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drTStingray

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Just wondering really.

A couple of months back I was invited to join a jazz quartet (singer, piano, bass and drums) playing swing music - a new departure for me though I have learnt quite a few jazz tunes in the past - usually trying to play Marcus or Jaco versions - so in a moment of excess I said yes - not realising what I was letting myself in for.

I played my first gig with this band yesterday afternoon to a small country pub full of people eating their late lunch/dinner. I couldn't have asked for more from my fretless Ray - at low volume in this setting it just sounded great on songs like Fly Me to the Moon - and when you want to get funky, such as Cantaloupe Island (Herbie Hancock) you can spice it up a bit. Walking lines plucked at the end of the neck sound almost like an upright.

My head is still aching from trying to remember the songs though - if I said the piano player, who is great BTW, tends towards arrangements with six chords where one would normally suffice - you will get the picture - I had to read chord charts for some of it, not easy in a dark low beamed pub.

I really couldn't have been happier with the whole sound, which the bass really complimented and what made it better I got a lot of comments about how good the bass sounded from people in the audience - so the MM bass seems perfect for this role - I'm now glad I didn't go down the P or J route, or even another MM bass (I did actually go and try some but stuck with the Ray). Thankfully the audience didn't notice one or two lapses in intonation let alone one or two (or probably three or four) fluffed turnrounds! Must try and remember one or two of the songs better for the next one :eek:
 

Golem

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Audiences think we are a Jazz duo ... so the playing situation is
similar, and the resulting love of my Boingo 4HP FL is surely that
same thing as what you're experiencing.

We play American songbook, blues, show tunes, etc which is why
audiences [wrongly] identify us as "Jazz Music".

It was truly an amazing discovery for me when I got my first solid
body piezo FL ax. Before that, I had bleebed that an ax hadda BE
hollow/acoustic to SOUND acoustic. The old semi-cliche that solid
body instruments are equally acoustic in voice, simply not equal in
unplugged volume to hollow bodies, is never more true than when
you amp them thru an "acoustic" PU system.

I tend toward wretched excess, so I not only feel at home on this
MM bass forum, but have a truly wretchedly excessive collection of
piezo-magnetic and piezo-only basses, mostly FL. Only 3 of those
are EBMM, but thaz just the tip of the Steinberg ... oops, iceberg.
Yah, sure enuf, I do have one of them Synapse Gibson Bergers, FL
acoarst, with the piezo acoustic bridge plus a soapbar mag PU.

Shave down your credit card balance, or hoard your musical slush
fund, cuz any day now you will encounter a piezo-mag FL ... and it
will insist on following you home :)



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drTStingray

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Golem methinks we are a rare phenomena on this forum :D

Either that or no-one is owning up to it! I'm betting the likes of BP and Lord Bongo have dabbled with the odd standard - possibly even on fretless MM bass.
 

Manfloozy

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I (try) to play jazz.... And my preference would be for it to be on a Fretless Music Man....

There are a couple that I miss quite a bit. :)
 

drTStingray

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My daughter (Miss Nick here) plays a fretless SR4 in her high school jazz band.

It'd be great to see pics - I bet it sounds great.

It's good to hear there's a few more around here wrestling with jazz progressions whilst trying to stay in tune on their fretless MMs! The trouble I'm finding is concentration - I relax a bit and think to myself - hmmm that walking sounds good - but then I miss the next change or play it a bit sharp or flat :eek:

Wow Matt I'm particularly jealous of that fretless roasted reflex :cool:
 

Golem

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I would play Jazz on my fretless Bongo if I could.

Maybe I will some day, when I get the chops for it.:-(

CHOPS !?!!?

Jazzers are not gonna dig you as their bottom
if you're concerned with chops. Well-behaved
riddm & changes is the deal. Acoarst you WILL
hafta solo on about every tune, but it's JAZZ,
and it's YOUR solo [whatever comes natcherly
to you] ... and then, back to making donutz.

You DO have a fine ax for jazz. If you can
read, you're already ready for some sitting
in on friends' gigs. See, THEY know that the
audience ain't got a clue, so they will have
no problem, especially by the 3rd set on a
weeknite. And if YOU keep in mind that the
audience is clueless, then you won't be so
amazed at the sincere applause from those
3 or 4 folks that constitute a weeknite, 3rd
set, jazz audience :)


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