It's impressive, but please don't ask me to describe it.
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Richard Bona: The Lick
- Thread starter Dr. Cheese
- Start date
It's impressive, but please don't ask me to describe it.
To my ears, it sounds like a Charlie Parker style line
Smooth_bass88
vaxx!
- Oct 31, 2006
- 12,123
- 16,797
- Disclosures
- have been on nationally released albums, charting on the Billboard 200
Those runs are not only mind-blowing, but they're played so cleanly and with FEEL. Oh yeah, and he scats it too. Bona is a true virtuoso.
Want to learn it? Heres a video of that lick!
Very impressive, but doesn't that get pretty tiring to listen to?
C'mon @Dr. Cheese I wanna here you sing it out while playing in a video 
nice n fast
nice n fast
Yeah, proper respect for the skill, but not my cup of tea for listening.
I had an argument with a bass player (who was one of the original bassists for a very famous Portland act) about soloing. I was taught that improvisation should be spontaneous composition.
But my man said he never played anything live that he hadn't practiced to the point of having down cold. He would practice patterns while watching TV, just to build the motor memory.
I think the ideal is somewhere in between. Improvisation isn't important in many styles of music, and pre-composing solos is probably more common than not. But it strikes me as more of a parlor trick than artistry at a certain point.
Again, proper respect for the technical skill, well beyond what most will ever accomplish. It just doesn't move me.
We're you debating Nathaniel Phillips from Pleasure or Danny Wilson, who used to play for Jeff Lorber? Whatever Phillips does, it works for him just fine. I saw Pleasure when Glide was a big hit, and Nathaniel Phillips played one of the finest solos I ever heard. He was playing a Stingray that night.
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I think it's awesome. Sometimes it seems like bassists feel shame or embarrassment for liking/playing anything showing really high level chops when applied to the bass. If it's good it's good and no one should ever feel bad about trying to be the best they can be at what they enjoy.
Very fast fingers, but just sounds like noise to me.
I was debating a local guy who got replaced before the local band went global. None of the acts mentioned here. And no shade on any of these players, who are clearly masters of their craft, well beyond my level, including the guy I was debating.
It was my (naive) purism about soloing against his practical approach of never inventing anything in a live situation, only playing well-rehearsed solos.
I think outside of straight ahead jazz, most audiences value polish over raw invention, and it's the norm for pros to play the same solos night after night, or to build solos on will-rehearsed patterns and licks, as opposed to creating something totally new each time. I can't argue against their success in delighting audiences.
He's using the mumblidian scale. Sounds great if that's your thing.
It is impressive and I wish I could play like that...I would love to have a few licks like that down enough to apply them or at least be able to apply that find of speed to my playing...but only to be used in specific moments.
I knew exactly what lick this thread was going to be about even before I saw this video. I was a big Richard Bona fan and I still enjoy some of his work. His singing, his timing, his sound, his articulation, his overall musicianship...he's an amazing musician.
All this being said, he abuses this lick often without any regard for harmonic context. It fells like watching a player dunk a basketball. It's fun to see it once or twice but hearing it 10 or more time in a matter of minutes really devalues it in my opinion.
Make no mistake, I love the ability to play fast but it takes a different kind of skill to rip over changes and actually make sense harmonically. And I know that Richard didn't have the luxury of musical upbringing that some of his peers had and he had to learn how to entertain in order to survive at an early age but I feel like I needed to say this.
All this being said, he abuses this lick often without any regard for harmonic context. It fells like watching a player dunk a basketball. It's fun to see it once or twice but hearing it 10 or more time in a matter of minutes really devalues it in my opinion.
Make no mistake, I love the ability to play fast but it takes a different kind of skill to rip over changes and actually make sense harmonically. And I know that Richard didn't have the luxury of musical upbringing that some of his peers had and he had to learn how to entertain in order to survive at an early age but I feel like I needed to say this.
