“So if you’re a bass player, you understand some of the challenges that we have when we improvising. It’s almost like if we can look at the way a bass player improvises, or some of the restrictions – or not restrictions, but some things that a bass player has to deal with, it can actually help all of us to learn a little bit more. A lot of times when it’s time for us bass players to step up and move away from our background responsibilities, as I call them, and step into the spotlight a bit, what happens is that guitar players or piano players will just sort of stop. Right? And, you know, okay, it’s gonna happen. But so there’s nobody accompanying us, so we have to have a really strong concept of what we’re doing. And dovetailing on that, because we’re not a sax player or trumpet player who is allowed to maybe take a lot more choruses, how many times through the form that you would take your solo on. In many jazz contexts, they may take 15, you know, choruses or something on a blues. The bass player may get five or six, right? So we have to have a really strong concept. We have to really know what we’re doing harmonically. And we have to just be hitting it right out of the gate. So I think those things can be helpful, coming from a bass player’s perspective, some elements about improvisation that can be helpful for anybody. Because the stronger concept you have, the stronger harmonic sensibility, is going to help you either way.” — Lorin Cohen, Jazz Bassist and Educator → Watch the full episode: https://musicalitynow.com/283