 
#20
Paul Chambers, "Tranes Blues" on the Relaxin' recording from Miles Davis.

Paul Chambers, "Blues by Five" on the Cookin' recording from Miles Davis.

Ray Brown, anything off of the Night Train recording from Oscar Peterson.

I also had a hard time picking out the bass when I started transcribing. It's all part of the ear training process. Take your time and familiarize yourself with the rewind button.

Forget the slowing down software, the fancy high end stereo gear, etc. You're starting to open up your ears. Give it a good college try for about a week and you'll be in the swing of things.
 

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