i think it's over

Re: i think it's over

On Apr 23, 8:37 pm, jeffb <rig...@shaw.c> wrote:
> In response to the private emails I've gotten I need to say I've given
> the Deco to Jesper Bodilsen (thanks Tom K for connecting me with him).
> Since I was twelve I've been under tremendous self imposed pressure to
> excel as a bassist and now that I've given them all away I feel lighter
> and freer than I can ever remember feeling...playing the bass had run
> its course for me. Jesper is a wonderful young Danish double bass player
> with a bright future and I saw in him the same love at first sight for
> the Deco that I knew when it came into my life. After playing it he
> contacted Azola but on what a working jazz musician makes buying one was
> beyond his means. He's the right person to have this bass and I feel
> really good about giving it to him.
>
> I'm not leaving music as a player behind I'm starting a new chapter with
> the chromatic harmonica. I love this instrument and I don't need to
> impose the same brook no excuses iron will to succeed I did with the
> bass...I'll be the player I become not the one I think I need to be.
> A lot of you probably think I'm nuts but I've done the right thing.
>
> jeff

May all your best jams be before you...

Don't disappear from here entirely, please. If you recall, most of the
threads here that take on a life actually aren't about bass....

Re: i think it's over


"jeffb" <rigger@shaw.c> wrote in message
news:lDQPj.88414$Cj7.11459@pd7urf2no...
> I'm not leaving music as a player behind I'm starting a new chapter with
> the chromatic harmonica. I love this instrument and I don't need to impose
> the same brook no excuses iron will to succeed I did with the bass...I'll
> be the player I become not the one I think I need to be.
> A lot of you probably think I'm nuts but I've done the right thing.

No, I don't. If it feels good, it's great!

If you ever feel need to play bass again, there are enough good cheap
options to get you back on track. You'll be great on a Squier Jeff, I'm
sure.

Harmonica was my first instrument, and I did play it quite well as a kid.
Toots Thielmans is a wonderman for me, and I'd really be happy to start on a
chromatic some day. Maybe when my hands become more sore, and I'm 47? Who
knows.

Thumbs up man!

Take care,

Danko

Re: i think it's over

On Apr 23, 7:37 pm, jeffb <rig...@shaw.c> wrote:

> I'm not leaving music as a player behind I'm starting a new chapter with
> the chromatic harmonica.

Worked for this guy (RIP):

< http :// www .tootsthielemans,com /biography/biography.html>

I love this instrument and I don't need to
> impose the same brook no excuses iron will to succeed I did with the
> bass...I'll be the player I become not the one I think I need to be.
> A lot of you probably think I'm nuts but I've done the right thing.

Another way to make yourself happy. Good for you. And good luck! --D-
y

Re: i think it's over

On Apr 23, 7:37 pm, jeffb <rig...@shaw.c> wrote:
> In response to the private emails I've gotten I need to say I've given
> the Deco to Jesper Bodilsen (thanks Tom K for connecting me with him).
> Since I was twelve I've been under tremendous self imposed pressure to
> excel as a bassist and now that I've given them all away I feel lighter
> and freer than I can ever remember feeling...playing the bass had run
> its course for me. Jesper is a wonderful young Danish double bass player
> with a bright future and I saw in him the same love at first sight for
> the Deco that I knew when it came into my life. After playing it he
> contacted Azola but on what a working jazz musician makes buying one was
> beyond his means. He's the right person to have this bass and I feel
> really good about giving it to him.
>
> I'm not leaving music as a player behind I'm starting a new chapter with
> the chromatic harmonica. I love this instrument and I don't need to
> impose the same brook no excuses iron will to succeed I did with the
> bass...I'll be the player I become not the one I think I need to be.
> A lot of you probably think I'm nuts but I've done the right thing.
>
> jeff

Best wishes to you! One of the most enjoyable gigs I've ever done was
to record, live, a group of chromatic harmonica players. They were
brothers, in their 70's, and they were AMAZING.

It's a great instrument! Check into the Bass versions! Wow, are they
funkly looking!

Corey

Re: i think it's over

jeffb <rigger@shaw.c> wrote:

> I'm in the process of packing to move onto a boat and just now as I was
> putting my Azola Deco into it's case it occurred to me I would probably
> never take it out to play it again. It will kill me to have it sit in
> storage..,it needs to be played.

Yes, it needs to be played - by *you*.

You might not play it for another year, or maybe five years - or maybe
you'll only play it when your boat happens to be moored next to a bar in
some exotic place on jam night...

But if you part with your bass now you'll regret it at some point along
the line.

