The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #1

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    I always love basses - and I had 5 strings bass and for some time 4 strings fretless 9whic i particularly love). Both are cheap but well-setup instruments. i just love playing them in teh background of guitar studies.. sometimes making a backing track - sometimes practicing jazz bass lines with other tracks - which is really helpful for guitar..
    But mostly just for the fun of it...

    I always thought bass was a different beast though it is very similar to guitar... and I never had ambitions to be a bass player.

    But many pro guitarists I know often have at least one bass at home (for whatever purpose it is there - for a friend to play, for them to noodle around, or for a backup job when there is not need in guitar - -good bassists ar ealways in demand)...

    I thought - are there any really accomplished JAZZ guitarists who played bass to the level they recorded it... somehow I remember Sco playing bass somewhere but I think it was occasional ... anything else?

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    The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
     
  3. #2

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    Joe Cohn, though not sure if he ever recorded.

  4. #3
    DaShigsta Guest
    Bireli Lagrene... check on YT.

  5. #4

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    Mostly I think if you so much as own a double bass you end up doing that... (if you aren’t careful.)

  6. #5

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    I have an electric bass at home. My playing is not brilliant. But I want to get a bit better; I think recording tracks etc will help...

  7. #6

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    Carol Kaye

  8. #7

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    not a jazz player, but mike oldfield can play the heck out of both...he started recording on bass as a teen with kevin ayers and lol coxhill...



    cheers

  9. #8

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    Fred Hamilton

  10. #9

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    Here in Canada there's Andre Lachance. Most of his guitar gigs are fusion but I've seen/heard him play straight-ahead quite a few times.

    Also there's a young monster out here named John Lee who gigs on bass, piano, drums and most recently guitar...I haven't heard him play guitar but from what others have told me, he can really play. Interesting news story about here (you have to click on the small video screen then wait out the 20 second ad before the story/interview starts): SoundCHEK: Nanaimo Jazz Musician, John Lee Plays It All!.

  11. #10

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    Sylvain Luc, plays bass on his Standards CD and there are youtube vids of him doing it. I played upright early on, but getting into classical guitar with nails made that impossible; switched to electric and eventually fretless, made lots of extra money and really enjoyed it, it led to playing 7-string guitar. The trick for guitarists doubling on bass is to play about 1/2 the notes you want to. Most bandleaders aren't interested in "lead bass".

  12. #11

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    attila zoller recorded on double bass

  13. #12

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    Quote Originally Posted by medblues
    Carol Kaye
    Yep, Carol Kaye was an accomplished bebop guitarist way before picking up the bass.

    She can be heard on thousands of records and movie soundtracks on both instruments!


  14. #13

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    Paul Sanwald who frequents this forum moved from playing jazz guitar as his main instrument to double bass.

  15. #14

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    Jerome Harris is equally strong on both.

  16. #15

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    First time I saw Jack Wilkins live, he was playing bass. That was long before he became well known.

    Mimi Fox does a great job of playing bass lines on guitar. I've never heard her play bass but I'm confident she would sound great.

    Tal Farlow used an octave device in his homemade stool to play bass lines behind the bass solo.

  17. #16

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    OK so if you are going down the road or guitarists who play bass lines - well obviously there's a tradition of that that leads onto various extended instruments if you go far enough



    However, the thing that bass players always tell me about guitarists playing bass is its the sensibility guitarists so often get wrong... guitarists tend to play too many notes, in the wrong place and with the wrong touch.

    For my part, I find it actually much harder to nail the timing on an actual bass, the size of the strings, the difference in the technique. But then hasn't electric bass playing become more standardised over time?

  18. #17

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jimmy blue note
    Joe is also an extraordinary trumpet player...like Clifford Brown extraordinary. It's not fair, I know.
    Knows his way around piano too

  19. #18

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jimmy blue note
    Hey this guy's playing this thing with his fist, but yur supposed to use you feet so you can play guitar too. Isn't that the point?
    Guitarists are thick

  20. #19

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    I’m not sure this is quite what you meant, but......


  21. #20
    Quote Originally Posted by Jimmy blue note
    Joe Pass played bass lines on his guitar WHILE he was playing other things too!
    And guitarist Julian Bream played bass lines on his guitar as he was playing other stuff like Bach.
    I saw an arrangement of Pachelbel's Canon and the soloist, I don't remember who it was, was playing a bass line under that beautiful melody.
    It is not quite the same thing really... When you play alone and play a few voices on guitar in whatever style it is..

    Also playing 'continuo' in classical is not the same thing as 'rythm section' in jazz or rock... classical timing is much more flexible and dependent on harmony and texture.

    Anyway - when you play a guitar Joe Pass style alone (or classical pieces on guitar lute or whatever) it is by far not the same thing as playing a double bass or bass in a group

  22. #21
    Quote Originally Posted by Jimmy blue note
    I agree with you on this, you're making distinctions that I agree with, but then again

    once the thread ventured into guitarists playing bass lines, albeit with electronic assistance, I thought it was going somewhere different completely.
    But it's your thread Jonah, you make the rules. Sorry I posted something that you didn't agree with.
    I do not feel like I own the thread)))
    I think it is just an idea for open discussion.
    Disagreeing is a part of discussion))) It brings us forward... for me coversation is not something that should be ended with derminative statement where someone is wrong and someone is right.
    it is never-ending process...


    I see what you mean about Mimi fox and Tal... I used to have Boss Octave pedal - it was fun to use... it had a splitter also so you could use octave only for lower strings...
    and 1st thing I noticed that when i played walking bass + melody and chords stuff... that i can't do it in a guitaristic way.. when i play guitar it all works together in integrity... and sometimes when you drop the note or cut it it sounds natural in overall texture.

    But with octaver the bass line did not sound good in that manner - the bass line stands out too much ... sounds more independent - so you have to control it as if it is a separate line (a bit similar to organ pedals)

    I agree though that if one can handle it - one gets the musical skills of forming real bass line...

    the only other issue that is still left maybe in this conception it instrument itself. Bass is a different feel and to some extent different technique

  23. #22
    Quote Originally Posted by Jimmy blue note
    Hey this guy's playing this thing with his fist, but yur supposed to use you feet so you can play guitar too. Isn't that the point?

  24. #23
    OK so if you are going down the road or guitarists who play bass lines - well obviously there's a tradition of that that leads onto various extended instruments if you go far enough
    and then we can talk about modern bass players who play almost bass like a guitar



    Wonderful Steve Swallow style


  25. #24

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    Joe Morris

  26. #25

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jonah
    and then we can talk about modern bass players who play almost bass like a guitar



    Wonderful Steve Swallow style

    Pipoquinha makes it look effortless. He also plays guitar. He plays 6 string bass and can apply Brazilian guitar technique to it. So, it's bass in the thumb, chords in the fingers with full harmonic movement and strict time. No fudging the time to facilitate a chord change in Brazil!

    There are probably other bassists who can do that, but, what I heard Michael Pipoquinha do is combine all that with a percussive bass style, derived, to my ear, distantly, from funk bass.

    The result is that he can sound like a trio. You hear bass, harmony and a surprising amount of percussion. Tremendous facility on the instrument.

    He and Pedro Martins have written a bunch of tunes together -- I have a couple in my band book which people really like to play.