Imagine if Steve Swallow had played an Alembic?

[hieronymous]

Watching this - wonderful, I love Steve Swallow and I love Gibson EB-2s, but can't help but wonder what it would have sounded like had this instrument been Alembicized, or, better yet, he was playing an Alembic?

[gearhed289]

Great, unique player. I always bring him up when I hear that "no pick on bass" nonsense.  I remember him playing a Parker Fly, probably early 90s.

[DistillaMatto]

Whoa. What a find. Lots of heavies in that video. He's still amazing:

[hammer]

Gary Burton, Pat Metheny, and Steve Swallow were an incredible combination. I saw them numerous times on the east coast in small intimate college/university venues and they were fabulous.


And there was some excitement too.  At one performance midway through a piece, Gary Burton stopped the band and in a very polite way asked the audience to not take flash photos as it was disrupting his playing. He clearly indicated that people could take photos "just turn off your flash." The group then went back to playing and within a minute, some poor sucker who did not know what was coming, took a photo with a flash. Burton stopped the group again, jumped down off the stage, walked directly to the seat of the offending party, and after some heated discussion escorted the individual out of the auditorium.  About a minute later he came back to a standing ovation.

[StephenR]

Have loved Steve's playing and musical sensibilities since the first time I heard him play with Gary Burton at the 1969 Newport Jazz Festival. He has always had such a beautiful unique tone.

[jazzyvee]

I had my first experience of hearing him a few years back when he was playing bass with a band called "The Impossible Gentlemen" the whole band were incredible and my ears were focussed on Steve Swallow as I had heard his name for many years but never knew who he was. His bass playing was superb as was the sound he was creating with his bass.

[dannobasso]

If you search Tony Senatore and Steve swallow you should find some videos of Tony playing his series 1 Alembic and Steve playing his custom bass

[cozmik_cowboy]

A few years back I was reading Rafi Zabor's The Bear Comes Home (recommended, by the way), and the Bear ( a bebop sax playing ursine) mentions copping a feel off Carla Bley in their youth.  So I searched her on YouTube and got her playing with Steve.
And was very impressed by both, I must say.

Peter

[StephenR]

Steve and Carla Bley were married for a long time. Carla is deceased but her music is definitely worth checking out.

[goran]

I just saw the other day that Harvey is making a new bass for Steve, I was so happy about it.... He'll still play!!!

[Bob_Ross]

I've mentioned this before on TalkBass, but fwiw I always hated the tone Steve Swallow got out of his Gibson EB-2 ...and yet every custom bass I've heard him play since then, including the FBass (Furlanetto), the Parker, and the Citron, all just sound like subtle variations of that EB-2 tone! It's like Steve wants that tubby, farty, wild-pig-grunting-around-in-the-dirt tone!

But I would love to hear him play an Alembic Series bass with the filters wide open!

[jazzyvee]

Well with my limited experience of him playing on one gig, i thoroughly enjoyed his tone and his playing. I'm fairly confident that as he has been around as a pro for many years, if he wanted to play an alembic he would have one. Maybe he has and the sound just wasn't for him, it's not a sound that suits all tastes as we know.

[hieronymous]

Thanks everyone, I had no idea where this would go! Open Your Eyes, You Can Fly!

This video really blew my mind when I first saw it, probably 10+ years ago - is the bass supposed to sound like this?!! I'm talking about the solo - bass sounds great during the main part, but during the solo, it sounds like he's overdriving the audio equipment - but wait, isn't that what a Gibson EB is for?!! lol - anyway, this is one of my favorite bass performances, sound and all:

(I did see him live at Yoshi's with John Scofield maybe 10 years ago - I think playing a Parker Fly - sounded totally different, and yet, something about that uniformity of tone - wish I could relive it!

[cozmik_cowboy]

I have said it before, and I'll say it again:  Fenders thump, Rics clang, Alembics sing - and Gibsons sound like farting into a pillow.

Peter

[pauldo]

I have said it before, and I'll say it again:  Fenders thump, Rics clang, Alembics sing - and Gibsons sound like farting into a pillow.

Peter

I had a Gibson Victory Artist, it had active electronics.  The sound was not to my liking.