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Steve Swallow seems to have a new bass...
- Thread starter cnltb
- Start date
Oh you do, he is incredible. I also editted to say Anthony Jackson too
Me too. Thought the smiles were enough. No offense intended. I've been with him on that search too. I like his work with Carla.
Duets really pushed me over the edge.....my room mates in school hated me. I think I had it on cassette? I started to play on the fingerboard a lot after that and still do when I need a solid, no string noise sound.
JB
Yeah, she's more widely known for her studio work, but she was originally a jazz guitarist back in the day to pay her bills, I believe she picked up bass for studio work.
He's found it, he just can't play it. Sorry, there's even a part where he botches the last note of His solo and shakes his head, I think everyone who has ever played a solo knows That move. Not saying he's bad or his phrasing isn't cool, he just botched a bunch of notes. It is what it is, this prob isn't the best showcase of his talent.
I wouldn't argue somebody's definition of 'deep', as It's perfectly subjective. Here's a little story on the topic, though. Steve is the main bassist on the upcoming Kip Hanrahan record, and I am fortunate to play on a few tracks (Fernando Saunders also plays bass on it). One day last fall, as a die-hard admirer of Swallow's playing, tone and compositions since high school, I decided to go hang in the studio while Steve was tracking, although I wasn't expected to play on that day. His playing was consistently fantastic, the whole day, at 79 years of age. At the and of the day, it was impromptu decided that I was gonna play a track alongside Steve, initially with our basses in the same register, almost going in unison. We did a take like that and it worked out fine but my feeling, while I was interacting with it and not only listening to it, was that the depth and presence of his sound were just so fulfilling and musically untouchable that I had better moved away from it. The second and last take, which ended up being the keeper, was with me in the tenor register and I much preferred it. In other words, Steve's sound presence and depth are really phenomenal to me, and really show all the work and conceptualization he has put in this search for decades, although I also agree that his early electric tone was killer too...He's one of a kind, and a real gentleman too.
Us old guys have earned our gray hair, bushy eyebrows, and bald heads. If these things actually matter to you, check in when you're Steve Swallow's age and post a clip of your work.
I found a copy of the March/April 2016 issue of Eric Nemeyer's Jazz Inside magazine on the subway the other day, and it has a wonderful interview with Steve Swallow. He had this to say about what he looks for in an electric bass:
"The conventional wisdom regarding the electric bass is that Leo Fender got it right. It's really remarkable the extent he nailed it right off the bat with the Precision Bass and subsequently the Jazz Bass in the '50s when the instrument was being born. But some of the things he nailed were along the lines of making an extremely efficient instrument, an instrument that spoke very quickly and clearly, that sustained very well, that could be heard at a greater volume than the acoustic bass could be heard. Those were all tremendously valuable attributes, and had a tremendous effect on certain kinds of music, but not really on jazz music.
"What I've been looking for in the electric bass is, in a sense, the opposite of what Leo Fender accomplished. I've been looking for a kind of inefficiency to the instrument that I loved in the acoustic bass. Every acoustic bass has notes that need to be favored. I has 'wolf tones' and it has dead spots on the neck. It has personality, and as a player, you're often at odds with that personality and you're trying desperately as you practice to thwart the instrument. To make the 'wolf tones' speak and to make the tones that are popping out at you not pop out at you, to bend the instrument to your own purposes. I've been looking to retrieve that in the electric bass, to get electric bass makers to build an instrument with anomalies, to dare to build an instrument that's inefficient, that stinks of personality, of its own identity.
"And I've had some success in persuading makers to pursue that, in particular Harvey Citron, the guy who's built the last half-dozen instruments I've had. It's been fun to explore this."
"The conventional wisdom regarding the electric bass is that Leo Fender got it right. It's really remarkable the extent he nailed it right off the bat with the Precision Bass and subsequently the Jazz Bass in the '50s when the instrument was being born. But some of the things he nailed were along the lines of making an extremely efficient instrument, an instrument that spoke very quickly and clearly, that sustained very well, that could be heard at a greater volume than the acoustic bass could be heard. Those were all tremendously valuable attributes, and had a tremendous effect on certain kinds of music, but not really on jazz music.
"What I've been looking for in the electric bass is, in a sense, the opposite of what Leo Fender accomplished. I've been looking for a kind of inefficiency to the instrument that I loved in the acoustic bass. Every acoustic bass has notes that need to be favored. I has 'wolf tones' and it has dead spots on the neck. It has personality, and as a player, you're often at odds with that personality and you're trying desperately as you practice to thwart the instrument. To make the 'wolf tones' speak and to make the tones that are popping out at you not pop out at you, to bend the instrument to your own purposes. I've been looking to retrieve that in the electric bass, to get electric bass makers to build an instrument with anomalies, to dare to build an instrument that's inefficient, that stinks of personality, of its own identity.
"And I've had some success in persuading makers to pursue that, in particular Harvey Citron, the guy who's built the last half-dozen instruments I've had. It's been fun to explore this."
Very cool. Thanks for posting that. I'm a huge Steve Swallow fan myself and really appreciate his unique sound and approach. Really looking forward to picking up the new Sco album!
I'm a little torn between the notion of individual instrument personalities and anomalies; and the idea of having to fight your instrument at times because you find yourself needing to play "at odds" with it.
I can see Steve's point and agree with him - up to a point. But I never really saw the value of having an instrument (or actively seeking out an instrument) that could be difficult to deal with. I was always of the school that thinks a really good bass is the one that gives you exactly what you ask it to do, every single time, and without any drama. And even though such a bass probably still doesn't exist, at least it's an ideal to strive toward.
Dunno. I think I want to think about it some more.
Apologies for thinking out loud.
I can see Steve's point and agree with him - up to a point. But I never really saw the value of having an instrument (or actively seeking out an instrument) that could be difficult to deal with. I was always of the school that thinks a really good bass is the one that gives you exactly what you ask it to do, every single time, and without any drama. And even though such a bass probably still doesn't exist, at least it's an ideal to strive toward.
Dunno. I think I want to think about it some more.
Apologies for thinking out loud.
I have to disagree with Steve's last point when thinking about guys like Dave Holland, Jaco, Stanley Clarke, etc.
Thanks for this. Yeah, I also disagree about the "not really on jazz music" part: a little too general a statement - still valid as a tendency perhaps. I kinda get what he means with the "personality" thing. It's not like he's playing random crappy basses after all: I guess he needs the playing phase to involve just that little bit of taming of the instrument, for the right tone to result from a more challenging and physical interaction between him and...her.
MERCY.... That's bad. Holy Crow.
Aimless, inconsistent plucking, drops out randomly, bad timing...
Pretty astounding.
A lot of people (not me) wouldn’t classify the music Jaco and Stanley play(ed) as jazz in the same sense that Steve probably meant there.
I think his point was that bass guitar didn’t develop much role in jazz for 15 or 20 years after it was introduced and it became massively popular in other genres much sooner. Which is true.
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