The Last Bass Outpost

Main Forums => The Bass Zone => Topic started by: Chris P. on September 09, 2013, 03:36:08 AM

Title: Met some bass players
Post by: Chris P. on September 09, 2013, 03:36:08 AM
Last two weeks I was at Warwick's for it's yearly Bass Camp with around 100 students and 17 professors. Among them were Victor Wooten, Stu Hamm, Lee Sklar, Alphonso Johnson, John B. Williams, John Patitucci, Dick Lövgren, Andy Irvine, Regi Wooten, Victor Brandt, and drummer Chester Thompson. Later they were joined by Divinity Rocks, Guy Pratt, Stuart Zender, TM Stevens, bass players from Florence and The Machine and Lamb and many many more, for the open day.

So I had dinner and luch each day, exchaning jokes with Lee Sklar, exchanging quotes from mafia movies with Patitucci, talking about Genesis with Chester, talking basses with Stu, talking about cats with Dick, playing the bass with sliding pickups of Guy, going to the pharmacy with John B. as translator and introduce him as my father, and so. Very strange...

Victor Wooten has a twelve year old son, called Adam. He's already an awesome drummer and got to play with al those names this week...

I had an awesome week:)
Title: Re: Met some bass players
Post by: Basvarken on September 09, 2013, 10:50:07 AM
Looks like a great experience to me!
:toast:
Title: Re: Met some bass players
Post by: Chris P. on September 09, 2013, 12:42:15 PM
It was. Of course I didn't play myself;)
Title: Re: Met some bass players
Post by: Dave W on September 09, 2013, 12:44:31 PM
Sounds like a lot of fun.

What do you mean, you didn't play yourself? Were you there only as a reporter?
Title: Re: Met some bass players
Post by: jumbodbassman on September 09, 2013, 01:30:36 PM
sounds awesome.    ditto with not playing????
Title: Re: Met some bass players
Post by: Highlander on September 09, 2013, 01:53:47 PM
With that amount of talent on show and with that much experience to gain from listening...
Title: Re: Met some bass players
Post by: Chris P. on September 09, 2013, 03:43:50 PM
Every night there were jam sessions. I saw Patitucci, Sklar, Hellborg, Hamm, Alphonso, Bailey, .. play together on one stage at the same time. I just not go on stage and jam with one of those guys. Maybe a missed opportunity, but I'm much too shy and a too lousy bass player:D
Title: Re: Met some bass players
Post by: Dave W on September 09, 2013, 11:08:57 PM
Oh come on now, we've seen you play, you have no reason to feel inferior.
Title: Re: Met some bass players
Post by: Chris P. on September 10, 2013, 01:25:40 AM
I enjoyed watching them and learned from millions of great stories!!
Title: Re: Met some bass players
Post by: Dave W on September 10, 2013, 11:46:00 AM
That's fine but don't sell yourself short.
Title: Re: Met some bass players
Post by: nofi on September 10, 2013, 03:45:54 PM
put yourself in chris postion;

"you wanna get on stage with those guys young man, says the producer. just hop up there
between victor and stu and show us what you got!"

i'm with chris on this one. a daunting task indeed. as dirty harry said, "a man has got too know his limitations".

Title: Re: Met some bass players
Post by: Basvarken on September 10, 2013, 03:47:29 PM
+1

Come on Dave.
I would be quite reluctant to join in with world class players like the names Chris mentioned too.

In fact I hate to join jam sessions with average players too  :mrgreen:
Title: Re: Met some bass players
Post by: Highlander on September 10, 2013, 04:10:06 PM
[Dirty Chris] In all this excitement, I can't remember just how many Grammy award winners there are up on this stage, so, do I feel lucky, punk...? [/Dirty Chris] ;D
Title: Re: Met some bass players
Post by: Dave W on September 10, 2013, 07:28:54 PM
Don't misunderstand me. I dislike jam sessions, they're typically pointless and inane. And I despise the "show us what you've got" mentality, music is not a competition.

