In this issue:  Interview with Hiromi's Bassist, Tony Grey | 
Walkin' Through the Jazz 'hood (part duex II) | Different Ways of Playing the Scales | 
Life on the Road: The Urban Cowboy Band - Part 1 | Bass Sessions to Go!

Interview with Hiromi's Bassist, Tony Grey

by Keith White

On April 8, 2006 I had the opportunity to see a wonderful young artist, Hiromi and her more than capable sidemen, bassist Tony Grey and drummer Martin Valihora at Spivey Hall on the campus of Clayton State University, south of Atlanta, GA.

I will briefly review the concert. The beginning of the show had some audio problems, both front of house and monitors. The piano was too low in the mix and the bass was almost inaudible. The front of house problem was slowly worked out except for the bass, as there was no bass coming through the PA. I found out after the show from speaking with Tony that the sound, uh um, engineer wouldn't put any bass through front of house for fear of damaging the speakers. They were small speakers but come on, help me out here. Tony was playing Fodera basses through Aggie gear so you know his sound wasn't the problem. Martin's monitor mix was atrocious. I know this because poor Martin looked like a college cheerleader waving his arms around trying to get the attention of the, uh um, engineer. It wasn't until I walked back to the board and advised him that, "You should probably pay attention to what is happening on stage because I think the drummer wants to kill you!" Yep, that's what I said.

The technical difficulties aside, the concert was brilliant. The group handily stepped through some amazingly complex music. Heck, I'm gonna have to buy the latest record to figure out what time signature one of the tunes visited. Just when I thought I had it figured out, the groove changed. Dang live music. All of the players in this trio are monsters in their own right-and they're practically half my age. Aaaaaaargh!

I interviewed Tony the next morning via tele.

KW: (In my best English accent k-dub says) So, just to get started, are you having your morning tea?

TG: No, I'm not. There's no tea here.

KW: What a drag.

TG: Yeah, it's a drag.

KW: Let's start off with your basses. You were using Fodera's last night, two of them. Are they tuned differently? What is the reason for using two?

TG: The reason for two, when I first started playing, I was sort of an R&B player so I got the low B for the more heavy groove sound. Then, when I got into fusion, jazz and electronica music, I got another Fodera tuned to a high C. E, A, D, G, C.

KW: Yeah, that's what I thought.

TG: When I started playing with Hiromi, she required the whole range of the bass so I started swapping from tune to tune. Now, I'm having a six string built, which I should have in a couple of weeks or so. That should make things easier.

KW: Cool! Another Fodera?

TG: Yeah.

KW: Did you get the two that you now own especially made for you or did you just buy them?

TG: Well, I know Matt Garrison, so we went into Fodera and he introduced me to them. I got them built with a short scale, 'cause my hands are not so big. Everybody I met that played bass had such huge hands, ya know.

KW: Yeah, everybody except me. You're not the only one. (laughter)

TG: Well, I realized that later but they said, "No man, that's OK 'cause a lot of guys have basses made with short scales." Anthony Jackson's bass is enormous. Pattitucci's is ridiculous.

KW: Hmm, neither of one of those are big guys so that's kinda surprising.

TG: Yeah, but they got some big basses, man.

KW: What kind of effects were you using last night? I know you had a volume pedal and something else but I'm not sure what that was.

TG: I use a Boss octave pedal. It has a certain setting that gives you that good sub bass and you can get sort of a synthy sound. I use that for drum and bass kind of stuff and then I have an EBS octave pedal, which I just use as an octave pedal. I have a TC Electronics pitch modulator and I've got a TCE vintage delay, which has a nice clean sound for when I play chords & solos. Then, I've got a Boss looper.

KW: The RC-20?

TG: Yeah. I think that's it.

KW: Cool. How'd you get hooked up with Hiromi? How'd all that happen?

TG: Well, we all went to Berklee together, the three of us. For years, we were all good friends. She'd play for my recital and I'd play for their recitals. Then we went our separate ways for a bit. Then, I got a phone call and was asked to join the band for the second CD, which was cool.

KW: A lot of the tunes that she does are highly through-composed. How much room do you have for improv within that realm?

TG: The thing is, with Hiromi, they are very composed but I feel that she always composes differently for the musicians that she plays with. She knew my playing very well from school so when I started playing with her and she started writing for the next CD, I found that she wrote to our strengths, you know, and the same with the drummer. She leaves a lot of, well, the basic themes are very composed, like the unison lines and obviously the melodies but a lot of the progressions don't necessarily have bass lines or drum grooves. She sort of let's you work out and compose your own parts, so to speak. So it's really cool that she allows you the freedom to really be your own voice.

