Evan Ogborn is a multi-instrumentalist who performs with both Pretend Friend and Animal Parade. He recently completed a degree in bass performance/jazz studies at Wichita State University.
“An upright bass solo can be beautiful but then there’s times when it’s in every tune and you say, ‘OK. It’s a little silly at this point.’ There’s a reason that it’s there. It’s a kind of a glue. To be able to understand that role and play to that role? Ron Carter would sit there and he would hold that together. He would never stray from that pocket. That’s what made those albums great it wasn’t that he was a virtuosic musician and he could string notes together, it was that he was consistent. That tone was consistent.
Carol Kaye, when she worked with the Beach Boys, she had a tone that was the same every time. That’s emotional and you can feel that, physically, when it’s the same wavelength.
There’s a reason they call it the bass.
I’ve been trying to learn the saxophone and it gets to the point where your lips are bleeding and you say, ‘This has only been 25 minutes! What’s happening here? This is ridiculous.’ But I’m sure it goes the other way. If you’ve played a horn your whole life and you try to play a string bass for 10 minutes your fingers are going to be raw.”
