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wise and learned ones, I salute your solo bassness…

Just taken a big-ass pile of CD and t-shirt orders over to the post-office. Seems like solo bass goodies are this year’s must have christmas pressie! I salute your musical taste and sartorial discernment!

For those of you still stuck for what to buy your Gran, head over to my online shop – if she’s already got all my CDs (highly likely), then a Michael Manring or Trip Wamsley CD, coupled with a ‘bass: the final frontier’ skinny tee should keep her happy well into the new year.

Go on, shop til you drop. 😉

Soundtrack – John Martyn, ‘Solid Air’.

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Improv inspiration

Last night’s gig made for a fantastic companion piece to the night before… it’s a shame nobody else was able to be at both!

The gig was an improv performance, featuring music, dance and video projections. The musicians were me, Rowland Sutherland on flute, Roger Goula on guitar and loopage, and the organiser, singer Filomena Campus.

The evening started with me playing a low droning loop as people were coming in the door, which served to punctuate the beginning of the gig really well, as it stopped just as the first bit of poetry was read (a TS Eliot poem), from which I surreptitiously sampled the line ‘Before the beginning and after the end. All all is always now’ – which I then used to feed into the rest of my opening solo piece. So end of poem, into a 5 or so minute improv of me, and I was then joined by a dancer, Sofie Arstall, who was responding to what I was doing, and to the projections that were happening on the wall behind me (I’m told they were amazing).

Filomena joined us, and her voice was fed into the sample collage of my stuff and the TS Eliot line. All in all, a fab lil’ improv.

following that Roger and Rowland played a duet – both are great players. in these kind of situations Roger and I think quite similarly, in that we juxtapose weird noises with tonal elements – he created a mad loop of heavily processed and mangled guitar scrapes and squeaks, and then added a lovely jazzy chordal thing over the top, while Rowland played some of the most amazing flute work I’ve ever heard, using a whole load of extended techniques I’d not really come across before. Lovely stuffs.

Roger and I were then both employed to loop a load of noise from the audience as part of the next guided improv, which errupted into a (staged) argument amongst a load of audience members (this again was looped and processed), which blended into another improv piece…

I love gigs like this – I always come away with new ideas for places to go, musically. It’s also really unusual to do gigs where I don’t get to connect with the audience by chatting with them as well. It’s got to the point where the chat is as much a part of allowing the audience to know what I’m about as the playing is, so going back to just playing is another interesting challenge, and a good one.

Hopefully we’ll get to do all of this again soon – Roger is going to be at the Recycle Collective in March, and I’m sure Filomena will be involved very soon too – maybe I’ll do a trio gig with her and Rowland at some point…

Soundtrack – Bill Frisell, ‘East/West’.

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Cambridge gig

Last night’s gig was a lot of fun. It was in St Ives, which until a couple of weeks ago I thought was in Cornwall. There’s one in Cambridgeshire as well, dontchaknow. Anyway, it was a benefit gig organised by The Free Church (URC), who are celebrating 25 years since the building was done up and the church was reborn, and instead of raising money for themselves, they’ve picked 25 local, national and international charities to support. A good thing.

The lineup for the gig was Alias Grace, Rob Jackson and me. Alias Grace is a duet of Peter Chilvers and Sandra O’Neill, playing lovely folky piano/vocal stuff. Rob toured with me on the Grace And Gratitude tour, and is always a treat to listen to. So even if it’d been rubbish gig for me, it would’ve been worth going to see the others play. As it was, it wasn’t a rubbish gig for me at all. The church hall was a lovely space to play in, and the audience seemed wonderfully attentive. I didn’t play quite as well as I did last Sunday in Manchester – not badly, just not quite as sharp, but I did get to play my new ‘Scott Peck’ tune, which will be on the next album. Ran out of time all-too-soon and wasn’t able to play the one request that I’d had (for Highway One, from Catherine Street-Team) – will play it at next Cambridge gig, I promise!

Tonight’s gig will be lots of fun – it’s an improv thing with Filomena Campus, Roger Goula and Rowland Sutherland – all great musicians, and the last time we did it it was magic. Plus there’ll be dancers and video projections… should be v. interesting.

In other news, the TV and radio have been blanketed by the news about George Best’s death, which is undoubtedly a tragic moment for his family, and an important milestone in the history of British football. However, as a dispassionate observer, it’s tough not to feel some anger at him having started drinking again after liver transplant. 70 people on the transplant waiting list died last year before they were able to get their new liver – these are very precious things, and for someone to squander their second chance like that is terrible. The people who served him may also need to do some soul-searching. I guess it’s partly a testimony to the power of addiction, but is it also the stubbornness of Best that he thought he could go there again and not die??? I dunno, I’ll never know. right now I’m very sad for his family and those who loved him, and for those who have lost people on the transplant waiting list – I’m guessing this news isn’t doing much for their pain.

