Hi janek

i would like to ask you about practicing reading, i know you mentioned reading solos form a book and playin along with a record .....but i´ve talked with a drummer at a studio session and he told me that classical guys can be playin the 1line of a score and they´re already listening the third line in their head and making the proper decisions to execute it...i can only get like 2 bars ahead !
Can you give a few pointers on this subject?

The other thing i would like to ask you is what got you trough in your early days when you´re trying to get your musicianship together and you´ll have to hang with musicians/band leaders that always try to put you down cause you actually try to learn to read and theory and get into a lot of styles and stuff like that .....im getting a hard time with this discrimination believe it or not!

Thank you and please forgive me for my bad english
(i´m from a little country called Portugal)

No problem on the english, it's way better than my portugese!!

I was there in Lisbon this time last year, was a fantastic trip.

Anyway.....

Classical musicians tend to be able to read incredibly well. Their art form is passed on almost entirely by written music, as opposed to jazz and improvised music which is passed on through the generations by not only written music, but by ear, by jamming, by records. I wouldn't stress out about being able to look at the third line of a score whilst playing the first, there are ways to get through a chart without being able to do this. With practice you'll find that you learn to notice the key points of a chart ahead of time. You'll look over the chart once before reading it, and know where the D.C., Coda, Repeats, drastic changes in dynamics are etc.. Then as you read down the chart live you won't come across too many major surprises that mess you up. As bass players, and as commercial musiciansit's very rare that we get to read something that looks like fly crap on the page anyway. What you're more likey to come across most are chord charts, rhythmic hits wrtten within the staff or top of the staff, some bassic unison parts in an arrangement and that's about it. Nothing too stressful.

There are of course gigs and studio sessions that require much more than that, but these tend to be less frequent. You sure do have to be ready for them when they come up though. So if you're planning on doing gigs that require the heavier reading chops you should be working on that stuff all the time, and like I said before, read anything in any clef or key that you can get your hands on. I've got my reading to the point where I'm equally good in treble and bass clef, and can also read tenor and alto (although that is incredibly rare that you would have to do that outside of an orchestra gig, in fact if someone wrote in tenor clef on a regular studio sessions you could probably go up and slap them and be justified! he he he he.....).

As for going through taking crap from band leaders...


It happens all the time when you're starting out. You can't really pick and choose what gigs you do cos you want to do everything there is as you don't know where it might lead for the future. I've been told what bass to play, how to stand, what to "go home and practice", what to wear, how to cut my hair. Then of course there's the **** that happens when the person you're playing with is a real "Star" and doesn't even know your name, and gets the musical director to introduce the band on the gig.Then there's bad pay, poor accomodation, crappy travel. There's a whole lot of crap to go through as a musician. And some of that stuff exists through your whole life as a sideman. There maybe a gig you really want to do, but the band leader's an *******. So you have to know what you're getting into and take it for what it is.

There's definitely a prejudice against jazz players in the pop world. And I think, to some exstent, it's quite a valid point. I hate jazz players who get on a pop gig and play too much ****. They're busy players, rarely repeat something they've played before, and don't make the distinction between being a jazz soloist and being a sideman for an artists. So I can see the point of some band leaders and MD's when it comes to jazz musicians. There are some cats like Gary novak (drummer on Chick Coreas elektric band II and Time Warp) who also played with Chaka Khan, George Benson, and ALANIS MORISETTE!. he said that if Alanis knew what he was doing on his down time from the rock gig (which was being on tour with Bob Berg's quartet) she wouldn't hire him. But he is one guy who can absolutely make the distinction between jazz and pop sideman.

I play a ton of jazz stuff, with Mike Stern, Randy Brecker, Hiram Bullock Airto etc... with people who are at the top of their field in the jazz world. But I can tone that **** down and move into a pop gig with no problem at all, and go on the road for 6 months and play the hell out of 3 chords. I love to play. It really doesn't matter what the music is as long as it's good music. I am just immensly happy playing. Not only that, but I'm very grateful for any work that comes my way. I live in the toughest city in the world for music and it's good not to forget about that. It makes you appreciate work and life way more when you think about what could be happening. There are thousands of incredible players living here. Will Lee, Anthony Jackson, Jeff Andrews, Christian McBride, Lincoln Goines, Richard Bona, Tony Grey, John Benitez, Matthew Garrison, Reggie Washington, Terry Tribbet, Hubert eaves..... the list is long. And then there's me, right at the bottom of the list, and I still get a few gigs here and there. It's an experience that really focuses you on your art and on your music, and makes you thankful for everything that comes along.

Easy,

Janek

nice post Janek,

i study with a guy called Paul Westwood (maybe you know him) who teaches at Trinity, Royal Academy and Guildhall over here, anyway he is a great player and a great teacher and one of the first things he told me a when i was starting to build my vocabulary up was how to seperate music styles


saying something along the lines of "now this stuff over here, this is your jazz stuff, and this stuff here this is you bread and butter"

meaning that there are somethings that maybe you shouldnt play on a pop gig that you would on a jazz gig, at the time i had never even thought about it, but it seemed so obvious!


Dave

WESTWOOD!!

man, I haven't seen him for years!. I used to go to the royal academy of music in 97/98. He was teaching on the commercial music course and I was on the jazz course. I used to run into him downstairs in the studio a lot. He probably wouldn't even remember me.

He's a great player, used to do a lot of studio work from what I remember. There's a story he told me that always stuck in my head..

He was asked by Wayne Shorter to submit a demo tape when Weather Report were looking for a new bass player after Jaco left the band. Paulk handed him a tape of his playing which sounded a lot like Jaco. Wayne got back to him and told him that they weren't looking for another Jaco. Not such a groundbreaking story now, but this made me (and I'm sure Paul too) very concious about being unique and being an individual. That story has always stuck with me, and everytime I start sounding like someone else it tells me to get a life and do something original.

Easy,

Janek

now thats a story that he hasnt told me yet, you never know though, he may get around to it eventually, (as you know he has a lot of them to tell)

he's definetely been around, did a lot of work for the BBC back in the begining as well as a real long list of top artists, im always surprised to find out that he was on so many records that i have always listened to and always liked

im going to see him sunday, he's teaching privately out of the Royal Academy on weekends now, i'll mention your name, and see what he says.


Dave