Bass Player: Gary Willis

From the 1998 album ‘Bent’ led by bass player Gary Willis, this is head, chords and bass solo from the tune ‘It’s Only Music’. Willis’s phrasing on this tune is a masterclass in nuance and subtlety and it is highly recommended that this chart is looked at alongside the recording. Willis found early fame as the bass player with Tribal Tech which he co-led with guitarist Scott Henderson. Willis has a very idiosyncratic right hand technique which can be seen on his tuition videos from the 1980s and for the ‘ramp’ he uses on his signature basses which contributes to his right hand approach and the resulting sounds he gets. The chart took four days to transcribe. We suspect it will take most of you a lot longer than that to get your head around it.

This is also the track to play to anyone who ever says you cannot swing on the electric bass.