Records:

Paying your listening dues is a MUST for all of us aspiring to be hip players of music. How wonderful that we live in age of CDs and cassettes, disposable transistor radios and mp3s; everyone has some kind of access to music. No need to run free errands for the whorehouse on the corner in exchange for letting you hang out and listen to their Victrola (Billie Holiday actually did that as a kid).

Here are some of the "magic pills" I would recommend swallowing for maximum bass playing benefit:

The Bill Evans trio with Scott LaFaro and Paul Motian: Sunday at the Village Vanguard. Bass virtuosity and trio interaction taken to new heights. You'll never play jazz the same way after hearing this.

The Best of Larry Graham and Graham Central Station ...vol 1. If you play slap bass, don't ask questions, just get this disc. Larry Graham is the true original, and he does it with soul. Definitely the guy you want for the source.

Edgar Meyer with Joshua Bell: Short Trip Home. "NAMM booth" virtuosity... with a purpose! You will not believe what can be done on the doghouse. It will take a very long time for this record to make it to your "yeah, I can do that" bin.

Crescent City Soul: the music of New Orleans 1947 - 1974. The music that finally let me overcome "Flea Clone Syndrome", once and for all! After getting lost in the sumptuous grooves and the often hilariously seedy vocals, I suddenly found myself wanting to just pound out four to a bar. And let me tell you, the bandmates sure don't complain about that! Sadly, this compilation is now out of print, but you can still find early material by: Dave Bartholomew, The Spiders, Fats Domino, Professor Longhair, Lee Dorsey, the Meters, and Dr. John, to name but a few.

Jazz Vocal Compilations. Once you have "Our Love Is Here To Stay" and "You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To" living in your head alongside "Radar Love" and "Honky Tonk Woman", that's when you'll begin to be a bona fide jazz player. A big compilation of vocal standards is a great way to get a lot o' standards between the ears, relatively quickly. (Also, check out my book: "Be a Jazz Dude in 10 Days" at Costco and other fine warehouse outlet stores...) But seriously, the standards are great songs and the big singers (Ella Fitzgerald, Sara Vaughn, Dinah Washington, Chet Baker, Nina Simone and of course Frank Sinatra, to name but a few) made some great recordings of them. Aside from becoming familiar with those essential melodies and chord changes, there's plenty of walking bass lines to emulate and learn from.

Tower of Power: East Bay Grease. 31 years later, the band still kills, but for my money, the early years were the best. On their debut, they were young and hungry and their sound had a ton of edge. Francis Rocco Prestia and Dave Garibaldi already had their unique rhythm section chemistry fully developed. Great careers have been built (and crushed) trying to imitate FRP's inimitable personality on the P bass.

Pat Metheny's Bright Size Life is a brilliant record with drummer Bob Moses and Jaco Pastorius at his prime. (Apparently the trio was twice as intense live; I can only imagine...) Another favorite and much overlooked Jaco record is Shadows and Light by Joni Mitchell. Self indulgence on the bass never sounded quite so musical, and probably never will again, try as we might. Jaco's solo debut on Epic has rightly earned it's status as a classic (still on the shelves after 23 years -- not bad for a bass record). And, of course, there's also Heavy Weather (with Weather Report).

Charlie's Dream by Belizbeha: One doesn't normally associate the state of Vermont with super smooth, hand-crafted hip-hop music, but I do now that I've heard these guys! On their first album, the cover art suffers, but they wisely appear to have allocated the bulk of their financial resources for audio production. Looks tacky, sounds super. My kinda disc. The bass player Shawn Williams is extraordinary! I got a great lesson in swung 16th finger funk from this record.

Captain Beefheart: Trout Mask Replica. This record was largely responsible for getting me into music. (It's a long story, but I think my dad still hasn't forgiven the guy who made me a copy.) I used to pretend to like it because I wanted to be "out there". Then, after years of covering the Sex Pistols, Nirvana, Duke Ellington, Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane, I dusted it off again and this time, it blew my mind for real! There's some real bizarre and dense material in there, to be sure. If you can learn to like it, you'll be a better person for it.