estebanana -> RE: Bass in Flamenco (Mar. 26 2016 23:38:44)
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Several years ago when Paco played on the UC Berkeley campus Keni Parker did a hilarious review of the show on the old Temple.edu Foro The stage background was plain scrim glowing dark blue with colored gel lighting. It looked like a Mac screen, so he reviewed the show as if he were looking at it through his desk top with a blue screen. The first thing he did was say ideally if this were really my desk top I would grab the bass player with the mouse and put him in the recycle bin and empty the trash. ______was a very interesting review Bass in flamenco works for be if it is an acoustic bass played by a real seasoned jazz bassist and they play a straight ahead full sound pizzicato off the end of the fingerboard. The electric sound that is like Jaco can be annoying because it does not change much, it always sounds nasal and farty. I have heard some really good bassists play with Jason McGuire, he hires top professional bassists from LA or San Francisco and right now I think he has a regular guy in his trio. If you want to hear some good bass playing in a jazz-flameco context check out the new release from Mc Guire. His new group is probably the best adaptation of jazz and flamenco working I have heard. The playing ranges from very expansive traditional flamenco forms to virtually straight ahead jazz, with flamenco inflections. They also pull you into some free jazz that is fairly outside playing but bring you right back in and even those who don't think jazz a flamenco can work together would stand a chance of changing their minds after hearing those guys. One of the reasons this group works is because the bassist does not go the Jaco route. He works it differently throughout the album, in places he sounds like Reggie Workman or Mingus-y and in other places he does a little Jaco here and there for color, but his Jaco is better than Benevent's Jaco and he keeps it out of the fart sonority. He keeps his 'Jaco strap' on tight and defers to John Paul Jones instead. The drummer uses a regular jazz kit, and Jason just does his thang. This band is on my computer screen none of them go into the recycle bin, they are a fixture on the desktop. Hot Acoustic Bass player in Flamenco, Album- Terceto Kali Jason's trio is also called Terceto Kali. He was playing under the name Jason McGuire trio but they changed the name. I have an advance copy of the CD as a pre-release and it has a a different name. I'll try to write more about it a as review, but I highly recommend it. P.S. The Bow, use the damn bow more in flamenco. Screw the violin and flute in flamenco, bow the bass. One of the problems I have with bass in Flamenco-jazz mix ups is that coming from a deep listening to jazz background I always feel like the Spanish musians don't swing or if they do not hard enough. With respect t Ricardo's exception and thoughts on Nunez. They begin Jazz history at Weather Report and they don't get rooted in hard swinging bass players from post Bop era. Not enough Jimmy Garrison, Reggie Workman, Mingus Paul Chambers, Red Callender, whosoever played with Dolphy, Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, in the hard bop scene is a good model for strong bass playing. Those guys are not quiet players, they are out front and muscular, but not out of place.Stanley Clarke, Paul McCartney, Niels Orsted, George Clinton, Ron Carter, Ruphus Reid, ect all are bassists that could work better than the Jaco Fusion jazz timbre. Heck, Sting would be better than the farty faux Jaco sound.
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