Monk Montgomery

It's Never Too Late has been on the turntable today and I have updated the album page with an article. I've had time for an hour long practice session focusing on material from The Monk Montgomery Electric Bass Method. The practice session followed largely the same format as yesterday. However, this time the transcription focused on was a walking line over a Charlie Parker (Bird) blues in the key of F. 

One thing which has become apparent is how much Monk uses the full range of the instrument. The transcriptions are notated in bass and treble clef. As he uses the higher register so regularly, there is a great deal of treble clef reading involved. It makes me wonder whether he enjoyed the freedom to play higher on the bass guitar as for most, playing in the higher register on the double bass is much more challenging due to techincal considerations. 

Bass Odyssey has been on the turntable today. I've updated the page - Bass Odyssey with an article about the record. 

I've had two embodied practice sessions today, using material from the Monk Montgomery Electric Bass Method. This book has become my practice bible. Sadly out-of-print and very rare, it is my hope that the material will be made more readily available for the benefit of bass students. 

Each of my practice sessions from the book begins with scale work, followed by playing five of the II V I lines (there are over 120) in all 12 keys. Finally, I have been working on a transcription of Monk Montgomery playing a jazz blues in the key of F major. 

The exciting news is that I'm assembling a fanzine about Monk Montgomery. I hope to have this completed in the next couple of weeks. It will be printed in 100 copies and will be distributed in record shops, book shops, gig venues and educational establishments. 

I have chosen to start a daily research blog. This will include elements of historical and biographical research relating to Monk Montgomery, as well as my own embodied performance practice. 

For this first post, I have included a track and picture from a live performance in York with Bobby Quigley on guitar and Alec Robinson on piano. The gig was in a relaxed restaurant environment and presented a perfect opportunity to put into practice elements of Monk Montgomery's approach to playing the bass guitar. 

For the gig, I used my reproduction of a 1951 Fender Precision bass guitar. The instrument has flatwound strings and I have had it fitted with bridge and pick-up mutes. Underneath the bridge cover, there is a sponge for dampening. This is to reproduce the sound of a 1951 Precision bass as accurately as possible. 

I was playing through my trusted GK bass amp (see picture) but I would love to incorporate a Fender Bassman amplifier into my set up for live performance. For the gig, I played using downstrokes with the right hand thumb. This was a key component of Monk's early approach to the instrument and I believe it to be integral to achieving a similar tone. 

I was able to play in this manner for the duration of the gig but did feel muscle fatigue toward the end of each set. I also struggled to solo on up-tempo tunes using the thumb. I have included a recording of the first track (a blues in Bb) to give an idea of the tone which I am currently producing. As I make further inroads to the embodied practice journey, I would like to incorporate more of Monk's harmonic, melodic and rhythmic language.