Jake,
 
Man, thanks for that extra kind post, I'm glad you enjoyed the show.  You completely GET the idea of this gig and this band - it's all about supporting James and whatever music he chooses to play.  When I joined in 1990 Don Grolnick was the MD.  I only really knew him as a great jazz musician but he had a deep respect for every kind of music.  If James wanted to play some odd cowboy blues song from the 1800's Don would dig in and study everything he could find about the period and then guide us on how to properly respect the tune.  It was a real lesson to me.
 
My goal in this situation is not to play something different each night but to play exactly the right note at the right moment in every song every night.  It's a different kind of discipline from other more open blowing types of gigs but I enjoy this challenge equally.  And I still mess up - like leaving my mute switch on at the beginning of one tune at the O2.  D'OH!
 
Landau, Goldings and Gadd are amazing musical players and together with James really put the life into this music.  It's an honor to be in charge of the bottom note and great fun playing anything with these cats!
 
Thanks again.
 
Hey Barry, really sorry to have missed you as we blew through the Brooklyn Terminal.  What a wild coincidence!  And I'm sorry to say we are flying home at the end of the tour so the best I can do is wave as we pass over.  I don't know if we will ever do that ship crossing again but if we do, next time I'll know there is an Alembic family member in the facility and I'll look you up.
 
Jimmy J

Hey Jimmy
I'm sure everybody on this site appreciates you taking the time to post, and it's lovely for us to get an insight into the ideas that make for music that many of us want to hear. I was a huge admirer of Don Grolnick and your saying that you learned a lot from him tells me that what I felt had to be true about the integrity of the man was right, and I believe that was audible in his music, he had the ability to make the listener really 'feel' where he was coming from and that place it seems to me was a great, humble, gifted musician. I also had similar respect for Carlos Vega, for me he was the detail guy and I'm sure that you and he had many conversations about what would fit. I think in Gadd and Goldings you have found just the right guys to fill those very big shoes.  
 
I also love to play the disciplined gigs, and I totally understand your drive to play the 'right' things. I play lots of gigs where I improvise, but I always strive above all to nail the low end down and be reliable. I draw a little comfort from the fact that you still encounter human error at that level. :0).
 
Last month I was in Germany depping with the virtuoso violinist David Garrett, It was 45 piece orchestra, rock band, click track, all reading with just two rehearsals for 2 gigs, one for the German president and one in a tennis stadium to about 8000 people, oh, and the drummer was a dep too. It was a mighty pressured gig and all the time I had going through my head.. don't mess up... don't mess up.  
 
As you say I GET (well I try) the idea behind supporting an artist, and to be able to share thoughts with the bass player for one of my favourite artists is a real treat.
 
I'm definitely going to make it to a Holdsworth gig sometime and I'll come say hello.
 
Many thanks Jimmy
 
Jake
 
PS I loved the arrangement of down in the hole!
 
(Message edited by jakebass on July 08, 2009)
 
(Message edited by jakebass on July 08, 2009)

Hi Jimmy, yesterday evening I saw some footage of the North Sea Jazz festival on TV (unfortunately I couldn't go this year) and I was very impressed by your bass' sound, especially on You've got a friend. Only a few shots of you playing some tasty notes, for some reason they focused the attention on some singer with an acoustic guitar...
 
;-)
 
Wilfred

Hi Jimmy J,
 
I saw you at the North Sea Jazz Festival with James Taylor last week and it was great! I was standing right in front of the stage and shot some great pictures. Man, I can imagine how amazing it would be to play with James and the other band members. You guys are so fortunate to be able to work together and end up with such an incredible final product. Too bad you guys were on such a tight time schedule last week...
 
We briefly met right after the Allan Holdsworth gig at the Boerderij in The Netherlands back in March. You were so kind to sign the Alembic brochure I brought along. You know, every time I go to one of your performances I love to watch your focus, concentration and immaculate technique and of course, I always hope I get to feel that Alembic bass sound again. It never fails :-)
 
I was wondering, have you ever owned basses other than Alembics?  
 
I was introduced to Alembic basses back around 1985 when I saw a Series 1 being played by Edwin van Huik during a music fair in The Netherlands. I stil have a picture of me as a kid, holding Edwin's huge Alembic. Anyway, I was amazed how that bass sounded different from what I was used to hearing (and feeling!). The sound was larger than life. I was blown away and it always stayed with me. From that moment on I decided I would someday own a Series bass myself. Although my taste of music developed over the years, my longing for that particular bass sound remained.
 
