Double Bass remembering standards chord prog..

[Chris Fitzgerald]

Chris, Chris, Durryl, Durryl...I qouted your entire post so I could reassure myself that you're OK....What with the Pile of Warbled Tones and the super large fonts, it seems you're on the emotional edge... but since your post makes so much sense, I won't worry.

Actually, PILE of WARBLEDTONES was only a reference to your reference to bad singers. After hearing your record, that particular Fuquism would never apply to you. I used to play regularly with a singer who practiced something she liked to call, "Tone Fusion". Near as I can figure out, that was a strange way of justifying singing out of tune, or "warbling".

I grew up musically on the heels of the great singers.....Sinatra, Torme, Sarah, Carmen, Ella, on and on, and these mothers provided plenty grist for my lyric mill...(i can't believe i said that!) And again like Donosaurus' mention of Ben Webster, I have been in that situation of remembering parts of tunes harmonically because I knew the lyrics!

Me too. Billie, Johnny Hartman, Aunt Ella...and good old uncle Chet, who I've always had a real soft spot for, and who I make many of my students listen to in order to help them learn certain tunes. Works like a charm!

 

[Paul Warburton]

Me too. Billie, Johnny Hartman, Aunt Ella...and good old uncle Chet, who I've always had a real soft spot for, and who I make many of my students listen to in order to help them learn certain tunes. Works like a charm!

Using singers as a learning tool is a great idea Chris! I just wanna make it clear that you need to be very choosy when doing this, because great jazz singers are very rare and most of them do have a penchant for trashing out the music.
I mentioned on some other thread that Pat Moran, the great lady pianist who got me the gig with Bill Evans, and worked with Scott LaFaro a bit...(.He made his first record with Pat) had a soft spot in his heart for Billy Ekstine. Red Mitchell worked for quite some time with Billy Holiday in the 50s, i'm sure Lady had a big influence on Red's melodic work and of course Red recorded with Sinatra many times.
So, it's apparent that bassists and singers have been a pretty strong link....and as Durryl said, learning to solo coming out of the melody, is really important if you want to get away from that constant familiarity of improvising off of the bass notes. Some of the great bass players who have been successful at this besides Red, are Oscar Pettiford, Michael Moore, oh by the way.... that really great Bass player/singer down in Nashville...Jim Ferguson, who certainly is influenced by Red and who I think studied with Red, although I'm not sure if he uses fifth tuning? Anyway, this guy plays great and sings great at the same time and on top of all that is a bass luthier! What a guy!!!