The Green Sparrow is not a bass showcase; rather, it’s a showcase of songs heavily rooted in bass ideas. The tight ten-track disc is lighthearted, bouncy, and downright Phishy-sounding with Gordon on lead vocals, bass, and a variety of other instruments. He honed his craft under an everevolving set of self-imposed guidelines, which led to specific creative phases. Eventually, he enlisted the help of some A-list friends.
Was it difficult to commit to a year-long studio hibernation?
I had some amazing offers last summer, but I said “no” to all but two in order to get all this creativity out. I didn’t just want to write one album. I wanted to write a whole repertoire.
How did you begin?
The concept was to write and record by myself. I wanted accessible hooks, but I didn’t want threechord songs. I wanted songs to flow from bass lines, not the other way around. I’d set up loops in the computer, jam along on bass for half an hour, and then compose guitar and keyboard parts to go with my favorite bass line pieces. That method yielded half the songs on the CD, but after nine months of working alone, I decided I wanted to work quicker, collaborate, and utilize some older ideas from bass and drum jams I had recorded three to five years ago. So in the fall I started collaborating with my engineer, Jared Slomoff, and we set up new rules: First, songs would be born of some freeform, Zen-like improvisation; second, we would record a demo every day and listen back to them at the end of each week. That prevented me from being a perfectionist. We wound up drawing a lot from my favorite old jams. I would come up with guitar licks, hum some melodies, go out to lunch searching for lyrical ideas, and then wrap it all up into a song demo by the end of the day that would be open to later evolution. I spent December reviewing.
What did you find, and how did you proceed?
The fall recordings sound slightly different because of their organic, spontaneous origins, and because the songs are built on pieces of jams so unique that they caught my ear years later. I’m not a purist; if the bass line sagged or rushed, I’d move it in Pro Tools, but not so far as to compromise the groove’s integrity. If the feel was very syncopated, then I would play a guitar part very much on the beat. If the bass line was fast, then I’d make the vocals come in slow and lush so that everything would fall together. In January, I had other musicians add overdubs to some of the demos, and others I left alone. Also, I recorded a few songs from scratch at Electric Lady studios with my dream band [Grateful Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann, Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio, Scott Murawski on acoustic, and Allman Brothers/Rolling Stones keyboardist Chuck Leavell]. On the way I played some of the earlier songs for Trey. He felt the music was interesting because the bass was not working in typical ways; they were slightly tweaked from where you might normally expect them. I couldn’t hope for anything more.
What’s next for the new band, and how is it affecting your bass playing?
I’m rediscovering the joy of playing bass as we prepare to go out on the road. I go with whatever works for the situation, and a lot of it is done subconsciously. I keep a journal where I make observations on my playing, and create lists of things to remember. Even over the course of a two-week tour, I might go through a phase of playing lots of upbeats, and then hear that on tape and recommit myself to the downbeat. Or I might start playing more legato after playing staccato for a week. Generally, I believe that I’ve developed into a much more solid bass player than I was 20 years ago, and at the same time, I’m probably more willing than ever to take chances.
CAN BE HEARD ON
The Green Sparrow [Rounder, 2008]; Rhythm Devils, Concert Experience [Star City, 2008]
CURRENTLY SPINNING
Speedy West and Jimmy Bryant, Stratosphere Boogie: The Flaming Guitars of Speedy West and Jimmy Bryant [Razor & Tie, 1995] “It’s relentlessly good swinging country-jazz fiddle tunes from the ’50s played on guitar and pedal steel.”
GEAR
Bass Modulus TBX 5-string, Dave King A Series “Headless/Bodyless” 5-string “The Modulus is my main onstage and studio bass, but I’ve been using the Dave King for local honky tonk gigs because it’s small and has lots of handy features, including an Aguilar preamp, an RMC piezo bridge pickup, and a built-in tuner.”
Club rig Eden WT-800, Eden D118XL, Eden D410XLT
Effects Akai Deep Impact pedal, Electro- Harmonix Micro Q-Tron, Line 6 Verbzilla, Eventide Eclipse multi-effects.
Accessories Jerry Dunlop 1.5mm triangular graphite picks, Ken Smith Slick Round (groundwound) strings Recording rig SWR WorkingPro 10 miked with a Sennheiser 409; Ampeg B-15
“I kept the gear and sound simple because I was experimenting so much with the songs.”