Bass Bash #30
Features John Patitucci

by Alex Walsh

The Northern California Bass Club’s Bass Bash #30, with John Patitucci, was a huge success. John was in town with Roy Haynes’ Birds of a Feather group that was performing at the new Yoshi’s in San Francisco. For this workshop, John focused on the acoustic bass. He spent the first hour covering technique, fielding questions from the audience, and demonstrating. After the break, two young bassists performed with piano accompaniment, and John gave them constructive criticism in a master class format. There’s no way to impart everything he said in this short article, but one of his key points was “know what you want to sound like, and go for that.” He said that listening to a lot of records is crucial. If a player has a thick tone, for example, ask yourself what ingredients make up that tone, and do everything you can to create it. The idea is to find the best version of you.

John brought all of the audience questions back to the main ideas of rhythm, feel and tone. He said that it is impossible to teach a person how to swing, but a great way to practice is to put a metronome on a medium tempo and play for 30 minutes. He emphasized falling in love with the simple sound of your bass. Why? Because the main function of the bass is to stay in the pocket and provide the foundation for the music. Having chops as a soloist is great, but if you get bored playing the pulse then you’re in trouble because you might have to do that on a gig for long periods of time. He said that he was put in his place many times by his mentors when he first started out.

About jazz, John encourages everyone to go back to the roots of the music to the blues. Jazz is an African American musical expression, and to understand its essence you need to study it, just as one would study the different forms of classical music. He says that many of the great jazz musicians he has worked with lament the loss of knowledge of the blues in younger players.

During the master class section, John commented that both students needed to work on providing the pulse for the piano player. Getting the best tone for both players was a technical matter of using the proper fingering and plucking the notes to pull the sound out of the bass. John explained that by pulling the sound out of the bass, rather than pushing the strings into the bass, the top is able to resonate more. After John explained this point he had the students try it out, and the tone was dramatically improved.

Last but not least, John drove home the point of having a good teacher by giving a quick overview of his bow technique, which he had transformed as a result of lessons from John Shafer, retired principal of the New York Philharmonic. (Former Local 6 member Chris Poehler was his first teacher in high school, and the late Charles Siani was his principal classical teacher). After the workshop, bassist Kurt Ribak remarked that John was an excellent teacher and very generous with his time. I think everyone agreed. Thanks to Pat Klobas and the Northern California Bass Club for making it happen.

Published in the January/February 2008 Musical News

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