Last night while digging through my vinyl collection, I grabbed a John Mayall
album, USA Union. Mayall is
known for cutting bluesy jazz-rock albums with such guitar
slingers as Eric Clapton, Mick
Taylor, and Peter Green, and
more recently, Coco Montoya,
Sonny Landreth, and Robben
Ford. And for USA Union,
Mayall gathered yet another
fine lineup. On guitar was
Harvey Mandel, best known
for his work with Canned
Heat, but also with blues-harpist Charlie Musselwhite,
as well as a stint with the
Stones. Bassist Larry Taylor—a
Canned Heat alumnus nicknamed “The Mole”—held
down the bass part. On electric
violin (with wah pedal!) was
Sugarcane Harris, known for
the ’70s band, Pure Food and
Drug Act, as well as his work
with Frank Zappa. Mayall
kicked in vocals, harmonica,
and piano.
Listening to the album, I
really dug how each of these four
musicians added a little something to the flavors and textures
of the tunes. Overall, the album
had a groove and drive that
locked in from the first track to
the last. And then I realized, even
with all this rhythmic synergy,
these cats didn’t have a drummer!
With an old-school, flatwound-and-foam-mute P-bass sound,
Larry Taylor kept everything
moving—never losing the groove
or dropping a beat.
I frequently play without
a drummer and often have to
keep things moving on bass. I’ll
never get to the level of Taylor’s
work, but I try to follow some
of the same concepts. At a recent
blues-trio gig, a guitarist friend
in the audience commented,
“It’s the glue—the bass holds it
all together.” I was flattered he
noticed—that’s really how I see
my job in the band.
But what makes this musical
glue? For me, the three main elements are time, foundation, and
movement. By time, I’m referring
to the beat, the groove, and the
feel—it’s the pulse that keeps the
music moving along. This challenging role requires a lot of self-discipline. You can’t play too many
notes or get engrossed in passages
that sacrifice time for chops.
But that’s just the beginning:
The bassist in a drummerless
group can control the music’s feel
by beat placement. Lean ahead
on the beat and the music gains
urgency. Sit back a bit on the
beat’s edge and the feel gets much
more laid-back. Playing square
on the beat can do a good job
of holding the tempo in place if
your bandmates are getting either
sleepy or overly excited.
Another key to time is the
bassist’s ability to keep the
tempo in place. If a bassist follows the others too closely, the
beat may start to run away. On
the other hand, trying to hold
the time steady while the others remain wrapped up in what
they’re doing makes the music
sound draggy. This is where the
role of communication comes in
and making eye contact can be
helpful while working to hold
the beat in place. The others
know what you’re up to and can
try to get into sync.
The second part of a bassist’s musical glue comes from
the bass’ role as the foundation.
When a drummer friend once
said, “That’s why they call it
bass,” he was referring to note
choice as well as tone. It’s not
about turning an amp’s bass
control up to 11, but instead,
sensing where the notes need to
lay. For my own playing, I usually choose notes in the lower
regions of the neck. Sure, it’s
easier to avoid getting lost on
the neck if you don’t stray far
from home, but a bassist who
sticks with the “money notes”
With Harvey Mandel on guitar, Larry Taylor holds down the low end as
Canned Heat rocks the Wespelaar Swing 2010 festival in Belgium.
Photo by Mark “Markec” Van Mullem
also stays out of the way of the
other musicians in the trebly
sonic regions.
You may have come across
one of the lists out there that
details fines for bassist offenses,
both musical and personal.
Among the offenses appearing
on many versions of the list is
playing above the 1st octave.
The penalty, according to one
particular list, is immediate
dismissal. Perhaps a bit harsh,
but it really drives the point
home—venturing up into those
stratospheric regions takes away
from the foundational role of the
bass. My band “charges” me $50
per octave-plus note instead.
Going along with this
emphasis on foundation is the
need to bring out the root notes
of the chords. While a bassist
doesn’t need to sit on the root
endlessly, others in the group
will find it helpful to clearly
hear the chord foundations as
they change.
Movement, as I refer to it
here, is about showing how the
music is going from one founda-
tion to another. It’s the transition
notes, making clear to the others
where the chords are moving. A
bassist needs a plan for getting
from point A to point B musi-
cally. Movement can work with
scale tones, chromatic tones, or
chordal emphasis, and helps the
other musicians hear the move-
ment and stay on course.
DAN BERKOWITZ
is a professor by day and
a bassist when the sun
goes down. He plays
upright and electric bass
for blues, jazz, orchestra,
and musical theater. This
is his farewell On Bass column. Contact
him at profdanb@gmail.com.
