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Music
Thursday, 08 October 2009 07:10 Written by Jenn Chan Lyman Local bassist, sideman extraordinaire, and all around upright kinda guy Q: What first brought you to Shanghai?? A: I came out here for a three month contract at the House of Blues & Jazz. Andy Hunter called and invited me to do a gig in Shanghai. I knew Andy since he went to Oberlin [Conservatory], which is also in Cleveland. At first I thought he was talking about a restaurant or a bar named Shanghai. When he said, “No, Shanghai as in China,” I took a look at a globe and said, “Alright. Let’s go.” I was twenty-four, living on the east side of Cleveland, trying to pull it all together. I was happy but didn’t even have enough money to take my girlfriend out. It’s hard when you’re just playing gigs, but I didn’t want to get a day job because I knew I’d be unhappy. So Shanghai came at a perfect time for me. I was ready to go and I got here and just fell in love. I love big cities and love the pace here. It gets stressful sometimes but you just gotta stay cool, don’t let it break you. You gotta jump in and just go with it. The fact that I can make a living playing music – my dream has come true. I don’t want anything else. A fishing boat would be nice though (chuckles). A: For awhile. I think about how many people from China and all over the world that I’ve met out here so far, with people coming through and people coming to live, and it’d be hard to give up those connections. If I were to move to Tokyo or Berlin, I’d have to start over again. Sometimes you need to get out of your comfort zone though (smiles). But I think I’ll be a part of Shanghai forever, either living here or coming through. A: That was fun. Buddy Morrow the trombone player was conducting then. I was twenty-one, youngest guy in the bad, and the oldest member of the band was eighty-four, so just the stories and jokes alone were awesome. That was my first hardcore touring experience, in a bus with eighteen other guys, and you’re just driving all the time. You don’t get to practice very much though because you’re either driving or in a hotel room. I toured with them for a month and afterwards decided to stay in Cleveland to establish myself there as a home base. Chris Trzcinski, the drummer, he toured with them for a long time. A: No, actually Chris and I have been friends since high school. We’re old buddies, college roommates, high school partiers. He’s really musical and I’m lucky to have played with him for so long. A: My dad played trumpet in the Army Reserve and when I was about four, we stood in front of a mirror and he showed me how to hold a trumpet, and I ended up playing a trumpet for eight years, all the way up to middle school. I really like the high notes of the trumpet, like how Maynard Ferguson plays, but I didn’t have the embouchure to play the high notes. So then I figured if I can’t go high, I’ll go low, goddarnit (with Popeye-esque flair). Then I got into the whole rock band thing in middle school and shoveled snow for a winter to make enough money to buy a guitar. But when I got it, I realized that I didn’t want a guitar, I wanted a bass [guitar], and I was like...shit (laughs). All my friends had guitars or a drum set, but the bass just sounded cool and I’ve always liked the more obscure stuff. So then I had to talk my parents into getting me a bass. Embouchure (“om-buh-sure”) is the physical ability behind the huff and puff of a trumpeter, trombonist, saxophonist, and basically all players of brass and woodwind instruments that require lips and lungs. The proper use of air, lips, cheeks, tongue, jaw and every other facial muscle to play these instruments does not just happen, but takes tons of practice and stamina. If your technique is particularly ingenious, you may actually have an embouchure named after you, like the Farkas, great for buzzing, the Stevens, great for screaming, and...are we still talking about instruments here? Q: What did you have to shovel then? A: (Guffaws) Well, we did have a dog at the time, too (grins). Eventually I found an old [double] bass for sale for 500 [U.S.] dollars and I got it when I was sixteen or seventeen. I knew as soon as I got it that that was the first day of the rest of my life. I like the bass guitar, but the double bass just felt more natural and has a spot in my heart. {xtype_info}The double bass is the Sasquatch of the string instruments. In case any of you are wondering why it’s called the ‘double’ bass, here are a few theories: 1) It’s twice the size of a cello, therefore called a double. Now why they didn’t call it a quadruple for four times a violin, we’ll never know. 2) It’s twice as low as the cello, therefore used to ‘double’ the cello line an octave below. 3) It takes ‘double’ the man to carry one of these sons of bitches. Other names include stand-up bass, upright bass, contrabass, bass viol, and bull fiddle.