KW: How much of that happens onstage?

TG: Quite a lot. The drummer, Martin, is a very creative drummer and every night it's like a completely different show.

KW: Yeah, I noticed there was some smiling going around last night like you were all saying, "Aaaaah, that was different!"

TG: Yeah, yeah, he never will play the same thing. It's one of his rules that he will never play the same thing twice or very rarely anyway. He usually pulls Hiromi in a completely different direction so I can never really comp the same way cuz I never know where they are going. It's usually a good thing but sometimes it kinda falls apart. Usually, it's really exciting and takes you somewhere you never would go before.

KW: So, if it does fall apart, how do you get it socked back in?

TG: Well, the thing is, usually, maybe one of us will lose it but never all of us so there's always somebody who's got it together. We just kinda lean on that person. I think an important thing I've learned from playing is no matter what happens, it's only music. As long as you stay relaxed and don't panic and don't get stressed, you can always find your way back. I used to panic. When you panic, your brain stops workin' properly and your ears stop workin' but it's still there.

KW: Cool! There was a whole lot of odd timing and stuff like that in the tunes you were playing. Do you have any tricks or anything that you use to keep your place in a situation like that?

TG: The way I learned how to play odd times was, I would always listen to the last beat of the figure. I would listen to the figure and I would listen to the beat or last two beats and treat it as a turn around back into the beginning of the time signature. You know, like, I would get the (voices rhythmic figure)"da dat da". I would listen for that and get that locked in my brain. No matter what I did, I would always train myself to hear the drummer or how somebody was comping this pattern. So, I always listen out for the last beat or the last two beats to see how it goes back into the beginning of the cycle. Then, if there is no particular pattern and it's just an odd time thing, sometimes I write a groove and just repeat it over and over again until I've really got it locked in my brain. Then, I would try to improvise the first part of what I was playing and then keep the last part solid or play the first part the same and improvise the last part just until I've got the time signature locked in my brain. Another good way I found to play odd times is to use my fingers. Say, if it's in 5, I would use my whole hand. Each finger on the hand and sing the groove but always keep the fingers tappin' out so I knew where the one was. I would do that on trains, planes or watching TV, anything. Just keep the thing going on in my brain where I always knew where the one was, mainly because of my fingers and then just sing it until I got comfortable.

KW: Yeah, I thought I saw you saying Hippopotamus over and over last night.

TG: Yeah, that's another thing that I do, funny you should mention that. I come up with words or sayings or things like Hippopotamus. Or we'll be jokin' in the van with the band just saying sentences but only in five or seven.

KW: That's cool! (laughs) oh, very good. So, tell me a little bit about McLaughlin (John) and being under his wing & how all that happened.

TG: Well, I've known John all my life, pretty much but I was never really interested in music because there was so much of it in the house. My mother is a pianist, my sister plays violin and, of course, John. So, there seemed to be a lot of music around. When I was 17, I was in a bad car accident and I broke my back. I was in the hospital and John flew out and stayed with me, hung out and gave me support and all the rest of it and actually got me into playing music. He said music was good for the soul and it was going to help me recover from whatever I was recovering from. He encouraged it and my stepfather bought me a bass guitar, just randomly, it wasn't a choice or anything. He got me a bass guitar and John sent me some books and tapes to listen to and I started playin'. Ever since then, when he was on tour, he'd call me from the airport and he was just encouraging. I became really addicted to the love and peace that music can give you.

KW: Tell me your likes and dislikes about touring.

TG: My likes and dislikes. The thing I hate about touring, sometimes you go into these amazing places. I've been lucky to travel around the world with Hiromi and other bands that I've been playing with. Sometimes the schedule is so tight you never get to see any of these amazing places. Literally, get into airport, go to the hotel, drop your stuff off, straight to sound check, gig, back to hotel & off you go the next day to somewhere else. It's such a shame to go to all of these wonderful places and never get a chance to really see anything. Sometimes we get the schedule and we're like, oh wow we're going to Korea! The shame is we never really get to do anything. The other thing I hate is sometimes, especially in Europe, the lobby calls are ridiculous, like 5:00. (a.m.) Sometimes, we don't start playing until 1:00 in the morning and by the time we get back to the hotel it's 4:00. (a.m.) We've got enough time to shower and get back on the bus to the airport. So, sometimes we just don't sleep. I hate being away from home so much, as well.

