Welcome to Bass Player magazine - Acoustic and electric bass guitar tabs, chords and lessons
Bass Player magazine is your source for acoustic and electric bass guitar tabs, chords and free online bass guitar lessons, tutorials and videos for both beginner and professional.
|
Skip to [ End of Second Navigation ]
Skip to [ End of Music Player Network web site links ]
|
 |
Your current location
BassPlayer.com >> This Month >> Dawg Pounds
Skip to [ Story Content and jump story attachments ]
Dawg PoundsApril, 2008 Randy Jackson may have more hats to wear these days, but his bass playing retains its serious bark and bite. Key to Jackson’s big-pocket/tasty-fill style is his penchant for bouncing off the next lowest string in-between notes, to dirty things up, and his ear-grabbing use of ascending and descending chromatic approach notes, especially around the root, 5th, and octave. He offers, “The string bouncing is something I picked up from masters like James Jamerson and my first teacher, Sammy Thorton, and also from playing with a lot of old school musicians. The chromatic side is from shedding plenty of bebop early on.” Ex. 1 evokes the main two-bar groove of “Real Love,” from his new solo disc. The second and third endings show two fills Randy plays on the track. Note his trademark string bounce, chromaticism, and harmonic savvy: the Bb’s in both endings imply a jazzy Bb9 chord instead of just the IVm chord. Ex. 2 features more of these elements in a typical V-chord fill similar to what he plays on the Boyz II Men/ Patti LaBelle version of “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing,” from the singing group’s latest CD, Motown: A Journey Through Hitsville U.S.A. “Having it in a different key than the original [Eb] allowed me to pay better homage to James Jamerson,” says Jackson. Turning back the clock, Ex. 3 is like Randy’s soulful, slapped two-bar groove on the opening/chorus section of “Screamin’ Off the Top,” from Stacy Lattisaw’s 1981 album, With You. “That was either a Kramer or an Ibanez,” laughs Randy. He manned a growling ’62 Fender Jazz Bass tuned down a half-step for Ex. 4’s killer shuffle groove, found on Jean-Luc Ponty’s 1982 disc, Mystical Adventures. The first two measures evoke the repeated two-bar groove behind Ponty’s violin solo on “Mystical Adventures Suite: Part III.” In the second and third endings, Randy’s fills are first dizzyingly 4th-laden and then chromatic. The album is a Randy-must-have, boasting a solo on “Rhythms of Hope” and intense grooves and unison flights throughout. |
Bass Player is part of the Music Player Network.