Morphin’ Cat
Donald Fagen's Freddie Washington
“The composer always wants to hear what he wrote first,” says session veteran Freddie Washington. “But, if it’s not working for him, then you have the right to make it what you think it should be.” Washington, whose extensive recording and performing credits include Patrice Rushen, the Temptations, and Simon & Garfunkel, has long been the go-to bassist for singers looking for lively funk support. “Ready” Freddie’s reputation as a singer’s bass player helped draw him to Steely Dan co-founder Donald Fagen. Fagen’s latest solo record, Morph the Cat—recorded live with drummer Keith Carlock at New York’s Clinton Recording Studio—are the latest examples of Washington’s thick grooves.
Did Donald Fagen present you with lines to interpret, or did you have to develop your own bass lines?
Donald is very specific about what he wants: if he writes it, I will play it for him, so that he can really hear what he wrote, always. Some songs had precise bass lines with integral parts. I could see that these lines were statements, and I latched onto them. For instance, “Morph the Cat” has a specific bass line, but it was just a bass line until I made it come to life.
What can you do to make the lines come to life?
You have to know where the groove is. There’s a lot of groove in Donald’s music, and being a down-to-the-bone groove guy, I got it right away. I knew I couldn’t just play through the notated music; you have to release the notes in a certain way to give the music the right attitude. It’s different for bass players and drummers. A bass player, for example, can’t just play notes and always let them sustain over the bar. The way you come off a note can help let the music breathe. I feel like I can see everything in Donald’s music. I hear it, but I can also see it because there is space. As a bass player, it’s almost about where you don’t play that matters. Donald’s music feels like everything is bouncing off everything else and you have to give all of it space. For example, if you play a quarter-note, the next note almost has to be a rest, in order to let the snare drum come through. The key is knowing how to make it work so that there’s a bounce.
How does your live playing experience translate into the studio?
When I was in high school, I worked in Top 40 bands with a drummer named James Levi. He was my groove mentor. He taught me to lay back in the pocket, and how to push and pull on the beat. Over the years, that experience taught me how to play with drummers in a way that put me in control. I learned how to identify where the groove was, so if the drummer started to rush, I knew how to make him come back to me without being obvious about it. It helps live and in the studio.
Personal File
Can Be Heard On
Donald Fagen, Morph the Cat [Reprise]
Gear
Basses ’72 Fender Precision with Leo Quan Badass II bridge, ’85 Ken Smith 5-string, short-scale ’60s Baldwin Vibraslim with La Bella flatwounds, Ken Smith strings
Rig Demeter VTDB-2B tube DI, Ampeg B-15 combo
“I’m straight ahead when it comes to recording. It’s supposed to sound like a bass guitar, not a guitar. In the studio, there are no gadgets, and I don’t use pedals. Everything is pretty much flat, except maybe a compressor/limiter. As long as it sounds like what I’m used to hearing, I don’t have a problem.”
