John Patitucci: Contrabass Crusade

At their peak powers with Weather Report, a transformative band that moved jazz and all of music forward, co-leaders Wayne Shorter and Joe Zawinul still sought the approval of their more traditional peers. Almost 50 years later, John Patitucci feels the same purist tug in his ongoing mission to validate the electric bass guitar in the largely acoustic realm of jazz. Sure, there have been outliers like pioneering Fender bassist Monk Montgomery, and rock-induced, acoustic-to-electric convert Steve Swallow, as well as genre-defying revolutionaries Stanley Clarke and Jaco Pastorius and dozens of other dazzling doublers who have since dared to plug in and swing. But the steadfast Patitucci remains the one who has the hands-on cred, talent, vision, and dedication to change hearts, minds, and ears once and for all.

On Spirit Fall [2025, Edition Records], the 65-year-old Patitucci makes his boldest case yet. In a trio setting with frequent cohorts Chris Potter on saxophone and Brian Blade on drums, Patitucci takes advantage of the lack of a chord instrument to both broaden and clarify the sound and nuances of each player’s instrument (including his 1859 acoustic bass), and to utilize his 6-string bass in a chordal role, at times. Given his motif-rich compositions, the three engage in inspired improvisational discourse of a near-telepathic nature. Equally compelling is the overall sound of the ten-track side, which reverberates as if it were pulled from a vault of 1960s post-bop recordings, but one in which the bass guitar is very much at home.

Not long after John accepted his Bass Magazine Lifetime Achievement Award — presented by Victor Wooten and Marcus Miller (who called him “our most complete bassist”) at our 2025 Awards Show, during NAMM — we visited John’s Hudson Valley home on a quiet afternoon to discuss Spirit Fall in detail and revisit the many lessons he learned from his 20-year stint with the late Wayne Shorter.

What was your focus going into the record?
With Chris and Brian, I had done my Live in Italy [2022, Three Faces] streaming album in 2022, where we played some tunes I had written with acoustic bass in mind and some with electric bass in mind. I wanted to further my exploration of that path, while continuing my lifelong goal of getting the electric bass guitar accepted in jazz. With my 6-string I’m trying to evoke the feeling of Wes [Montgomery] meets Trane [John Coltrane], so it sounds like a jazz record but it has electric bass. The hope is when people hear it, they don’t think, Why didn’t he play acoustic bass on that? I think this record is the closest I’ve come to achieving that.

Why do you like the trio format?

When you have three elements, in any style of music, you can make the sound bigger because there’s more sonic space for the three voices to occupy, especially without a chordal instrument. A piano, for example, takes up a lot of frequencies and a lot of room, musically. When it’s not there you can hear the bass and drums better. That in turn frees up the saxophonist to experiment harmonically, with no chord quality defined, and rhythmically. They’re going to hear what we serve them more clearly and vice versa, so the interplay becomes deeper, almost like counterpoint. Also, I’ve always loved the no-chord-instrument saxophone-led jazz trios greats like Trane, Sonny Rollins, and Joe Henderson have had. And of course having Chris and Brian makes it extra special. It’s a gift to know who you’re writing for and it doesn’t matter with them — they’re going to make it sound better than you wrote it. They both have beautiful sounds, and the ideas pour out of them like fountains. We did the entire record in one day.

When you have three elements, in any style of music, you can make the sound bigger because there’s more sonic space for the three voices to occupy, especially without a chordal instrument.

Let’s talk about how the basses were recorded and how the album achieves its vintage sound.

We were at The Bunker Studio in Brooklyn, probably my favorite studio, owned by John Davis, an incredible engineer and bassist who knows my sound better than anyone. For my upright, John used Neumann U 47s; there was one close to the bass, in front of the bridge, and another a little farther out. We put Brian in the main room where they usually have the piano, I was in a long booth which has a nice ceiling, and Chris was in a big booth where they usually have the drums, and we left the doors to all the booths open. That meant there was sound bleeding into all the rooms, like the old days when they used leakage for sonic benefit. That’s why the album has a vintage sound. And that’s why the upright sounds so big, because it’s leaking into the other mics. We still had headphones on, but I didn’t have to crank mine up or overplay because I wasn’t competing with a drum kit in the same room.

For my 6-string, we ran it through a vintage Ampeg B-15, both miking it and taking it direct. I usually use my REDDI, but John has his own custom tube DI that he likes. So it was pretty warm sounding. Then on my bass I favor the front pickup a little, and with the three tone knobs I turn the low end all the way up, I back off the high end, and I move the midrange around. Sometimes if I’m blowing, I boost the mids to get a thicker, more present sound. The preamp is sweepable, which is how Ken DePron of Yamaha and I designed it over 25 years ago. That’s why that bass doesn’t sound brittle and electronic like a lot of other 6-strings. If I don’t play the top and bottom strings, you might think I was playing a Jazz Bass. For “Lipim” I played my ’65 Fender Precision, recorded the same way.

