Alex Nauman and I were recently blessed with the opportunity to play with the great jazz drummer Jeff Hamilton; drummer for Ray Brown and Diana Krall, just to name a few. Both of us were so freaked out, that we were acting like we had won the lottery. In a way, for me, we did. Jeff came out to see us at our regular Thursday night jazz jam at the Yellowstone Valley Brewing Company and was into us enough to let us play with him the next night for the Montana day of Percussion held at MSU-B – none of this would have been possible without the careful prodding from Luke Kestner. The greatest thing about playing with Jeff Hamilton was the “master class” Alex and I received while we rehearsed with him. The biggest thing exposed was my lack of knowledge for Ray Brown’s style (trust me, there were many other things). I have listened to Ray and was getting into him more, because of a conversation with Sam White, but had never seen the true importance of his playing.
I had always gravitated to players that had more interplay, like Scott Lafaro, Miroslav Vitous, and Gary Peacock. When my ears were opened to Ray and his “Meat and Potatoes” style, my jaw dropped. He is in the pocket so deep that I just laugh when I listen to him. A tremendous player! No other player has brought me so much joy! His solos are thoughtful and bluesy; his walking lines are anchor strong, and his phrasing and dynamics are perfect. So, to make a long story short, I have decided to finish the Ray Brown Bass method book. I am playing pages over and over again to let it sink in, not just to say I finished it – I want to own it. I am also challenging myself to listen to only Ray Brown groups in my car for at least 90 days. I got the idea from a Bozeman drummer, Mike Gillian, who only listened to Latin/Cuban music for a year to get himself ready to play the style more accurately(it worked). For me, already after one month, I have noticed a huge improvement in my playing – my musician friends can attest as well. I am excited to hear the development over the summer, and to pay homage to one of the greats by carrying on his amazing style in a respectful manner. Keep in touch to hear how it goes!
I have received a few of these wonderful and caring texts from my mom. I will try and remember to post more as they come. I am sure as artists, we have all had our parents comment on our decisions in some way or another. Love ya Ma!
I have been a little busier than normal the last couple of weeks, and this week is not going to be different. In week and a half I have played in Wyoming twice, played a huge show at the Lincoln center(in Billings, MT), hosted, with Alex Nauman a clinic and Jazz night with Sheryl Bailey (one of the best guitarists in Jazz) and bassist Kelly Roberti, auditioned for the symphony(made the sub-list!), played with Jeff Hamilton(one of the greatest drummers in jazz); still tried to have a relationship with my friends and wife, and had boat loads of reading, homework, and tests. I want to write about all these great things but there just isn’t enough time this week so please stay posted and enjoy this video from Glove and Boots.
If you have time to watch and listen to this master class that Ray Brown put on, you will not be disappointed. I wish that I had the opportunity to study under Ray but I will take what I can get. Ray possesses the qualities that make a great musician, and a great teacher. He is kind to his students and very helpful with what they need to develop more. He never makes them feel like they are on a chopping block, but he makes them work and learn from their mistakes. I am very impressed.
The knowledge of the origins of your instrument are important, in this contemporary role of the bass, thank God for our hands sake, the evolution is interesting and comforting. It is also fun to see how the bass have evolved from it beginning origins as a classical instrument! It used to be so big two people had to play it; one person on a chair fingering the notes, and another on the ground level bowing it. I hate to sound like your typical “Jazzer” but Ray swings sooooo hard. It makes my heart glad. You’ll want to watch all 8 of these videos after the first one, I guarantee it! I’ll add the second also.
I started today out listening to some blues from Thelonius Monk: “Brilliant Corners” then “Ba-lue Bolivar Ba-lues-are”. The rabbit trail started, as it always does with You Tube, and I wound up finding Sonny Boy Williamson playing one of my favorite blues tunes “9 below zero”(which he wrote). I watched and listened to more Sonny Boy tunes like “Keep it to yourself” and “I’m a lonely man” while I was reading “Casals and the art of interpretation”. Eventually I had to listen to Casals play, I never have before. I was amazed at the way he interprets the notes and his sound is breathtaking. Casals is a very exciting discovery for me and I have to thank John Dutton for leading me to Casals. John lent me several books that he thought would help me with my final paper in Music through the centuries II. If you are not touched by theses videos you might need to… I don’t know… consult Mickey Bolton(That is Michael Bolton). These videos are perfect examples of human emotion expressed through music. Although both performers are in different genres, the performers are closer than many might think and we are blessed to have both of them. Alright, Easter Sermon over. Praise God. Amen.
