Originally Posted By: AudioTrack
Quote:
FWIW, I personally think, with jazz standards at least, that playing rootless occasionally is fine. Other's may disagree.

Exacerbating into alternatives

As a bass player, principally, I understand the orchestration of a song from a support level...to the extent that I really dislike lead bass players like "Jaco" Pastorius but I equally dislike being "required" to play the root note.
If someone is improvizing chord voices in a song then it'd be difficult for the bass player to opt for anything other than the root I suppose.
I did laugh when I read "exacerbate"...perhaps it fits a jazz setting - "to make something bad worse".
Jazz rules are jazz rules in a form of music that likes no rules while imposing strict rules I suppose.
Play what works for the song - the ONE RULE that RINGS them ALL.

Cheers
rayc
"What's so funny about peace, love & understanding?" - N.Lowe