Re: [Harp-L] Group Arrangement - and recording acoustic bass

[Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>]

Recording engineer who knew what they were doing had no trouble recording 
acoustic bass in the 1950s. As far back as the 1920s,  Duke Ellington's bass 
players got great recording sound. And the 1941-42 tracks featuring the 
revolutionary bass playing of Jimmy Blanton, the engineers had absolutely no 
trouble capturing his acoustic bass in all its glory even in the presence of 
Ellington's four trumpets, four trombones, five saxes, piano, guitar, and drums.

I think one reason people assume there was no bass on Little Walter recordings 
even when there was, is that people now expect something different from a bass 
player from what people expected in 1954.

The role of bass has always been to provide bottom. Bottom is more important 
than rhythm, and more important than melodic line. On some old recordings, it 
didn't even seem to matter if the bass player played the wrong notes, as long as 
he made a low, thumping noise on the first and third beats.

Now, Willie Dixon and Big Crawford played the right notes. At the right time :). 
But they weren't there to play *lines* for the most part. They did add to the 
rhythm. But the walking type lines that nowadays are given to the bass player 
(partly due to the influence of jazz-style walking bass) were not a part of 
blues bass playing in Chicago in 1954. That role fell to the second or even 
third guitarist. So the modern listener hears that, assumes it's the bass line, 
and fails to notice the deep thump on the first and third beats. But if you 
listen for it, it's usually there.

Winslow
 Winslow Yerxa
Author, Harmonica For Dummies ISBN 978-0-470-33729-5
Harmonica instructor, The Jazzschool for Music Study and Performance
Resident expert, bluesharmonica.com
Columnist, harmonicasessions.com




________________________________
From: "tacopescado@xxxxxxxxxxx" <tacopescado@xxxxxxxxxxx>

In those days the electric bass was in the infant stage and mic'ing an upright 
bass, drums or piano were far from perfect and provided a sound that would be 
unacceptable in today's music.

Taco


On Jan 31, 2011, at 2:39 PM, The Iceman wrote:

> One of the guitar players played a bass line, if memory serves me..bass 
>representation is pretty important one way or the other, as it tends to "ground" 
>the music and define the chord changes.
> 
> 
> I believe Little Walter recorded most of his songs with no bass, just the 
>Meyers
> brothers on two guitars.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: william.lifford <william.lifford@xxxxxxxxx>
> To: Hal Iwan <haliwan@xxxxxxxxxxx>; harp-l-bounces <harp-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx>; 
>Harp-L <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Mon, Jan 31, 2011 10:25 am
> Subject: Re: [Harp-L] Group Arrangement
> 
> 
> Hi Hal,
> 
> I believe Little Walter recorded most of his songs with no bass, just the 
>Meyers
> brothers on two guitars.
> 
> Bill
> ------Original Message------
> From: Hal Iwan
> Sender: harp-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx
> To: Harp-L
> Subject: [Harp-L] Group Arrangement
> Sent: Jan 31, 2011 3:13 PM
> 
> Hello All
> 
> Anyone one on this list just use harp, guitar and piano or harp, guitar, 
drums?
> In both arrangements the bass is not represented. Any hidden pitfalls from 
your
> prior attempts with either of these configurations??
> 
> Thanks as always,
> 
> Hal in MI
> 
> 
> Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
> 
> 
>