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RIP Rick Laird
- Thread starter Zoot H Rollo
- Start date
The glue that kept Mahavishnu together, another bassist in that version of the band would not have worked.
Fly on Rick.........................
Fly on Rick.........................
- Dec 21, 2007
- 15,222
- 45,015
- Disclosures
- Lark in the Morning Instructional Videos; Audix Microphones
Fly free, and thank you for the great music.
That video reminded me that I saw two great violinists at the same concert. My above mentioned MO show I saw also featured, after the MO performance, Frank Zappa and TMOI, with Jean Luc Ponty (George Duke on keyboards).
RIP 
Dude had a killer resume, the kind that demanded that you were at the absolute top of your game -- I mean, Buddy Rich, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Return To Forever (!!!!) -- but he never overplayed, or made it about "chops" or "flash" or anything other than Big Fundamentals. He was the Tim Duncan of bass playing!
Dude had a killer resume, the kind that demanded that you were at the absolute top of your game -- I mean, Buddy Rich, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Return To Forever (!!!!) -- but he never overplayed, or made it about "chops" or "flash" or anything other than Big Fundamentals. He was the Tim Duncan of bass playing!
R.I.P.
Was lucky enough to see him a couple of times with Mahavishnu in the 70’s.
Taste and talent.
RIP
Dude had a killer resume, the kind that demanded that you were at the absolute top of your game -- I mean, Buddy Rich, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Return To Forever (!!!!) -- but he never overplayed, or made it about "chops" or "flash" or anything other than Big Fundamentals. He was the Tim Duncan of bass playing!
You are so right! You cannot get the gigs he got without being a top notch bassist, but he obviously had a musical ego that did not demand the spotlight.
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RIP. I wasn’t aware of hearing him play with anyone else besides Mahavishnu, but I certainly gave those records quite a few spins back in the day. I’ll have to revisit them soon.
One of my earliest Bass books (which were kinda few & far between in that time) was Laird's Jazz Riffs For Electric Bass. Love those MO albums...kudos for hanging in there with BC.
Rest in peace, sir.
Rest in peace, sir.
Rick on the upright 6 years before the formation of MO... RIP, Rick!
Another classic performance by Rick on upright:
That era of music, early to mid ‘70s was such an eye opener for me as both a bass player and a musician in general, so many great players and bands that I was discovering on underground FM stations from Jazz classics to this new labeled “ fusion” thing which my friends either loved or hated, for me it was a whole new world of not only being a bass player but also fit in with some of my more esoteric philosophies that I was investigating as were many of the musicians I was listening to, fly on Rick.
Rick was the Rick Laird of bass playing. RIPRIP
Dude had a killer resume, the kind that demanded that you were at the absolute top of your game -- I mean, Buddy Rich, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Return To Forever (!!!!) -- but he never overplayed, or made it about "chops" or "flash" or anything other than Big Fundamentals. He was the Tim Duncan of bass playing!
