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Post subject: Happy B-Day Carol Kaye Is 79 Today
Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2014 1:27 pm
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My Favorite Carol Kaye BassLine =

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Post subject: Re: Happy B-Day Carol Kaye Is 79 Today
Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2014 8:49 pm
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Happy Birthday Carol !!,..... back in the 60's Carol was the "go to" Studio bassist in Los Angeles,.... she played on a lot of Billboard top 100 hits, check out this link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carol_Kaye


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Post subject: Re: Happy B-Day Carol Kaye Is 79 Today
Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2014 1:20 pm
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Oh, "Midnight Confessions" was better! Dang near quit playing when I first heard that. It killed me, blew me completely away. I was like 14 I think and I had been dragging around my first bass (Telecaster) playing root fifth lines and CCR songs, etc.

Flash forward 25 years and she taught me how to play that song! Lots of people can PLAY, few play as well as her but even FEWER are good teachers. I had a lot of different instructors but she was the absolute teacher BOMB. No better bass instructor EVER. None.

Saw Rob Grill play it live in Charlotte a few times and he actually was a good singer. Enough said.

"Dance, Dance, Dance" and "Good Vibrations" and "More Today Than Yesterday" were not too shabby either. But they didn't intimidate me like "Midnight Confessions" as that was probably the most discouraging thing I ever heard as a struggling kid lost in the wilderness hills of NE Ga. I could play the R&B stuff much easier than those things. "Midnight Confessions" might be the best recorded pop bassline of all time. Great fun to hear it now, but back in 1968/69 I wanted to cry. Happy Birthday Carol Kaye and THANKS!



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Post subject: Re: Happy B-Day Carol Kaye Is 79 Today
Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2014 1:25 pm
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Dang, left out "SHAFT," so many great bass lines from one little girl. Amazing. She got co- author credit on "Shaft."


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Post subject: Re: Happy B-Day Carol Kaye Is 79 Today
Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2014 3:25 pm
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brotherdave wrote:
Dang, left out "SHAFT," so many great bass lines from one little girl. Amazing. She got co- author credit on "Shaft


Carol Kaye -played the Bass line to Shaft :shock: :shock: I did not know this .

Hey did you know that Shaft is one bad....SHUT YOUR MOUTH !!!


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Post subject: Re: Happy B-Day Carol Kaye Is 79 Today
Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2014 7:49 pm
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The Beach Boys "Pet Sounds" album ...... "I'm A Believer" by the Monkees ...... "Homeward Bound" and "Scarborough Fair" by Simon & Garfunkel ...... "Goin Out Of My Head" by The Lettermen ...... "Midnight Confessions" by The Grass Roots ...... "Witchita Lineman", "Galveston", and "Rhinestone Cowboy" by Glen Cambell ...... "River Deep - Mountain High" by Ike and Tina Turner ...... "In The Heat Of The Night", "I Don't Need No Doctor", and "America The Beautiful" by Ray Charles ...... "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" by The Righteous Brothers ...... "Sixteen Tons" by Tennessee Ernie Ford ...... "The Way We Were" by Barbra Joan Streisand ...... and ...... And ...... AND ...... Carol Kaye played guitar on ...... "Then He Kissed Me" by The Crystals ...... "Johnny Angel" by Shelley Fabares ...... "La Bamba" by Ritchie Valens ...... "The Beat Goes On" by Sonny & Cher

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carol_Kaye


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Post subject: Re: Happy B-Day Carol Kaye Is 79 Today
Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2014 7:18 am
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I love Midnight Confessions! That is a great bass line and it certainly blew my mind in 1969.
I love that Grass roots video Bro Dave, but those guys are not playing that track- that's' a lip sync fiasco but nobody cared back then. :lol:

All of the bands lip synced because they didn't really play on their records anyway.

I'll second the whole "Beach Boys Pet Sounds" album as a bass "tour de force."

Carol Kaye's bass books are among the best musical material for bass instruction.

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Post subject: Re: Happy B-Day Carol Kaye Is 79 Today
Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2014 12:47 pm
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Lady could do it! Happy birthday!


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Post subject: Re: Happy B-Day Carol Kaye Is 79 Today
Posted: Thu Mar 27, 2014 8:45 am
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Midnight Confessions still a favorite of mine. Didn't know that was her.

