Here's a great conversation for all you bass junkies out there. Victor Wooten was the "Artist at Large" at this year's Summer Camp Music Festival and besides jamming with everyone over the weekend‚ he also hosted clinics about the role of a bass player. Here he gets into with Reed Mathis.
A little on my perspective -- for the last year or so‚ I've been playing bass about once or twice a week with a group of different musicians and most of it is just a big exercise in group improvisation. We pick a key or a groove or a progression and then we jump off and see where it takes us. I'm finding you never run out of ideas as long as you're listening. Bass lines just appear. It's an amazing experience.
So‚ of course‚ it's both exciting as hell and reaffirming to hear these masters talk about what I'm experiencing and what I'm finding to be intuitive with the instrument. When Reed starts talking about with the "power" the bassist has in group improvisation (and jokes about being narcissistic) it's totally right on the money. You can make a subtle shift -- like letting a note ring a little more -- and you can get the whole band to move with you. And then they get into the whole notion about becoming invisible‚ meaning you're so strong in the foundation‚ you don't even realize it's there. Fascinating stuff… there's a few audio cuts here and there‚ but for the most part‚ it's 20-minutes of captivating bass talk.