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the myspace survey…

Lots of people seem to have answered these questions on their myspace page… lots of the questions are rubbish, but here’s mine…

TELL ME ABOUT YOURSELF – The Survey
Name: Steve
Birthday: December
Birthplace: Wimbledon
Current Location: southgate
Eye Color: brown
Hair Color: brownish… some grey, some henna
Height: 6′ 2″
Right Handed or Left Handed: left
Your Heritage: ?
The Shoes You Wore Today: deck shoes
Your Weakness: vanity searching
Your Fears: a Tory government
Your Perfect Pizza: mixed veg
Goal You Would Like To Achieve This Year: next solo album
Your Most Overused Phrase On an instant messenger: lol
Thoughts First Waking Up: post? email?
Your Best Physical Feature: height
Your Bedtime: after midnight
Your Most Missed Memory: going to the beach during school lunch hour
Pepsi or Coke: neither, ever
MacDonalds or Burger King: to burn down or put a brick through the window? tough call…
Single or Group Dates: single
Lipton Ice Tea or Nestea: neither
Chocolate or Vanilla: vanilla
Cappuccino or Coffee: either decaf, but preferably mint-tea
Do you Smoke: no
Do you Swear: swear to what?
Do you Sing: yes
Do you Shower Daily: no, don’t own a shower
Have you Been in Love: yes
Do you want to go to College: I went, it was fab
Do you want to get Married: yes
Do you belive in yourself: yes
Do you get Motion Sickness: not often
Do you think you are Attractive: define attractive
Are you a Health Freak: healthy – yes, freaky – clearly not
Do you get along with your Parents: yes
Do you like Thunderstorms: yes
Do you play an Instrument: yes
In the past month have you Drank Alcohol: no
In the past month have you Smoked: no
In the past month have you been on Drugs: no
In the past month have you gone on a Date: depends on how you define date
In the past month have you gone to a Mall: no
In the past month have you eaten a box of Oreos: no
In the past month have you eaten Sushi: no
In the past month have you been on Stage: yes
In the past month have you been Dumped: no
In the past month have you gone Skinny Dipping: no
In the past month have you Stolen Anything: no
Ever been Drunk: yes
Ever been called a Tease: no
Ever been Beaten up: yes
Ever Shoplifted: yes – an onion when I was 7
How do you want to Die: in my sleep aged 90-something
What do you want to be when you Grow Up: I’m still working on the growing up part…
What country would you most like to Visit: somewhere in southern africa.
In a Boy/Girl..
Favourite Eye Color: no preference
Favourite Hair Color: ” “
Short or Long Hair: ” “
Height: ” “
Weight: ” “
Best Clothing Style: ” “
Number of Drugs I have taken: prescription or illegal?
Number of CDs I own: too many to count, but thousands
Number of Piercings: 3
Number of Tattoos: none
Number of things in my Past I Regret: none
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this toddler is learning patience

I forgot that beta-testing is all about ironing out hiccups.

rough outline of the day –

power supply arrives, box is working, box isn’t working, talk to bob, get box working, attempt upgrade, upgrade fails, reboot, upgrade half worked, retry upgrade, fails and buggers machine. Was it something I said?

So tomorrow is more techie-geekery in order to get loop-toys working to potential. And it all means that the trouble-shooting process for the end result will be that bit more secure and organised, more bugs will be ironed out, and the whole thing will be more stable.

It’s just that I want it working NOW! So I’m going to sulk of to bed instead.

Soundtrack – The Bears, ‘Car Caught Fire’ and The Psychodots, ‘Terminal Blvd’ – two amazing bands with 3/4 the same members – The Bears is The ‘dots + Adrian Belew. Stunningly great guitar pop in a very british early 80s Elvis Costello/XTC/Joe Jackson sort of way, filtered through american guitar bands like The Rembrandts, Husker Du and with Belew sounding just like Belew on the Bears album. highly highly recommended.

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the patience of a toddler at Christmas.

This morning I was woken by a delivery man, with a big box for me.

Inside the big box was this –

It’s a ‘looperlative LP1’ – a new loop-box that I’m beta-testing. The feature-set thus far is unbelievable. It’s going to be the coolest hardware looper ever built that’s for sure.

The only problem is, I haven’t got a UK power supply that’ll work with it yet! I’ve got one on order but it’ll be a couple of days… so I have to wait, itching to try it out, to get looping, to make some lovely music.

It’s rather exciting, so it is.

Soundtrack – Free, ‘The Free Story’.

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too much bass?

Is there such a thing as too much bass? Let’s explore…

Sunday started at 6am – get up, load the car, get on the road. If you’re thinking of driving to Manchester, I highly recommend 6am on a Sunday as a time to go – v. easy drive, no traffic, bit frosty and a frozen window washer, but a breeze.