The blues is one of my favorite things to play with these guys, because they can really deal with it. Like me, they truly revere and understand the idiom. We know that the blues is one of the most important things that ever happened in America.

“Think Fast” makes a good opener to establish the record’s vibe, with its melodic bass line and simple, open form.

I wanted to start with an up tune, but something with a hook — a strong bass line and a thematic melody. We played the tune at the Village Vanguard last year, so the guys knew it. The title comes from my youth in East Flatbush [Brooklyn] where we’d be playing ball on the streets and someone would shout out, “Think fast!” and you’d have to catch the ball even if it was in your periphery, or get hit with it. You always had to pay attention because somebody might throw something at you. That’s how this song is, musically; we’re throwing the ball around.

“Pole Star” is equally thematic and open.

It’s basically a counterpoint piece, a descending bass line and a melody counter-line. They loosely imply harmony in the A section, but when we go to the solos, Chris can play any chord quality he wants over the roots. Then the B section is modal, moving between C minor and Ab. For my solo I’m thinking of the melody and playing off it linearly, developing the motif, like a saxophonist. But I’m also using the whole bass, because there’s room to do so. A lot of times when I’m in a group with a piano player I can’t play melodies down low, because there’s too much information in that register. The title is for Wayne [Shorter]; he was always into the galaxy and stars, and I think he would have sounded amazing on this.

“Deluge” is a greasy blues tune and performance that reveals the trio’s level of communication.
The blues is one of my favorite things to play with these guys, because they can really deal with it. Like me, they truly revere and understand the idiom. We know that the blues is one of the most important things that ever happened in America. The track is highly conversational, especially between my bass and Brian’s bass drum. And Chris flows effortlessly between bebop and straight-up blues, for us to react to. I wrote the song during our sold-out run at the Vanguard last April. It was very heart-warming for me, being my first time as a bandleader there, but the weather was horrendous. It rained like crazy all week, more like a deluge. I gave the piece a medium tempo that has the thickness and heaviness of a deluge.

“Thoughts and Dreams” is the first 6-string track, which starts with a Trane-like meditation and morphs into a simmering groove.

I wanted a set up a certain acoustic vibe with the first few tracks and then make this almost a surprise. I wrote it on the 6-string, centered around chords that include an open string ringing. That’s my favorite thing to do when I pick up the 6: find interesting voicings around a drone string. The second section with the groove in C minor wasn’t even on the chart, but I kind of knew it was going to happen when I played the closing lick. Brian joined in, and the way he chose to play made me think, Oh, I have to lay back because he’s got this open, New Orleans-like feel that I can’t be ahead of.

The title track is a showcase for the 6-string’s capabilities in a jazz trio setting.
It’s where I’ve been trying to get to my entire career, which is 40 years of playing the 6-string. Sonically, the goal is to have a Wes Montgomery kind of warmth on the chordal side while also having a big sound on the bottom end, and to be able to hear the full range of the instrument clearly, which the trio setting helps me achieve. Musically, the challenge is to figure out how to comp and keep the bottom going at the same time, with the right balance between the two. In the song’s A and B sections I’m able to support the melody Chris plays on soprano sax with chords on the top three strings against an open A-string pedal, so there’s a sense of both bass and accompaniment. For Chris’ solo I use more motion in the bass line while still comping with some chords.

“Lipim” recalls your record Another World, where you dig into African music along with Armand Sabal-Lecco.

Yes, it’s my salute to West African music, artists like Salif Keta and all the great Cameroonian bassists, like Armand. I played my ’65 P-Bass. As with any African-based music, it’s really about the drums, so I tried to leave space for Brian and not overplay. I stay home and sort of function like a drum myself, but also add in some R&B flavor. Brian grabbed a shaker and played it with his hi-hat hand to add to the percussive vibe. The inspiration for the melody actually came from listening to records by Los Munequitos de Matanzas, a folkloric Cuban rumba group that consists of only percussion and vocals. [Bassist] John Benitez turned me onto them when I asked him to recommend some traditional Latin recordings. There are points where their vocals are floating almost out of time over the groove. I tried to replicate that by asking Chris to float the melody loosely the first time, and then the second time he plays it more in time, doubled by bass clarinet, which he overdubbed.

On bass, [Wayne Shorter] loved the bow stuff I would do in his band, as did Chick [Corea]— they both encouraged me to keep developing my bow playing, because they were composers who were thinking orchestrationally.

