Bassist Christian McBride is the creative chair for jazz at the Los Angeles Philharmonic –- which means he gets to put together programs at Walt Disney Concert Hall with music he loves. One of the musicians he loves most is jazz pianist and composer Horace Silver.
"Horace Silver's music has always represented what jazz musicians preach but don't necessarily practice, and that's simplicity," McBride says. "It sticks to the memory; it's very singable. It gets in your blood easily; you can comprehend it easily. It's very rooted, very soulful."
I recall an interview of Horace Silver, in which he was telling about the problem he was having with his bass player who was tired of playing the same lines time after time. This is the way the bass player described it.
"I'm tired of playing that same Bing, Bong, Bang time after time". This was when Horace had a successive sting of hits, and they must have all had similar bass lines.
Horace told him, "I got to have you man, that Bing, Bong, Bang is the back bone of the music we got going on lately."
I know that "Senor Blues" was one of the tunes the bass player was referring to, and the bass line must have been similar in a number of other tunes. Regardless how important the same bass line was, the bass player said, "I got to do something different".
Personally, I never noticed it, but maybe you musicians can hear and point out this bass line.
I'll post "Senor Blues", and you guys can post others at about that time with the same bass line.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRdlvzIEz-g
