Bass Musician Magazine - SPECIAL March 2014 Issue | Page 22

Are your Yamaha 5-string and 6-strings
basically the same sound-wise, or are they
distinctly different?
Sound-wise, they are distinctly different.
My 6, which is a TRB 6, has a very pointed
sort of Jaco-esque sound that I can get on
there, and whenever it’s time to solo that’s
what I like to play, it’s got all the warmth. In
theory I should be able to match sounds on
either one of those instruments if I tweak
everything the same, but on the 6-string
I‘m able to get a little more pointed punch
out of it.
Speaking of Jaco, you end the album
with “America The Beautiful”, and it’s so
beautifully done. When I first heard the
tune start, I was thinking, well Jaco did
this, he already did a solo bass version. But
then you just took it to a whole different
place with the orchestra. Tell me what it
was like recording that one.
It was again surreal and like a dream to
sit in the center of this orchestra. I love
Jaco’s version, so in fooling around with
that I was thinking okay, where can I take
it, you know? What can I do that takes it
to another level? And so we were in preproduction and started to think, wouldn’t
it be great to have an orchestra play this
lush string part. So I just started coming
up with a lot of those different sections
and modulations and ideas. It was me,
Chris and Lendall Black, a great string
arranger who’s actually doing all the string
arrangements on the record. And so we
MAR 2014 / BASSMUSICIANMAGAZINE.COM

just kind of talked through where it would
be fun to go, without any type of rules or
regulations. As sort of an afterthought,
because I was running out of stuff to play
for the very last chorus, I thought, hey wait
a second– choir! [Laughs] It was beautiful.
I just wanted it to be very anthemic and
reverent, and hopefully be able to find its
own space like Ray Charles’ version did.
I mentioned to Chris Gero that listening
to “America The Beautiful” was like
imagining closing credits at the end of a
movie. You go through this whole journey
of the album, and then you have that come
in, and I can envision the credits scrolling
down the screen. In fact, Chris said to
me that he envisioned every song on the
album as a mini-movie.
He just had this big cinematic vision in his
mind and that these things should be epic,
it should take your breath away. I was just
appreciative that he had that kind of high
standard because when you go in and do
a record you want to nail it and make it
good, you know, but he wasn’t going to
stop at that. He said “Nope, I want your
breath to be out of your body after you
hear this thing.”
Are you going to be going out promoting
the solo album and doing gigs?
Absolutely, I already have a couple of
offers right here in Japan, which is great.
And we’re talking about putting together
a fall tour and recreating some of the