Jeff Berlin – Bass

A simple one from the King of the Impossible, this is another from that duo of albums that Berlin did with guitarist Kazumi Watanabe and drummer Bill Bruford. Watanabe has worked with all of the great electric players; Marcus Miller, Jeff Berlin, Richard Bona, Janek Gwizdala etc and there some major chop fests in these albums but this track is not one of them. The only thing to watch for is the opening phrase. It sounds to the ear like it is on the one but it is actually on the second beat of the bar (you hear in ‘the right way around’ later in the tune) which means the last two notes are the second and third notes of the last ‘triplet’. I have done the thing in 12:8 but could have written in it 4:4 and labelled it ‘swing triplets’. I think the 12:8 is more in keeping with the feel of the tune.

This is ‘Small Wonder’ from the 1988 Kazumi Watanabe album ‘The Spice Of Life Too’.