Bass Player: Steve Swallow When you speak to Jazz musicians about electric bass players, the name that comes up as a favourite time and time again is not someone who is high on the list of bass player’s bass players; Jaco Pastorius, Stanley Clarke, John Patitucci, Gary Willis etc etc. The name you hear the…

Bass Player: Tony Reeves Another tune from the 1973 Greenslade LP, ‘Sunkissed You’re Not’. There are verse sections in 5:4 and some really interesting uses of extra beats and shortened bars to create tension and release. Then there is the faster, funky section which presents challenges in terms of the pace of reading. It is…

Bass Player: Tony Reeves Another transcription from the 1973 Greenslade album, ‘Bedside Manners Are Extra’, this one features Tony Reeves’ bass part for the tune ‘Pilgrim’s Progress’. Some real reading challenges here in that Reeves plays phrases made up of eight notes but broken into threes rather than the more conventional fours or twos. This…

Bass Player: Tony Reeves From the 1973 Greenslade album, ‘Bedside Manners Are Extra’, the transcription features Tony Reeves’ bass parts from the title track. Fairly easy to read but there are a few bars of 7:8 and 9:8 and a couple of fills that may test your reading chops.

Bass Player: Chris Wood Wood was raised in Boulder, Colorado, where he studied jazz and classical music. He attended the New England Conservatory of Music in 1989. His teachers included Geri Allen, Dave Holland and Bob Moses. Reducing his classes, he accompanied Moses and John Medeski as sidemen for a tour, then played with them in New…

Bass Player: Dave Holland Form the 2006 Dave Holland Quintet album ‘Critical Mass’, this is a transcription of the head and first (trombone) solo from the tune ‘Easy Did It’. It is a slow, somewhat funky tune which alternates between 3:4 and 5:4. Some interesting compositional devices are incorporated into the piece and it is…

Bass Player: Jerry Watts Since arriving in Los Angeles, bassist Jerry Watts Jr. has worked with the best of the best – a truly eclectic mix of artists at the highest levels of pop, rock, jazz, world beat, and groove musics of every description. Watts has appeared on hundreds of albums, with 3 GRAMMY® wins…

Bass Player: Dave Holland Another transcription from the 1985 Dave Holland Quintet album, ‘Seeds Of Time’. This tune is a simple duet between Holland and percussionist Marvin ‘Smitty’ Smith. Smith is playing a weird combination of woodblocks and bell like percussion (cow bells/agogos?). The main bass part is a one bar riff of rapidly executed…

Bass Player: Dave Holland The 1980s was a rich period for bass player Dave Hoiland who produced a series of incredibly fresh sounding albums for the ECM record label durng this period. Starting with the ‘Jumpin’ In’ and followed by ‘Seeds Of Time’ and ‘The Razor’s Edge’, these three quintet albums featured Holland alongside saxophonist…

Bass Player: Larry Klein Bass players gravitate towards Joni Mitchell primarily because of the contributions that Jaco Pastorius made to, amongst others, the albums Hejira, Mingus and Shadows and Light. Those who continued to follow Mitchell beyond the ‘Jaco’ years will come across Larry Klein, a bass player, producer and songwriter with a CV that…