Interviews

The Chris Jisi Interview

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[Chris with Will Lee, Anthony Jackson, Mark Egan and Neil Jason, 1988]

ABOUT CHRIS JISI

Born and raised in Queens, New York, Chris Jisi has been a professional bassist since 1980 and a music journalist since 1982. He is currently the Senior Contributing Editor for Bass Player magazine.

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[Chris with Wil Lee, Rocco Prestia and Jeff Berlin in front of the Bottom Line in 1991]

Mike Visceglia: You've interviewed more than 225 bass players over the past 20 years. That must be some kind of record! How did you get this gig?

Chris Jisi: Well, at the root of it all (no pun) is the fact that I'm a huge bass fan. I'm a professional bass player and music journalist, but first and foremost I'm a fan. Back in the early '80s I was an avid reader of Guitar Player for their in-depth bassist interviews, but-much to my annoyance-there wasn't a bass story in every issue. I was studying with Lincoln Goines at the time, so out of frustration I showed up one week and said to him, let me interview you and I'll send it to Guitar Player and maybe they'll publish it. I sent in the piece and the editor, Tom Wheeler, not only bought it, he gave me pointers on how to write in the GP style. The reason I wasn't seeing bass in every issue was because they didn't have any bass-only writers, so I lucked into a void. From there, I continued to write bass interviews for them-as well as a two-year period with Guitar World and a few pieces for Musician-until Bass Player spun off from Guitar Player in 1990 and I got on the staff and masthead as a regular contributing editor.

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MV: How do you choose who you're going to interview?

CJ: A number of ways. Much of the time I make suggestions based on following the various music scenes. In many instances it's an obvious choice because a big-name leader or a sideman in a well-known band will have a new CD to talk about. Other times a bassist will be on a press junket in New York City, so I'll cover it. And there are issues where my editor will assign me to interview someone I'm not especially familiar with. I'm like anyone else, I have preferred tastes in music, but being assigned to write about bassists and bands in styles I might not particularly care for or even know about has been one of the best parts of the job because that's how I've been able to grow and become a better, more-informed journalist.

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MV: Of all the interviews you've done which are the most memorable, and why?

CJ: My heroes have always been the session bassists because of their amazing versatility, so getting to interview players like Anthony Jackson, Will Lee, Pino Palladino and Chuck Rainey is always a thrill. When it comes to most rewarding, though, I'm proud of the 1992 Bass Player piece Anthony and I did on Joe Osborn. My friend Alan Slutsky had just written his amazing book on James Jamerson and Carol Kaye was enjoying new acclaim, but, as Anthony pointed out, no one was honoring Joe. Here was a true pioneer who had played on just as many sessions and hit records as Carol on the pivotal '60s L.A. session scene, but most bassists had never heard of him. We flew him to N.Y. and did the interview and it started the ball rolling. Dan Lakin of Lakland Basses made Joe a signature model. He began appearing in ads and he got a web site going, and in 1999 Bass Player presented him with a Lifetime Achievement Award at Bass Day. To have played a small part in getting him the proper notoriety is very gratifying. Along those lines I've got to mention the pieces I was fortunate to get to do on Rocco Prestia and most recently on Miles Davis/Stevie Wonder bassist Michael Henderson. Also, in a special category of its own is having interviewed the late great Milt Hinton several times. Those were incredible walks through history.

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[anthony Jackson, Chris, Dan Lakin (Lakland Basses)
and Joe Osborn at the Lakland booth during the 1999 NAMM show in LA]

MV: Which players "give good interview"?

CJ: There are a handful who are so well-spoken, insightful and thoughtful that just by turning on the tape recorder I know I'll get an interview full of gems every time. They include Marcus Miller, Anthony Jackson, Will Lee, Jack Bruce, Victor Wooten, Stanley Clarke, Neil Stubenhaus and Geddy Lee. Some of the players are really funny, like Billy Sheehan, Stu Hamm, Les Claypool, Steve Bailey, and John Entwistle, with his extremely dry wit. The majority of bassists I talk to express themselves well; some have varying degrees of difficulty putting what they do on the bass into words, but I just keep asking questions and eventually we flesh it out. I've never had a difficult interview where someone was closed-mouth or unwilling to share their thoughts and concepts.

