DanWilson From Durban South Africa

From : Durban South Africa

Joined : Mon 25th May 2009

Last Logged : Wed 11th Nov 2009

Sex : M

Birthday : Thu 11th Jan 1962

Ban Status :

I live in Durban, South Africa and have been playing bass since I was seventeen, starting with rock, then jazz, funk and other styles. Have had a lot of fun playing music with some good people. In earlier days I used to go to studios to make recordings (on tape machines), now its largely homegrown. Ever since I bought a digital delay pedal I've been into loops, and have spent hours developing multiphonic grooves by layering different ways of playing bass - harmonics, slapping, chords, damped notes etc. Keeps me off the streets.

I've recently joined Looperman (May 2009) and I'm planning to add a whole bunch of 'less usual' bass guitar loops for people to use and abuse in their own music projects. Go for it. Some of them come from earlier musical ideas and already have effects like reverb etc. Sorry about that. Will post some tunes from various collaborations I've been involved in, some local and some international.

Later on I will knock up and post some more conventional bass loops. Would be great to hear what people are up to.

Bass Guitar - fretless, fretted
Piano/Synth
One or two African percussion instruments

Sony Acid Pro
Laptop running Windows XP
Need to get my hands on some plug ins at some stage

Brian Moore 5 String Fretted Bass
Ibanez Fretless Bass
Takamine Acoustic Bass Guitar
Yamaha DJX keyboard (vintage cheapie)
Zoom Digital 8 Track MRS-802
Alesis Nanoverb
DOD Digital Delay/Sampler DFX94 (old as the hills, but a real gem of a pedal)
Zoom BFX-708 Bass Effects Processor (noisy, one or two good sounds)
Shure Microphones
M-Audio Recording Interface
Piano

Sigur Ros - We play endlessly
Lucky Dube - Best of
Brian Eno - Thursday Afternoon
Phillip Glass - Glass Masters (he's gotta be the biggest loophead in the business!)
Kurt Rosenwinkel - The Enemies of Energy
Anouar Brahem - Le Voyage De Sahar
The Herbaliser - Very Mercenary
Tomasz Stanko Septet - Litania
Goldfrapp - Seventh Tree
The Orb - Back to Mine

For now:
Barre Phillips - Mountainscapes
Radiohead - OK Computer
Squarepusher - Hard Normal Daddy
The Orb - Orbus Terrarum
Cinematic Orchestra - Motion
Cornelius - Point
Michael Brook - Hybrid
Brian Eno - Music for Airports
Captain Asthma - On Top of the Low Heap (SA Electronic musician)
Tim Hagins - Animation Imagination

I admire bass players like Eberhard Weber, Jaco Pastorius, Palle Danielsson, John Pattitucci, Barre Phillips and Miroslav Vitous. Guitarists John Abercrombie, Terje Rypdal, Michael Brook and Pat Metheney are cool. Enjoy loads of other jazz, rock, ambient, experimental and chillout dudes such as LTJ Bukem, Kruder and Dorfmeister, Wagon Christ, Felix Laband etc. I'm a big fan of ECM records, a German-based jazz label. Also a long term admirer of Brian Eno, Michael Brook and Tomasz Stanko. Quite often buy chillout/electronica compliations to see whats out there at the moment.

Although there are lots of musicians that I enjoy, I have never seen the point of trying to emulate anyone in particular. As far as possible, I try to do my own thing and avoid musical cliches, not always successfully. Miles Davis had a way of playing solos that was clean and honest - he didn't use licks or patterns - thats a source of inspiration. Then again, I really dig repetitive groove music (how else as a bass player?), so its fun to lay down a fat bassline and develop things around that.

Consulting and training, mainly in the Education sector. Some database design and Geographical Information Systems (GIS) stuff. Married with 2 kids. Durban is next to the Indian Ocean, I surf a fair bit. Hike in the mountains. Stare at the ceiling. Drink wine, play my bass, play some piano or synth. Go to the (very) occasional decent gig that we have here in Durban, like Linton Kwezi Johnson recently. Skanking.