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Post subject: Re: Happy B-Day Carol Kaye Is 79 Today
Posted: Thu Mar 27, 2014 2:44 pm
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Then it's settled! Midnight Confessions is one of the greatest bass lines of all time, and Carol Kaye is really that good!


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Post subject: Re: Happy B-Day Carol Kaye Is 79 Today
Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2014 5:56 pm
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I make sure to listen closely every time she speaks. Her accuracy and timing on "Midnight Confessions" is perfect. Had no idea she played on that.


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Post subject: Re: Happy B-Day Carol Kaye Is 79 Today
Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2014 6:17 pm
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Wait, what do you mean she taught you how to play the song? You actually had a lesson with the master?


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Post subject: Re: Happy B-Day Carol Kaye Is 79 Today
Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2014 11:51 pm
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WildintheStreets wrote:
Wait, what do you mean she taught you how to play the song? You actually had a lesson with the master?


Yes, she is still teaching last I heard. No more expensive than any other instructor in L.A. so you might as well go to her if you can get there and if you can read standard notation which was required back when I went and I expect is still required. Fortunately I had relatives living in L.A. at the time and went for lessons at her house when visiting relatives there. At that time a package of three 45 minute private lessons cost $175 or something like that. I can't remember exactly because it was in 1994, but whatever it was seemed more than fair at the time compared to what I'd paid nobodies that basically were primarily guitarists and didn't bring any real professional bass experience to the table.

WHY DID HER STUDIO CAREER SUDDENLY STOP? She married a Jazz musician who got a steady gig in the house band at a resort hotel in Mexico and left L.A. to stay with him in Mexico. That's why most of her significant studio work was pre-1973. While in Mexico with her husband there was a car crash in which her husband was killed and she was seriously injured. At the time (fortunately quite incorrectly) she feared she'd not play professionally again or at least not for a very long time. Les Paul went through a car crash injury which nearly ended his career as well, but few far fewer know about Ms. Kaye's.

While she had been doing private instruction since about 1959 and had "How To Play Electric Bass" published in 1969 it was really after this car accident that her sole focus for years became instruction. It was during this time she also began to self-publish her tutorials for students. These are the same instructional materials she sells today.

By the time she had recovered enough to resume playing professionally, the business itself had changed and studio musicians were not in such high demand as in the 1950's and 1960's. There simply was not as much work. Additionally, the studio grind she endured pre-accident was unbelievable. A typical weekday she'd get up early for a morning film or TV soundtrack session at a film studio, travel to the other side of town to get to a pop session in the afternoon and then trek to Brian Wilson's studio for an evening session that could stretch into the wee hours of the morning. She'd get home late, get a few hours sleep then rinse and repeat. It was tedious and frenetic with hours of driving to session after session and back home every single day. Yes it was lucrative but it also was exhausting.

When the Henry Mancini School of Music started up at UCLA Carol Kaye was their first "Bass And Jazz" Instructor. This was essentially a full-time position lasting many years. She was chosen possibly because of her long relationship working with Mr. Mancini on "The Pink Panther" soundtrack and numerous other projects. She also taught at USC, Pepperdine and other colleges in the area at one time or another. She presented at countless electric bass workshop seminars, which is how I got her contact info at a Cal State workshop/seminar in Orange County not far from where Fender used to be in Fullerton.

Her pop hits get the most attention while her soundtrack work was equally iconic if less well known ("Bonanza," "Mission Impossible," "Hogan's Heroes," "Green Acres" etc.) However the fact that she is probably the number one bass educator in the world having taught more people to play and appearing at more seminars and workshops than anyone else is not well known at all, except on the west coast. Her studio work was the main focus 1959 till 1972. While she did play professionally since the accident, instruction has actually consumed more of her time than her studio work ever did. Her live play resumed with the Hampton Hawes Jazz Trio in the mid 70s and she also played occasionally with top jazz acts at special performances. But since 1974 she has primarily done instruction. You can contact her about setting up your lessons and what her fees are now through her website. I'd move quickly on that.

She's been working on a memoir for 3 or 4 years at least. Should be a good read and I look forward to reading it.


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Post subject: Re: Happy B-Day Carol Kaye Is 79 Today
Posted: Sun Mar 30, 2014 7:28 pm
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They should make a movie about her imo.

She's doing live internet lessons now. I might have to check that out.

Learned "Midnight Confessions" btw.


