by barbequebob » Fri Feb 06, 2004 3:47 pm
[updated:LAST EDITED ON Feb-06-04 AT 10:59 AM (EST)]The huge problem with too many bass players who tend to adopt what appears to be the fusion school of lead bass playing is that in blues, the main focus is the vocalist, and when the vocals are done, it's the one called upon for the solo. However, playing a busy bass in the fusion school might be great for stroking their egos, but they lose the bigger picture of the continuity of the groove so that no matter what, the groove keeps stable and danceable. For every gig that fusion players have people dancing to their music, you'll see ten times as many blues players have people dancing. Fusion players don't understand the KISS concept which prevails in blues, meaning: keep it simple, stupid. It's great to know whatever you can about your instrument, regardless of genre, but when you have to throw every single technique you know how to play (or think you do), you're not much more than a technician.
Johnny B. Gayden, who played with Albert Collins for several years, is the closest thing to anything a fusion guy is going to enjoy, because during his solos you hear stuff that's closer to that, but unlike most fusion players thrown into a real blues situation, he does know when it's time to shut that stuff up and keep true to the groove, avoiding the thing fusion players outside of playing in a fusion thing too often fail miserably to understand.
Ehrn you're hired to do a particular thing, and this is what the bandleader wants, and then you do something that doesn't fit in, regardless of what you may have thought was really cool to play, clearly you did not do the job you were hired to do and deserved to get your sorry butt fired.
The full time studio pros too often get laughed at by musicians not playing studio gigs because they don't do X, Y, and Z, like some non studio players would say they should do, but even though they usually can outplay many people who brag about how well they do all this stuff, but they're hired to play the stuff that's required and not pull the kind of crap to make themselves stick out, checking their egos at the door, and they're the guys when NOT in the studio are gonna usually be the first to get the call for a gig, and are rarely going to be without a gig for any stretch unless they want it that way.
Blues is more of a "people music," and more people are going to dance to it far more easily than fusion, which tends to be more of a "musician's music," and let's face it, how many people, unless they're trained in jazz dance or ballet, can dance to it without problems?
If this ticks off the fusion oriented guys, so be it, but this is something I've observed in about 30 years of professional playing, and this doesn't just apply only to bass players.