Bass Musician Magazine - SPECIAL March 2014 Issue | Page 17

After a couple of decades, it’s still one of
the chestnuts that Fourplay plays. And so,
in an effort to try and keep it different, I
sometimes start out on our live show and
play that intro feel thing. I was doing that
one day and my buddy Steve Quirk from
Jazz FM London said, “Man you should
record that version!” And I thought okay,
if I ever go back, you know, that could be
something. So I started fooling around with
that sort of Brazilian thing in the studio,
and then Michael Thompson went into this
Earth, Wind & Fire kind of pattern and I
said “Oh, what’s that?” We started fooling
around with it and then Ricky Lawson starts
this really funky, fatback groove. The next
thing you know we were off to the races. It
was the first song we cut, and I remember
recording that in Ocean Way studios over
20 years ago, so it was like returning to
the scene of the crime.
Returning full circle, kind of.
Returning full circle with a piece of music
that I knew already has been accepted so,
I was like, okay, I can’t go too wrong with
this one. [Laughs]
Speaking of 20 years ago, has your
concept of playing changed at all since
those days?
You know, not too much. I think about
that sometimes. You look up and you’re
the same player. Obviously there are
some things that you work on, and now
that Chuck Loeb is in Fourplay he always

writes songs that have these chop-buster
be-bop lines that we all do together, so
those challenging kinds of things I end up
working on, but really there has always
been that fire in my belly as a bass player
to just try and do what’s right for the music.
As a bass player it’s kind of a balancing act
between serving the song and inserting
your own personality into it. How do you
find that balance?
You know, for me the guy that is the best
at that is Pino Palladino. Take a song like
“Every Time You Go Away”, where the
genius of what he does, and was able to
do, was to know where the lyric comes
and he sticks that incredible bass line in
there. For me, he could be a co-writer on
that because that’s what everybody walks
away singing as well. So I kind of use him
as a role model for trying to come up with
lines that pay tribute to what the song is
and everything, but still be able to sneak
something in there that’s going to be
memorable.
Back to the album, you have a couple of
Stevie Wonder tunes on there. On “Sir
Duke” you brilliantly changed up that long
horn line by jumping the key up a minor
third two bars in, and then back down by
half steps. When did you decide to record
that tune, and how’d you come up with the
idea for the horn line?
I actually was inspired to record that having
played it in Norway with this 18-piece big
MAR 2014 / BASSMUSICIANMAGAZINE.COM