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Duby’s View |
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10 May 2002 First off, my deep gratitude to Martin and the bassists of our region for this opportunity to kick off this series of columns with a fairly simple introduction: We have just been through a series of lunch-hour concerts at the School of Music where I teach and I thought this might be a good starting point for some comments on the role of the bass in the music I’m interested in. Hopefully these will be useful in general…(:-) The bass is the base I don’t think it’s an overstatement to point out that the bassist’s job now as ever is to act as the interlocking timekeeper of the band (by which I mean in tandem with the drums). Despite the advent of the new wave of bassists (such as the great Jaco and many other geniuses) our fundamental task is to be in the engine room with the drums supporting the frontline of the band and especially the vocals. While this task may not sit comfortably on the shoulders of the young ones intoxicated with the wealth of ideas emanating from the greats and of course the huge advances in the technology of bass design, the bottom line is the bottom line. This has a lot to do with having the basics down: time. taste, good note choice, respecting and understanding the harmony in question, simplicity, and lots of practice on our own, getting to grips with this beautiful instrument. For all the flash and excitement of a brilliant solo pulling the crowd to its feet, your band-mates will respect you as much or more for the abilities I listed above. I was blessed to have the opportunity to see Dave Holland in London in 1997. Apart from his amazing solos and his incredible technical prowess (too awesome to describe in words), his strength as an accompanist was why musicians of the calibre of Herbie Hancock and Michael Brecker had booked him for the tour. With best wishes and keep thundering Marc Duby Bassist/composer Head of Department: School of Music Technikon Pretoria |