Trip and I arrived at the Life Cafe, unloaded our gear into the venue which was already full of lovely bassists and big PA stuffs. Park car, come back, chill out.

The running order was marvellous – started with John Lester (saving the best ’til first?), who won over the entire crowd within about 5 minutes, as he always does. Marvellous start to the day.
the breakdown – Bass solos? Yes, lots. slapping and tapping? yes but minimal and tasteful. Great tunes? oh yes. vocals/other instruments? All vocal tunes.

next up, Trip Wamsley – Trip and I have been playing together for the last week, so I caught the beginning of his set then headed off to have a shave and a wash so as not to go on stage looking like a slightly camp homeless dude. But anyway, Trip did his thing, sang a couple of things, played some lovely fretless.
the breakdown – Bass solos? Yes, all bass solos! slapping and tapping? mucho both. Great tunes? again, in abundance. vocals/other instruments? All solo bass, but a couple of vocal tunes.

and after Trip, Jon Reshard – Jon’s a phenomenally gifted player for his slender age – at just 20, he’s already playing beautifully and writing some fabulous compositions. There’s more than a small amount of Victor Wooten in his playing, but each time I hear him play he’s adding more of his own sound to the mix, and is on his way to being a truly outstanding musician.
the breakdown – Bass solos? all bass solo! slapping and tapping? yes, and just about every other imaginable technique. great tunes? some v. cool tunes, and some other more groove-oriented rhythm experiments. vocals/other instruments? no, except a little bit of audience sing along which worked beautifully.

Then me – my set was the usual affair, set list was Grace And Gratitude, Kindness Of Strangers, MMFSOG, Despite My Worst Intentions, Shizzle, then a bit of a Q&A before finishing with People Get Ready. Response seemed to be great (CD and t-shirt sales were amazing, so clearly lots of people were digging it), audience very attentive and supportive. All in all v. happy with my set.

After me was Stevie Williams – fantastic Manchester local, highly respected jazzer and occasional solo bassist, this time Stevie was playing with a quintet, playing some exceedingly funky stuff – the perfect balance to all the solo bass stuff that had opened the show. At this point I realised that I’d been treating the day more like a proper gig than any bass-day i’d been to before – lots of great music, an audience that really seemed to be listening, it all added up to being a fine day thus far…
the breakdown – Bass solos? a few, but shorter and tasteful. slapping and tapping? Some slap, I think, but didn’t see any tapping at all. Mainly solid fingerstyle grooving. great tunes? yup, lots. vocals/other instruments? yup, full band, drums/keys/guitar/trumpet/bass.

Who was next? Er, ah, yes, Jan-Olof Strandberg, a Finnish bassist that I’ve known for quite a few years. Lovely guy, and fantastic bassist. Started out with some solo stuff on acoustic bass guitar which was beautifully played, but sounded a bit harsh through the PA to really do it justice. Having heard Jan play solo ABG before, I know how good he can sound, so it was a shame that it wasn’t quite what it could have been, but still very good, and very well received. He then assembled a scratch band, his band not having been able to get there, including Dave Marks on guitar. Dave’s usually a bassist, but is clearly also a very fine guitarist. The bastard.
the breakdown – Bass solos? lots, but some grooving as well. slapping and tapping? plenty. great tunes? some cool tunes, some more meandering technical things. vocals/other instruments? quartet stuff was very good.

Then British-born-of-Polish-descent-New-York-residen Janek Gwizdala was on. Another player stricken by fallen band members, Janek’s guitar player is currently in hospital in London with unknown scary ailments. So Janek and his drummer improvised a set, starting out playing to a drum ‘n’ bass thing Janek had programmed in Ableton Live, which sounded great, lots of v. creative bassing and drumming. They played a few more improv things, Janek looping on a DL4, and shredding over the top in a jazz stylee. I’d have really liked to heard the trio, having heard the CD, but the duet set was still good, especially for an impromptu thang (even most improv gigs are planned as improv gigs, so this was double-improv!), Janek’s another player who is developing his own thing away from a strong Matthew Garrison influence. He’s already great, and could well end up world-beating…

The last two acts of the day switched order due to travel problems. So second last on was Lorenzo Feliciati, a good friend and very fine bassist from Italy. He had his band with him, and they played incredibly tight, funky and beautifully arranged fusion. Great compositions, fantastic playing, great sounds. By this time my ears were beginning to fatigue from bass overload, but Lorenzo was just marvellous. Great stuff.

And last up, Linley Marthe – bassist with the Zawinul Syndicate, fantastic player, some killer ideas, and an amazing array of sounds from a really simple set-up (about four stomp boxes and a wah pedal). His improvised set was a bit meandering in places, but contained enough moments of brilliance to keep me interested. Just the range of sounds he was squeezing from the bass was amazing enough, and add to that some great musical ideas, and I was with him most of the way (though he did slip into ‘Tears In Heaven’ which seems to have become something of a solo bass staple… I dunno, I’m not sure about performing songs that someone else wrote about their child dying… but maybe that’s just me.)

