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WILLIE WEEKS DONNY HATHAWAY..THIS IS SO GOOD..

bubinga5

bubinga5

Jun 6, 2006
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582
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cheltenham(UK)
#1
Was just listening to Donny's live album.. a track called Little Ghetto Boy. im sure you know it, thought i would post how good (apart from Donny's voice!!!!!!) Willies bass playing is supreme!...Just blows me away..Seriously good groove..That guy can play bass for real..This is what i want to hear!!!!

For me this is the epitome of what a bass player should be doing..Holds the groove, with some lovely note choices..He really is playing from his soul this guy....



listen to the master at work..
 
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#5
I do believe that is the busiest I have ever heard him play. Correct me if I'm wrong, but is'nt he normally a pocket or groove player. I just saw him on public tv with Eric Clapton an Steve Winwood, and you barely knew he was there. Same with his work with the Doobie Brothers. Nice to hear him step out a little bit. Great vids,thanks for sharing.
 
#6
pedulla-2007 said:
I do believe that is the busiest I have ever heard him play. Correct me if I'm wrong, but is'nt he normally a pocket or groove player. I just saw him on public tv with Eric Clapton an Steve Winwood, and you barely knew he was there. Same with his work with the Doobie Brothers. Nice to hear him step out a little bit. Great vids,thanks for sharing.
Click to expand...

Besides being older and wiser, the Hathaway album was recorded in a small club, he just adjusted his playing for the bigger arenas and halls. A lot of the subtleties of cool bass work that we all love[ghost notes etc.] gets a little lost 20 rows out.;)
 
#7
bubinga5 said:
Was just listening to Donny's live album.. a track called Little Ghetto Boy. im sure you know it, thought i would post how good (apart from Donny's voice!!!!!!) Willies bass playing is supreme!...Just blows me away..Seriously good groove..That guy can play bass for real..This is what i want to hear!!!!

For me this is the epitome of what a bass player should be doing..Holds the groove, with some lovely note choices..He really is playing from his soul this guy....



listen to the master at work..
Click to expand...


Word
 
#9
Willie Weeks' work on that entire album is some of my favorite bass playing of all time!

Of course it didn't hurt that he was backing the super soulful Donny Hathaway. That record is a MUST have! There's groove after groove on that recording, and they take "You've Got a Friend" (written by Carole King, made famous by James Taylor) to church too!
 
#11
Les Izmor said:
...and they take "You've Got a Friend" (written by Carole King, made famous by James Taylor) to church too!
Click to expand...


I never knew a R&B meister that didn't take a Rock/Pop tune to Church.
...and you can look no further than some of The Beatles' covers-
"Hey Jude"- Wilson Pickett
"The Long & Winding Road"- Aretha
"We Can Work It Out"- Chaka Khan
"Got To Get You Into My Life"- EW&F
 
#17
I was blessed to hear Willie Weeks and (drummer) Bill Lordan (also with Gypsy and Robin Trower) in the Twin Cities area for a couple of years in the late '60s. They were in The Mystics (never shows up in his history, but it does in Lordan's). They were quite the team!

I have an acetate 45 of him playing Pain (the Grass Roots song) with The Mystics (with Lordan)... and he KILLS it. I was also fortunate to be able to play in The Mystics for a while in '78 with some killer musicians before I joined the 8-to-5 set. It was an honor to hold down the 'Willie Weeks Chair' even if only for a short time. Truly an incredible artist!
 
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#18
Les Izmor said:
That record is a MUST have! There's groove after groove on that recording, and they take "You've Got a Friend" (written by Carole King, made famous by James Taylor) to church too!
Click to expand...

Donnie Hathaway Live is one of my favorite albums, ever. And if he and his band borrowed from the world of Pop music, Pop music borrowed right back: if anyone got something out of that record, it was Donald Fagen and Walter Becker. For example, "Do It Again" is a reworking of "The Ghetto," and the melody of "Aja" is a note-for-note borrowing of the bridge melody (at 0:40 and 2:19) of "Hey Girl." Great, great stuff!
 
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#19
*A singer I work with recorded a album in Nashville about eight years back with Willie on bass, the very cool thing about it for me was that I co-wrote two of the songs and Willie played my basslines from the demos[only a million times better]. A high point for my little career.;)



* I Know, I know....I've told this story before!
 
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