Happy Birthday Coltrane

He would be have been 85 today.

Here is an interview he did when he was in Sweden in 1960, touring with Miles Davis and the "Kind of Blue" band, but without Cannonball for some reason. They had Sonny Stitt instead.

It is kinda rare to hear him not playing and just talking, so it is interesting to hear his voice. Sounds like a laid back cat.

8 More Ways To Play All The Triads In C Major

I have been goofing around (well all I do is goof around really) with a new project and here is a sneak peek of what it is going to look like. More triads. Lots and lots and lots of triads.

Here are just 8 of the many many ( trust me.....there are many ) ways to play the triads that occur in the key of C Major. The fancy music word for that is "diatonic" which just means, "only using the notes in that key".

Jaco Books for Cheap

Lulu has all 4 of the Jaco transcription books, plus the play-along book up on their site, and all of them are about 30% off the list price, plus if you use that oktoberfest coupon thingy from the other day, you can save an additional 15%, so you can pull in a big ol' haul of Jaco transcription books really cheap. There is gold in them books!

Jaco Transcription Books at Lulu.com

Branford Hates Jazz

Branford Marsalis is like the Jeff Berlin of saxophone, they both follow the same adage "I don't care what people are saying as long as they are talking about me".

They both seem to say stupid stuff on purpose just because it will get people all discombobulated and they can appear to be shockingly controversial.

So now Branford thinks jazz sucks too, which is apparently what all the cool cats think these days - Rosenwinkel, Metheny, and now Branford. Okay, they all think most jazz sucks, not all jazz. He said this stuff this week while playing in Seattle during an interview the local free weekly.

Branford Marsalis: The Problem With Jazz - Page 1 - Music - Seattle - Seattle Weekly

The Darkest Day in Bass - Jaco R.I.P

Today, in 1987 Jaco Pastorious died. Or was killed depending on how you feel about what went down.
I can't even imagine how many times I listened to his first album, or "Heavy Weather". 10,000 times? Quite possibly.

If you put on "Broadway Blues" or "Port of Entry" or "Havona" and don't go "Holy Good Lord!!!" then you should maybe play clarinet. Or make pottery or something.

For my money, he is it, there still isn't anyone who has the tone, the taste, the feel, the groove, the compositional skills, the inventiveness and just the raw musicality that he had on the electric bass. 

Comparing bass players is generally a stupid undertaking, but Jaco is in a class all by himself. 

Pop in "Heavy Weather" or "Bright Sized Life" or his first record today and let him know you are thinking of him. He is probably busting out his favorite "Third Stone From The Sun" lick with Mr. Hendrix himself right now. I am sure they both have an every-night gig up in the same place forever.


NPR on Jaco
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14578299

Miami Newspaper on Jaco's Death
http://www.beachedmiami.com/2010/09/21/day-jaco-pastorius-dies-south-florida-hospital/

NY Times Obit
http://www.nytimes.com/1987/09/23/obituaries/jaco-pastorius-jazz-bassist-dies-of-injuries-in-a-beating.html

Rick Sucow's Jaco Page
http://www.ricksuchow.com/press-group-201.html

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15% off "The Book of Chord Tones" Series This Week

All you have to do is enter the promo code OKTOBERFEST305 when you check out. All three volumes are available, Major, Dominant and Minor 7 chords.

And there are plenty of other bass books up there as well, some are really cheap, some are older, some are obscure and they seem cover the range of experience, from rank beginner to more complex. Plus the coupon code is good for any book you buy on Lulu.com until the 23rd at midnight. Of course, I have some pretty strong opinions about which ones you should buy.

Bass Player - Slap Masters Supplement

John Goldsby posted this today on twitter - Bass Player has another electronic version available discussing the funk and slap bass playing. Vielen Dank, Herr Goldsby!

Articles about Marcus, Les Claypool, Larry Graham, and of course Mr. Wooten.

Looks like you can learn how to play Brick House if you didn't already know how.

Bass Player - Slap Masters Supplement

Bass Link Blast number oh, 3 or 4 I think...

1. BassLinepublishing.com has released a book of transcriptions from Zander Zon, the guy who made solo bass famous on YouTube. If you are into some very musical solo bass you might dig it. He tunes his bass like a cello, and up an octave too I think. But it sure sounds pretty.
2. If you are in North America, it is Damian Erskine's birthday today, so tweet, email, fb wall, or just call him up and say Happy B-day. I think he turns 14 today. Or 43. It's hard to tell.
3. Christian McBride is going to release an album of just duets in November, "Conversations With Christian" will be released on Mack Avenue Records. "Conversations..." is a CD of 13 duets with some of Christian's closest friends and collaborators - Sting, Angelique Kidjo, Chick Corea, George Duke, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Eddie Palmieri, Roy Hargrove, Regina Carter, Russell Malone, Gina Gershon, Ron Blake, the late Dr. Billy Taylor, and the late Hank Jones. If you like singing and bass, but hate all the other instruments clogging things up, you will probably like this record. Christian is a double-threat electric/upright player, so I am sure he will sneak in a little electric bass playing somewhere on the record.
4. Here are couple of interviews with two of the A-team for bass, Bob Cranshaw ( Sonny Rollins) and Ron Carter (Miles Davis and 10000 others). Both are from a radio show out of Arizona I think.  Bob talks about the business of recording and how it was just that sometimes. Cranshaw is one of the only guys to play electric in a somewhat straight ahead jazz setting with Sonny Rollins so check him out if you can. And Ron Carter, what can you say? He gets called "the most recorded bassist in history" a lot, and I am sure not going to argue with that.

Bob Cranshaw Interview: 

Ron Carter Interview: