Vinyl Wednesday: GRAHAM CENTRAL STATION - RELEASE YOURSELF
Graham Central Station is the band of bass player and singer Larry Graham. "Larry Graham, Jr. is an American baritone singer, musician, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known as both the bass guitar player in the popular and influential psychedelic soul/funk band Sly & the Family Stone, and as the founder and front man of Graham Central Station. He is credited with the invention of the slapping technique, which radically expanded the tonal palette of the bass, although he himself refers to the technique as "Thumpin' and Pluckin'." (Bass Player magazine, Apr 07). So.. what about that slapping technique? According to Dutch wikipedia, in the 60's he played in a duo formation with his mother on piano and by the absence of drums he started to use the noises of the snares in a percussive way so it made a drum sound. There's a whole article on English wikipedia about slapping technique in general. Graham is mainly famous for using his thumb and index finger, while Mark King also paradiddles and performs the left hand slap... not to forget Victor Wooten with his more efficient technique plus index/middle finger plucking.. yes.
Back to this album: I think my favourite tune is "Tis your kind of music".
Horns of this album are performed by Tower Of Power plus Hershall "Happiness" Kennedy, Grahams' trumpet player. Funny enough, the Tower Of Power horns are not credited as such, but with their apart names.. Gregory Adams, Emilio Castillo, Michael Gilette, Stephen Kupka, Leonard Pickett. More credits: Produced by GOD Co-produced by Larry Graham. I was already wondering what kind of job God would do and how I could get in touch with him.. I can just meet him at the studio! The studio he used at the time: Record Plant, Sausalito, California. Enjoy listening.
So the first time we played the music from Royalty For Real wasn't in Amersfoort, the Netherlands, but in Bengaluru and Mumbai, all the way in India in 2023!Here you'll see me play Au Privave, Classy Cats and Royalty For Real, together with Timothy Banchet (piano), Marius Beets (bass) and Sven Rozier (drums).Au Privave is a well-known blues by Charlie Parker which I often like to start with, almost like a soundcheck tune. Although most of the time a soundcheck is done I found out it's a good idea to play a tune everybody of the band knows very well so we all can get used to the sound of the stage, the presence of the audience and it also gives the sound engineer the chance to adjust microphones last minute. During the soundcheck, the sound of the room is significantly different because of the lack of audience. All that flesh and clothes work a little bit like a totally empty room versus a room with furniture and carpets, if you know what I mean :-)Acoustics are so interesting and full of surprises.. Anyways.. hope you like it! - Graham Central Station is the band of bass player and singer Larry Graham.Larry Graham, Jr. is an American baritone singer, musician, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known as both the bass guitar player in the popular and influential psychedelic soul/funk band Sly & the Family Stone, and as the founder and front man of Graham Central Station. He is credited with the invention of the slapping technique, which radically expanded the tonal palette of the bass, although he himself refers to the technique as Thumpin' and Pluckin'. (Bass Player magazine, Apr 07).So.. what about that slapping technique?According to Dutch wikipedia, in the 60's he played in a duo formation with his mother on piano and by the absence of drums he started to use the noises of the snares in a percussive way so it made a drum sound. There's a whole article on English wikipedia about slapping technique in general. Graham is mainly famous for using his thumb and index finger, while Mark King also paradiddles and performs the left hand slap... not to forget Victor Wooten with his more efficient technique plus index/middle finger plucking.. yes.Back to this album: I think my favourite tune is Tis your kind of music.Horns of this album are performed by Tower Of Power plus Hershall Happiness Kennedy, Grahams' trumpet player. Funny enough, the Tower Of Power horns are not credited as such, but with their apart names.. Gregory Adams, Emilio Castillo, Michael Gilette, Stephen Kupka, Leonard Pickett. More credits:Produced by GOD Co-produced by Larry Graham.I was already wondering what kind of job God would do and how I could get in touch with him.. I can just meet him at the studio! The studio he used at the time: Record Plant, Sausalito, California.Enjoy listening.
