Global Bass Online March 2001
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Global Bass Magazine’s
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GB:
It seems to me that you and George have managed to work out the perfect
endorsement deal because when one thinks of Alain Caron, one thinks of
Furlanetto. I live not too far from where they are built and when I go into the
shop and I see these basses, I think of Alain Caron. This is a perfect symbiosis
between artist and instrument.
Al:
Actually I was just on the phone about 10 minutes
ago with George planning a few things. Definitely, we have the perfect
agreement. I always want to stay with them because of the character we have
developed. It is weird to find a builder where we even agree upon the final
sound! What I like in a sound, George likes too. We kinda grew together. We
developed our ears and knowledge together. Always in the same direction and on
the same path.
GB:
How did you meet originally?
Al:
He came to Montreal, called me, and said he had a
great instrument for me. I tried it and said “Yeah”, but I also told him
right away what I didn’t like. He said, “Oh, I didn’t see that, but
you’re right!”.
It’s
been like this for almost 14 years.
GB:
Do you have anything special done, for example, to the pickups?
Al:
Oh my God, yes! I don’t know how many versions of
pickups we have tried. Now we also working with Seymour Duncan and I will
actually be endorsing their pickups. I have been working with George and the
technicians at Seymour Duncan for the past four years.
So
you have the option of George’s pickup or Seymour pickups. But more and more
George will be using Seymour Duncan pickups. He doesn’t have the time to wind
pickups manually.
GB: Many of the videos of you in concert have you playing an F Bass with a midi pickup affixed to the bass. Is this the Yamaha B1-D pickup?
Al: Yes, this is what I have now, although I am not playing that live anymore, but I have it in my studio.
GB: Why do you not use it live anymore?
Al: Because after UZEB I wanted to focus more on just the bass. The fretless 6 string. First of all, I wanted to develop two sounds, the fretless and the piccolo bass as well. I am going to develop an upright 6 string as well.
GB: Who will you have build it for you?
Al:
It’s already done, I
will have it in a couple of months, it’s built by Boosey and Hawkes. The
instrument is at the finishing stages now. It’s very exciting.
GB: Back when you did use the B1-D pickup, it appeared that you favored voices that were flutelike or horn-like…
Al: Yeah, it was because of the tracking. That kind of wave is easier to track.
GB: Did the pickup handled fretless fairly well, overall?
Al: Yup, it did. I also had the Peavey midi bass.
GB:
Yeah, they just seem to come in with a bang and then just disappeared!
Al:
Because it didn’t sell. I had one for 5 years and
I thought it was a great bass. But they decided to stop the building because
they weren’t selling enough of them.
GB: Do you think it was because of the technology?
Al: No I think the technology was right. But Peavey sells so many guitars and amplifiers, it’s such a big company and that department was losing money.
GB: On “CALL ME AL” did you use midi at all? There are times when it sounds like you may have, but when I look at the sheer size of the band you are using I thought, why bother? Seventeen people, you wouldn’t need midi bass, you had everything there!
Al: That’s right. This record was focussed on the idea of a small Big Band. As acoustic as possible, I wanted the real horns, the real piano. But when I was making the demo and when I was writing, I used the midi bass.
GB: There is a wonderful R & B singer in Toronto by the name of Liz Tansey. When her album “What I Want” first came out I went to see here play live and it was obvious that to pull off that full sound from her album, she had to use a very large band. In spite of this excellent debut album, it was far too expensive to tour a large band like hers to support that album.
Al: Yes, I know her. I have the same problem, don’t worry. I cannot tour with a horn section. I have to use keyboard.
GB: That’s really a shame isn’t it? You can’t help but feel badly for the horn players too because they know that they are the first out the door when cutting costs becomes paramount.
Al: Very true.
GB:
You have long endorsed La Bella strings.
Al: For a long time now.
GB: Why La Bella versus the hundreds of other types of string available?
Al: When I first started to play 6 string bass, there was no low B available on the market. By accident I met the La Bella distributor here in Quebec. He told me that he could give me the direct phone number and they could build me the exact string I wanted. So that was how it started. It could easily have been another company.
I called them and I told them I would like to have them build me a low B. They sent me a couple samples and we met, and they asked me if I would like to endorse the strings. I liked the string, but we kept developing different models. We are still working on different models for them.
GB: So for you it isn’t just that you endorse a string because they will send you free boxes of them. The same with F Basses, you are actively involved in the development of the product. You are helping them and they are helping you.
Al: Yes, I don’t want or need free strings. I have the same thing with EDEN Ampifiers. I use their Navigator preamplifier. David Nordshow, the owner of the company, I don’t know how many cabinets he has sent me to try. I keep saying to him, “No this is not right, this is right, this is better”. When he designed the Navigator, he sent me a list of things I would like to see on a preamplifier, so definitely I want to work with this company.
More and more I am going to do things with Roland as well. I’ve actually been working with Roland for years, doing clinics with them but more and more I am going to be involved with other Roland products for bass. It is going to be very interesting, but I cannot say more than that at this point.
On my last record I used their digital board, it was incredible. It’s 24-Bit with onboard effects, the A to D (analog to digital-Editor) converter sounds incredible, it sounds warm and fat. It’s definitely incredible, I have it in my studio right now!
GB: Would you say you have a very discerning ear, an exact sense of what sounds good and what doesn’t?
Al: I don’t know about that, but I know I can differentiate between frequencies. When David (Eden) calls me and sends me a speaker cabinet, I can tell him if there is too much of this or a resonance in that area or this tweeter is different.
GB: In the long run however, having someone such as yourself in the fields but with a good ear is a blessing, you would save a company many tens of thousands of dollars from building a cabinet that may have a sympathetic resonance or a ‘honk’. They need to know this stuff.
