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Wynton Marsalis: Sage or Idiot?

#63
Why is it assumed that a bassist with an amp would necessarily drown out the bandstand with volume? If anything, some of the more transparent-sounding amp/pickup designs that we as bassists are blessed with TRULY allow for you to hear your bass made louder.

I use an EUB and am VERY conscious of my volume on a straight-ahead gig. I've done more than a few gigs where I was the only one amplified and NO ONE cared. I wonder if Wynton's attitude is in response to some bad experiences, like a bassist using an old Fishman BP100 amped through two Hartke 4x10's, cruising at around 100db on stage?
 
#66
jnuts1 said:
"i'll never share the stage with that motha****." miles davis
Click to expand...

I was there the night Wynton got on stage with Miles... uninvited. Miles let him play a chorus then waved the band to stop playing, leaving ol' Wynton with his **** hanging out.
Then he waited till Wynton got off his stage to start playing again.

I had to leave early to go to another gig... got outside the venue and Wynton was cussing a blue streak to his "handler".

One of the more memorable nights of my life.
I don't have much time for Wynton's views on the bass.
 
#67
I'm curious, back in the late 1930's and the 1940's, was there ANY kind of amplification of the bass? Even a microphone into a PA? I have tons of live recordings of dance gigs of big bands and although the bass might not be booming loud, it's definitely audible even with the rest of the band playing. I know that back then drums and drum heads were a lot quieter, and that musicians playing group parts would control their volume and try to blend with one another to create the leader's or arranger's desired textures, and would use mutes some of the time. But still, a lot of the live recordings I've heard (and they are fairly primitive recordings compared with today's technology) show that the bass was definitely an audible part of the mix. I also know that a few early electric uprights were experimented with for live big band work starting in the early 1940's.

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=287192
 
#69
In a perfect world...even violins and other classical instruments were much less powerful than those of today. It would be great if one could play without amplification, but...it's not a perfect world.
 
#70
SteveC said:
In a perfect world...even violins and other classical instruments were much less powerful than those of today. It would be great if one could play without amplification, but...it's not a perfect world.
Click to expand...

i agree...but don't "choke-off" creativity by applying antiquated "rules" to it!...Jazz is about freedom...amplified or not!!!

(edit) Its all about the music... not how it is presented...
 
#78
lunarpollen said:
I'm curious, back in the late 1930's and the 1940's, was there ANY kind of amplification of the bass? Even a microphone into a PA? I have tons of live recordings of dance gigs of big bands and although the bass might not be booming loud, it's definitely audible even with the rest of the band playing.
Click to expand...

Perhaps what you dont realise is many of those players paid the price for what was expected of them. They had to supply unamplified volume with limited technology which meant gut string jacked up a mile off the fingerboard, and they had to really heavily play just to be heard. Heavy and basically inappropriate use of the hands lead to a lot of injury later in life.

Also audible doesnt necessarily mean musical. With the aforementioned bass setup, you get a large pulse of air on the front of the note, but you dont get as much fundamental note pitch sustaining for any length of time.

So in that way the bass was more of a percussive instrument rather than a melodic instrument, compounded by the physical effort required to play.

Why did so many bassists play simple 2 beat or crotchet lines? Because thats about all the instrument naturally lends itself to. This is how the bass evolved as an instrument + its role in music.

I think this is all WM wants the bass to do. Hes only interested in how bassists can serve his interests. Im not sure whether its a conscious thing or whether his ego instinctively guides it.

Im thinking its the latter given his rather vacuous statements on amplification.
 
#80
cripula said:
I was there the night Wynton got on stage with Miles... uninvited. Miles let him play a chorus then waved the band to stop playing, leaving ol' Wynton with his **** hanging out.
Then he waited till Wynton got off his stage to start playing again.

I had to leave early to go to another gig... got outside the venue and Wynton was cussing a blue streak to his "handler".

One of the more memorable nights of my life.
I don't have much time for Wynton's views on the bass.
Click to expand...
The only thing worse than one airplane-sized ego is 2 airplane-sized egos on the same stage (i.e. Metallica), and worse yet is the 2 having some petty match onstage.
 

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