Jack Casady's approach to bass playing.

lungimsam

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 1, 2011
Messages
2,570
Reaction score
1,624
Guild Total
2
1. Is he thinking from a chordal-arpeggios-with-passing-tones approach, like traditional jazz players, and some older school funk/rock players, I think, do?
2. Is he thinking from a scales-over-chords approach, like some others do?
3. Or is it some other approach, or a blend of the aforementioned two?

From what I have read on this forum, some of you know him. I was wondering if he ever stated what his approach is.

I am not interested in hearing about his influences, because interviews reveal that.
I am interested in his direct summation type of statements, like "I am a chordal oriented player.", or "I play modal scales over chords.", type of statements so I can understand the foundation from which he takes off when playing.

Thanks for any info.
 
Last edited:

fretwear

Junior Member
Joined
Nov 27, 2013
Messages
30
Reaction score
0
JC has a instructional Homespun video, where he gets into his basic approach on several tunes. I think he does play more melodies with at times complex time signatures, complex to me. More so than the root/5, or standard blues shuffle 1-3-5-6, etc.(that I tend to lean on) airplane JC seamed to spend a lot of time hanging on the b5, 5, #5 kind of licks, also played fair amount of chords.
So #3 on your OP.
But I could be way off, just my take on it.
I have his homespun DVD and recommend it.
 
Last edited:

fronobulax

Bassist, GAD and the Hot Mess Mods
Joined
May 3, 2007
Messages
24,708
Reaction score
8,836
Location
Central Virginia, USA
Guild Total
5
Based upon another posts I think lungimsam has the DVD and that is why he asked the questions.

Every interview that I can recall that addresses the subject has Jack using the word "melodic" in his description.

Read this while waiting for a better answer.
 

jte

Member
Joined
Jul 28, 2006
Messages
362
Reaction score
44
Location
Central Illinois, USA
It seems to me that he's not really looking at the bass primarily from a harmony theory background of either chord-tone/passing tone or the worse scales-over-chords thinking. He's thinking first of a melody that sounds good to him, and his experience and training gives him the tools to quickly and efficiently find the notes he's hearing in his head. Another thread here mentions his attraction to Scott LaFaro's playing (if you're unfamiliar with Lafaro, make the effort to listen to "Live At The Village Vanguard" by the Bill Evans Trio) which is a very melodic approach to both supportive and solo bass playing.

You can go back and analyze the note choices and hang them in a framework of chord tones or scales/chords, but that's not the genesis of the lines.

John
 
Top