If you part with the bass there's no way of knowing whether it will be
played often, rarely, or end up in someone elses storage. Unless your
instrument is something extremely rare, beautiful and irreplaceable -
like a strad violin or cello - the logic that passing it on to someone
who will play it more doesn't hold up. Anyone who would play your bass
more than you will aready have, or can easily obtain, a bass like yours.

I assume you're taking a bass with you onto that boat - the deco is the
perfect bass for that.

It may be that your circumstances when you need a bass next are such
that you can't afford or justify a bass as nice as that Deco - it would
be a shame to part now with something you can't easily get again when
you need it - perhaps very soon.

--- Derek

--
Derek Tearne - derek@url.co.nz
Many Hands - Trans Cultural Music from Aotearoa/New Zealand
http :// www .manyhands.co.nz/

Re: i think it's over

Derek Tearne wrote:

> I assume you're taking a bass with you onto that boat - the deco is the
> perfect bass for that.

I'm not...harmonicas.

> It may be that your circumstances when you need a bass next are such
> that you can't afford or justify a bass as nice as that Deco - it would
> be a shame to part now with something you can't easily get again when
> you need it - perhaps very soon.

I loved than bass so much that I'd rather give it up to see it played
than to keep it and not play it. It's something I haven't talked about
to anyone but I've been looking for the right person to give it to for a
couple of years now...this is not something that has suddenly come on.
If I hadn't found a person who I know loves it like I do I would have
kept it. Ultimately though it's just an object and if I can facilitate
some great music being made on it by giving it to someone who will do
that where I've demonstrated due to deteriorating hands and growing lack
of interest I could not then giving it to that person is the best use I
can put it to. I feel like a huge burden has been lifted from me.

Re: i think it's over


"jeffb"

> If I hadn't found a person who I know loves it like I do I would have kept
> it.

Danish Jesper Bodilsen is a great player, and i think you have found the
right person. In our small country even the best jazz musicians must work
hard to make a living, so the Azola will mean a lot to him.
Hear him here (with his wife katrine?) http :// www .katrine-madsen.dk/

Per

Re: i think it's over

jeffb <rigger@shaw.c> wrote:

> Derek Tearne wrote:
>
> > I assume you're taking a bass with you onto that boat - the deco is the
> > perfect bass for that.
>
> I'm not...harmonicas.

Bass Harmonica - I see a great need.
>
> > It may be that your circumstances when you need a bass next are such
> > that you can't afford or justify a bass as nice as that Deco - it would
> > be a shame to part now with something you can't easily get again when
> > you need it - perhaps very soon.
>
> I loved than bass so much that I'd rather give it up to see it played
> than to keep it and not play it.

Ah well. At least we're in the age of good, cheap, instruments - so
when you feel the urge to play bass again - as you inevitably will -
there will be OLP's or Squiers or epiphone El Capitans waiting for you.
Yes, they won't be as nice as the Deco, but they'll play well enough and
you won't have to save so hard to buy one.

--- Derek

--
Derek Tearne - derek@url.co.nz
Many Hands - Trans Cultural Music from Aotearoa/New Zealand
http :// www .manyhands.co.nz/

Re: i think it's over

jeffb wrote:

> ...the knuckles in my right hand are never without pain anymore. Lately
> my left has been getting worse too. Rather than struggle to retain only
> a glimmer of my former facility I'm giving up the bass.

The body is an amazing machine that can actually repair itself quite
effectively. You just need to find some doctors who'll care about
actually fixing you.

That means, lay off the pharmaceuticals, lay on the ice when the parts
hurt, and start eating glucosamine. Do some research to find one that
has good bio-availability, and I'm guessing with a few months off of the
bass and taking care of your body (which includes not dosing up on
corporate pharmacology, since they all have side effects you probably
don't want), eating right, etc., you should be able to play again with
no problem.

Good luck,
-tom!

--

Re: i think it's over

I had finger problems in my last days of playing back in the mid-90's. My
band playing days I figured were about over anyway so by chance I quit about
the same time the real pain started. Mostly my middle and ring finger,
middle joint. The ring was really bad and was extending to my whole finger
and into my hand. I am back playing and so far no pain. I kept up in terms
of stringed instruments with guitar, mandolin, banjo and cello. Those never
seemed to bother me. But it's been about 16 years not playing bass. Waiting
to see how I hold up.
I think some people are just not cut out for stringed instruments. I think
it was Jeff Porcaro who had surgery for carpel tunnel and it was successful
but from what I understand he was in the vast minority for musicians, don't
let them cut your hands is the word. If you can't fix it by non invasive
methods, maybe you should just turn the page and move on.

SotR