Jimmy "Flim" Johnson

[jazzyvee]

Just bumped into this linked youtube clip. Hope it isn't a duplicate posting. Some great grooving by JJ.

I wouldn't know where to start counting that sort of stuff, never mind keeping the arrangement it in my head.
Love it tho!

[JimmyJ]

Hey JazzyVee,

Good find!  It was a great experience playing with Bozzio and Machacek, those two are monsters!  This piece is mostly an adlib up until the end section which is part of a piece called "Strafe" written by Alex.  For the curious, I've attached my old chart below (I hope Alex doesn't mind).  Surprise, it's all in 4/4/ time.  HA!! The arrangement was played this way because the gig was billed as a "drum off", so this version is more of a drum feature with an organized coda.

We begin at the bottom of page 2 with "open, free time, over C".  That happens until Terry starts to play a tempo.  Alex and I recognize his first kick drum (at 1:35 in the video) as the downbeat and from that point we're all feeling 4 and 8-bar phrases together.  At some point we then fall into the drum breaks - also scratched out at the bottom of page 2.  Round and round on that rhythmic figure with 3 different rotating sets of bass notes (it can never just be easy, right?)  Then on cue we take the DS and we're into the chart which starts with an open vamp again.  On cue is letter A or the "head" which sounds tremendously complex but is actually still in 4/4.  Two 8-bar phrases, then the held note/trill beginning on beat 2 of rehearsal letter B, then Terry plays a hi-hat on the downbeat of the last bar and we all play that last figure - with any pitch.

I know, that is some crazy music!  Alex writes very advanced, technical, and "heady" music.  And Terry's compositions lean that way too, but he has a soulful groove which I really dig.  I'd enjoy playing with him if he only brought a 3-piece kit, but he also makes a lot of music with his giant rig.  He's really got a unique voice.

Cheers to everybody.  Hang in there, brighter days ahead.
Jimmy J

[JimmyJ]

Eh, sorry, I don't mean to clutter up anybody's hard drive with that file.  First time I tried attaching a pdf and I was hoping it would simply display but ... oh well. 
Jimmy J

[fmm]

Jimmy: Hard disc space is cheap.  Clutter away!

[cozmik_cowboy]

If I may take off on a slight highjack - that vid & Jimmy's "3-piece kit" comment put me in mind of the time I was working at (oh, the shame!) GC, and got to do sound for a Tama clinic; Billy Cobham, on his then-signature 3,297,407 piece Artstar kit, and a NY guy named Dom Famularo, was on (I suspect at Billy's insistence; I've since seen the monster kit Dom plays regularly) a 5-piece.

Blew Cobham directly into the weeds.  (Of course, Billy didn't have Terry's advantage of having JJ there.......)

Peter 

[jazzyvee]

just saw this posted on youtube today. Enjoy

[/youtube]

Hi Jimmy I've been watching this video again through my monitor speakers and as I'm sure you know, the tone and playing is incredible and there are a few things i would like to ask.
1) Are the individual pickup controls Filter,vol and CVQ on full. (I think you have discussed those two white marks on the master volume previously).
When I have those up full on my S2, the tone is so crisp and not as rounded as you are getting there which i think is a great sound. Is this your usual setting or is it just for studio stuff that you have the bass fully open?
2) I notice that there are times when you are fretting right on top of the fret rather than behind it, is there any practical reason for that, maybe because you also play fretless or is that just where your fingers naturally want to play. :-)
3) Your basses have what is to me really tight string spacing and I wondered if perhaps this was to help you play with a lighter touch?

:-)

[JimmyJ]

Hey Jazzyvee,

Thanks for the kind words.  Here are some answers...

1) I really only know how to make one noise so what you see here are my "almost always" settings.  Individual pickup volumes are wide open and the master is at the mark.  Of course that means nothing as those are overruled by the trimpots which are balanced to slightly favor the bridge pickup.  Filters are wide open with a very slight boost to the bridge pickup.  And that's it.  The only action those controls see is when I exercise them now and again to keep them awake.

2) That's more likely just sloppy playing.    I have to remind you that I built the audio for this track first and then "recreated" the performance on camera after the fact.  I spent some time comping the audio part together, then transcribed it (oy!), practiced it (ouch!), and shot this video in two takes from different camera angles.  Then I edited the picture together to get it as close to correct as I could.  But there are some visual mistakes so that's probably what you've spotted.  Why ... I remember a time when we used to listen to music, not watch it.  HA!

3) I may have said this before but the I think my tight string spacing was just a happy accident.  5-string basses were oddballs when Alembic built my first in 1976 so I believe they built it on a 4-string neck. This recording bass is a 1987 recreation of that original and it has a 1-7/8" nut.  My 1980 graphite fretless is even tighter at 1-5/8".  (And I'm pretty sure there was only one graphite neck mold at that moment so that would have been for a 4-string bass.)  So this is just what I'm used to and it works good for me and my playing style.  Most guys who try it feel really cramped, but if I try a Fender it feels unnecessarily huge.  I did not start on upright and move to electric as many players did.  Just before I found Alembic I was playing a Gibson Les Paul Triumph which had a fairly small fingerboard (and string-length!).  I also never pursued thumb playing so spacing wasn't an issue for that.  I guess I have a light touch but that allows me to play in tune, keep the action low, and get around a bit quicker.  This is just how my self-taught style developed and I've been very lucky with how it all worked out!