I bought my first Alembic after six years of saving. It was a Signature Deluxe and it was the best bass I've ever owned. Played it for 15 years, until two years ago I stumbled across my current customized '78 Series 1. I've never looked back ever since. The S1 is not my only bass. I also have a Ken Smith BSR5 (fantastic bass!) and a Peavey B-Quad 4  (Brian Bromberg's 90s bass). But my S1 will always remain my premier bass. It was in pretty bad shape when I bought it, but I gave it lots of TLC and it brightened up considerably. It's not perfect (yet), as it needs an electronics upgrade and a refinish but I'll have that taken care of by the Alembic family in the near future. I had a master volume pot put in, which is a great addition and it has the Series 2 led side position markers. Man, I love my Bic! It's on my profile picture.
 
As you mentioned before, it takes the bass player to make any bass sound good and give it your fingerprint sound. I think the Series 1 bass made me find exactly the sound and feel I've been looking for for over twenty years.  
 
How did you get infected by the Alembic virus?
 
Duncan
 
Ps
Sorry for the long post....

Wilfred,
Thanks for that.  I think of myself as invisible onstage so if I'm not in the light, not on the screen, and nobody notices me, then my job here is done...  
 
Duncan,
Glad you enjoyed that North Sea set - that place was jammed!  I didn't expect that attentive a crowd at a festival.  Very nice.  
 
The first bass I owned was a Kalamazoo by Gibson. Next was a semi-hollow Guild machine for a minute and then a Gibson Les Paul bass with low impedance pickups into which I installed a Jensen transformer and XLR output - always the DI guy, even at that early age.  Then I said to my local music store guy it would be cool if somebody made a long scale version of this bass... and he pointed me to Alembic.  I think it was '75 when I ordered my first long scale series I (4 string) and fell for THE TONE.  The revelation that Alembic could build literally anything sent me off on a design quest which got me into 5-strings in '76 with the knob layout and an early version of the quick release tailpiece which I still have on my current basses.  That's the history - not a huge collector but I've been lucky with the instruments that I've ended up with.
 
Thanks again,
Jimmy J

Jimmy,
 
I have a question for you, hopefully you can satisfy my curiosity....
 
I've noticed several different headstock shapes on your basses- from the elongated fan headstock seen earlier in this thread to the traditional crown headstock and I've seen at least one bass with the cone headstock.
 
Any reason for the different headstock choices or is simply a 'variety is the spice of life' thing?
 
Toby

Toby,
 
My original '76 5-string (as seen just above the center on this page) was a fan but all the subsequent basses are cones.  I think my reason I switched was:
A) I like the straightest pull over the nut.
B) the cases I use (first pic on this page) are a tight fit so I think the cone may be the shortest headstock...  How's that for a function over form decision?  That will make Mica cringe!
 
You may also notice that I now have two tuners on the B side and three on the G side.  That's to give the giant B-string more room to taper before hitting the tuning peg.  The G-string doesn't care..
 
Seeya,
Jimmy J

HI Jimmy, great idea with the two tuners at the ?B side?. My Series 1 5 string is a 34\scale bass like most Alembic basses, but normal long scale strings does not fit the instrument. I need to use extra long scale strings or long scale +. This is actually OK because the bass sounds better this way. I have always been wondering why the headstock of Fender and other basses are like they are. The E string needs more room than the other strings??.not to talk about the B string. This helps a lot when the instrument is a 34\scale. Personally I do not like to play 35 or 36\scale basses even if they do sound good?
J-O-S
ps.can you send me your email address?

I've been listening to Lee for years. Great video, thanks Chris! Very nice Jimmy!

Oh man, flashback!  
 
Lee took us all to Melrose Blvd. in LA to get those hip clothes.  Haha!  Maybe he should have offered acting lessons too...  It's always great to hear Carlos, we miss that guy.
 
Interestingly (only to you guys), that is my '82 graphite necked bass which only had frets for a couple years and then became my backup fretless.  In the end I missed the dynamics of wood and preferred the compression of graphite for fretless.  Funny that the bass was captured here...
 
Jimmy J

Nice solo Jimmy!!!

Jimmy,
 
OMG, what a pleasure to read your comments. You ARE my all-time favorite bass player. Taste, simplicity/complexity, and what my high-school/college band directors used to refer to as note value. You and Chet Atkins have the best note value of all musicians that I've ever heard. As a geezer, I've heard a lot of music.  
 
I continue to get goose bumps from the James Taylor Live CD. You and Carlos are my favorite rhythm section of all time, as well.
 
Dave
Bloomington MN
 
p.s. Gordy tuned our piano a while back and was simply charming. Your parents must be so proud of you both.
 
(Message edited by davekoch on August 10, 2009)

That's a really nice solo Jimmy. very musical - makes a change from all the tuneless slapped triplets one hears these days.  
 
graeme
 
p.s. you look very young in that clip ;-)

That video was SUPERB!!
 
What Graeme said above re the slap crap
Graeme..of course he looks young.............he was only 4!!
 
Seriously though...I can now see why he is the bass player that the best seek!!
George