{/xtypo_info} A: Yeah. You’ve got to use gravity. You can’t force it. Don’t pick the string, instead drop onto the string. Don’t work too hard or you’ll burn yourself out. It’s almost like taichi. Stay loose, conserve your energy and let gravity do the work for you. A: It’s a labor of love. Actually, I decided to move here when I figured out that I could fit my double bass in the taxis. In the States I’d always have to find cars that could fit my double bass. When I first got here, I walked with my bass, but one day I had a gig that was too far to walk and I thought, how am I going to do this? So I got a cab, moved the front seat all the way back, and when the bass actually popped in I was like, yes, I can move here now. That’s all it took. If my bass couldn’t fit into a cab I might not be here now (chuckles). Q: Where’s your bass from? A: I got this one three years ago from a luthier named Sam Shen who has a shop on Jinling Lu. The bass was made in Suzhou and has felt the most European to me of the ones I’ve found here. It’s not the best bass ever, but I’m also not worried about it when it gets bumped in a taxi and stuff. My European bass that I have in the States is quite fragile and a bit larger, so if it got bumped around I would be pretty nervous. The sound [of that one] is awesome though. It’s got a big, fat, organic bass sound even without amplification. When you bow it, it really puts out bass. My Chinese bass has what I like to call ‘dead areas’ which do not project when you play. I’ve still recorded five to six albums on it since I’ve been here, like Lawrence Ku’s Process, Possicobilities’ Dream Situation, and The Yin Story with vocalist Arlene Estrella and pianist Yuko Arai. A luthier, derived from luth, French for lute, is someone who makes stringed instruments, such as violins, harps, and guitars. The instruments of celebrated luthiers are highly coveted amongst collectors worldwide. For example, a Stradivarius (an instrument crafted by 17th/18th century luthier Antonio Stradivari) called The Hammer auctioned at Christie’s for 3.5 million USD in 2006. Other Stradivarius instruments are either held by museums and music academies or on loan to famous musicians such as Yo Yo Ma, who plays the Davidov Stradivarius. Q: Are you working on your own album now? A: As a bass player, it’s easy to get lazy about your own compositions because you’re always working as a sideman. I love being a band leader, it’s fun, especially the part where you have to deal with the money (rolls his eyes), fighting tooth and nail. But that’s a can of worms (grins). For my next album, all I can say for now is that it won’t be a jazz CD, or a CD where one track’s Latin, and the next is jazz, and the next is fusion. I'd like to do something conceptual, like Beck’s albums, where each one paints a picture. He’s got a new concept in every album. One of the big issues in my head right now if whether or not I’ll have a singer, or make an instrumental album. A: There’s a few albums I’d say. One that really struck a chord with me was an album by Jaco Pastorius, the pioneer of fretless bass guitar. He opened the door and walked right through it in terms of the instrument itself and composing for it. I heard it during a pretty pivotal point in my life. I was a freshman in high school and just getting serious about my musical career. I found this album, his self-titled album, and it just floored me. I’d listen to it every day before school and soak it in. It really inspired me to practice. Bass players tend to solo like bass players, slow and bom bom bom, bom bom bom (sings a simple bass riff), but he really got me going because he soloed like a horn player. Lyrical and dexterity was not an issue. He could play very fast, which is not easy. He really inspired me to practice and get better technically. I was also a big Nirvana fan when I was in middle school, looking for what I liked and what excited me musically and culturally. My older sister was into the hair bands, Bon Jovi, Poison, Motley Crue, Van Halen, and I love Van Halen, too. She just met Brett Michaels from Poison recently. Because of her I grew up listening to that [kind of music]. When Nirvana came out, it felt like mine. They were guys who didn’t give a f&ck and I felt like there was integrity behind what they were doing. That really inspired the rock side of me. They would really physically go at it. Their albums each had a concept and after the hair band decade of excess, spandex and neon, [Nirvana] inspired me to keep it real, or if you’re going to sell out, jump in with both feet (laughs). Bassist Jaco Pastorius was known for a few things: 1) his characteristic playing technique, the ‘Jaco Growl’, which produced lyrical solos and horn-like tones, 2) his two Fender jazz bass guitars, one of which had no frets (those horizontal separators