Hm, you asked for comment, be aware when people ask I'm allways pretty honnest
OK, let's listen to the song....
what do we have here
1. A very good drummer, plays in the style of Manu Katche, and know what he is doing (I could never do drumtracks like that, hats off)
2. We have a jazz piano who knows how to improvise but doesn't play fluid enough.
What do we miss ?
Somebody that keeps the song together, puts the swing in it and make the audience tap with there feet
And this has to be your bass player.
Your bass player doesn't do that, he actually just plays with the song.
The result is that the song doen't have an element to keep it together.
Now when I arrive at a venue like this, I'll allways listen to the drummer to listen to his style.
Two possibilities, the guy is a rhythmic drummer, plays good rtyhmic jazz, I will play around him because he'll keep the rhythmic part of the song together and I'll just support him
Second possibility, he's a melodic drummer (like yours), those guys are great and play drum like somebody else would play a keyboard. In that case, I know that I'll have to work hard, because with a drummer like I'll have the role to layout the song and put the basic groove down.
I'll put myself on stage in a way that I can look at the drummer and he can see me. What I'll do is layout the basic groove, showing him where we want to go. Once he gets the groove and fills in, I'll constantly watch him, listen to what he plays and alternatively support him and challenge him, allways making sure that the groove of the song keeps going.
Now you could ask, and that piano player ?
Well in this case, I don't care... let him do his thing, he knows what to do.
It is actually not easy to explain in words. Since music is better then a thousand words, I've played a bit of bass on your song. The mix isn't terrible since I had to cut out your bass (screwing up your drums at the same time
) but I hope it's good enough to give you the idea.
Now a bit of comment of what I did
Bar 1 -4 : I give the basic groove to the drummer and he comes in easy to see where I'm going
Bar 5-12 : The drummer understands what I'll do and knows he can play as he wants, he hears that I'll keep the groove together
Bar 13 - 28 : Houston we have a go, the drummer does his thing and I do the groove, launching him a little defeat from time to time. On bar 28 I go down to prepare the chorus
Bar 49 to 48 : You made the choice to play a walking bass there, so I did the same. Now a standard walking bass won't do it here. I'll have to make sure that me drummer keeps been challenged and that the audience doesn't fall a sleep. So I play melodic bass, challenging that drummer to follow me. Which I terminate again on bar 48 to prepare the basic riff of the verse.
Bar 49-59 : We know each other now, everything goes smooth, the drummer has fun and me to
Bar 59 : The drummer sends me signals that he's preparing the end. I'll better calm down.
Bar 62 : A standard ending and everybody is happy
Now be aware, this is just my interpretation, so feel free to completely disagree
At least I showed you another way of interpreting the song.
