You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - What Other Musicians Expect From the Bass Player - S3E39

Episode Date: February 21, 2019

Another SpeakPipe question is answered by Peter and Adam; this time, it's on what other players want from their bass player. Wanna send a SpeakPipe of your own? Check out the bottom of the page at http://www.openstudionetwork.com/podcastLet us know what you think by leaving a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review, or head over to our YouTube channel and leave a comment for this episode.Interested in more jazz advice? Go here to browse our catalog of jazz lessons and courses available for purchase.Follow us on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram at:https://www.facebook.com/heyopenstudiohttps://twitter.com/heyopenstudiohttps://www.instagram.com/heyopenstudio See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Hey, Pete. Hey, man. Is that a baseline you're playing? I'm Adam Annis. And I'm Peter Martin. And you're listening to the You'll Hearer Podcast. Take 2 of Daily Jazz Advice. Focus up, Peter.

Come on, man. We're here to make the people happy. So we're doing a very rare take two. I don't even know why I'm telling people. What do they care? They don't know. The outtakes are not available. I mean, we could have just left in the first take now that we've mentioned it so much.

I know. But I mean, this is full transparency at the You'll Hear at podcast. It wasn't even that bad. It was bad. It was bad. I wasn't focused. Because I got thrown off because yesterday we talked about focus. And then I didn't bring my A game.

You did not. Oh, boy. Bring your, oh, sorry. I didn't mean to. But you are right. It was terrible. So now we're ready, though. Because we have, you know what, we've been getting some great questions from our listeners.

And so they really, you know, they demand a lot of us. So that's why I'm like, we got to do this upright. So let's start again. Yeah, we have another question from a listener. Yesterday we had a question from a Portuguese person in Barcelona. Nate. Today, and today we have a question from a French person in France. That's right.

Hi, Adam. Hi, Peter. Here's Kevin from Nice in the East House of France. I love your podcast and all open studio network content. Thank you a lot, guys. My question is about the bass. It's all about that bass, you know. I'm a double bass player and we'd like to know what do the musician in a band expect from the bass to do.

What do they like and don't like? what do they need and don't need. I think as a pianist, both of you for sure have experienced different situations with bassists in any kind of group like dual, trio, quartets, even with more musicians, with vocalists or not, etc.

Can you please light up a bit my role in a jazz band? Thanks a lot, guys. Long live to the podcast. Ciao, chow. Peter, you focused? I'm focused, man. Now I'm ready to go. Now I'm ready.

Okay. But this is also something that I'm really interesting So I wanted to kind of think it through. And thank you, Kevin, for the question. Yeah. I know we've talked a little bit about this before, kind of bass player role and stuff. But one thing I was thinking about as I was listening to that question is,

I know he's asking about in the jazz situation, double bass, kind of acoustic bass. But I think that, you know, bass players, the instrument of the bass and bass lines and roots, like if you think about those four kind of things and the interconnectedness of them, I mean, of course, that's like the actual players, sort of the role, the sort of harmonic and even melodic manifestation of what they're

normally playing and something else that I can't remember. But it's like, you know, really role responsibility and sort of actualization of what they're doing is very similar in a lot of different kind of music's jazz, you know, funk, pop, classical. Yeah. And so it gets me thinking about like sort of personalities of really good bass players and how they play, irregardless of style. I mean, we can talk about like do you play boom do dung dook doong I mean all that stuff I mean that's interesting but I think the bigger above the clouds things of like the function of a baseline and the function of a bassist and the personality of the bassist in a jazz man or in a symphony is really interesting because then you can start to find some things some sort of personality and musical traits that could work

effectively in different situations for me the the overwhelming personality of great basis I know is a certain amount of generosity. You know what I mean? A certain amount of pride in providing not the flashiest of roles, but the foundational role in the band. And really, let's be honest, it can make or break any band. Yes. And so to me, it's that personality of relishing in that,

you know, like I said, something that's not out front, but relishing in that role of being that rock. You know what I mean? Yeah, it's foundational. I like that, generous and supportive. Supportive. support. It's like a really good dependable friend. It's like a designated driver,

although some of the bass players I play with that, I don't want to let him drive. But on the gig, I want to let him drive. I want to let him drive for on the gig. Yeah, I mean, that, you know, he, Kevin asked about what we want, what we need. For me, that's what I need. Yeah.

You know, first and foremost, I need them to be, to have that. I think you're right. I think it's so crucial to have that personality. Yeah. You know, for a drummer, it's maybe not as crucial to be as, like, supportive or, you know, I want them to be a little more. A little aggressive. Aggressive, Flashly, like funny, you know, like, that's what I wanted a great drummer, but for a bass player, I needed to be a rock.

Rock. Yeah, it was funny. I was just about to say rock. And I think too, you know, bass players, in thinking about it now, like, they have to have sort of the, probably the widest range of musical skills in the sort of traditional jazz band. But again, this kind of goes to anything. Like, we always think about, okay, bass players are somewhat limited because of the range is lower and the instrument is physically, you know, maybe difficult to play, you know, with a lot of dexterity, although we can name many bass players that prove that wrong. But if you think about, like, some of the things we talked about yesterday, concentration. Like, in order to be dependable and foundational, you have to be able to concentrate better than anybody in the band. Yeah, you should never be lost in the form. Yeah, you can, because you're the one who can make everybody else lost. I mean, if the drummer really knows the form, that's great and that's a bonus.