on the neck of guitars) and was called the ‘Bass of Doom,’ and 3) bi-polar disorder which led to a tendency towards erratic behavior which led to a fight with a club bouncer/karate expert which led to his death at 35 years old. Q: Is there a particular driver that keeps you motivated every day? A: I guess it would be the desire to improve as a musician. In Shanghai you’re kind of a big fish in a small pond, since the jazz scene is pretty small. In the States, you can meet an excellent musician in a small town and find out he’s actually a roofer, where over here he would be a top call guy. So for me, I just want to shed the old EJ bass player and find the new one. Constantly grow. You can get lazy here, because if I’m in New York, there would be 2,000 bass players and they’d all be awesome, and when you see them it inspires you to go home and practice. There are less musicians here, so you’ve got to push yourself. I always feel better when I play the bass, like when I have a headache or if I’m in a bad mood. I’m really lucky to have that. Just gotta stay on path and not get lazy. A: There’s this French bass player called Francois Rabbath, who I’ve heard all these legends about. He can tap into his adrenaline and turn it on. He does yoga and developed his own bass playing style called the Crab Technique. Another guy is Jack DeJohnette, who’s a very prominent jazz drummer. He’s so musical, it would be a dream come true to play with this guy. Drummers and bass players always have to work together. It would be great to have a lesson with him. Bassist Francois Rabbath never cowed to traditional limitations. You can even see it in his grooming preferences: flipped out Shakespearean bob with an admirably bushy salt and pepper beard. Originally from Syria, Rabbath was equally comfortable playing with precision in Carnegie Hall or improvising like a cat in a jazz club. Some have compared Rabbath’s impact on the double bass to Paganini’s influence on the violin. Not sure what that means, really, except that he was like a totally important musical dude, dude. Q: Which of the great jazz bassists has really influenced you? A: I really look up to Ray Brown. His swing, his feel, his sound, his solos - it’s jazz bass. Charles Mingus is great, too, rough around the edges, but I love his grit. But Ray Brown, I could listen to him all day. He’s got this distinct tone. I had the pleasure of meeting him in Cleveland a few years before he passed away. He was in his eighties playing in a trio with two guys in their thirties, Gregory Hutchinson on drums and Benny Green on piano, and Ray Brown was kicking ass and making it look so easy. He’s also a big sweetheart with a really nice aura. No bad vibe at all. I heard this nice story about [Ray Brown] when he was in New York and needed some bass work done. He called his repairman to come in the morning, and the repairman came to his hotel around eight in the morning and heard Ray Brown practicing as he was coming down the hall. The guy’s in his eighties and he could be like, I know everything about bass, I don’t need to practice, but no, he was still practicing. Whenever I feel like, hey, EJ, you did a good job, I think about Ray Brown practicing in his eighties and I know I can always improve. A: I just try to stay relaxed. There’s two elements: having a really strong left hand that’s pushing down on the strings, and keeping your right hand relaxed. It’s something you can’t teach, really. No one taught me, you just have to find it yourself. Some people call it finding the sweet spot and some compare it to dribbling a basketball. When my students ask me how to find it, I tell them to use their whole arm and use gravity. If you only use your fingers, you’ll burn yourself out. Bass is a really physical instrument, so if you’re playing three sets you gotta find a way to not kill yourself. I really like a big strong meaty bass sound, and that’s what I try for, that kind of steady, strong, woody, percussive tone that drives a band. I could play quarter notes all night without soloing and I’d be happy. I like to solo, too, but I try to be tasteful. I don’t like to be too flashy like bbbbbrrrrrrr. A good test for a bass player is a ballad. You have to be comfortable playing slow, where any mistake can be heard. I also like to be lyrical when I solo, rather than giving people BASS FEST 98 (puffs up his chest and mimics an emcee). I like a bass player who stands back and plays sensitively, thoughtfully. You can get in the way of the vibe if you get too complicated. I accompany people and I realize that. I’m not the star and I know what my job is. It’s like the catcher in baseball. You gotta have him there in the dirt with his big glove and equipment. If they do the job correctly you almost don’t notice them. Sideman can be unsung heroes. I think it’s lame when the bass player tries to steal the show. Believe it or not, ‘bass fest’ is an actual term in www.urbandictionary.com. Its definition is ‘awesome bass music festival.’ Wow. Q: Would you be happy if you’re a sideman for the rest of your career? A: As a bass player, I really don’t have a choice (laughs). I could become a classical bass soloist, which is really technical. If you flub playing jazz, it’s okay, but when you flub playing classical, you’re fired. So that’s probably not going to happen (smiles). I respect the form, but it’s scary, listening to classical bass players, like Gary Karr, who did a masters class at my college, or Edgar Meyer, they are just freaks of classical bass. Listening to [Meyer’s] album I cried. It was like, oh my God, how and why? It was like looking at a mountain you could never climb. Those classical guys scare the hell out of me, it’s a whole other world. Edgar Meyer is sometimes known as ‘the best bassist alive’ and generally considered a contemporary master of the upright bass. He not only plays the classical stuff of dreams that makes EJ cry, but also performs bluegrass, newgrass, and jazz. Newgrass, you say? Progressive bluegrass with rock and roll elements. Bluegrass, you say? Think banjos, fiddles, mandolins, cowboy hats, and soundtracks for O Brother Where Art Thou and Deliverance. Q: How about someone like Charles Mingus, who was a bass player and band leader, which seems to be a rare combination? A: Mingus. Geez. I read his autobiography when I was younger and I thought it was going to be about his bass playing but it’s full of crazy sex stuff, milk jars, things like that. Mingus’ personality had a lot to do with him being a band leader. The music business sucks. It’s not like you bake a cake and it costs a certain amount and people pay you for it. What we do floats away and you can’t capture it. So you go to a bar and you play three sets and you have to fight tooth and nail to get paid. It happens everywhere. People don’t want to pay you and you have to fight for your money. You have to speak up for your band members. Mingus didn’t take shit and people were scared to death of him. You can hear it in his music, like the first couple lines of ‘Boogie Stop Shuffle,’ you can hear him going, “I’m coming to get you muthaf&cka.” A: I’d say I’m a pretty passive guy, generally, but when it comes to being a band leader, I’ve had to yell at people, take them aside, make them pay the band. Even stand by the cash register. I’m not a violent guy, but you gotta do what it takes, read the situation. Especially in China, sometimes being polite works, sometimes being cool works, and sometimes yelling or using bad words works. It’s a pain, you know, but it’s my job and my friend’s job so you gotta do what it takes. A: The jazz scene here is still quite small. There’s plenty of room for growth. Gigs may thin out, but what’s most important is for newcomers and even musicians who’ve been here for awhile to maintain certain standards for pay rates. There’s an unwritten code. We owe it to ourselves and fellow musicians to keep the prices at a certain level, because as soon as you play for lower rates, it hurts everyone around you. Shanghai’s a big city and there’s definitely room for more musicians here. For example, there’s been times when there are no drummers free, or you can’t find a specific style. Once there were no piano players for a month. Before Lawrence [Ku] moved here there were no guitar players. Greg Smith works every night, so he’s not available. In Cleveland there are truckfuls of guitar players and they’re ready to go. That’s how small the scene still is here. There’s room for more clubs as well. It’s bullshit when someone says there are no gigs. If I need a gig, I go out and find one. Lawrence and I once played a duo gig at a sake bar near my house, which came about because the owner saw me with my bass there. A: Sometimes I wonder if I’m going to be working at a bar for the rest of my life. You’ve got drunk guys hitting on your girlfriend, people talking during the solos, which always happens, it’s smoky. I’ve always been a night person and I function better at night, but the rest of the world isn’t on the same schedule as EJ. For example, my girlfriend may be tired after work at 8pm but I’m ready to go out. But I’m very optimistic. I want to see where life takes me. I’ve been working at JZ for five years now and it’s been great. I’m happy to travel the world and make music. The payment thing can be an issue, and I freelance so I don’t necessarily have a budget every month. Sometimes things get canceled and you’ve got to be loose. But luckily in Shanghai you can make a living here. If there’s a slow month, I try not to worry about it. That’s the time when you should go on vacation and come back when things pick up again. Run off to Thailand for a month or something (smiles).
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