About John Neves:
Ed Fuqua said:
How was that, for you? He was my teacher when I was at Berklee (a year or so after you), but I would have to say that we didn't really focus on much. I thought he sounded great and had a wonderful feel, but he didn't really talk much about how to work on getting that feel or much about improvisational concept. Or physical approach to the instrument, for that matter. In some ways I think I would have had a better physical approach if I had studied with Whit Brown.
Hello, fellow Berklee vet!
Well, I have to qualify any comments about John by saying that I was an arrogant little guy who didn't put enough work into his lessons. He gave it back. I had just finished 4 years of undergraduate music school (BA in Music at Brandeis University, just outside Boston... all classical theory & composition... some staggeringly talented teachers), so I was burnt out on school. Plus, I knew I was going to leave Berklee after a year, because my money was going to run out. I was anxious to get out and play, plus I thought I knew it all (boy, was I wrong). I remember one lesson where I was really unprepared. John told me he had to reschedule the next one, and then he stood me up. I think he was trying to teach me a lesson in life, and he was justified.
Having said all that, he was a nice guy, a great bassist (as you know, he played with people like Stan Getz and Joanne Brackeen when they came through town) and when I told him I wasn't coming back the following year, he loaded me up with a stack of stuff to work on over the ensuing years. He was very cool about it. Also, he had interesting little personal observations to share, which were illuminating. (For instance, I remember him telling me about how Slam Stewart had hideous fingering habits but beautiful intonation.)
He would do things like play duets with me, with him on piano. The very first time, he stopped me after about 10 seconds and yelled, "Nobody wants to hear that Scott Lafaro s**t!" He was a Ray Brown fanatic (and so am I).
He was very laid-back, and I remember him sighing and saying (about the hyper students all around), "I don't know why everyone's in such a rush to be forty."
Finally, the best thing I got from him was the lesson where I brought in all the major scales in two octaves, and he had me write in the fingerings. His instructions were to play all the modes. (For example, C up and down, D dorian up and down, E phrygian up and down-- in all keys.) I know this sounds elementary, but it taught me the notes on the neck more than anything else I've ever done. Not long after, I kind of retired from the upright, but I continued to practice this on electric bass, still using the upright fingerings. Invaluable stuff.
I saw Whit around a lot, but never talked to him. The reason I studied with John was that Richard Davis recommended him, two years before I went to Berklee. He was the only Boston bassist Richard was familiar with.
