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Victor Bailey sings "Continuum"

#2
As amazing as Bailey is a bassist, my old jazz teacher's words come to mind.

"There's a reason you play (insert instrument here), it's because you can't sing!"

Not to say that he can't, but his voice does kind of irk me. Beautiful performance of Continuum though.
 
#4
Yep, "if you can't do it, don't do it" comes to mind too. But then again he's just following a tradition where bassplayers (who can't sing) sing - like Stanley Clarke, Victor Wooten etc. If some of those guys would wake up and stop making vocal sounds, it'd make some of their music a lot more enjoyable to us as listeners.
 
#5
TheBigO said:
The singing was bad enough, but the lyrics were just awful.

Both made it hard to enjoy what was a great rendetion of a Jaco classic.
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Well, he says he wrote the lyrics to it when he was 17 so....

Give the guy a break. I listened to it again just the other day and it wasn't that bad. I thought it was cool that he vocalized and lyricized Jaco's solo section (one of my favorites). If I'm not mistaken he's also singing on the first track off the album and that one sounds great to me.

Part of the reason why I think they do it is to abolish the "can" and "cannot" preconceptions about music (and race and many other things) but to sing simply out of spite is selfish and trite and I would think, underneath the folks we're talking about. I try not to think of anything in finite terms like "cannot". Who says you can't sing with your bass on your solo album? No one! Of course, then opinion begins to play into it here but ideally, the music should be pure and without any restrictions. Part of the reason why I like what he did is because he took a chance. He took a chance and he made his statement, something he'd been wanting to do since he was 17. Ultimately, it sounds good to you or it doesn't.

edit: speaking specifically of the short youtube clip, yes he has a major vocal clam in one part.
he was obviously able to spend more time in the studio for the album version. again, I think he's got balls for even attempting to perform it live!
 
#6
VintageBT6Lover said:
Who says you can't sing with your bass on your solo album? No one! Of course, then opinion begins to play into it here but ideally, the music should be pure and without any restrictions. Part of the reason why I like what he did is because he took a chance.
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I agree! The aesthetic sense of the musician should dictate the manner of expression. Listeners would either like it or not.
This is excactly what's happening here - most people don't like it.
Of course if some muso wanted to compose a techno-styled homage to Debussy, something I think would require a certain standard of 'balls', that would be as valid as anything else. To me, the aesthetics in that particular piece would be the same as the clip with Victor, and I wouldn't enjoy the sound of it.

But sure, people can go crazy and sing schmaltzy lyrics out of tune all they want. There certainly isn't a law against it.
 
#11
Bailey recorded a studio version of Continuum on his Low Blow album.

I admire Bailey as a musician, but that performance was sub par. Just because you're great at one thing doesn't mean you'll be great at another if you don't work at it.

He has a great singing voice but he's clearly had no vocal training. Even more than fingers, vocal cords need to be warmed up before singing. That bass digging into his abdomen isn't helping either.

More than that, he hasn't really mastered the playing and singing at the same time. This is an extreme case of course, but if bass were really easier than guitar, most lead singers would be bassists and not guitarists.

It's a hard tune, but if he really wants to pull it off, he'll have to learn to sing without glancing at the fretboard and stop wasting so much energy moving his legs around (what was up with that?).

I couldn't do better, but then again, I'm not Victor Bailey.
 
#17
Marcus said:
I don't think we're a tough crowd...

...did you hear the lyrics?
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Yes I did. Doesn't matter to me. It's art! I have the cd as well and that version is really good. It's just an homage to Jaco and I don't think Victor fancies himself as a singer else he'd be singing all the time. Come on, lighten up. Let's stop being so critical of our fellow bassists.
 
#20
Blackbird said:
Bailey recorded a studio version of Continuum on his Low Blow album.

I admire Bailey as a musician, but that performance was sub par. Just because you're great at one thing doesn't mean you'll be great at another if you don't work at it.

He has a great singing voice but he's clearly had no vocal training. Even more than fingers, vocal cords need to be warmed up before singing. That bass digging into his abdomen isn't helping either.

More than that, he hasn't really mastered the playing and singing at the same time. This is an extreme case of course, but if bass were really easier than guitar, most lead singers would be bassists and not guitarists.

It's a hard tune, but if he really wants to pull it off, he'll have to learn to sing without glancing at the fretboard and stop wasting so much energy moving his legs around (what was up with that?).

I couldn't do better, but then again, I'm not Victor Bailey.
Click to expand...


I pretty much agree. Being able to sing doesn't mean that you will sing well if you don't put in the work. Add singing while playing a Jaco tune and the task gets just that much trickier. I would like for Victor to work on using his voice more. He could be like Richard Bona and that would be great!:)
 

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