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| Bands | Blue Haze | |
| Influences and playing | Jazz - it's all about jazz.
Jazz that is well crafted, intelligent, unique... but also funky
and soulful. I
began as a rock bassist and I've played my share of pop and commercial
music, but jazz is my passion, and from 1981 I've never wanted to play
anything else. Having a classical background and playing experience in orchestras, however, has given me a different perspective on playing. I listen to Debussy, Sibelius, Ravel, Stravinsky, Cesar Franck, Gershwin and Faure and see the tonal, modal and rhythmic parallets with Art Tatum, Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans and Herbie Hancock. on the one hand.. and Sting, Paul Simon, Vangelis and Kate Bush on the other. My bass heroes? Jaco Pastorius, Louis Johnson, Marcus Miller and Nathan East. | |
| Samples | Please respect copyright - by downloading these audio samples you agree not to make copies without the express permission of the copyright owner. Depending on your browser settings, clicking the links may automatically play the samples within your browser. If this does not happen, right-click the link to download the sample to your local machine (use the Save Link As or Save Target As option) and play it from there. | |
| Counterpoint | Harsha Makalande's arrangement of Jerome Kern's jazz standard, Yesterdays, for his fusion ensemble Khrome. Harsha plays acoustic grand piano, Clarence Corera plays drums, and I play fretless bass. | |
| Maiden Voyage (Herbie Hancock) | My homage to Herbie Hancock, a personal inspiration to me from the days when as a novice jazz bass player in a university jazz club I first heard this great tune. Later, when I had the opportunity to run a recording studio, I did an arrangement of this classic with vocals, recording all tracks myself (vocals, keyboards, rhythm synth and fretless bass). | |
| Basses and Equipment | I have
two
bass guitars, but my favourite is a custom fretless that was originally
a Framus semi-acoustic and a gift from
Sydney session guitarist Andrew Hoyle (drop me an email if you see
this, Andrew!), Climate, heat and humidity changes warped and split the fragile hollow body, which was replaced with a solid piece of Sri Lankan teak. It has a very mellow tone, less sustain than than a standard fretless, more like an acoustic than an electric, and great expression and dynamics. The other bass is a standard fretted Fender Jazz copy for funk, soul and heavier grooves. Gear: Alesis Bassfire 60, the first small bass amp with a built-in DSP.
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