Marc Johnson – Bass

I remember getting hold of that Marc Johnson ‘Concepts For Bass Soloing’ book when it came out. Still have it. It’s a really great book in terms of insights into how the whole thing works and why it isn’t #random noodling’ to used the common pejorative that we hear from musicians outside of the Jazz canon. Johnson has an incredible CV (check out his Wikipedia page – it’s pretty much everyone including Bill Evan, John Abercrombie, John Scofield, Eliane Elias, John Taylor, Peter Erskine – it really is endless). Always a tough one to transcribe because his tone is so warm and it is not easy to isolate in the mix. It’s also challenging due to his constant use of double stops that start on one note and then he adds another (it’s not hard to play, just harder to write down).

A request from Talkbass. this is another one from the ‘Sound Of Summer Running’, a track called ‘Faith In You’. It’s not massively difficult to read but it is quick so you have to stay focussed. Also, there are a lot of pushed notes (on the ‘four and’ rather than on the first beat of the bar) which can be challenging if you are not used to that approach. It has an ‘Amerciana’ with sterling work from Pat Metheny and Bill Frisell.