Victor Bailey
“I’m not a clinician, and I’m not a teacher,” Victor Bailey flatly stated as he sat down and plugged in a brand new Fender Victor Bailey Jazz Bass. But his playing took everyone to school. Bailey started with a little improvisational number, and then launched right into his own rendition of Jaco’s “Continuum,” which features lyrics that Bailey wrote after hearing about Jaco’s death. He played a few more improv tunes that touched on various musical themes—funk, bebop, and gospel—and weaved their way through territory both familiar and exploratory, closing the hour with an amazing solo take on the Weather Report classic “Birdland,” wherein he hammered out the synth bass line with his left hand and tapped out that famous melody in double and triple stops with his right hand, tearing through every part with remarkable accuracy and soul.
Justin Meldal-Johnsen
“The subtlety of tone is a huge thing,” said Beck bassist and lo-fi session god Justin Meldal-Johnsen. “Everybody who hires me really expects a lot out of me in that regard. I’m finding that more and more. I can’t roll into a session with a 7-string piece of driftwood and a fancy amp that goes to 20k. They’re not having it.” So what did Justin suggest players bring to gigs? “Right now the cycle is definitely toward vintage tones. Come in with some vintage tones that you can mess with or brighten up as needed. And there’s no reason every bass player here shouldn’t have a hollowbody. I can’t tell you how blown away people are when you roll in with a Hofner, or a Guild Starfire, or an old EKO bass from the ’60s that costs 300 bucks on eBay, or something like that with flatwounds on it. They sound huge—huger than you would think—and producers go ga-ga over it. Short-scale basses: Airline Pocket bass—28"-scale; Gibson EB-0—30w"-scale. You’ve got to experiment with this stuff. People freak out when you plug it in. You might think, Well I can’t do much on that. But it’s just not the case.”
Jeff Berlin & Steve Bailey
The weekend-long extravaganza wrapped up with a spirited debate between greats Steve Bailey and Jeff Berlin. They both presented their divergent ideas about learning to play bass, as originally presented in their BP columns. One thing evident from the debate: These two guys really admire each other. They debated the merits of studying fretless, using a metronome, and focusing on techniques like tapping and slapping. Berlin’s argument was that players spend too much time studying the individualistic, “artistic” sides of bass playing, like tap and slap bass. Instead, Berlin emphasized the importance of “good time, good tonality, and being a rhythm-section-friendly bass player.” He added, “If you’re going to get better as a bass player, you have to know what the notes are and where they are.” Bailey agreed with Berlin’s emphasis on mastering the fundamentals, but also argued the validity of studying fretless, tap, and slap as equally viable music-making techniques. “Why just limit bass playing to ‘traditional’ roles? Any exploration of an instrument helps to expand the instrument’s role. We would still be stuck playing root-5 lines if music education did not progress and embrace new things.”
Victor Wooten
When an audience member asked Victor Wooten if there was an exercise he used when he was younger to learn two-tapping hand independence, Victor answered plainly. “The answer is no. I had to come up with exercises when people started asking me to teach them.” So how did Victor learn two-hand tapping? “I heard Stanley Jordan back in the ’80s, and I flipped out. I said, ‘I want to be able to do that.’ I got my brother’s guitar, I tuned it in fourths, and I stayed up for about 24 hours until I learned one of his songs. That was it. Once I had it, I had it. I have yet to this day to work on tapping. And my tapping is not that good. It’s not. What’s good is that I can make what I have feel great. I can make it feel good so that you hear it as good, and you might even hear it as complicated. But technique-wise, I can’t run lines like Stanley Jordan or some of these guys I see on YouTube. I could if I worked on it. But I’ve got enough to make the music that I want. And I got it in one night.”
Jerry Brooks
Gotham vet Jerry Brooks (D’Angelo, Chico Debarge, Special EFX) was a last-minute replacement for Divinity, whose clinic was moved to Sunday due to flight delays. Brooks, who has one of the baddest right hands in bass, delivered with detailed demonstrations and analysis of his thumb-and-index plucking approach, tales of attempting to cop D’Angelo’s way-back-in-the-pocket concept before Pino Palladino and Rafael Saadiq brought it to prominence, and the importance of an undisturbed groove. At one point, Brooks chided, “A groove needs to sit and marinate for a while before it really jells, but every four bars the drummer or guitarist plays a fill and then you have to start all over again!”
Stanley Clarke
Clarke delighted the crowd with humorous and insightful tales from his remarkable genre-crossing career. For every serious account of how he came to liberate the bass, or join Return To Forever, or hang with Jaco, there was a crowd-pleasing anecdote. Queried about the start of his TV and film-scoring career, Clarke told of meeting Barry Manilow on an early TV project, and how you can never judge a book by its cover. When Manilow confided that he didn’t feel he had the respect of musicians, Stanley dryly replied, “Barry, what are you talking about? You wrote ‘Mandy’!” (To which the audience erupted in laughter.) Manilow, continued Stanley, then proceeded to play a rousing version of “Giant Steps”! Near the end of his interview, Clarke was asked why he maintains his solo bass career and virtuoso performance chops, when he has so much else going on musically. His reply was simple and resounding to the assembled throng of thumpers: “I just feel like the bass is in me.”
Janek Gwizdala
New York’s Janek Gwizdala, whose impressive resumé includes gigs with guitarist Mike Stern and drummer Kenwood Denard, as well as a Musical Director gig with pop-star Jem, focused on bridging styles, calling on a crack band to demonstrate examples. On working with drums: “I think of the drum kit as a palette of colors. To me, certain colors make me feel a particular way; that’s how my brain processes sound. It’s a good practice, though, to try and lock into a different part of the band, like an alto sax or something. As an exercise, try to come up with bass parts that really work against what a horn player or some other band-member is doing, instead of always using the drummer.”
Jonathan Herrera
Bass Player Senior Editor shared practicing and playing insights and fielded questions about setup and gear from the audience. Recounting a lesson learned he recalled with Los Angeles heavyweight Jerry Watts Jr., Jonathan advised: “If you’re going to do something, do it because you intend to. Not because your technique obligates it. Not because your muscles have a tendency and you’ll obey that tendency regardless of the effect on the music.”
John Miller
John Miller’s Broadway Bass clinic reaped its own rewards when audience member George Farmer revealed that he had attended Miller’s BPL 2004 clinic, taken notes, which he followed precisely, and that led him to land a sub role on Lion King, and eventually the bass chair on the new Broadway musical Spring Awakening. Miller hires Artie Reynolds (Hot Feet) and Irio O’Farrill (Rocky Horror Show) were in the audience, and they also shared tips.
Marcus Miller
Marcus Miller’s Sunday morning Q&A was packed like a New York subway train at rush hour. Opening with a slap-funk jam with drummer Poogie Bell and keyboardist Bobby Sparks, Marcus then spoke about his early playing years, his formal education, working with Miles Davis, and extensive session work. Marcus stressed the importance of learning to read music, “Don’t turn the down the opportunity to learn to read music. If you’re watching a football game, turn it off for a minute and get the basics down so that you won’t be so uncomfortable with reading.”
Tal Wilkenfeld
Rising-star Tal Wilkenfeld brought guitarist Ben Hauptmann and drummer Chaun Horton to her packed clinic, which was best summed up by an audience member later on Talkbass: “The real stunner for the afternoon was Tal. She and her band were playing odd meters left and right, but it still grooved like no tomorrow! She would play a song (leaving everyone’s jaws on the floor), explain her musical philosophy and songwriting approach, take questions, and then blow the room away again! Look out for this young lady.”
