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Vintage Will Lee
- Thread starter Dr. Cheese
- Start date
...not sure how many of you know this album. I bought it years back at a local Record store (owner, still there, is a true believer & was hip to new/obscure things). Interesting, too...William Calhoun of Living Colour-
...performing much of The Beatles' "impossible to pull off live" psychedelia.
Might be my favorite @Dr. Cheese thread ever, and that's saying something. Shout-out to our host!
It’s funny how these Will Lee threads started. I returned the Spector Spectorcore bass I bought because I decided that the four string fretlesses I have are enough for me. I ended up swapping the Spector for a Squier Contemporary Jazz V HH, a bass that has humbucking soap bar pickups and a boost only two band eq plus a passive tone knob, a system essentially like a Sadowsky preamp without the active bypass. Tonally, I think the bass sounds very Jazzlike despite having two soap bars. That fact got me searching for videos of Will Lee Sadowsky Signature basses with soap bars to hear if they still sounded like Jazz Basses too.That led to me finding the cute video of Will Lee playing “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” on his soap bar loaded signature Sadowsky. That bass indeed sounds like a Jazz Bass too. I loved his playing so much that it got me watching some of Will Lee other videos. I have been a fan of Will Lee’s playing since maybe 1979, and probably earlier, I just did not know it was him on so many cool records until I started reading liner notes.
Been there done that as far as falling into a rabbit hole. So much easier in the digital/internet era. I developed Bootsy/Jamerson/Anthony and Paul Jackson bass crushes in the 90’s, when I was learning/studying, and had to do a LOT of leg-work to find more out about those fellas.
Reading bass mags/writing down references to read other mags/books/having older musicians give me 10 album recommendations every gig/etc.
Cool to see your journey man. I see how the academic/intellectual background you have makes you able to search far and wide AND change your approach when yiu receive new data points ... i.e ‘runs into cheap 5-string that happens to have a killer b’
Alkali Ike
Gold Supporting Member
- Jan 1, 2011
- 2,847
- 15,632
- Disclosures
- I never actually learned to play very well
This is a really good video where Will Lee talks about touring with Horace Silver.
Alkali Ike
Gold Supporting Member
- Jan 1, 2011
- 2,847
- 15,632
- Disclosures
- I never actually learned to play very well
It seems like he gives short shrift to Will Lee’s track. He goes into synth bass and pianos and other stuff but says pretty much nothing about Lee’s playing.
Nice P-bass stuff and a nice solo from a young Will Lee at the one hour mark.
Yes, I remember this especially because he climbed the steps to the top of the cake while playing and singing. I'm just not worthy!
Will Lee at age 23, recorded in late 1975 or early 1976.
Does anyone know which phaser he was using? You can hear it briefly around 1:48 and 2:54. To me it sounds like a Phase 100, which would have been a new model then.
Also, interesting starting around 5:20. Sounds like a second bass track with shades of Chris Squire's The Fish from Fragile.
I always loved the tone that Will Lee got back in the Seventies with his P-bass and flanger/phase shifter.