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MV: I suppose that much of the conversation between yourself and the bassist never makes it into the magazine, due to the limited space. Over the years, have there been items that were edited out that you wish folks would have been able to read?

CJ: Not really. I've been blessed to have great editors like Jim Roberts, Karl Coryat, Richard Johnston, and currently, Bill Leigh. They're all very clear about what content and size they need and any changes they make are usually minor and improve my piece. What has been frustrating is having transcriptions cut out because the song publisher wants too much money for the reprint rights. Also, there have been some embarrasing and humorous misprints. Sometimes a note will shift or a chord will be misplaced and I have to wait in my own private agony until the next issue for the correction to be listed on the Letters page. There was the time we switched printers during the issue with my cover story on Jeff Berlin and an entire page of his interview was omitted. One that really made me cringe was the mysterious omission of a few words in my cover story on Nathan East. In talking about Foreplay he coyly joked, "I don't know how to describe our music, since it wasn't written to fit any format. But if you're having dinner-or anything else-it works." Unfortunately, the "or anything else" got left out!

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MV: How has your writing career affected your playing?

CJ: That's a good question. The time I spend writing feature stories, transcriptions, a column and record reviews takes me away from the bass enough to have ensured that I'll never be a virtuoso, just a competent groove-obsessed sideman. But somewhere along the way it clicked in me that perhaps this is my calling. I could make a much greater contribution covering the bass world for everyone that plays and loves the instrument than I could as a non-composing, non-singing bass player. I've always admired great music teachers, even though I lack the technical command and knowledge and the one-on-one communications skills to be one myself. However, lately it has dawned on me that in my own way I'm sort of an educator, too, by relating the hows and whys and the do's and don'ts of our favorite and most influential bassists. But there's a bright side here, as well. Jaco always talked about practicing and developing away from your instrument and I'm living proof! Between hearing so many different bassists in different styles, transcribing bass lines, discerning the subtle differences in grooves from one player and style to the next, and just absorbing so much music, it has opened up my playing dramatically, both technically and conceptually.

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MV: What can you relate about your playing career?

CJ: To be honest, I'm a late-bloomer who has always lacked confidence to some degree, not a good quality for a bass player. I've been playing in a really good 11-piece wedding band, with mostly the same musicians, for over 20 years. We also splinter off and play clubs in the metro area for fun. Two of the guys are in a cool band called Funk Filharmonic, which plays covers of Tower Of Power, Earth, Wind & Fire and others. They have an excellent bassist named Jack Knight, who works at Samson, and several times a year he calls me to sub for him, which is a tremendous challenge. I always insist that he give me two weeks notice so I can shed "What is Hip?" "Credit" and other insane 16th-note Rocco lines! And in a fluke that shows you how upside down the music business has become, I played on the biggest selling album of 2001. Gordon Dukes, a singer in my wedding band, is also a writer and producer for the rapper Shaggy. Gordon hired me and our guitarist, Dave Lavender, to come out to his home studio on Long Island and play on a track he was working on. It ended up on Shaggy's "Hotshot" CD and I just received a platinum album.

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[Chris and fellow BP editor Ed Friedland playing at the Bass Player 10th Anniversary Concert]

MV: You must have the chance to see and hear numerous bass players from all over the world. Who are today's most promising, but perhaps not well-known players? And who are the players whose gigs you make a point of always checking out?

CJ: Wow, that's such a difficult question. As the ultimate fan, I have so many favorites and they're broken into numerous categories in my head. The other factor is we're here in New York, so we take it for granted that we can go out almost anytime and see Will Lee, Anthony Jackson, Christian McBride, John Patitucci, Dave Holland, Ron Carter, Richard Bona, Andy Gonzalez, Mark Egan and so many others. I get excited when someone makes a rare appearance in town, such as Marcus Miller—I always go to see his shows because he’s the Jaco of our time—or folks like Victor Wooten, Oteil Burbridge, Gary Willis or Victor Bailey. Another guy you have to keep your eye on is Doug Wimbish because he's always playing on the hippest, latest stuff. When it comes to on-the-verge N.Y. players I think of Matt Garrison-he's the next electric bass giant in my mind. And there's a scary new breed of doublers, like Tom Barney-who's everywhere these days-Chris Wood of Medeski, Martin & Wood, Fima, James Genus, Mike Pope, John Benitez, Tony Scherr, Tim Lefebvre, and Reggie Washington. I also love Johnathan Maron of Groove Collective and Andrew Harkin who plays with the Irish rock band the Prodigals. My choice for perhaps the most underrated Gotham bassist is Gene Perez; from the stuff he plays on the Masters At Work remixes and Nuyorican Soul to Willie Colon he's just an absolute groove monster.