I love to practice. I'm a practice freak. Sometimes, when I'm on the road, I just can't do it. I've tried to keep a schedule of practicing on the road but I just end up injuring myself or over doing it. I love soccer and English football. I can never keep up with it when I'm on the road and I miss a lot of good games, which really stresses me out cuz I'm the biggest fan of my hometown.

KW: Who's your favorite team?

TG: Newcastle United, the only one. My friend always gives me calls and let's me know the scores. I grew up going to all the games or listening on the radio, checking on the Internet, so sometimes it's really tough. I guess that's kinda silly.

(k-dub laughs cuz he is a huge Atlanta Falcons fan and completely understands the football jones)

TG: The thing I love about touring is the different cultures, the people you meet. All the great musicians that I grew up loving like Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter. You get to meet all of those guys and play with them. Hang out, eat breakfast with them and really get to know them. That's a real dream come true, being on the jazz circuit. I love playing every night and exploring my voice and getting the different reactions from the audience, it's an amazing experience. When the travel is good and we get to look around the city, it's amazing. Your air miles are good so when I get home I can get a free flight somewhere.

KW: Who are some of your favorite bassists?

TG: Well, like we talked about last night, Gary Willis for sure. He's an amazing musician. Genius, ya know. I love James Genus, he's a really great player. James Jamerson, of course, I've learned a lot from him. The new James Jamerson for me is Nathan East. I've been studying a lot of Nathan East. I just met him in Indonesia and he's really a cool guy and such and amazing player. I've got a lot of respect for him. Matthew Garrison, is another great young player who's kind of innovative.

KW: I just heard one of his records the other day for the first time and you're right, man, it's very different, very nice.

TG: Very different. He's just pushing the music into another direction, which is pretty cool.

KW: So, tell me about your CD.

TG: My record is, I always loved drum and bass and electronica stuff. That's what I started out doing as a DJ in England. As I was studying bass at Berklee, I forgot about what I used to listen to because I became a jazz nut. After I graduated from Berklee and toured around a bit, I guess I matured and realized that music is music. It doesn't have to be all about jazz. You don't have to worry about enjoying something else. So, I kinda went back to what I really loved. I tried to do a CD of all my favorite kinds of music. I did some drum and bass stuff, there's some Indian stuff. I used an Indian singer and guitarist. I tried to use different elements from all over the world. I did like a Chinese sound. I was really interested in Chinese music, traditional Chinese instruments. I was playing with David Fuzinski a lot and he turned me on to a lot of ethnic music so I was experimenting with that. There's some R&B kind of feels on there, some solo bass stuff and some straight up funk. Some really ambient kind of chords and progressions. I really tried to explore myself on the CD. I'm doing another CD now which is focused more on one thing than different genres.

KW: Any advice for aspiring bassist?

TG: Just don't, I know it's difficult, but don't spend a lot of time focusing on where you're going and where you want to be. I think it can be really distracting and unhealthy. I definitely did that. The music biz is really worrying and stressful and it's hard to get in there and work on how you're gonna survive and all the rest of it. I think the most important thing, with music, is to really enjoy it. Forget everything. Set goals, of course, but don't live or die by them. Play the music, enjoy it, relax. Take your time. Let the music come naturally through you and it never will be false. It's all just gonna come out when it's ready to come out. Just enjoy it. A bit of advice I got off a drummer is, just wait for the beat, man. The groove's going nowhere. Take your time. The people will always come. I live by that now and it makes sense, once you start getting into it.

KW: Here's a non-musical question, "What's your favorite meal?"

TG: My favorite meal. Well, I really enjoy fish and chips. I have to say.

KW: I was going to say, "Don't say Spotted Dick!"

TG: No, it's fish and chips. Definitely, fish and chips. It's hard to get good fish, I will never eat fish and chips in America. I just wait until I go home.

KW: What's the future hold for you?

TG: The future for me. Well, the John McLaughlin CD is coming out in May, so hopefully, that will open some new doors for me and my CD is coming out. I'm just going to keep my head down, keep workin' hard and basically see where it takes me.

---

Check out Tony, Hiromi and Martin at their respective web sites:

http://www.tonygrey.com/
http://www.hiromimusic.com/index.htm
http://www.martinvalihora.com/

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