Al: That’s why they want me to work with them and on the other hand, that’s why I want to work with them.
GB:
It’s good to be taken seriously and respected, isn’t it?
Al:
You cannot ask to be respected, it has to come
naturally. If you have to ask to be respected, if you have to tell a person to
be respectful to you, you probably are already too late.
GB:
The song on this newest album entitled “The F File”. Is that a play
on the X Files or a reference to your love of Furlanetto basses?
Al:
No it’s just a stupid thing. Actually, I did name
it after the X Files, but really when I write music I write it on the computer
using Q-Base and I always use a score. Obviously when I write these things, I
put them in files and that tune was in the Funk File. That was the F File.
GB: Have you ever wrestled with trying to get the slap technique on the fretless?
Al:
On the fretless I don’t think it sounds good
because the string hits a long flat wooden surface, it just sounds thin and
quiet. I don’t like the sound. All the slap I do I do on the fretted bass.
GB: Have you ever been tempted to venture beyond 6 string. Perhaps 7 and other configurations?
Al: No, I don’t think it’s for me at this point. It took me a long time to be totally comfortable on the 6 string. I’d rather spend my time now on developing my writing skills.
GB: Why six strings then?
Al: I knew I wanted to have more strings to have more vertical possibilities. And more range! `Cos when Gino Vanelli came on the scene with a bass synthesizer, it made me want to have access to that same low B.
I wanted to have access to that low range and since I wanted to be a good soloist as well, I wanted to have access in the higher range without having to play at the very top, at the very highest section of the neck all the time. I knew a long time ago that I wanted a six string.
GB: Did you ever come across butting heads with guitarists that would say to you, “You’re not a guitarist! Stay out of my range”.
Al: Of course, but when I play bass, I play bass. When I solo, I solo. When to step forward and when to step back. This is the first thing I say in my clinics…”If you came here to learn how to solo, I will show you a few good tricks, but first you have to enjoy being a bass player. This is the first question you have to ask yourself, “Do I wanna be a bass player, because a bass player has a role to fulfill. To support harmonically and rhythmically, you have to be the father of the band. If you don’t want to fill that role, you’re not a bass player.”
It’s just a matter of understanding arrangements and writing. When you write you understand the importance of the bass.
GB: I might as well get your opinion on this issue as well. I have asked Dann Glenn, Chuck Rainey and Jeff Berlin this and would like your opinion as well. Do you feel that Tablature holds any place compared to Musical Notation in written music, any validity?
Al: I am against that (Tablature) too. It took a long time to develop the writing of music, to make it international, to make it able to speak with other musicians, to allow other musicians to play together. So, it’s international, and it works! I think we shouldn’t change that.
GB: At the beginning of this interview we talked about the universal and international language of music, and how the success of UZEB was in no small way because it used no words, no English and no French, no barriers. The limitation of Tablature lies in it’s inability to cross talk with other instruments in a group.
Al: I agree definitely!
GB: In this newest album you have ventured into looping, a very adventuresome step. Was this the first time you have embraced that technology?
Al: No. We used looping with UZEB even in the `80’s.
GB: There is one track on this album called ‘SECRETS’ where you use upright bass, acoustic piano, a cello and a female voice only. The cello and the voice are done by a young lady by the name of JORANE. Tell us a bit about her, please.
Al: She is a great singer and a great cellist, the only one I know that can do both at the same time! She has two great records out.
GB:
Have you ever been approached about doing a duet with someone say for
example, like Michael Manring, another fretless wizard?
Al:
I did a bass record called
BASSE CONTRA BASSE (‘Bass
and Contrabass’) that’s on my record label now. NORAC Records. I would like
to do some other duet, not necessarily with bass at this point. Although I know
Michael very well and I really enjoy his playing.
GB: I have been listening to what you have been saying and I can’t help but ask if you feel that perhaps Quebec is more prone to nurture its artists than maybe the rest of Canada.
Al: I think we are a bit more organized. I mean, look at the Montreal Jazz Festival, the biggest festival I have played. Next week I have to go to Quebec City because of an event called Le Rideau, it’s where all the festival managers get together to organize their events.
I am going to do a showcase there to present my show and to do a tour in Quebec. So I feel it is a bit more organized. All the Jazz Festivals across Canada should be able to get together and perhaps have an artist not just do one festival, but to do them all.
I had been trying to play across Canada for years and it’s so hard. It’s too complicated, it’s easier just to head to Europe. I make a living in Europe because you know, I go a couple of times a year to do a one-month tour. There is a kind of organization in place that I don’t see in Canada.
There is no communication between Toronto and Montreal and there is less between Vancouver and Montreal!
So
if you are not familiar with Alains work, why not take a jaunt on over to his
website. The URL is provided at the end of this article. Try out a few of his
samples from this most recent album and others. If you like what you hear, and
if you are a lover of all things fretless, chances are you will, albums can be
ordered directly from his site.
A complete discography of Alain’s career with UZEB and his 4 solo albums. He has played on other peoples recordings as well, and that information can be found along with other interesting info at his website at:
Ten
releases with UZEB in
Live in Bracknell `81
Fast Emotion `82
You Be Easy `84
Between the Lines `85
Live a l’Olympia `86
Absolutely Live `86
Noisy Nights `88
Live in Europe `88
UZEB Club `89
World Tour `90
Video’s
UZEB 86~90
60 rue de Lombards
Noisy Nights
UZEB Club
Solo
Albums to date
92/93 His first with Le Band
95 Also with Le Band
97 PLAY
2000 Call Me Al
Also
the re-release of the UZEB World Tour
and The Best of UZEB on Les Disques
NORAC
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