Uncle Oswald – 'Dear John'

The blog has been alarmingly quiet over the last 6 months. Sorry. Must try harder in future.

Here’s something to tide you over until the next post. I made a resolution in 2013 to start writing my own music as the bulk of my work as a bassist involves interpreting other peoples’ songs and I wanted to start a creative project without any commercial concerns whatsoever. This is the result.

The ending contains a little bass feature which is a nod to one of the ‘Johns’ who influenced the tune, John Francis Pastorius (aka ‘Jaco’). I remember spending a long time as a teenager trying to get ‘Portrait Of Tracy’ together, and once I’d written this tune I was curious to see if I could emulate Jaco’s approach, playing the melody using harmonics while still outlining the harmony.

New articles, transcriptions and videos on the way soon. I promise.