Bass Musician Magazine - 8th Anniversary Issue with Stu Hamm | Page 15

The majority of it was recorded up in the Bay

The solo suite…you know it’s funny. The

area, the East Bay, with a bunch of my friends

electric bass was invented 66 years ago and

up there. I’ve found that the best way to be

it’s still an instrument very much in its infancy.

a good composer is to hire some really good

When I was growing up, it was such a different

guys and give them a lot of room to do their

world. I remember my first time seeing Larry

thing. I love to hire cats that hear something in

Graham pop a string on the bass. I went to a

music that I wrote that I didn’t hear! Then, I just

music store and picked up a bass off of the wall

let them do their thing.

and was trying to figure out what the hell he
was doing! I didn’t invent solo bass playing

The album opens and closes with band

or tapping, but I was around when those

pieces and then what is perhaps best

techniques were introduced and I believe that

described is a “bass suite” is performed

I helped to shape them.

in between?
Now you have bass players that are 12 years old
It is. What I wanted to do, especially with

and they’re exposed to me and other players on

“The Book of Lies” and “Lucy in the Sky With

YouTube. This whole new chapter on technique

Diamonds”, was to capture a live performance.

is being written and that’s how much bass

“Lucy in Sky With Diamonds”, with Carl

playing has occurred, just in my lifetime. Now

Verheyen on guitar and Jason Harrison Smith

that solo bass is a bit of a thing, I realized that

[on drums] - we had been on the road, Jason

there’s not a whole lot of actual written music

and I, with Carl, playing in his band, for about

for the instrument. I wrote these pieces that are

10 weeks in Europe and we played that song

each stand-alone, formative pieces that anyone

every night. As soon as we got off the road I got

can learn to play. The subliminal aspect is that

into the studio – we were actually at Sweetwater

each piece is written with a different technique

in Fort Worth, Indiana - and that’s just one take!

to use as a strategy to make a piece of solo bass
playing interesting. One piece is all chords,