Double Bass Thomas Morgan

[devnulljp]

Just stumbled upon this recording of Bill Frisell and Thomas Morgan. Man, this guy's playing has such a lovely feel to it.
I don't know anything else about him, but the guy has fantastic chops & tone.

 

[LushPuppy]

Yeah he’s one of my favs for sure! Amazing tone and harmonic content. Check out his stuff with Jakob Bro, and Frisell’s trio w/ him.

 

[Earl]

One of my favorite players. He has a very zen approach. He makes those Superflexible solo strings sound like gut with his touch. I saw him in a recent video and zoomed in on his settings on a Markbass amp (probably the house amp):

Bass off
Low Mid 10am
Hi Mid 9am
Treble off

Interesting...

 

[Francois Blais]

Off means center? (Noon)

 

[Earl]

Off means center? (Noon)

No, 0 bass, no bass, bass completely off

 

[BobDeRosa]

No, 0 bass, no bass, bass completely off

That seems strange. Was it clear that he was actually playing through that amp or could it have just been sitting there and he was going direct into a board?

 

[Earl]

Seemed like he was playing through it. Not so strange to me - I have turned the bass almost completely off on certain amps in order to get a natural sound with my very bassy bass. He was using the Lifeline which is a pretty bass heavy pickup.

 

[Decomposer]

Thomas is a master. I've got an extra set os Superflexible solos I will put int the TB classifieds later today.

 

[buckthorn]

I've just recently found some of his trio and duo recordings with Frisell. Love his playing. These two have a great telepathy thing going on. Zen indeed!

 

[Fat bob]

One of my favorite players. He has a very zen approach. He makes those Superflexible solo strings sound like gut with his touch. I saw him in a recent video and zoomed in on his settings on a Markbass amp (probably the house amp):

Bass off
Low Mid 10am
Hi Mid 9am
Treble off

Interesting...

thank you for posting this Earl!! Despite my broken leg, I made it to a gig to this past weekend and didn’t want to fool with anything extra for the schlep- just pulled the markbass outta the trunk- usually unhappy with the sound. I thought of this quote and it gave me the confidence to turn the bass Down , maybe not all the way, but… No Felix, no hpf.. sounded great, and so simple!

 

[Earl]

thank you for posting this Earl!! Despite my broken leg, I made it to a gig to this past weekend and didn’t want to fool with anything extra for the schlep- just pulled the markbass outta the trunk- usually unhappy with the sound. I thought of this quote and it gave me the confidence to turn the bass Down , maybe not all the way, but… No Felix, no hpf.. sounded great, and so simple!

Cool! In my experience most piezo pickups overemphasize the bass response of the instrument, hence the need for an HPF or just turning the bass down. This will of course depend on the bass as well. My 7/8 Juzek has a strong low end so without an HPF I usually start with the bass almost off and increase from there until it sounds right. My Shen ply always needs more bass than the Juzek.

 

[HelpImaRock]

Electric bass guitarist chiming in:

I've been listening to Thomas Morgan since his 2017 album with Bill Frisell, "Small Town". It's gotten to the point where he's as big an influence on me as Chris Wood was in MMW. Last year I stumbled onto his work with Jakob Bro on "Taking Turns", a record that was made 10 years earlier and then never released.

Recently the algorithm pushed the 2013 album "December Song" with much of the same lineup. And I learned that it was the last record in a trilogy, with the albums "Balladeering" and "Time". While the first record doesn't have Thomas Morgan, the others do. Though I'm 15 years late on them, these are some of the best records I've ever heard. They're not a trilogy. They're a tetralogy!

I'm going to need to take a detour into Lee Konitz albums. I've never really listened to him and he's the star.

 

[ejnachtrab]

Thomas Morgan is one of a kind. What a beautiful musician.

 

[Earl]

He is from another planet!

 

[garrett2]

His bass sounds incredible on his new record (which I love).

 

[Earl]

Well, they edited out all his silences (not sure if that's a good or bad thing haha), but great interview!