As a “professional” musician, I may not be gigging around playing with big names in different towns, but what I am doing is playing with a lot of great people in a lot of different places around one town. I previously wrote how I enjoyed playing jazz bass one night, the next night playing acoustic guitar at a house party singing John Prine songs, and then maybe improvising with my brotha Clay on drums and me playing electric fretless bass. I believe as much as a person needs to be proficient on his/her instrument they need to work on becoming versatile. This post is about the importance of being versatile. I have always wanted to be able to play in any style when I was jamming with friends, I didn’t want to be stuck playing pentatonic scales, James Brown and Jimi Hendrix chords. One way that I built my versatility was to LISTEN. I have listened to countless hours of different types of music, from Fela Kuti to Greg Brown – Paul Simon to Mingus. As well as just listening, playing along with my favorite records was extremely beneficial to me in many ways. Some of the most fun I have ever had was by putting on an album and playing along. My favorite musicians, playing their grooves, and me playing off of them. When I was 19 my favorite album(My Dad has a killlleeeerrr vinyl collection) to play along to was Miles’s “Bitches Brew” It was just soooo cool. Playing off of Miles’s trumpet and trying to anticipate or harmonize with him was a blast. I also loved to play along with John’s guitar, I know that helped to develop my sound. I wasn’t transcribing(which is also extremely helpful) but I was still learning and growing. I took that same approach into gigging: I have been fortunate over the last four years to play with so many musicians, but I started noticing that I was absorbing some of my friends’ style into my own. It’s kind of weird to think about, but it happens. My best example is hearing my Fiddle playing friend Trevor Krieger plays his lines. I took some of that style and applied it to playing lines on the electric and upright bass like the intervals of a violin. I am basically sliding down in fourths and fifths which sounds nothing like a fiddle when played on the bass, but it turned into an original sound and style for me. There is so much to hear when you listen and I don’t think enough people are sensitive enough to listen well. Listening is the number one part of playing and hearing music. Chew on this: you might be listening and not hearing; you might be hearing but not listening. What are you doing?
P.S.
The reason I posted this was because I recently played at my bandmates church. I played all weekend and didn’t notice that I played in a different style for almost every song. I was prepared and didn’t know it. Because of the playing and listening that I have done I was able to do each style justice playing different styles of arco, bluegrass bass and fiddle tune guitar reel type bass lines, to a soul bass groove on our last tune. I watched the video of the music and realized that I am becoming more solid in my versatility. That is what I have always wanted. Here is the link to the music:
One of the most memorable conversations I have had was with Bill Honaker over the span of a couple of encounters. It started with a question that he asked his Son, Will, when he was looking at going to McNally Smith in Minneapolis, MN. The question was, “why do you play music?” I thought that was a very wise question to ask a young musician. The more I thought about the question at hand the more I found it was a perfect question for ANY musician. Bill didn’t just leave the question to be free formed either, he gave examples of reasons why a person might choose music as a career, hobby, or passion. This is now my interpretation of the question as a whole: Maybe you play music to get attention, accolades, girls; for your self, your peers, or you find you express yourself through music. Maybe you are just playing to prove that you are the best at something and have bragging rites to say you have played with cat’s that only a few people will know, or millions of people will know. Maybe you only play to worship Yahweh, Buddha, or what ever you find to be the “Higher” power. Some people play music to put their kids through college and some to get free beer. Why do you play music?
I play music because I can’t think of anything more rewarding to put my passion into. With music I can still hang out, work, have an instrument in my hand, teach and learn at the same time, with my friends and play get paid to do it. I am able to express myself and not have to explain it in words. Who do I play for? I play music for myself, my peers, and occasionally the listener(the importance and order change due to the situation). My Music career lets me be well rounded but it never lets me slack off. I get to play “Jazz” upright bass on Thursday and lead worship in a “Christian” setting on Sunday; play blues guitar at home, bang on the drums, or play dueling harmonica with Ed Kemmick. I play music because I have reasoned that I have to, almost as if I don’t have a choice; it is all around: banging it’s fork on the table next to me, the blinker of the car in front of mine, in the ventilation system of my favorite restaurant, in and out of our personal rhythm. The birds are just waking up… what a tune. Music to me is the core of creation and I am interested in your reasons. So, Why do you play music?
