Bass Player: Anthony Jackson

This track, from the 1984 Steve Khan album, ‘Casa Loco’ features Anthony Jackson playing a line that is as much sequencer as it is bass and AJ was on record at the time saying that he was not going to be beaten by a machine. Almost the whole transcription is played 8va, an octave higher than written which is why is sounds more synth than bass. There are broadly three sections that make up the main themes and these feature a three bar line that is then repeated at double the original tempo and the third section is a strange octave driven thing that uses an harmonic on the open C string of Jackson’s six-string contrabass guitar. We are not entirely convinced that we have caught the third section as it is mad and all over the place so difficult to follow, even at 25% of the original tempo. Anyway, here is the complete transcription of AJ’s bass line to the tune, ‘The Suitcase’.