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Carol Kaye was
born in Everett, Washington to musician parents, Clyde and Dot
Smith, both professionals. She has played and taught guitar
professionally since 1949, played bebop jazz guitar in dozens of
nightclubs around Los Angeles with top groups (also in Bob
Neal's jazz group with Jack Sheldon backing Lenny Bruce,
with Teddy Edwards, Billy Higgins etc.), accidentally got into
studio work late 1957 with the Sam Cooke recordings and other
big recordings on guitar for the 1st 5 years of studio work in
Hollywood
(thanks to carolkaye.com). |
Where are you based
Carol? Santa Clarita, Calif.,
suburb of Los Angeles California, USA.
When did you first take a bass in
your hands? When the bass player
didn't show up at Capitol Records. I had been a jazz guitar player since
1949, studio guitar player since 1957 and the bass player didn't show up
1963, so I played bass, and liked playing it on pop, funk, rock dates
instead of guitar which I held very sacred from my jazz days...bass was
different.
Can you remember the first piece
you ever learned on bass? I
don't go by songs, I go by music theory, the chordal progressions. When
you have the right proper theory chordal education, you have the skills to
play anything well. I've been a professional in jazz since 1949 at the age
of 14 after 3-4 months of guitar lessons because of fine chordal training,
and was immediately thrust into #1 call studio work (doing over 10,000
recording dates) on bass which was easy because of over 14 years as a
professional musician - this kind of training is not readily available
today except with a few older musician-teachers of my age group.
What was your very first public performance? I don't remember,
had a jazz gig about the 3rd or 4th month of studying with my guitar
teacher, some kind of jazz trio gig.
What’s your current band?
I don't have a band.
What’s your main bass?
I only use Ibanez products, the basses are both SRX 700's, and my guitar
,which is my main instrument these days, (HAPPILY!!) is the customized
Ibanez RT series guitar, Duncan humbucker neck pickup and George Benson
Thomastik Jazz flat strings. I use Thomastik Jazz Flats on the Ibanez
bass, and use their fine generic bass pickups for the occasional studio
bass thing I still do.
Body colour/wood?
Wood doesn't matter in elec. instruments.
Neck/fingerboard?
Rosewood both guitar and bass.
What is your backline bass amp
setup? Polytone Sonic II, guitar
amp and bass amps.
Fingers, plectrum or both?
Never played with anything but a hard pick.
If plectrum, which ones?
My own specially made up, the "Carol Kaye" picks.
What type of music do you play?
Bebop Jazz.
Who do you listen to when you’re
not playing? Silence, and then
some bebop jazz and a little classical. Just because I recorded a bunch of
rock and roll doesn't mean I am a rock player! Most of the studio
musicians who cut everyone's favourite hit records in the 1960s were jazz
musicians - they had the best creative idea lines and were the
most-experienced musicians...for studio work.
Which of your recorded tracks
were you happiest with? I just
can't answer that...I liked recording "Feelin' Alright" (Joe Cocker) and
Barbra Streisand's "The Way We Were" and some of the Ray Charles hits too.
What was your best gig/venue
ever? I can't answer that, I
don't label things like that, to me music is a spiritual experience and
you try to make it all great if you can.
Do you own any other instruments?
Not any more. as a studio guitarist, I had to have both electric and
acoustic 6-string guitars as well as 12-string guitars, banjo, mandolin,
ukelele even and Dano bass guitar, this was way before I ever played the
electric Bass.
What’s your opinion on basses
with more than 4 strings? The
low B string interferes with the sound of a real jazz group and most
styles of music. OK for church.....the hippest finest bass players here do
NOT use anything but a 4-string bass.
What do you feel is the
bass-players function in a band?
You have to play with the finest of time, and are the foundation of the
band, the lowest guy....I like playing jazz guitar now, I'm back to where
I gave up on jazz to go make money in the studios, lead instruments are on
the top....and I love to make it back to where I left off in 1961-62.
What advice would you give to a
young bass-player? Learn your
chordal progressions, chordal notes, stay away from the nonsensical
scales, that is NOT the way to learn real music. You must know chords and
chordal progressions, learn proper left-hand and pivotal fingering
techniques...the bass is NOT a guitar, and it's not a string bass either,
it has its own safe proper left-hand techniques. Always back the singer,
and the lead player, don't fight the drummer but prime importance is
playing with FINE TIME. When you know theory and chordal notes & chordal
progressions, you can play ANYTHING. You don't learn music tune by tune,
but rather through study of theory and chordal things, that's how music
functions and if you have the right educational materials, it's very easy
to learn".
What are you doing (musically)
these days?
Jazz Guitar!! Gigs, concerts,
teaching jazz!
Anything else?
My documentary "First Lady Of Bass" has
been showing to great audiences in Europe and now in Canada....plus a
movie is being talked about too. I'm so grateful at the age of 70 to be
able to go back to my real love in music: Jazz Guitar.
thanks to Carol for being part of BassGirls.Com
text and images are copyright
of Carol Kaye and BassGirls.Com
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