Bassist Drummer relationship

No, not at all :smile:

I just don’t think there are clear “rules” for jazz drumming that could be used as “guidelines” here; playing along a jazz drummer is a whole other ballgame :wink:

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I think you should always be in time with the drummer. If you look at Jamerson’s bass lines he played with such syncopation I am betting a drummer not in Jamerson’s group might have issues with how the bassist is playing but if you look thru his work he is the father of bass playing. His lines are so amazing!! Course the Funk Brothers understood each other so well it was a perfect fit. You have to look at his lines when you see them in sheet music to grasp what he was doing in each song but there is a steady pulse no matter how complicated it is that stays in time with the drummer. My next door neighbor plays drums. When I say I am playing a syncopated line he is lost. He is expecting me to be on time to his kick drum and when I am not he thinks I am not in sync with him. I am playing on the upbeat and he is playing on the downbeat so its disturbing to him. I tried to explain that our sounds are in sync and if you listen they are right on time with my notes on the upbeat and his drums on the downbeats. It’s a nice flow of sound. When I switch over and play on the kick drum the sound of the bass isn’t as filling as it was when I was playing a syncopated line. Both work but both have a bit different feel in the song.

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@Rvinny , my first gut reaction was that this isn’t the “band” for you. I only base this off the idea that someone tells you something but doesn’t show signs of correcting the situation. If you were a season bass player, totally different.

Keep playing and come in on the boom
Cheers

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Yes - the Jamerson approach is incredible… but I have not been able to get away with that much movement and syncopation in any band! You’re right - if band leaders or drummers hear the bass move this much, they tend to want to simplify.

I usually agree, as it is very very tricky to get the combination of perfect syncopation with perfect note choice the way Jamerson did.

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