Blues Bass Transcriptions

BB King and Jerry Jemmott together is a great combination.  Completely Well, and this Album Live & Well were BB Kings commercial break through albums.  Jerry's bass playing gave an R&B feel to BB Kings playing, helping him to achieve his first Top 100  album.  This song, clocking in at around 8 and1/2 minutes, highlights Jerry's ability to create lines that are a counter melody to the song.  He varies his playing to keep the listeners interest but never in a away that distracts from the song.

I really like the intro to this song.  C9, Fm, Ab9-G9, C9-G7.  The rest of the song is a I9 IV9 V9 slow blues.  From a theory perspective I think its a switch to the parallel minor (f to Fm) that  gives you a im III, (Fm, Ab9)  then back to Key of C.  Greg Rzab (the bass player on this song) plays the R lower 5 R over the Ab9, and R Lower 5 b5 (chromatic passing tone) back to the C9.  

Robben Ford's tribute to B.B. King, with Roscoe Beck on bass.   A great driving bassline over (for Robben Ford) a pretty straight forward cord progression.  There are good version if the guitar tab available so guitar players won't have an excuse not to play this song.  The intro is interesting in that the bass comes in on the 2 even thought he guitar riff starts on the 1.   

This song was suggested by a subscriber to my blog.  I'm a big Robben Ford fan. He's got great chops and great tone for days.  I've seen him on a multiple performer bill where he sat in with each artist.  He's one of the few players that makes everyone sound better.  The only other guitar player I've experienced that with is Tony Rice.  Fyi chords extensions may not be perfect but the will set the context for note choices by the bass player.

Lil Ed is A Chicago Institution.  Do yourself a favor and check out his greatest hits album.   This is raw old fashioned Chicago blues.  On my original blog, I shared the basic structure to the barn burner - Never Miss your Water.  The lyrics of this song (written by his wife Pam) crack me.   

So here's another song that had a good transcription available, which I found after completing this one.  If your into blues bass this song (with John McVie on Bass) is worth  playing thru a few times.  There are some different note choices that would be good to add to your repertoire.  A side note : One of the areas I struggle notating while  transcribing are songs with a free time ending.  Luckily have a friend who is willing to review my transcriptions and point out my errors.  

I had shared the first part of this song on Talkbass a while ago, tossed it on the "shelf" and moved onto other songs.  I really like the bass in this song.  Nothing difficult just a great what I consider a "Soul Blues" 16 Bar Minor Blues Groove

So I broke my own "rules" on this transcription.  Normally I google to see if  good transcription of the song exists before I start transcribing.  In this case I only googled guitar transcriptions and not bass. After completing the transcription I realize my mistake and found a great bass transcription already in standard  notation.  So I figured I'd share what I did anyway.   This one was  little more difficult due to the bass being fret-less.   Also the guitar  transcription was in 12/8 so i also did this in 12/8.  However 4/4 with  a shuffle rhythm would be easier to read (in my opinion) .   

One of the later releases from the Queen of Chicago Blues, Force of Nature is a solid contemporary blues album.  It seems if your not a guitar player, you don't get the the well deserved recognition outside the blues community.    She released this album of funky, high energy blues in her mid 60's and kept touring until her passing at 80 in 2009

Hadn't listened to this album in a while, since they are re-releasing it I thought I'd give it another listen. A great song off of her sophomore release.  It's a pretty straight forward song with some subtle variations in the verse.  The chorus, while 8 bars is not a typical eight bar blues progression.  The song ends by repeating the intro (or the last 2 bars of the verse  depending on how you want to look at it).  Overall not your typical blues song structure.  For the guitarists out there, here's a great tutorial on how to play the rhythm guitar part.  https://www.musicoff.com/strumenti/chitarra-didattica/susan-tedeschi-it-hurt-so-bad-rhythm.  It also include guitar tab 

Another great song off of her Sophomore release.  All though a pretty straight song (all revolving around the I,IV and V chords), there is a lot of variation in the structure. Verse is 16 Bars, Pre-chorus is 11 Bars, 1st Chorus is 12 Bars, 1st solo is 12 bars, 2nd solo is 14 bars, 2nd chorus is 18 bars.  That's a lot to remember .  Also is the first few bars of the bass line I hear variations in the notes before it settles into the root b3 3rd riff.  Let me know what you think. 

Another classic tune off of a classic blues album.  Kenny Burrell. originally recorded it and many others have covered it including Stevie Ray Vaughn. Jack Myers plays bass.  This song is a great lesson in varying a blues bass line, enhancing the overall performance.  The C Bm Am turn around is also not a typical turnaround you see in a 12 bar blues. A lot of  bass player learn the first verse and repeat it through out the song.  I think its worth it to learn the variations and add them to you blues repertoire.

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