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Two Bassists in a band

#121
A lot of years ago I saw James Brown live in my town in Italy.
He had 2 bassists on stage: an old man with a 62 like P and a young guy with a modern instrument.
I pretty sure I heard just one bass (probably from the young guy) and I thought the old man was touring just as “a tribute”.
 
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#128
wallawallabob said:
A full symphonic orchestra usually has 8 bass players.....
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All playing the exact same notes at the exact same time using the exact same dynamics. Or, at least, if one or two of them is playing anything different it's designed to work harmonically and contrapuntally with what the others are playing.

The issue is that notes in the bass register do not mate well if they don't have easy intervals. If you have two bass players in your band and they are both pounding root 8th notes it probably sounds cool. If they play in 5ths it might sound fine.

Beyond that, two bass players (or more) doing their own thing risks sounding muddy in the same way a bass player and a keyboardist with an active left hand get in each others' way.

Everyone - play an open A string on your bass at the same time you play a 7th fret B on the E string, you'll hear the problem.
 
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#134
ProbablyTooLoud said:
Every time I see P-Funk play they seem to have more than one dude up there on 4 strings.
Typically a younger cat holds down the actual songs and plays from start to finish for the entire show, and an older guy - Bootsy when he's with them - takes the parts that might be called "lead" but is not really responsible for holding the groove measure by measure.

And then of course there's that Bass Extreme tour that features one of our very own TBers.
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Yeah....Earth Wind & Fire too
 
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#135
The amazing Detroit garage rock band the Dirtbombs have two bass players. One of them plays fuzzy lines on a Bass VI and one of them plays more traditional bass parts.

As previously mentioned, Ornette Coleman's Prime Time had two bass players. They put on one of the best concerts I've ever seen. There wasn't a whole lot of chordal playing in that band due to Coleman's harmelodic approach, and that left room for more bass playing.

I have Ron Carter's Piccolo album, He plays piccolo and Buster Williams plays standard. Amazing record.
 
#137
SDC1-ClickClack said:
Oooh, I forgot about Bert Kaempfert, whose recordings from the late 1950s and early 1960s would now probably be categorized as "easy listening" rather than as "space-age bachelor pad music" (like the recordings of Esquivel).
One of the signature features of his orchestral arrangements was using an electric bass guitar (apparently always played with a pick and muting the notes) in conjunction with a simpler low-end pulse on the upright bass. Acoustic guitar, humming, and handclaps were also common touches.



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That’s Ladi Geisler on a Jazz Bass.
 
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#139
+1 on Dos.

Two situations on recordings only…
Larry Taylor and Steve Thompson:


Dave Allen, overdubbed I believe:


A dreampop/shoegaze/goth band from my hometown, doing the Cure thing…four and six string, although the six is more like a low rhythm guitar…


The guitarist/vocalist is the daughter of someone I went to high school with.
 
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#140
Altitude said:
All playing the exact same notes at the exact same time using the exact same dynamics. Or, at least, if one or two of them is playing anything different it's designed to work harmonically and contrapuntally with what the others are playing.

The issue is that notes in the bass register do not mate well if they don't have easy intervals. If you have two bass players in your band and they are both pounding root 8th notes it probably sounds cool. If they play in 5ths it might sound fine.

Beyond that, two bass players (or more) doing their own thing risks sounding muddy in the same way a bass player and a keyboardist with an active left hand get in each others' way.

Everyone - play an open A string on your bass at the same time you play a 7th fret B on the E string, you'll hear the problem.
Click to expand...
Of course....!
 

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