Electric Bass "Swinging" In 4...?
good or bad?
I lived in NYC for a decade, and called myself a jazz musician. I guess I went, albeit very briefly, to what was still considered a “jazz school” at the time when I first moved to the US, and then went on to try and live the dream playing predominantly improvised music in New York.
My experience when it came to playing any kind of straight-ahead or swing music, was that everyone who called bass players for gigs had a monster list of Upright players. I’m talking about the best of the best like Christian McBride, Reggie Veal, Reuben Rogers, John Patitucci, Charnett Moffett, Ben Street, Scott Colley, James Genus, Larry Grenadier, and Matt Penman. Then that list would go on through a bunch of great players you’ve probably never heard of, all the way down to the bottom which were people who basically just owned an upright.
Once that list was exhausted, the jazz band leader would reluctantly turn to the top of the list of electric players because they needed at least some kind of occupancy in the currently vacant low-end position in their band.
I was lucky just to be ON that list, and once Richard Bona, Anthony Jackson, Will Lee, Tim Lefebvre, Jeff Andrews, and a bunch of other far more established cats had said no, I would sometimes get a call.
I’d learn the music, maybe even know some of already if it was based around the American Songbook, and take my skills as a good reader and listener along for the ride to fill the role as professionally as I was able. Without fail, and I mean literally 100% of the times I found myself in a situation normally filled by an upright player, the band leader would come to me on a set break or after the show and say with great surprise in their voice: “Man, that shit doesn’t actually suck on electric”. Or at least words to that effect.
It would make little difference the next time they were looking for a bass player. They would always go through the same routine of exhausting the list of terrible upright players before stooping to electric, and to a certain extent I totally get it. It just always brought me some amusement and just a smidgen of satisfaction knowing that what counts is time and sound. If you know how to make something feel good with those two tools, it doesn’t matter what instrument you’re playing.
Why am I suddenly thinking about this? No. I’m not about to make a new album of standards with Jeff Tain Watts and Joey Calderazzo. Although if I’m honest, that does sound like a shit load of fun, and should the opportunity arise (as much as I’m kind of against electric bass walking), I would definitely be saying yes.
No. I’m thinking about it because a bootleg recording of Michael Brecker’s band from the 80’s came on my radar via YouTube yesterday, and I’ve been wearing it out for the past 24hrs.
Jeff Andrews is the bass player, and it’s a rare chance to hear Kenny Kirkland on piano with Michael. Even rarer maybe that Omar Hakim is on drums. A very short-lived line-up as far as I know, but an important evolution of the sound of Mike’s band none-the-less.
Something I always wanted to ask Mike but never got the chance, was why he used electric bass for so long despite so much of the music in that period having a straigh-ahead or swing feel. Nothing against Jeff at all. He’s burning and was always a massive hero of mine, as were so many of the guys used by Brecker, Stern, Krantz and Scofield in the 80’s and 90’s.
It seems like a strange question to ask as an electric bass player who stands to benefit from more jazz band leaders hiring electric bass players, but I’ve always been curious. I met Mike and new him a little during a period where he’d used Dave Holland on “Tales From The Hudson”, toured extensively with James Genus in the quartet with Tain and Joey for “Two Blocks From The Edge”, then moved to Organ with Larry Goldings playing bass for the “Time Is Of The Essence” touring.
Charlie Haden was there for both “The Nearness of You” and “American Dreams” albums, and he used Patitucci on the “Wide Angles” and “Directions In Music” albums although I believe Boris Koslov did the bulk of the Wide Angles live shows. There was a brief return to electric bass with Will lee when Mike did a Brecker Brothers live album with the WDR big band in Germany in 2005, but he ultimately closed out the last decade of his life almost exclusively with upright bass in the band.
I’ve always found those choices fascinating, and going back and listening to these bootlegs and looking at a much more macro view of an artist’s career like Michael Brecker can really inform decisions I make about my own music in the long-term.
I don’t think I’ll be doing any swing material on tour with my trio in the UK next week, but it’s something that’s starting to sit in the back of my brain a little more these days as I ponder the place of the instrument in certain styles of music.
I’ll be talking about all this stuff, plus literally anything you want to ask me at the clinics listed below next week in the UK, and we’ll be playing a lot of the music from the new album at our three live shows in London and Nottingham. I hope to see you there.
More soon,
Janek
November 4th - Bournemouth Masterclass 3pm | Absolute Music
November 6th - London Masterclass 2pm | Pizza Express Jazz Club Soho
November 6th - London | Pizza Express Jazz Club Soho
November 7th - London | Pizza Express Jazz Club Soho
November 8th - Nottingham Masterclass 3pm | Peggy’s Skylight
Great post Janek. I love Jeff Andrew's playing! I double on upright and electric and the one thing I notice when a lot of people who don't play upright try to walk on electric there's something missing in note duration. They tend not to let the note blossom and move on too quickly and it seems to start sound 'tic tacky' for lack of a better term. There is also something to the use of open string movement and idiomatic skips (and skipity booms - triplets) and such on upright that gets missed on electric. Rhythmically, electric players really need to grasp that 2 + 4 feel that should be able to carry through even if the drummer falls out. The other thing is tone, not only will holding that note down longer affect tone, but the speaker has to move air similar to an upright and I think that gets lost a bit on electric if it's not dialed in well. Not that we're trying to be an upright with electric, but as you noted tone is super important. Those you mentioned do all of that extremely well. Thanks again.
I remember hearing this lineup, except that Adam Nussbaum was the drummer, at the University of Maine at Augusta close to this period I think in 1986. Every one of them a Heavy Master. I recall Brecker playing a Yamaha EWI for much of it but it is wonderful to hear his tenor playing here.
I like your statement about time and sound, and note how well the tenor and guitar lock in unison for the head in the same way tenor and trumpet might in a traditional bebop setting.
Jeff Andrews’ sound is exemplary here. Sadly, three of the five musicians here have passed from this world.