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Post subject: She's Big In Finland
Posted: Tue Apr 01, 2014 3:00 am
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WildintheStreets wrote:
They should make a movie about her imo.

She's doing live internet lessons now. I might have to check that out.

Learned "Midnight Confessions" btw.


There actually was a recent film project focusing on Carol Kaye being shopped around to financiers. Other than HBO who expressed interest initially and then backed out, there were no takers. She's largely anonymous and likely to stay that way.

One documentary titled "The First Lady of Bass" was done 20 years ago. It aired ONLY in Finland. There is no copy of it I can find.

I don't think an entertainment biopic type movie could cram enough in to give an audience even "the big picture" of her entire life anymore than 2012's "Lincoln" told us all about Lincoln's life since it focused only on the last 4 months of his life. In depth life stories are best told in books. As I mentioned in an earlier post Ms. Kaye's is in the works.

A Carol Kaye biopic would have to focus on the most interesting period, and what period that actually is would be debatable. Obviously most bassists who count her an influence would pick the period 1963 to 1972 when she switched to bass and totally dominated L.A. studio sessions. However I'm not sure that is actually the most important period or angle to focus upon.

What I think is most important historically is that she broke long standing barriers. She is obviously important to the acceptance of females in the studio scene, so that is angle one. Second angle is less obvious in that she was pivotal to the acceptance of white people in R&B and Jazz. She was first and foremost a white Be-Bop Jazz guitar playing female in the 1950's, which in itself was not something young white ladies did as a rule. Angle three is that in the mid 70's she returned to Jazz after the car crash. The focus could be on the power of Jazz and how once it hooks you even if you break away it still beckons. Those three angles are to me where the most interesting story lies when looking at her career from a historical perspective of nearly a half century after that string of big pop hit basslines coming within a single decade.

I think angle 3 is the easiest to make into a good film. Who in their right mind would abandon a lucrative "Top Studio Cat" chair in L.A. to go back to a Jazz trio gig and furthermore, WHY? Right there is a good focused story.

I think it is more likely that a fictional period treatment, such as "The Rose" film which was obviously based on Janis Joplin yet actually was not really a Joplin biopic, just might be a workable angle here and you could sneak part of Ms. Kaye's story into a fictional period film about a female Jazz guitarist who blows up the barriers in pop music, has a near death experience then walks away from a million dollar pop career to return to the Jazz from whence she came. That's precisely what happened in a nutshell and it is at the core of it possibly the most appealing story.

A biopic as such about "Carol Kaye" the person appears doomed to fail before it gets off the ground, however simplifying her life into a fictional drama works. There are some great elements there and any of them could be workable. I just picked the Jazz angle because I think it is the coolest.

Sure fans and friends would like to see her life story made into a movie, but it is more of a TV miniseries and probably not going to happen. Carol will tell you this herself, few people outside the music business or bass community know or even care to know about her. The big hits she played on spanned a period that was 41 to 55 years ago. In pop culture that is ancient history. Most people alive and buying records back then are either dead or not among those buying theater tickets. You'd have to give the movie going public something to care about which they can relate to and it would not be the music their grandparents listened to on the radio 50 years ago. It would be the social change angles that would be most interesting today or the appeal of Jazz to people who genuinely love it. People like seeing how we got to where we are socially and people like seeing people follow their heart.

I honestly do not think being lost in musical anonymity is a problem for her as I don't think she did what she did to get famous, she did it to make money. She has the luxury of anonymity and in southern Ca that is a rarity for people with any degree of success in the music business outside of the studio cats. People who mattered in the business then and some who still matter today know and respect her, but outside the business she's just another senior out shopping or out to eat.

Some people want fame, but not everyone. With the exception of the handful of "Clique" and "First Call Gang" players that chose to break out and succeeded as solo acts (Glen Campbell, Herb Alpert, Leon Russell, Dr. John, etc) the rest of the 350 or so people who made up "The First Call Gang" and "The Clique" could go shopping at the height of their success listening to their music play on the radio on the way to the supermarket without ever being recognized by anyone once they got there. That is actually pretty cool. Sort of like being a secret agent.

In a way all of these L.A. studio cats were secret agents. The record companies and artists certainly didn't want you to know about them. At the time the word first broke that the Monkees were not playing their own instruments on their recordings, it actually created a quite a scandal.


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