But just because Chris doesn't do fancy pyrotechnics like Victor Wooten or complex solos like Helborg doesn't mean he should consider himself a lousy bassist. I'd just as soon listen to the music he's made with his bands than anything any of these other players have done.
Title: Re: Met some bass players
Post by: Psycho Bass Guy on September 10, 2013, 10:26:37 PM
I'm not a technical player by any stretch, but I think I would enjoy getting to play with those guys, if only to experience musical osmosis. If anyone else has the stupidity to tell me that I'm no good, they've missed the point of the camp... and the fact that hauling around full SVT rigs makes one pretty strong.  :mrgreen:
Title: Re: Met some bass players
Post by: Iome on September 11, 2013, 06:17:15 AM
Am i the only one who wouldn't know how to jam with other bass players?
Just my 0.2 $, but i see a jam as playing songs, or music, with others (say casual) people, two or more basses doesn't make much sense to me...  ???
Title: Re: Met some bass players
Post by: amptech on September 11, 2013, 06:27:11 AM
Nah.. With Wooten, Hamm and Pattitucci on the menu, I'd say one bass player is more than enough.
Title: Re: Met some bass players
Post by: nofi on September 11, 2013, 08:43:25 AM
let me clear up one point. my comment has NOTHING to do with chris's bass talents, just the situation he was faced with. i wouln't have done it either.
Title: Re: Met some bass players
Post by: gearHed289 on September 11, 2013, 09:39:32 AM
I wouldn't do it either!

Some of these comments reminded me of something from years ago. Watching the Arsenio Hall show, he often had musical guests sitting in with the house band. One time it was Andy Summers of the Police on guitar. Arsenio talks about how he's won best overall guitarist in GP magazine, etc, and then he's like "show us what you've got!" He's not THAT kind of player! It was awkward.
Title: Re: Met some bass players
Post by: amptech on September 11, 2013, 10:14:49 AM
It´s like being the supporting actor in a Ron Jeremy movie!
Title: Re: Met some bass players
Post by: Highlander on September 11, 2013, 01:38:14 PM
Quote from: Psycho Bass Guy on September 10, 2013, 10:26:37 PM
... and the fact that hauling around full SVT rigs makes one pretty strong.  :mrgreen:

Behave... y'all should know better...  ;)

ON the stage...? Yeah, no problem at all... after all, they need roadies, don't they...  ;D
Title: Re: Met some bass players
Post by: Psycho Bass Guy on September 12, 2013, 12:50:43 PM
Quote from: CAR-54 on September 11, 2013, 01:38:14 PM
Behave... y'all should know better...  ;)

"Y'all" is a plural personal pronoun in my neck of the woods, like "y'un's." "Y'all" as a singular personal pronoun is more common in former plantation areas, though plenty of yankee transplants just ape what they see on "The Beverly Hillbillies" (which is an almostly completely fake 'dialect') and may use it thinking that they're 'blending in.' Thankfully, their children grow up with the Michigan accents their parents use at home so I have ended up with the odd proposition of upper middle-aged floks with heavy fake "southern" accents with kids that sound like Fran Drescher. If you get the National Geographic channel, they have a show called "Snake Salvation" about snake-handling churches about two congregations, one in LaFollette and the other in Middlesboro, KY. The guys in Middlesboro have my exact accent and dialect, (but not my good sense to not chase copperheads.)
Title: Re: Met some bass players
Post by: Highlander on September 12, 2013, 04:00:51 PM
We get NG so I'll look out for it, ta... seen something about such places...

Jackie's late uncle Johnny taught me that the proper way they used to say it with the (genuine) mowt'un folks was "you-um back soon?" - "we-um back soon"  ;)

We went up into the hills not far from Winchester KY and found the farm they lived on - a tiny place called Stepstone - found it on a satellite image after some hunting post returning - only thing I found the same on studying pics was the entry fence posts which were the same ones - and on the way up there we passed a place with the family name on the sign for the farm and I mentioned this chance so we called in on the way back and there were kids playing in the yard and a couple of generations of folks and low-and-behold a gent with a big beard, bib-and-braces overalls (stained, of course), John Deere hat (badly worn), shotgun, on the shoulder (straight up, as God is my witness) and it turned out that him and her uncle were first cousins and remembered playing as kids...
Title: Re: Met some bass players
Post by: 4005 on September 19, 2013, 06:31:17 PM
Antonella Mazza has posted some nice photos on FB, looks like a great time to me w/ great players,
Cheers,


" So just who is this Alex Harvey fellow & just what makes him so Sensational? "
Title: Re: Met some bass players
Post by: Chris P. on September 20, 2013, 02:35:16 AM
We had!