Bass Player Live | October 22, 2011 | S.I.R. / Key Club | Hollywood, CA

Review by David Arnson
Photos by by Alex Kluft

For bass players and enthusiasts, Bass Player LIVE! began at S.I.R. where exhibitors were displaying the latest bass wares, respected pros were giving clinics, and musicians were networking and discussing their craft. This part of the weekend would run through Sunday, October 23.

Along with several new product launches and announcements, renowned jazz bassist Brian Bromberg introduced an online radio station devoted to the bass called Bass On The Broadband.

The main event, however, was the Saturday night concert at the Key Club featuring an array of performances from a virtual who’s who of bass players. Over the course of the evening, Lifetime Achievement Awards were also presented to three prominent bassists.

Veteran six-string jazz bassist Anthony Jackson came out to introduce and present the first Lifetime Achievement Award to Jack Casady, who then performed an amazing set with Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna co-pilot Jorma Kaukonen. The veteran bassist dedicated the evening to his wife, Diane, who was sick and unable to attend.

Casady provided continuously inventive, precise bass counterpoint to Kaukonen’s ragtime blues picking and singing, and it was over all too soon. Tunes covered, included “Never Happen No More,” “I See The Light,” “99 Year Blues,” “Death Don’t Have No Mercy” (dedicated to their friend, Hot Tuna mandolin player Barry Mitterhoff’s recently deceased mother), “Hesitation Blues,” as well as some newer tunes from their Steady As She Goes album. I was able to briefly chat with and get some pictures of the two musicians afterwards, and they were both very gracious and funny.

Next up was a set by James Jamerson Jr., whose father James Jamerson was the legendary house bassist for Motown and receiving a posthumous Lifetime Achievement Award presented again by Anthony Jackson, who explained that Casady and Jamerson were two of the three biggest musical influences in his life (the third being 20th century composer Olivier Messaien — hey, I love that guy too!). Jamerson, Jr., led his big band through a set of Motown covers, of course.

After this… uhh…set of covers…by…uhh…essentially a covers band, Larry Graham came out. A third Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to the legendary bass player, who looked resplendent in a floor-length white coat, white broad-brimmed hat with a turquoise feather and white boots. Basically, Graham was rockin’ the pimp look! Graham, as bassist for Sly Stone and the Family Stone and his own Graham Central Station, is responsible for the thumb-popping funk style that influenced future generations for better or worse.

Graham gave a long and cheerful talk on his musical beginnings. He basically started out as a guitarist, he said, but his professional gospel-singing mother needed a bass player. When she decided to drop the drummer, Graham compensated rhythmically with a super-percussive “slap-with thumb-and pull-with-fingers” funk style.

The bassist did a super energetic set of his band’s hits and ended with a few Sly Stone hits. I was definitely dancing along with a few others, although most of the audience was made up of bass player dudes who mainly just stood around!

The next two sets were bass jam sets with as many as eight bassists on stage at a time (along with a drummer and keyboards). Craggy-looking bassist Steve Bailey barely kept the proceedings in line. He managed to organize and mostly quiet the other players, so each bassist could get a solo in round-robin fashion. It was definitely worth seeing Casady and teen wonder-fresh-from-Jeff Beck’s-band wondergirl Tal Wilkenfeld get in their licks, but it was essentially an exhausting experience.

I stayed for the second jam, too, of another eight players or so, because I wanted to see Sweden’s Jonas Hellborg play. I’ve got a great raga-type CD by him, and I had to see him just because the Mermen’s Jim Thomas loves to rag on his name. Of course, Murphy’s Law came into play, and he was the last guy to play and it took about 10 minutes of futzing around with the equipment to get his stuff to work. Ya know, I really can’t recommend listening to 30 minutes of funky bass jams folks, regardless of the skill level of all the players. All in all, though, it was a very cool evening.