Bass Tech

[adorshki]

Stringed instruments are so much more fulfilling, although its all still good.

There's a book about the 60's-'70's avant-garde jazz scene, "As Serious As Your Life", by Valerie Wilmer.
In it she presents a concept that's always stuck with me, because by the time I read it I'd developed a very percussive guitar style:
All instruments descend from and in fact are forms of, the drum.
It's the original resonating membrane over a reflecting/projecting body, even at the level of a hollow log.
The tar family is nothing more than multiple drumskins on a common shell.
Even woodwinds are a refinement of the hollow log, and reeds are the resonating membrane in brass instruments which are driven by the percussion of air pressure instead of a mallet.
Only recently did I realize just how important the principle of tuning the drum is, and you can hear it in great players like Elvin Jones, or Krupa's "Sing Sing Sing" riff which Dryden borrowed so well for "She Has Funny Cars".
But yeah, stringed instruments give you a lot more palette to use.

 

[adorshki]

Come to think of it I never was much of a Jack Bruce or Ginger Baker devotee, although they were also considered to be great innovators about the same point in time.

They were already well-recognized in the English jazz scene prior to forming Cream and on reflection I think Baker was actually a lot more innovative than Bruce.
I think I probably always primarily liked Jack's voice and he was a great technical player, soloist and composer but I don't think anywhere near as actually innovative as Casady or Entwhistle.
Baker was also a great composer and really got to break out on Wheels of Fire.
Some of my favorite Cream songs are his: "Passing the Time", "Those Were the Days", and it just occurred to me that as overplayed as the single was, his work on "Sunshine of Your Love" , especially the toms, is still crisp, artfully restrained and tonally perfect to this day.
He definitely set some new standards for rock drumming.

 

[Happy Face]

Sorry to differ, but they were a pair. If you can find it, check out the live "Sunshine" version from the "Live Fresh Cream" laserdisk or dvd. NOT the "Live Cream" version.

It is beyond astonishing. Clapton is just an accompanist on this version.

 

[Happy Face]

Do you still use your Guild M-85?

Yes. I used for three of four songs my new POP project recorded.

 

[idealassets]

They were already well-recognized in the English jazz scene prior to forming Cream and on reflection I think Baker was actually a lot more innovative than Bruce.
I think I probably always primarily liked Jack's voice and he was a great technical player, soloist and composer but I don't think anywhere near as actually innovative as Casady or Entwhistle.
Baker was also a great composer and really got to break out on Wheels of Fire.
Some of my favorite Cream songs are his: "Passing the Time", "Those Were the Days", and it just occurred to me that as overplayed as the single was, his work on "Sunshine of Your Love" , especially the toms, is still crisp, artfully restrained and tonally perfect to this day.
He definitely set some new standards for rock drumming.

On Passing The Time it appears that the drums are the lead instrument except for the vocal breaks. This was a great album although there was a plethora of great music coming about at the time.

 

[edwin]

Leary and Huxley, now that's a peach of a pair. But that philosophy does seem to hold true. The Airplane bass work was just amazing. Entwistle also. Come to think of it I never was much of a Jack Bruce or Ginger Baker devotee, although they were also considered to be great innovators about the same point in time.

I highly recommend watching Beware of Mr. Baker. It's on Netflix. After seeing that, I gained a lot more respect for him. And disdain.

As far as Cream goes, they never really grabbed me. It sounds more like a musical argument than a conversation. I'm also not a big Clapton fan.

 

[adorshki]

Sorry to differ, but they were a pair.
It is beyond astonishing. Clapton is just an accompanist on this version.

Oh yes, didn't mean to imply they weren't a great team, in Cream, but in fact Baker (who actually founded the band) originally was dead set against working with Bruce because they had butted heads when working together in the Graham Bond Organization, and only did so at Clapton's insistence, because he really, really wanted Clapton.
I just had the thought that had never occurred to me before that Baker was actually the more "innovative" of the pair artistically.
My other favorites on Wheels are "Deserted Cities of the Heart" and "As You Said", and those are definitely Jack's, and why to me at least he was a better composer than anything else, which is kind of rare among bass players.
That's probably my favorite work by Clapton too, the more psychedelic stuff on the first 3 albums like "Tales of Brave Ulysses", "Dance the Night Away" and "I Feel Free". (2 more Jack Bruce masterpieces).
Anyway, those are just listening suggestions for folks who don't know that side of Clapton and reminders for folks who haven't pulled out their Cream discs for a while.
Of course "Sunshine" was the one that grabbed my attention but "SWALBR" the B-side of the 45 (yes I was of the age when it was actually in print) taught me to listen to a song several times to try to figure out what was actually going on with the rhythm section.