Meet The First Lady of Bass
Over the past few posts, I've introduced you to an extraordinary musician, Carol Kaye.
My initial plan was to interview her and post the interview so my readers could learn more about Ms. Kaye and the incredible impact she made on modern music. Packed full of insider info, tidbits of history and glimpses into the recording sessions of the 60's & 70's, her responses to my questions are a series of separate posts in themselves. There's just no good way to cut anything out. I am, therefore posting the interview in its entirety over the course of this week.
My hope is that you, my gracious readers, enjoy learning from her as much as I have. Please feel free to leave questions and feedback in comments. I'm sure Ms. Kaye will appreciate hearing from you as well.
(Note: This series was initially posted at my old blog, She Lives. I recently moved it here. The dates of the original publications are correct.)
She Lives: It's an honor to feature you here at She Lives, Ms. Kaye. You prolific career and the profound mark you've made in popular music over the years has inspired so many bassists and so many female musicians like myself. I know my readers are anxious to get to know The First Lady of Bass, so let's rock!
You started
out playing the guitar. What motivated
you to pick up the bass and why
has that continued to be your primary instrument over the
years? Were there any notable women
bassists from which to draw inspiration
in those early days?
Carol Kaye: I really wasn't "motivated by anything" - just saw a future on bass when I was accidentally put on elec. bass when someone didn't show up at a 1963 record date....I was a successful prof. guitar player playing jazz since I was 14 (after a few months of lessons) 1949....and was a noted jazz guitarist around LA-SouthLA-BeachTowns-Hollywood area in the 1950s after a 1-1/2 year tour on the road with a big band at 20 years old. You grew up fast in those tough years.
You have to understand, EVERYONE could play music well in the 1950s because....you didn't do it from "note-scales" but from chordal tones and substitute chordal patterns, not hardly taught at all today unfortunately except by jazz professionals in (usually) black colleges etc., and by some older teachers (my age or older).
"...I had kids and a mother to support, the extra money was great..."
They needed guitar players to do studio work and so I was hired [by] a producer, Bumps Blackwell (producer of Sam Cooke, manager of Little Richard and himself a fine jazz vibist), in 1957 ... my first year, playing guitar fills in back of Sam Cooke recordings. It wasn't quite jazz, but it was good music, working in studios for excellent monies, and didn't have to put up with musicians using drugs in the "back-room" nor drunks out front.
Playing in the fine jazz clubs was exciting and I *loved* doing that, was acquiring quite a name for myself around LA, etc....(I even later had to turn down the great George Shearing who wanted me for his jazz group after starting studio work), and never wanted to do studio work, but it was the right choice. The saying always went that if you did studio work, you'd never come back out to play jazz again - and while I did jazz gigs for a few years while doing studio work, that saying proved true...and jazz sort of died in the 1960's anyway...but I had kids and a mother to support, the extra money was great...so I did studio work on guitars (12-string, Dano bass guitar, mandolin, gut string guitar, all guitars) and then was asked to play Fender bass in 1963 when someone didn't show up at Capitol Records.
I liked playing Fender bass (later called the "Elec. Bass" due to my books that came out in 1969 with Elec. Bass in the titles) more than guitar which was hokey to me, playing on rock hits - most studio musicians were jazz musicians in those rock records, but I just couldn't stand to play those rock fills and lines anymore!...bass was more fun, and I saw the importance of bass lines framing so-so singers and so-so songs to turn them into big hits, and reasoned "all I have to carry in is ONE instrument, not 4-6 guitars, etc.)..it all made sense and by 1964, I was #1 call on 99% of the dates, the most important bassist to call first, both for my sounds - my creative lines - but also for my professionalism.
"Responsibility for your family is [the] #1 Rule to me."
Like the rest of the fine studio musicians, I had no bad habits (no drugs, no booze) but I also didn't smoke (they did) and we all did many cups of studio coffee to stay away throughout the long days and nights of recording...I just never wanted to do anything to hurt my body like drink or use drugs, etc...or smoke...[A]nd I worked hard day and night since a teenager, having been born poor, etc., and had responsibilities since I was 9 years old, working part time even then. Responsibility for your family is [the] #1 rule to me.
Lest I sound like "violins" for any sympathy, if you ask any of my peer group, usually they *all* had tough times in their lives too, growing up in the depression 1930's and then the scary WWII years...it was tough living and parents back in those days usually beat their kids out of frustration; it was common...but we all grew up very well...and coming from humble beginnings, we were all grateful for the lucrative studio work too. We all pulled together to help create (invent lines) hit records; it was a given. We studio musicians of the late 1950's-60's-70's were not spoiled people with egos.
I knew there were many women musicians playing jazz with the men in the 1940's and 50's, but I was more interested in the men in those years; they seemed to be better jazz musicians. I did play with some fine women jazz musicians (I played guitar in the bebop jazz days of the 1950's) such as Clora Bryant, Vi Redd, and a few others. Later on, tho', 1980's or so, I think [there were] a lot more women who [were] just as good, if not better than the men.
Tomorrow: Part Two;
"The First Lady of Bass in a Man's World"
Links:
NPR's Bob Edwards' interview with Carol Kaye
Related Past posts:
Electric Bass, Bass Guitar, Something Something...?
13 Clues: Guess My Guest (Carol Kaye)
Saturday Spotlight (excerpts from Pekka Rautionmaa's documentary, "The First Lady of Bass")