Anyway, that was the music – except Linley, I’d met all these guys before, and it was great to catch up with so many old friends, to make some news ones, meet people from my street team that I’d emailed a lot and who’d been so supportive for years without us ever having met, and just to get a chance to chat with lots of people who were into what I was doing. We like that a lot.

A great day all round, the best lineup I’ve heard at a bass day, a very cool venue, well organised, great audience. What’s not to love?

And now I’m knackered, having done nearly 500 miles in two days, had v. little sleep the last two nights, and needing some rest. g’night.

Soundtrack – Cathy Burton, ‘Speed Your Love’ (I love this album more every time I listen to it).

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up too late

shit, tomorrow is Bass Day in Manchester, so Trip and I are having to set off at about 6.30 in the morning to get there, and it’s now midnight and I’m still up – not my finest idea.

Another trip to the vets today with the ginge – ever improving, he’s now on low dose chemo to make sure the lump doesn’t come back. He’s eating more now, and seems in very good shape!

other things to blog about, but no time now, must sleep.

Soundtrack – David Torn, ‘Tripping Over God’.

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And so the onslaught begins…

When I first announced that I was starting a monthly gig night with the Recycle Collective, the mighty Stig warned me that I should expect a hail of demos and requests to play at the gig.

‘no’ says I, ‘it’s not that kind of gig, people will realise and I’m not putting an address on the website for people to submit demos’.

But Stig was right. Today I got two emails from people wanting to play. I don’t mind getting them, but it’s an ominous precedent, in that I really don’t have time to start trawling through MP3s or listening to CDs to find stuff. And as I said to Stig, it’s not that kind of gig.

So, if you’re reading this thinking about sending something in, here’s the scoop –

– The musical spectrum of the gig is more about an approach than a style – the looping/improvised/chiilled nature of it lends itself to unusual solo performers, loopists and interesting improvisors. If you’re a straight down the line singer/songwriter or a jazz quartet, there are other places where what you do are going to work much better.

– if I already know you, especially if we’ve played together, great, ask away, we’ll see if we can sort something out. the likelihood is that I’ll ask you anyway when I get the chance.

– if you decide to email me anyway, please send a link to an MP3, and tell me exactly what you do on stage, what you play and how the set-up works. If I don’t know you, or know of you, already, the chances of me booking you for one of the two main sets on each gig is pretty minimal, and therefor it would just be a 10-15 minute guest-slot in the middle of the gig, with no sound- check etc. I wasn’t planning on adding anything like that at all, but having Jeff Taylor come and do his thing on Wednesday was so sublimely wonderful that it’s made me want to use the gig to showcase people that I think are amazing. If I just quite like what you do, I won’t book it. Nothing personal, it’s just that I already know enough people who are really good, and even then I’m only going to book the ones that are amazing. This isn’t an ‘open mic’ slot at all. This is about me trying to use the evening to showcase huge talent (like Trip/Jeff etc.)

If you’re just looking for a singer/songwriter gig, your best bet in London is The Bedford .- Tony Moore who runs it is a tireless campaigner for great acoustic music and songwriting in London, and runs nights that are purely devoted to multiple act lineups.

Please don’t take it as a slight on what you do – I’ve got a pretty precise vision for the evening (if it continues beyond March at all – a lot depends on how many people turn up in Jan/Feb!), and I’ve said it before but it bears repeating that I’VE NO DESIRE TO BECOME A PROMOTER – I book my own gigs, I put on gigs that give me the chance to play interesting music with interesting people to interesting audiences, and if in doing that I can provide a space for massively talented people to do their thing too, that’s magic.

I guess the best thing you could possibly do is come along to one of the nights, and say hi. If you bring a load of friends with you, I’ll certainly be feeling very positively disposed towards you! 🙂

Soundtrack – Chris Tarry, ‘Project 33’ (V. talented Canadian bassist living in NYC)

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even more up to date feline news

fairly aged feline, ginger edition, according to the vet the tumor that a week ago was the size of a satsuma is now untraceable on the xray. I have no idea what kind of magical chemo they’ve put him on, but it works unlike any chemotherapy I’ve ever come across before. If only they had such a thing for humans… Maybe this will be it, it’ll get licenced, and we’ll see certain types of cancer having a much higher treatment rate.

for those of you wanting details, the biopsy results suggested that it was a lymphoma not a carcinoma as first thought, which is a good sign.

The long term plan now is for him to have weekly low-dose chemo for three months and then take it from there.

the short term plan is lots of tiny ginger cuddles.

Soundtrack – alternating between that new King’s X album and Trip noodling in the background…

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