But they can kind of get away with maybe not, you know, the piano player can lay out or whatever. But it's like the bass player, you have to like really have this great sense of form. Obviously, you have to have an incredible sense of rhythm, probably the best next to just the drummer. It's everybody's responsibility. but you're the person who could affect it the most. You know what I mean? Between you and the drummer. If you're, no matter again, what the style of music,

if you're playing, doom, doon, doon, doon, doon, do the whole thing. Kill the party, Mr. Foundation. Or if you're, you know, it's not going to work either. Yeah, you have to have the most acute sense of groove of anybody. You have to really have the most advanced sense of harmony. Totally. Because at any point, what note you play can affect, you know, you are the bottom of the harmony.

So you're setting up the root at any time. So you have to have that kind of an understanding of it. You know, time. And then melody, like, you know, bass lines, no matter what style of music, have to be very melodic. It's melodic. You have to understand the harmony and the melody. Man, we're going to start paying the bass players more. I think about this.

Hear this too. But what is one of the main things people talk about a great bass player? It's the sound. You have to have a sound. You have to have a big sound or whatever sound you're going for. That's a huge part of the instrument. I think because you're playing usually one note at a time in a limited range and a limited role, sound becomes a huge part of your overall contribution to the band.

And having a personal sound is important. And I think it's sort of difficult on the bass. It is. I mean, I think piano has its difficulties too. Piano is the hardest. For sure. Piano's way harder. But compared to like a saxophone or vocals, which is probably the easiest.

But like a bass, you really have to have a distinctive sound. If you think about like James Jamerson or like you can hear his sound immediately, Ray Brown. Charles Mingus, yeah. Obvious. And so, I mean, the bass is really an amazing instrument. And it's just, it's a physically difficult instrument, you know, to wrangle. So things that maybe I don't need, but that I want or I really, really like. I like it.

I was thinking I like it when they can catch my harmonic substitutions or ideas. And then they also provide their own. I like a bass player who gives me little things that I can react to. too, too, you know. Okay, little things that I like. I like when the bass player picks me up before the gig in an S-class Mercedes. I like when they pick up the tab

at the end of the night. I mean, look, a lot of bass players are rich. Let's talk about that. They got all the gigs. They got all the gigs. I mean, whatever range they're in, they're usually kind of at the top of the, so often they, and they're generous and foundation.

Well, but because they're also rock steady, they're usually better with money than most of the other band members. No, have you ever been like, everyone's like around, oh, man, I'm worried about this and paying this. And the bass player, it's always like, I'm cool. I'm cool. I got in money trouble once

and I just took 10 gigs a week for two months and it was fun. Yeah. Well, that was fun. Yeah, yeah. A lot of love for the bass players always.

Plus, they're usually big, so we're scared of them. We gotta give them a lot of love. Thank you, Kevin. That's a great question. Big shout out to Nice. Yeah, man. In southern, southeastern France,

maybe one of the most beautiful places on the planet. Everybody knows that, though. I'm preaching to the choir, the human race. That's a special place. Yeah. I first played at Nice Jazz Festival,

which is very different than it was back in 1992. A young Adam Manus might have been in high school still then. Is that correct? Middle school. Well, so, whoa. Young Adam Manus didn't have his hipster beard then, I don't think. I had a hipster, a little bitty a stash maybe. A little Rico Suave happened?

Yeah, well, old Petey was doing the circuit already then. Dang, man. That's how we roll. But yeah, niece is nice. Cool. Well, do we have any... Oh, we got a big splier. sponsor coming. I think we can announce it. Should we announce it right now? I think we can't do the

official spot, but I think it's, is that, is that risky? That's not risky. I'm down. No, we got to wait. I'm going to get in trouble. Andrew, cut that out. Yeah. No, no, no, you can leave that in because we didn't say it. Yeah, but we're excited. We have sponsors coming. And this is not going to be like your usual sponsor like me yundies or something, you know, I don't even. Although if me yundies is listening. Yeah, yeah. I don't know what me undies are. There are some good podcasts. Every podcast seems to have them. I assume that everybody who listens to a podcast has a me undi subscription. But is it like you're, because you can listen to them in your undies? Is it, what's the connection? I have no I mean, they might be the best underwear ever. I'm not saying they're not,

but like, why is that their exclusive promotional channel is podcasts? I think we should try to get sponsorship from podcasts who have me on these sponsorships. Like, we should try to get a sponsorship from like Bill Burr's podcast. That'd be funny. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It'd be like real second generation kind of thing. Uh, well, cool. Well, if you want to ask us a question, As Kevin did here, you can go to you'll hearat.com. If you want to interact with us in any ways, you know, I think we're going to go back and start giving a little bit of love to the you'll hearit.com page. We haven't done a lot there.

Although you can always go there, and I think that the latest episode on YouTube is usually there, or at least a link to it. That's true. Oh, speaking of YouTube, go to YouTube and leave us some comments. We've been getting a lot of great comments lately. Well, let's just say a lot of comments. YouTube is an interesting place, man. Do we want to even address?

We'll have to do that tomorrow. We're going to do it. We'll address it next week. The elephant in the room. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We were getting our first hate. Certain solo analysis that got a lot of feedback. Yeah, yeah. We got some feedback for the feedback, though.

We're about to put some dopeio feedback up on you. All right, well, until tomorrow. You'll hear it.