Bass Player: No-one – it’s unplayable

This piece is unquestionably the hardest piece of music I have ever tried (and failed) to perform. It is a solo bass piece written, ironically, by a Welsh pianist (and my first theory teacher) Joe Stuessy (from a small village called Nanty Fychlan, north of Cardiff). Joe was an astonishing player and a real innovator. He derided gimmicks like slapping and tapping etc and advocated his student just focussed on using conventional techniques and complex modern harmonic theories to express themselves. Like many prophets, he was ‘shunned in his own land’ and, that part of Wales being very rural, he was unable to play very much in public. In truth, many of his compositions were so difficult to play, in this rural setting he often couldn’t find any musicians good enough to perform them – as soon as anyone got good enough, they left the area for Cardiff or London, wherever the bright lights took them (former sidemen include Lawrence Cottle, Percy Jones and Pino Palladino). He tried sending his music to various musicians to try and make a name for himself as a composer and arranger but their lack of commercial potential condemned them to the rejects bin. Joe got really depressed and started drinking (he used to drink deeply from a Diet Coke bottle when I had my lessons and I am convinced it was laced with vodka or something else. I couldn’t tell). He died in the early 1990s.

This is one is his compositions for solo bass which he gave me but, I have to say, I have never mastered it. It is so difficult, I can’t get passed the first few bars. It is designed to be played with a lone percussionist so the empty bars are not actually silence! It is called ‘E Elannod’ which is Welsh for ‘For Eleanor’. If anyone nails it, can they record it and credit Joe as composer? It would be cool to see some of his work out there at last.