Bass DVDs - what are your recommendations?

[DJ-Wood]

Hello,

 

I've watched very few bass-centric DVDs or videos, mostly due to the fact that they are always so expensive (£26.99 for the Jaco DVD!), and because of the fact that no rental shop (that I've been in) stocks them.

 

However, I recently joined an online DVD rental-by-post company which stocks every single currently available DVD. I have so far watched Jaco, Flea, Bass Day 98, and a couple of 'Classic Album' biogs (Stevie Wonder and Paul Simon).

 

What are your recommendations for essential bass DVD viewing?

[tnb]

Is there a British version of Netflix?

 

http://www.netflix.com/

 

I just rented "Shadows and Light" - Jaco, Joni Mitchell and some other guys that can play a little bit

[Phil W]

The music on that DVD is awesome. The actual video footage is infuriating, however. The camera focusses almost exclusively on Joni (fair enough, it was her band) but during the instrumental sections the cameras completely avoid the musicians and show a bunch of amateur looking arty video sequences.

I have the mucis somewhere else. If anyone wants my DVD of the gig, they can have it for free.

The bass instruction videos that I've learned most from have been Jaco's (must have), Steve Bailey's (for fretless!) and John P's (sorry can't spell Pattitucci

All are on video though (mine is broken) and I could do with transferring them to DVD.

Any of these would be great DJ.

In terms of general music DVDs to learn bass from my favourite would be the Led Zeppelin one that came out last year (a must have)

[TylerlovesAva]

these are all good. I have Flea's (not-so-funny pun intended), JAco's, John P.'s(also can't spell Patitucci) and Bass day 98.

 

for lessons i can further recommend, go for Jeff Berlin, Rocco Prestia, Dave Larue and Nathan East.

 

Concerts, look for Fark Gambale with bassist Ric Fierabracci and Steve Smith on drums.

[LLroomtempJ]

don't rule out vhs. I've had a hard time finding dvds, however i've successfully purchased vhs and had them converted into dvd's using a friends av equipment.

 

I recommend looking into john myung's progressive bass concepts, victor wooten's vhs from the late 80s and anything by david gross who is an absolute beast.

 

I'd be wary of the old bill dickens stuff, b/c it teaches how to use his 5 finger technique amongst other not so useful things for people trying to expand their personal playing styles.

 

try google and ebay searches for that stuff

 

jason

[Eric VB]

Rush in Rio has some good shots of Geddy Lee.

 

The Who The Kids Are Alright has a special section where you can see/hear John Entwistle play two songs with the rest of the band muted. Very cool!

 

Didn't Stu Hamm have an instructional video? Has anyone seen it? Is it any good?

[Quinn]

Originally posted by Gospel5.5theZealot:

don't rule out vhs.

Case in point, Rocco Prestia's instructional vid is currently only available on VHS and it's an absolute must-see.

 

Also, Glen Letsch has a good video very appropriately titled, "The Lowdown!"

 

Glen focuses on foundational groove playing with the drums and deconstructs some classic Motown/Stax/James Brown lines. Again, I think it's only available on VHS.

 

BTW, how hard was the VHS->DVD conversion, Jason?

 

As far as other DVD's, I'd recommend a couple of concert videos, Bob Marley and The Wailers - "The Legend Live" and Little Feat -"Rockpalast Live."

 

Both the "Who's Next" and Steely Dan "Aja" DVD's from the 'classic album' series also feature some first rate bass playing.

[RHINO_ROB]

ed friedland's slap bass.

 

anthony vitti's acccelerate your bass playing.

 

tony smith's advanced bass grooves.

 

all star bass series-right hand technique(louis johnson, nathan east, larry graham, james jamerson jr., abe laboriel, byron miller, chuck rainey, freddy washington, neil stubenhaus and verdine white.)

( i don't know if these are all on dvd or not)

 

other.

primus hallucin-genetics.

[tnb]

At the risk of sounding like a cranky old man, after watching these guys play their specialized techniques, watch them play with a band. You need to see (and hear) what they are playing 98% of the time - 90% of the time if you watching Victor Wooten

[BenLoy]

Jean-Luc Ponty, Al DiMeola & Stanley Clarke: Live in Montreux.

 

Stanley Clarke's unaccompanied solo spot is worth the price of admission alone. Extreme close ups show that he paritially facilitates his blinding speed on the double bass by with incredibly low action and by turning his amp up.

 

The rest is just his crazy superhuman technique and ubelievable lyricism.

[lug]

I recommend the free Bassist CD that comes with D'Addario ProSteels.

[LLroomtempJ]

the conversion wasn't hard at all.

 

But you just have to let the vhs' play for the full length of the video...no double time or anything fancy like that. The more stuff that you plan to try to fit, the lower the quality. But the quality difference isn't too major.

 

jason