Goodbye Pork Pie Hat - Fretless Bass
This magical piece by Charles Mingus has been thrilling and moving me for many years now.
In my perception, it radiates a very unique melancholic mystical mood that has completely captivated me ever since. Mingus wrote the piece as a tribute to the legendary jazz saxophonist Lester Young, who died in 1959 and whom he deeply revered and admired.
My version of Goodbye Pork Pie Hat is intended as a tribute and expression of gratitude to the people who have supported, inspired and accompanied me on my journey as a person and as a musician.
- My dear parents, my beloved partner, and my closest friends.
- I am especially grateful to the following musicians, artists and bands:
- Jaco Pastorius
- Squarepusher
- Rush
- King Crimson
- Talk Talk
- Joni Mitchel
- Jeff Beck
- Pat Metheny
- David Sylvian
- Nick Drake
- Steve Reich
- and of course Johann Sebastian Bach.
The main instrument I use in this video is my beloved 1982 Gibson Victory Bass.
It's also my first bass, by the way, and I can still vividly remember buying it with my mom at a local music store in 1988 when I was thirteen. Back then, though, it still had frets and was painted a bright metallic red.
About a year later, I also removed the frets (unfortunately, not very professionally), as I realized that a double bass doesn't have frets either, and I've always loved its growling, singing tone. Around 1996, after I had already begun studying music, I realized that I could only achieve the desired sound by using a bridge pickup, so the next major surgery was necessary.
I removed the original pickup and had a carpenter fill the cutout so I could mount two Jazz Bass pickups. About 10 years ago, I thoroughly sanded the fingerboard again and covered it with epoxy resin. Since then, it has been one of my most important and beloved instruments.
I played and recorded the accompaniment simultaneously on my Greco GO II 750 (1979) and my Eko K2 bass pedal (1983), and created the rhythm arrangement exclusively using my old Vermona ER9 (1977) drum machine.
I hope you will enjoy it!
With warm regards
Many thanks to:
- Dominik Apanowicz (www.apanowicz.de) for his great and sensitive camera work!
- Gabriel Schütz (www.gabston.de) for helping me with the mix and for his extremely musical mastering work!
- Florian Ostertag (https://florianostertag.de) for midifying my old Vermona ER9
#basssolo #fretlessbass #jacopastorius #charlesmingus