Bass Player: Neil Murray

Neil Murray is known primarily for his work with Rock bands and artists like Whitesnake, Gary Moore, Vow Wow, Cozy Powell and a host of others but his earliest recordings were with fusion groups like Gilgamesh and National Health. On an occasion when British fusion group Bruford were asked to performed on the Old Grey Whistle Test, it was Murray who was asked to dep for the band’s bassist, Jeff Berlin, a chair that few would be able to handle.

Murray only recorded one album with National Health but the performance remains iconic. The opening track to the album is the featured transcription here and is a track called ‘Tenemos Roads’, something of a Prog Rock legend. The track is over 14 minutes long so the transcription is over 10 pages but there are bass-less interludes in there so it’s not as relentless as it sounds. The transcription presents a great opportunity to practice your counting as there are sections where the time signature changes every other bar. The effect is really engaging and the melodies played by Dave Stewart (kbs), guitarist Phil Miller and singer Amanda Parsons are really immediate and engaging. Some bass notes are a bit unreliable as the mix leaves the sounding a little ambiguous.