boz burell question

[nofi]

story goes that fripp taught him to play bass. the jazzy bass stuff on the islands lp is well beyond a beginner and lots of seasoned players as well. what's the story here. did boz switch from upright or guitar or is he a bass savant. oh yeah, throw in that fretless thing too.

[gweimer]

From Wikipedia:


Boz Burrell (born Raymond Burrell) 1 August 1946 in Lincoln, England–21 September 2006 in Spain was a bass guitarist known for his involvement in bands such as King Crimson and Bad Company.

While singer/leader of The Boz People in the mid-1960s, Boz was selected to replace Roger Daltrey in The Who when the remaining members of that band were on the verge of firing Daltrey, which ultimately did not happen. (Moon: The Life and Death of a Rock Legend By Tony Fletcher)

In the late 1960s, he released some solo singles as singer (simply as "Boz"). At that time, he was joined by Ritchie Blackmore, who was in the process of setting up Deep Purple. It is reported that new Deep Purple members Jon Lord (keyboard) and Ian Paice (drums) also joined the session and played on two tracks: "I shall be released" and "Down in the Flood".

In 1971, he was brought into King Crimson as a vocalist and, as the band needed a bassist, was rapidly taught bass by guitarist Robert Fripp. He was part of the band that recorded Islands and a post-breakup compilation live album Earthbound. In recent years, King Crimson's record company has issued collectors' live recordings from this era of the band.

[nofi]

hmm, i wish someone could have "rapidly" taught bass to me that way.

[Rhythm N. Bliss]

Great question, nofi. My guitarist bud Steve is the Worst Teacher in the World.
He expects me to know everything already & starts yelling cuz I don't.  hahaaahaaaaaa
Fripp must be the Best Teacher in the World!
Did Boz play fretless bass in Crimson? I've never even heard it.
I guess kids learn on fretless upright bass, right?

I got a fretless bass cuz of Boz & Tony Franklin, & I've had fun with it....but I admit I'm pretty much lost without fret markers.
I know, I know~ There's dots on the side of the neck, but still...

[uwe]

The secret to fretless playing - which I approached with great trepidation and a "no-can-do"-angst for decades in my bass player life - is banal: Just go out there and do it. Anyone of us could play fretless bass if he was stranded on an island for four weeks and a fretless bass was all he had with him. Once you have the knack (which has most to do with the "memory" of your hands), you just have to do it regularly. My fretless playing has made leaps and bounds since I keep a fretless bass at home and play it (not practice) regularly. I also make a habit of taking one fretless to rehearsals now and not using it "just for the ballads" either. Do I miss notes? Yes. Does it sound bad because of that? No. Just like guitarists don't always (or even often!) bend notes perfect to pitch, a little off can be spicy.

Re Boz: I never thought of him that much as a fretless player even though he used one. What made him absolutely special was his Bill Wyman'esque sense of timing and playing in unexpected places very little yet to huge effect. He could have done that on a fretted bass especially as "mwaw"-slides weren't really his thing (Jaco had not yet influenced the fretless world when Boz recorded most of his stuff with Bad Co). OTOH, Boz played so sparsely on bass, he always had time enough to deliberate extensively  as to where he would put his fretting finger next ... All credit to him, his style was part of Bad Co's charm. Nice voice too, of course I have his session with Blackmore, Lord and Paice.

Uwe

[TBird1958]

 I did get to see him with Bad Co., pretty early on, they were a great no-nonsense show, absolutely a great rock band.

[gweimer]

Boz may very have been the model for Frippertronics.  Fripp always said that once you learn how each hand works, the music part is easy.