Kara-Moon Forum

Just a little something I did a few nights ago because I found a bass sound I liked. I don’t pretend to know a thing about jazz, I just diddled around on the piano to imitate the jazz I have heard in the past. Hope you enjoy it! (Try not to flinch, Kara :) )

Download (http://bahgheera.com/mp3/Guy Noir, Private Eye Live.mp3) // Stream (http://bahgheera.com/mp3/Guy Noir, Private Eye Live.m3u)

Hi Bahgheera
This is a surprise to me, because there are many contrast in this track although it's rather good...
The ambience of the piano is someway different from the drums, it sound like the piano is in a small room apart, and it comes out a bit muffled (most on the bass range) and it pulls out the 'wooden' side of the instrument.
The drums part is eccentric playing (and not uncommon in jazz music) but there are very loud moments and accents (and sounds different from what you expect from a jazz kit).
The bassline is nice and it's realistic indeed.
My words could sound negative, but on the contrary, putting together this elements you achieved a good results in a original way
I enjoyed it

Cheers

Hi Bahg,

didnt I listen to this before ? It's a cool piece, ascetic, with a great melodic work on piano.
There is some very very great parts melodicaly. Really an interesting tune.
Everything is good here. I enjoyed a lot the listening.
Only one minor point, sometimes I'd like the play to be more "flowing", less "staccatto".

Thanks to share!!

bye

mag

Cool little track bahgs. Seems you did get some jazz elements in there, but Rony will be a better judge.

Enjoyed listening!

Tell us about the piano!

Thanks y'all. Mag, yeah you might have heard this one; it's been on the hard drive for quite a few weeks and I couldn't remember if I posted this anywhere or not. But it's getting dusted off and polished up in a few days.

Laters...

Even though you say you know little about jazz, you've captured the mood really well, this is well-jazzy.  This is a cool piece, great late night listening. Enjoyed.  :)


ps: still playin your "moonlit wayside" track. love that track. One of my fave ever mellow chillout tracks.  ;D

no need to be sorry for some soulfull piano.  I love it.
thank you for sharing.  and that is a nice bass tone.

Thanks blipp and birdbrain. Glad to know we can still be in touch on the great inertwebs. :)

Laters...

I allmost missed this  ::)

ok what do we have here ....

a beginning jazz bass player, knows his standards but doesn't know yet how to use them
a beginning jazz piano player, again knows the theory but doesn't play enough to improvise in real time

Now why don't you give those guys a change to get there and why did you cut that recording at 1:50, I just started to really like it.
So... you go back, beg the guys that they start again and let them play for at least 6 min, of course with the DAW recording. Then you cut and paste the best sequences in a good mix.
And you'll see that you get a good jazz song, the proof that jazz isn't THAT hard  ;D

The proof that jazz isn't that difficult after all  ::) you just have to believe that you can do it  8)
And of course you have to like jazz  :P

You did listen to me did you, I want a next version of this  :o ;D


Kara

Ha ha, thanks Kara. Well, its all sampled, no real musicians (including me) I'm afraid. :)

So when you say, the bass player doesn't yet know how to use the standards, could you elaborate on that? What do I need to leard, how can I make it better? Thanks for any help you may offer, you french dude you.  ;D

Hm, you asked for comment, be aware when people ask I'm allways pretty honnest

OK, let's listen to the song....
what do we have here
1. A very good drummer, plays in the style of Manu Katche, and know what he is doing (I could never do drumtracks like that, hats off)
2. We have a jazz piano who knows how to improvise but doesn't play fluid enough.
What do we miss ?
Somebody that keeps the song together, puts the swing in it and make the audience tap with there feet  ;)
And this has to be your bass player.
Your bass player doesn't do that, he actually just plays with the song.
The result is that the song doen't have an element to keep it together.

Now when I arrive at a venue like this, I'll allways listen to the drummer to listen to his style.
Two possibilities, the guy is a rhythmic drummer, plays good rtyhmic jazz, I will play around him because he'll keep the rhythmic part of the song together and I'll just support him
Second possibility, he's a melodic drummer (like yours), those guys are great and play drum like somebody else would play a keyboard. In that case, I know that I'll have to work hard, because with a drummer like I'll have the role to layout the song and put the basic groove down.
I'll put myself on stage in a way that I can look at the drummer and he can see me. What I'll do is layout the basic groove, showing him where we want to go. Once he gets the groove and fills in, I'll constantly watch him, listen to what he plays and alternatively support him and challenge him, allways making sure that the groove of the song keeps going.

Now you could ask, and that piano player ?
Well in this case, I don't care... let him do his thing, he knows what to do.

It is actually not easy to explain in words. Since music is better then a thousand words, I've played a bit of bass on your song. The mix isn't terrible since I had to cut out your bass (screwing up your drums at the same time  ;) ) but I hope it's good enough to give you the idea.

Now a bit of comment of what I did
Bar 1 -4 : I give the basic groove to the drummer and he comes in easy to see where I'm going
Bar 5-12 : The drummer understands what I'll do and knows he can play as he wants, he hears that I'll keep the groove together
Bar 13 - 28 : Houston we have a go, the drummer does his thing and I do the groove, launching him a little defeat from time to time. On bar 28 I go down to prepare the chorus
Bar 49 to 48 : You made the choice to play a walking bass there, so I did the same. Now a standard walking bass won't do it here. I'll have to make sure that me drummer keeps been challenged and that the audience doesn't fall a sleep. So I play melodic bass, challenging that drummer to follow me. Which I terminate again on bar 48 to prepare the basic riff of the verse.
Bar 49-59 : We know each other now, everything goes smooth, the drummer has fun and me to
Bar 59 : The drummer sends me signals that he's preparing the end. I'll better calm down.
Bar 62 : A standard ending and everybody is happy :)

Now be aware, this is just my interpretation, so feel free to completely disagree :)
At least I showed you another way of interpreting the song.

Wow, thanks Kara, thats a lot of info to digest. What sort of bass is it that you used? Real or vst? I think the problem with my bassline is that I came up with a riff that I liked and looped it throughout the song, no variation. So that'll be my project for the week, getting that bass player to let loose and kill this song. :)

Thanks for the great help Kara. I really appreciate it.

Laters...

The bass I played on a midi guitar (Yamaha EZAG), the sound comes from my sampler run trough a virtual amp simulator.