It’s all about the bass
I recently ran across a YouTube video of Meghan Trainor’s 2014 release of “All About That Bass”, which was not about bass music, but about body positivity and full-figured women. But it got me thinking about the bass in pop, rock, and even jazz. I had just seen a jazz group at the CCAR auditorium as part of a Jalisco-state sponsored music program with a prominent bass, and I wondered just how many bands were led by bass players. Turns out quite a few, at least in the US.
Of course, the first one that comes to mind is Carol Kaye, the bassist for the Wrecking Crew studio band heard on many, many top ten recordings of the early 60s through the ’70s”. Her bass lines drove the music like a truck. Others that pop up are the Red Hot Chili Peppers with Flea on the bass, Rush with Geddy Lee’s bass in the lead, Gene Simmons in front with bass in KISS. And The Slits featuring the bass lines of Lori “Lollipop” Monti, Tool led by Justin Chancellor’s bass lines, The Breeders with Josephine Wiggs, the Pixies fronted by the bass of Kim Deal, and Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon, The Runaways’s Jackie Fox, and of course who can forget The Bangles with Ethel “E” Smith’s bass leading the way.
Here in Mexico, there are far fewer bass-led bands in the rock and pop genre. Most prominent is The Warning with Alejandra Villarreal’s bass lines setting the band’s signature sound, and La Maldita Vecindad y los Hijos del Quinto Patio, whose Aldo Acuña, the band’s original bass player, established the band’s style and sound. In the regional music world, Los Rieleros del Norte and Polo Urías y su Máquina Norteña are both led by bass players. In jazz, there are the incomparable Agustín Bernal and Roberto Aymes.
Here in Lakeside, we are lucky to have Gilberto Ríos , a bass player so talented that he makes anything he plays, from jazz to rock to flamenco to classical, look easy while it sounds world-class. Part of his success lies in his ability to switch seamlessly from the standup double bass to the electric bass, as he switches musical styles, playing either at the top of his game. He excels in experimental jazz, some of which he delivered Friday night at the CCAR, along with some great blues rock by his band, the Gil Ríos Quintet – Tzintzuni Varela (vocals and electronics), Eleazar Soto (saxophone), Christian Jiménez (keyboards), and Guillermo Núñez (drums).
Rios is breaking jazz molds, not only with his bass-led band rather than a guitar or horn or vocal-led band, but with his blending of genres by using the bass as a through line that holds them all together. This is very evident in his song “Poquena Cancion Afro”.
I don’t know if bass-led bands will multiply and prosper the way they have in the US, but Rios is opening up new pathways. With him, it is all about the bass.
Patrick O’Heffernan
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