“PLAYING YOUR OWN STUFF ALLOWS you to actualize your voice as a musician,” opines contemporary jazz bassist/composer Eric Revis. Good thing, too, as he spoke to BASS PLAYER during an 18-showsin- nine-days run with Branford Marsalis, with whom he’s been swinging for 12 Grammy-winning years and counting. But with his jazz bonafides firmly established (Betty Carter, Lionel Hampton, and more), Eric’s second solo release Laughter’s Necklace of Tears aggressively and successfully pushes the jazz envelope in myriad directions at once. From the delicate string-section dissonance of “Denihilists” to the demanding outré of “Grafting Silence” (a piece equally influenced by Bach and Albert Ayler) to a raucous Black Label Society-flavored take on Thelonious Monk’s “Shuffle Boil,” Revis’s compositional voice both stands in and refuses to be limited by musical traditions. Regardless of genre origin, Eric’s mission as a bassist is clear. “My bottom line is to lay it down, and swing as hard as possible.”
How did writing this CD differ from your first one?
On my first record, my primary concern was simply to document the compositions I had amassed up until that point. With Laughter’s, I wrote more from the songs being a related body of work. I also feel that my compositional concept is more developed and concise on this record.
For the recording, did you have a vision for your own playing?After the first CD, I had the notion of making a record that was more bass-oriented. Then as tunes began to develop, so did the realization that the “bass up front” approach doesn’t really jibe with me philosophically as a musician or as a composer. With that being said, one of my goals is to do a solo bass record.
How do you prepare for tracking your own material? How much do you rehearse the “free” sections?I had a good idea of the guys I wanted in the band, so I knew they would be able to get to the material conceptually. A lot of my compositions are “openly specific,” or aleatoric, which at first can be a little nerve-racking for cats. They’d ask, “Do you want me to do this, or that?” To which the answer is, “Yes.”
If you could say one thing to aspiring jazz upright players, what would it be?When I first got to New York I got to hang out with the great drummer Art Taylor. Like he told me, “Whatever you do, always have big, beautiful notes.” As with any instrument, practice long tones … a lot!
CHECK HIM OUT
Eric Revis, Laughter’s Necklace of Tears [2009, 11:11 Records]; Branford Marsalis Quartet, Metamorphosen [2009, Marsalis Music]; Tarbaby, Tarbaby [2009, Imani/11:11 Records]
CURRENTLY SPINNING
Emerson String Quartet, Shostakovich: The String Quartets [2006, Decca]; Ornette Coleman & Charlie Haden, Soapsuds, Soapsuds [1977, Polygram]; Jaki Byard, The Last from Lennie’s [2003, Prestige]; Death, For the Whole World to See [2009, Drag City]
GEAR
Basses 1960 Goetz 7/8 Acoustic Bass with 44" string length; Upton Hybrid with 41w" string length
Live rig Unamplified: (usually) two Sennheiser 421s by the treble ƒ-hole; amplified: Gallien-Krueger MB150S/112
Studio mics Neumann U 47, RCA 44 ribbon
Strings Velvet Garbos