Two Bassists in a band

[IPA]

Twice already.

Let's go for 3! 4!

 

[m2k2p]

Ornette Colman's Prime Time. Check out "Virgin Beauty" for some of the best interplay between two bass players.

when I think of multiple bassists being used well I think Ornette Coleman's Prime Time and Ronald Shannon Jackson's Decoding Society. I think Ornette has used 3 bassists before (2 electrics and 1 Upright)

 

[Spirit of Ox]

I just booked Pinkus to play a show at the brewery I manage. Of course he's playing banjo these days.

In the final days of Sonic Youth they used two basses live on occasion. Kim would go back and forth between guitar and bass and Mark Ibold (Pavement) played bass full time.

Wow that is amazing his bass work with Butthole Surfers, Honky, and Melvins is great. He's such a nice guy too. Makes me want to learn banjo.

 

[DJ Bebop]

Not a band necessary, but more than one bassist.

Michael Manring, Grant Stinnett, Rob Gourlay and Jim Stinnett.

Danger cargo shorts alert!!!

 

[Bob_Ross]

Ornette Coleman’s Prime Time with Jamaaladeen Tacuma and Albert MacDowell

when I think of multiple bassists being used well I think Ornette Coleman's Prime Time and Ronald Shannon Jackson's Decoding Society.

Yeah, my first thought whenever this topic comes up (which it seems to every few months on TB) is always Decoding Society with Melvin Gibbs and Reverend Bruce Johnson...but then it's impossible to think of them and not also think of Prime Time with Tacuma and MacDowell.

Both bands had similar approaches to using the dual bassists, an approach that was intriguingly less easy to categorize than simply "lead bass & rhythm bass".

More like "sun & moon"

 

[hieronymous]

More like "sun & moon"

I like that! It's even more evocative than Magma's "earth bass" and "air bass"

 

[Passinwind]

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.

There are a whole lot of ways around those obstacles if both players want to make it work. Alternating notes, phrases, bars, choruses, any and all of which can be scripted or as call and response, for example. Muting, bowing, slapping, slide bass. And maybe some of us actually like mud or just challenging "how Hank done it." And no risk, no reward.

Yeah, my first thought whenever this topic comes up (which it seems to every few months on TB) is always Decoding Society with Melvin Gibbs and Reverend Bruce Johnson...but then it's impossible to think of them and not also think of Prime Time with Tacuma and MacDowell.

Both bands had similar approaches to using the dual bassists, an approach that was intriguingly less easy to categorize than simply "lead bass & rhythm bass".

More like "sun & moon"

Sun Ra's Arkestra had some of that going on the first time I saw his band too. But I think my favorite two bass instrument lineup was actually Rufus Reid and Howard Johnson in Jack DeJohnette's band ca. 1985.

 

[Altitude]

There are a whole lot of ways around those obstacles if both players want to make it work. Alternating notes, phrases, bars, choruses, any and all of which can be scripted or as call and response, for example. Muting, bowing, slapping, slide bass. And maybe some of us actually like mud or just challenging "how Hank done it." And no risk, no reward.

Absolutely. As long as you do whatever it is you do on purpose.

Two bass players both playing parts extemporaneously over changes, with no coordination, is not likely to sound good though.

 

[Bob_Ross]

I think my favorite two bass instrument lineup was actually Rufus Reid and Howard Johnson in Jack DeJohnette's band ca. 1985.

Ooh, that reminded me of another example: Bill Frisell's Rambler album had Jerome Harris on bass guitar and Bob Stewart on tuba.

And speaking of tubas, I just reminded myself of Henry Threadgill's Very Very Circus; on their album Too Much Sugar For A Dime every tune has at least two tubas, and there are a couple of tracks featuring three!

 

[Passinwind]

Ooh, that reminded me of another example: Bill Frisell's Rambler album had Jerome Harris on bass guitar and Bob Stewart on tuba.

And speaking of tubas, I just reminded myself of Henry Threadgill's Very Very Circus; on their album Too Much Sugar For A Dime every tune has at least two tubas, and there are a couple of tracks featuring three!

Cool. I saw Harris with Ornette a couple of times. I also saw Prime Time in '84 at Bumbershoot in Seattle, in the Opera House. They scared a whole lot of people out of there right quick, but the musician crew I went with all loved it.

 

[Wood and Wire]

There are a whole lot of ways around those obstacles if both players want to make it work. Alternating notes, phrases, bars, choruses, any and all of which can be scripted or as call and response, for example.

 

[Wood and Wire]

Absolutely. As long as you do whatever it is you do on purpose.

Two bass players both playing parts extemporaneously over changes, with no coordination, is not likely to sound good though.

That, to me, describes most jam bands - regardless of whether it's two guitarists, or guitar and keys; if the musicians aren't listening to each other - instead of having a musical conversation, they end up talking loudly over each other.

But yeah, it's definitely more disorienting with low frequencies.

 

[Altitude]

That, to me, describes most jam bands - regardless of whether it's two guitarists, or guitar and keys; if the musicians aren't listening to each other - instead of having a musical conversation, they end up talking loudly over each other.

But yeah, it's definitely more disorienting with low frequencies.

It’s sort of what New Orleans jazz sounds like to me too.

 

[taliesin]

Absolutely. As long as you do whatever it is you do on purpose.

Two bass players both playing parts extemporaneously over changes, with no coordination, is not likely to sound good though.

That’s true but applies to any instrument - two guitarists doing it generally sounds like crap too.

 

[m2k2p]

when I think of multiple bassists being used well I think Ornette Coleman's Prime Time and Ronald Shannon Jackson's Decoding Society

Ooh, that reminded me of another example: Bill Frisell's Rambler album had Jerome Harris on bass guitar and Bob Stewart on tuba.

And speaking of tubas, I just reminded myself of Henry Threadgill's Very Very Circus; on their album Too Much Sugar For A Dime every tune has at least two tubas, and there are a couple of tracks featuring three!

Henry Threadgill deserves more love, truly a unique composer and improviser ! I haven't listened to him in years, thanks for reminding me about him.

 

[pklima]

Just ran across another one... Euronyme play funeral doom metal, which is really a very logical style for this kind of thing. One distorted bass doing more or less the guitar thing (and clean singing), one clean bass doing the bass thing (and growled vocals).



All these years later, though, I still think Cop Shoot Cop did it best.

 

[Motoboy]

Melvins sometimes.

 

[underwhelmist]

I just saw a picture of A Certain Ratio playing last night, three basses on stage but I don’t know if they were deployed simultaneously…

 

[Wood and Wire]

I just saw a picture of A Certain Ratio playing last night, three basses on stage but I don’t know if they were deployed simultaneously…

Well they're certainly using two at the same time, but I've no idea if they ever use all three (I nearly saw them last year, if my sense of time hasn't failed me - had I known this was a possibility, I might have gone).

One of my old bands had a song that initially had three bass parts.

Then we did a portastudio demo, and expanded it to four basses.

But when we gigged it, it sounded better with two basses, and one guitar (the last recording I remember of it, was basically the four bass version, but with two of the bass parts transferred to guitar).

 

[axelrod]

Two basses in my band? I wish.