Thanks!
Jimmy J

[cozmik_cowboy]

And we're lucky how it worked out, as well!

Peter

[edwardofhuncote]

Thanks Again Jimmy J. for clueing us in here on "how does he do that!?"  Your detailed answers (while probably old-hat to you) are often fascinating to us because they come from a stage on which we don't play.

I am particularly drawn to Answer #1, as it surprised me a little, and because it kinda' relates to a current situation. I remember you posting something a good while back about balancing your pickups more by the trimpots than the volumes at hand's reach. I get the filters wide open part... I reckon you're sending the FOH folks 100% freqencies available, and they use what they need?

Having two independent volumes is relatively new to me, more recently a master volume too, but once I 'got' how Series electronics did what they did, and realized manipulating those volumes and filters independently of each other, it was like striking a match in a cave. I still found that 'happy sonic spot' that I try to find with any bass, a task made much easier with the filters of Alembic basses. Even with the added adjustability, that little wedge of sonic space is what I seemed to instinctively return to consistently. (this must be what you call your "one noise"... yes - that's perfect!) I have also discovered there are very tiny little... -I'll call them artifacts, but that isn't right either- there's something indescribably extra within what I like to hear anymore. The ability to hear all that stuff makes me play cleaner... duzzat make sense? I want the ability to dial in exactly this sound, and I don't neccesarily want to be fiddling with it between every tune.

It had not occurred to me you didn't do much of any adjustments either. Do you find it's about the same for your main basses? (meaning the ones that get the most play-time)

[JimmyJ]

Hey Gregory,

Thanks for the post.  These basses definitely encourage us to play "cleaner" because everything is revealed in the output signal.  After all these years I still find the TONE inspirational.  Nice to be able to pick up the bass and think ... yeah, that's the sound.

Yes to sending the full-range to the FOH.  I do the same in the studio.  I know the bass has a wide frequency range and can take up a lot of space so I leave it to the engineers to shape it as they see fit.  But at least they have options.  I recall Holdsworth being amazed that he could boost 5k on the bass track and it would have an effect.  "There's audio content up there!"

To expand a bit on my "one noise" thing, yes, these are the same settings I use 98.7% of the time and on all my basses.  Over the years I've played in many bands which had wide dynamics.  Aside from a couple Baked Potato bands    none of my gigs have been with groups that play every song at the same volume.  So my playing style developed to be able to control both tone and volume with my hands.  That sounds really basic but that's been my approach from the beginning and that means I almost never move the controls.

After saying that, I'll admit that in recent years when playing live with the Gadd Band (most dynamic kick drum in history!) I got into trimming the master volume a hair for the quietest ballads.  The band played SO quietly that I needed to cut a few db for the beginning of those tunes.  But when the bass solo came around I'd bump it back to normal and leave it there 'till the end so ... subtle I guess.  Ha!  On the JT gig the knobs never move.

I admire the "real" studio cats who have a trunk full of basses and can offer up a wide variety of sounds to fit any particular track.  Like; "this old Danelectro with flatwounds will sound best with that Ludwig kit"...  That's amazing to me!  I've never had those kind of "sonic" chops.  I approach bass sound from a different angle and have been lucky that my sound has been able to fit into so many different musical situations.


Everybody stay safe,
Jimmy J

[bigredbass]

Gregory, the Master Volume seems like an extra you may not need until you remember the original plan for these beasts:

After you get your blend with the individual pickup knobs (and/or the trim pots, depending how you want to approach this), the breakouts from the power supply were, aside from the single full-range out, independent outputs for each pickup.  With the master volume you can raise or lower both outputs without affecting that blend.

The signal chain of bass-power supply/two channel out-f2b/two-channel out to as many stereo power amps and cabinets as required is colossal, though probably overkill today, what with IEM's and far more capable FOH and Monitors than in the days it was created.

[southpaw]

Hi Jimmy,
While researching one of my favorite guitarist, Emily Remler, I see you played on a couple of tracks on her last album, 'This is Me' from 1990.
She was a truly talented jazz musician who won Guitarist of the Year for Down Beat in 1985.
Unfortunately, as you know, she passed away far too young and soon after that album was released.
Are there any stories or memories of working with Emily that you care to share?  Thanks.

[JimmyJ]

Hey Southpaw,

Yes, it was nice to be a part of that record and such a shame that she left us so early.  I remember her as being very nice.  And it was unusual at that time (maybe still) to meet a woman playing jazz so the whole band dug that. 

I'm sorry but my old brain retains no further insights or memories of what was probably only a 3-hour session for me...  I just found the record on YouTube and listened to the 2 tracks I got to play on, with the unmistakable Jeff Porcaro and Luis Conte provoiding the groove.  Good times!  I was lucky to be along for the ride.

It seems like this was her first foray into the world of "smooth jazz" with Jeff Weber producing, Russ Freeman and David Benoit co-writing...  She played it all great and true, but I hope it wasn't a bad experience for her.

Jimmy J

[southpaw]

Thanks for the info Jimmy.  I would call it a successful session: 2 tracks, 3 hours, played with terrific musicians, had fun and got paid!
Such a shame... With time she probably would have only grown.  Thanks for sharing your experiences.

[Stumblecat]

Thrilled to see this today:) Sounds great!

https://youtu.be/esMP9MKHTiI