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MV: Would you recommend music journalism as a career choice or supplement?

CJ: Yes, especially the supplement part. I've found there are two kinds of musicians in New York. There are the ones who are so determined to play only their own music that they literally prefer to program computers or drive a cab rather than play music they don't like to pay the bills. The majority of us, though, welcome secondary careers that keep us in the music business, like playing weddings, teaching, working at a studio or record label, or writing about music. With the explosion of the internet all kinds of sites need people to write about music, so it's worth checking out if you have some writing skills.

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MV: From your unique perspective do you have any advice for young bassists?

CJ: The downside of what I've seen is the big city session scenes have dried up, the live club playing scene has taken its hits compared to 10-20 years ago, and there's now a whole generation that has been raised on sequenced, mechanized music-to whom a live rhythm section sounds alien. That said, the good news is that with the advent of home studios instead of 3 or 4 major studio scenes there are now thousands of little scenes all over the place in which you can become the "first call" bassist and play on an album that becomes a hit-witness my Shaggy story. Get out and meet people and offer your services in their home studios; chances are when they hear how much life real bass brings to a track they'll have you back. On the live side, I'm encourged by the booming underground jam band scene, not only because it will give young bassists countless playing opportunities, but because the hybrid blend of styles these bands are exploring is creating some exciting new music!

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MV: Thanks for sharing your thoughts and observations with us.

CJ: Wait! Before we end you have to allow me to return to my interviewer role to pose the one question that I've been dying to ask you for years: Just how did you come up with that cool sub-hook on "Luka"?!

MV: I'm always looking for the melodic idea inside the rhythm. Minor chords (like the one you're referring to in Luka) are always fun because of all the modal and chromatic possibilities. I especially like the interplay between the 2nd (or 9th) and minor 3rd. With a song like Luka ,which harmonically is a simple pop song, playing around with the minor chord made it a little more interesting to me as a bass player.

Thanks very much for agreeing to be the interviewee!

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Chris Jisi's Favorite Websites

Bass Player
(www.bassplayer.com)
"The search option is my favorite; I use it to look up back articles on players I'm about to interview."

All-Music Guide
(www.allmusic.com)
"The ultimate research tool, especially for checking out a bassist's credits and compiling their discography. Simply enter any musician's name, or album or song title.

Ed Friedland
(www.EdFriedland.com)
"Bass Player Contributing Editor Ed Friedland's website. An extensive mix of valuable educational material with a humorous touch, from a fellow native-New Yorker."

Calle 54
(www.Calle54Film.com)
"This homage to Latin music is the best concert movie I've ever seen. In the Michel Camilo Trio segment, Anthony Jackson's bass solo is incredible."

Standing In The Shadows Of Motown
(www.elliottscottproductions.com)
"Alan Slutsky's long-awaited upcoming documentary on Motown's Funk Brothers is awesome. The Jamerson-heavy content includes Bob Babbitt, Pino Palladino, Nate Watts, Ralphe Armstrong, Me'Shell Ndegeocello, Bootsy Collins and Phil Chen.

Sadowsky Basses
(www.sadowsky.com)
"My trusty Sadowsky 5-string has been at my side since 1992."

Fodera Basses
(www.fodera.com)
"I'm excited to be getting a Fodera 5-string this spring."

Vali Music
(www.vali.com)
"This is the office of the wedding and corporate party band I work for; a talented and cool bunch of guys and gals."

Airship - The Home Page For Lighter-Than-Air Craft
(http://spot.colorado.edu/~dziadeck/airship/introduction.htm)
"My hobby away from music is collecting blimp and zeppelin memorabilia. This is the most comprehensive site on the subject on the internet."

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If you'd like to contact Chris, you can write to him at ChrisJisi@aol.com