Gary Willis – Bass
With a career spanning more than 50 years, Gary Willis has released 5 solo CD’s, 10 as co-leader of Tribal Tech and has been a part of a multitude of other projects including playing alongside Wayne Shorter, Allan Holdsworth, Hubert Laws and many others. His own works include legends Dennis Chambers, Steve Tavaglione, Bob Berg, Gergo Borlai, Kirk Covington and Scott Kinsey.
His latest CD, “Larger Than Life”, morphed into a half-decade project that spanned 3 continents and 9 time zones. Celebrated as a “delicious collection of fusion-funk for the twenty-first century”. Larger Than Life’s 12 tracks feature Gergo Borlai on drums, long-time Tribal Tech band mate Scott Kinsey on keyboards, Steve Tavaglione on xes and EWI, Claudia Bardagí on voice and Llibert Fortuny on tenor sax and voice.
As a regular contributor to scottsbasslessons.com Willis conducts regular Mentor Streams, LiveClass Streams, other video series as well as his Masterclass video. In 2014 Willis joined the faculty of Berklee Valencia teaching masters in Contemporary Performance as well as students in the Study Abroad and First Year Abroad programs. The Texas native studied arranging and improvisation as part of the legendary jazz program at North Texas State University. After moving to Los Angeles in ’82 he became a course leader at Musicians Institute in Hollywood and also taught at California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, California.
In demand as an educator, Willis has conducted clinics and master classes in over 22 different countries. As an author he’s published 4 books with Hal Leonard. “101 Tips for Bass” provides valuable how-to insight that bassists of all styles and levels can benefit from. “Fingerboard Harmony for Bass” takes the mystery out of the fingerboard by exploiting the natural geometry and symmetry of the instrument. Bass Player magazine calls “Ultimate Ear Training for Guitar and Bass” an “excellent method to help you develop your ears and connect them through your hands to your instrument. “The Gary Willis Collection” features 11 transcriptions of original Willis tunes, including the contemporary classic The “Necessary Blonde” which is one of two compositions also included in Sher Music’s “The New Real Book-Volume Two”. Two other compositions from his solo recordings are also featured in the ” All Jazz Real Book”, “It’s Only Music” and “The Everlasting Night” also from Sher Music.
This is the complete Willis part for the tune ‘Big Fun’ from the 1985 Tribal Tech record, ‘Spears’. It’s not as hard to play as it sounds (or looks). There are a lot of notes that are grace notes and I could probably have left a lot of them out for an easier reading experience but, at the same time, that decision didn’t feel like it had integrity.