Take Five: Will
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The LowDown Take Five: Will Lee Bass veteran Will Lee is seen and heard by millions of Americans every weeknight on The Late Show With David Letterman, where he performs with the CBS Orchestra. As one of New York’s first-call studio bassists, Lee’s discography spans four decades and reads like a Who’s Who? of pop and contemporary jazz, from Barry Manilow to George Benson. We reveal the top five recordings that have influenced his career. Inf luences ‘The Beatles have always been my main spark,’ says Will, who performs their music on a regular basis with his Beatles tribute band, The Fab Faux. ‘Even though I grew up in a musical family – my mom was a singer, my dad a pianist and well-known educator – it wasn’t enough to Stevie Wonder: turn an undisciplined lazy kid The Secret Life Of Plants into a musician. But seeing The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show ‘I always felt this was a sleeper. It has a melodic The Beatles changed everything about me.’ theme that runs throughout the album that’s Revolver cleverly placed among the songs. It really is about Paul McCartney’s playing ‘ eir fi rst real plunge into psychedelia. is was an integral part of Lee’s plants! e melodies are haunting.’ album – bridged from ‘Pop Land’ into ‘Full bass education. ‘It’s kind of an endless fascination with learning Experimentation Land’ by the previous album McCartney’s parts,’ he explains. Rubber Soul – was the one where artistic control ‘Even in songs as simple as was really given to the creators of the songs, and ‘Honey Pie’ or ‘When I’m 64’, with they started to go to town in the studio.’ that old school charm, Paul plays extremely tasteful and supportive lines. He goes all the way from being melodic to almost unnoticeable, you know, just right for the song.’ Will’s formal musical education was at the University of Miami, where he studied French horn for a year and then switched Sting: to a bass major. After classes Nothing Like The Sun he would work on bass ‘Nothing says humanity, evolution, and just plain fundamentals, listening not class like the talents of Sting and the production only to The Beatles, but also on this CD. ere is serious musicianship from artists like Stevie Wonder, Jimi all on this project and production to die for. It’s a Peter Gabriel: Hendrix, Steve Miller, The Rascals, constant source of inspiration for me.’ So Motown, and Sly & the Family Stone, and put it all into practice, ‘Ditto the above. Peter Gabriel is at the top six sets a night, gigging with of the food chain!’ various local bands. Today he continues to draw inspiration from his bass peers. ‘I continually listen to everybody and get my Turn to ass kicked by doing so. You’ve got the Victor Wootens of this page 67 world out there, and all these to read about the other great in uences that you can really get a lot of inspiration new Sadowsky from. Oteil Burbridge – I’m Will Lee Model fascinated by his ability on the in an exclusive 6-string bass and his beautiful Miles Davis chordal stu . I continue to be Four & More interview with inspired by Chuck Rainey even renowned after all these years… Rocco ‘Miles along with George Coleman on tenor sax, Prestia, Marcus Miller, cats who Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and Tony Williams, luthier Roger play with a pick, cats who don’t, this album defi nes ensemble playing and soloing Sadowsky. you know...just everybody.’ in a live concert like no other.’ 16 BGM July 2009 Take Five_1nw.indd 1 17/06/2009 13:15 The Woodshed: Roger Sadowsky Roger Sadowsky: Carving Out A Legacy In New York Interview by Rick Suchow in his Brooklyn workshop for the compromise, since a traditional was most responding to was a little low down on the most recent J-bass has 20 frets. boost at about 500 Hz. Now I’ve addition to the Sadowsky arsenal, Another thing Will was looking always approached my preamp as the Will Lee Model. for, which he’s always asked me a 2-band, I’ve never done a 3-band, about over the years, was a little bit and one of the complications with Q: How did the idea develop for more midrange punch. In the past an FET circuit, which is what the Will Lee Model? we had tried all diff erent kinds of our preamp is, is that anything Th ere were a few things that Will pickup winds, but they never gave you do to change any part of the was looking for when we started him what he wanted, so a couple frequency aff ects everything talking about doing something of years ago we just sat down with else. You can’t boost treble, bass, special for him. I’ve always had an EQ and found that the spot Will or mids totally independently, to narrow down his necks a but it sounds great. When we little bit at the nut because he were prototyping with Will on a likes a narrower feel. Some of 3-band circuit he would say that the old Fenders are signifi cantly he liked what the midrange does undersized and Will’s had enough but the bass or treble didn’t sound of those basses pass through as good as it used to. So what we n an occupation where the his hands to know that he was basically had to do was stay with measure of your worth is in the comfortable on them, so we took our existing preamp and piggyback caliber of your clientele, New the nut down from 1.52 inches a separate midrange circuit on top York luthier Roger Sadowsky is to 1.45. We also started off with a of it so that we didn’t change the among the very top in his fi eld. Bass 24-fret neck, but when you do 24 sound of the original circuit. Igiants Will Lee, Marcus Miller and frets with J-bass pickups in normal FET’s sound great, they’re the Rickey Minor are but a handful of locations, the space between the transistor equivalent of tubes, as big name players that sing Roger’s end of the neck and the pickup opposed to op-amps, which are praises and play his magnifi cent is very limited, especially after more solid state, hi-fi sounding. basses. 2009 sees Sadowsky adding a bell cover. Will had I’ve had dozens of op-amp celebrate its 30th anniversary. absolutely no room to slap, so prototype circuits that have BGM recently sat down with Roger we moved back to 22 frets as a separate midrange controls and 68 BGM July 2009 Woodshed 44.indd 1 17/06/2009 13:25 The Woodshed: Roger Sadowsky I think players will want to take the midrange boost out of the equation when playing slap and funk, and engage the mids when they’re playing finger style. Will didn’t want too many bells and whistles on the bass, he really only wanted four knobs. We compromised with one of them being stacked, so technically it’s five. We use an old Fender style tone control. I don’t like an active cut control because they’re too narrow, I think a vintage style passive tone control works much better than an active treble cut. Q: Is this the first artist model that you’ve done? Yes, absolutely. I’ve tended to avoid signature models, I think “The players people associate with Sadowsky if you do too many it dilutes the significance of it. But if I have to are the groove players, not the solo bass look to anybody that I’ve had a players, and Will Lee personifies the kind of continual 30-year relationship with it’s Will, and I think he really working, professional musician that we’ve personifies the kind of musician always worked with.” that we’re known for catering for. I think the players people associate done comparisons with players, bridge pickup closer to the bridge, with Sadowsky are the groove and everyone that I’ve R&D’d with ironically not for tone but for players, not the solo bass players, on that says there’s no difference. cosmetic reasons. With the 60’s and Will personifies the kind of And there’s enough instruments location, when they put that silver working, professional musician out today that have bridges you can ash-tray Fender bridge cover on, that we’ve always worked with. string either way, where it’s easy to the pickup stuck out in front of the Q: What are your thoughts on make an empirical test of that. cover. Someone at Fender decided thru-body stringing? it would look better if the pickup I don’t think it makes any difference Q: Regarding pickup placement, was under the cover. whatsoever, and I think that it just have you experimented with makes buying strings complicated. various pickup locations? Q: Regardless of how it sounded? There are people who think that We offer both Fender 60’s and 70’s Exactly. So they moved the pickup it either increases sustain or locations, but 60‘s is our standard. so that it would fit under the changes string tension, but I’ve In the 70’s Fender moved the ashtray, and what that does is when they never sound as good to me as our basic 2-band FET circuit.