“Silent Prayer” again features the 6-string in a dual chordal and support role, plus a cool cadenza with harmonics.
I wrote it on the 6-string. It starts with a chordal meditation in four, and then the B section switches to 6/8, where my chords are answered by an improvised bass line played with thumb and palm mute. The C section remains in 6/8 and that’s where I play the cadenza, over a D/Eb chord, which is like G harmonic minor starting on the 5th degree. I had been messing around with harmonics and I found that motif, which I remembered for this song because it aligned with the harmony. Then the cadenza continues all the way down using the full range of the bass. For Chris’ solo I mainly stayed with my bass line, waiting for his solo to build before finally bringing the chord comping back in.

You cover Wayne Shorter’s “House of Jade” and continue that mood with “Light in the Darkness.”
“House of Jade” is one of my favorite Wayne songs; it’s beautiful, like all of his tunes. I covered it in my guitar band with Adam Rogers and Steve Cardenas, but I’m not aware of any trio versions. The piece is in 4/4, but for this arrangement we imply a 6/8 feel in measures 9 through 12. I called it at a slow tempo that requires us to breathe together, and that’s exactly what happened. Chris taps into Wayne throughout, and for my solo I’m mainly playing off the melody. My short piece “Light in the Darkness” is all rubato, and I like it because it’s a different vibe orchestrationally with Chris playing bass clarinet and overdubbing tenor. It has a sort of Trane-meets-ECM vibe. I use my C extension on my upright to get down to the low Db.

The album-closing “Sonrisa” has a Caribbean feel.

It’s a nod to Trane and Sonny Rollins’ explorations of calypso music. The feel is also similar to a baiao feel in Brazilian music and tresillo rhythm in Afro-Cuban styles — that pulse of three notes against four beats. As with “Lipim,” I’m trying to stay home on the bass pattern so Brian can feed and react to Chris. There’s a big conversation going on, but I have the earth covered. Then Brian and I get into our own dialogue when we trade solos over the form, which is a ten-bar A section and an eight-bar B section. In Chris’ solo and during the vamp-out, listen for him quoting [the Cole Porter standard] “It’s Alright With Me.”

You had your longest tenure as a sideman playing with the late Wayne Shorter. What are some reflections?
I first met Wayne in 1986, and soon afterward I played on some of Phantom Navigator [1987, Columbia]. Then in 2000 he formed the Wayne Shorter Quartet with me, [pianist] Danilo [Perez], and [drummer] Brian [Blade], releasing Footprints Live! [2002, Verve], and following that with our first studio record, Alegria [2003, Verve]. Our final performace was in 2019, so yes, the 20 years with Wayne’s quartet was a record for me, even though I played with Chick [Corea] on and off for a long time. Wayne was like a second father to me. He gave me constant encouragement in many areas. As a composer he urged me to keep orchestrating and writing bigger forms. On bass, he loved the bow stuff I would do in his band, as did Chick — they both encouraged me to keep developing my bow playing, because they were composers who were thinking orchestrationally. Wayne was super supportive and wanted me to stretch out into multiple roles, because he knew he could trust me to always lay it down. Onstage he’d say, “You blow, I’ll be the bass.” Or, “Go Paganini, go!” He liked to hear the bass be melodic and step out because it’s unexpected, and he loved breaking through convention to something else, something new.

The best compliment the quartet got was when Herbie Hancock saw us and said, “Man, you guys are picking up where we left off with Miles.”

You played your 6-string on Phantom Navigator, but it never resurfaced in the quartet.

Wayne loved the electric bass and was very open to it. He loved Alphonso [Johnson] and Jaco. It never really occurred to me to ask him if I could bring in the 6, but I don’t think he would have opposed it at all. I just think he loved the sound and direction of the quartet with the upright. He liked the sound of the instrument, the bow aspect, and how different it was to hear us playing grooves you might associate with the electric bass, on upright. Brian and I would come up with grooves that were rooted in R&B and African, and Wayne and Danilo would play all of this crazy stuff on top, and that was kind of new in a way.

How would you describe the concept of the quartet?

Improvising, creating from nothing. But Wayne wanted it to be improvising with composition, not just free blowing. He didn’t want audiences to know the difference between when we were creating a composition through spontaneous improvisation and when we were playing one of the written pieces. Any one of us could cue any part of a written piece at any time, and we would all go into it. So sometimes I would have to flip to the third page of a chart because I’d hear somebody start there. And when we were straight up improvising, the goal was to make it sound like a composition, with everyone setting the table for each other. Instead of just mimicking an idea that someone played, we would try to expand upon it and create counterpoint to it — help it compositionally by serving it, maybe create a groove under it. That was exciting, and it came at the right point in my life. Without realizing it, I was being prepared for it through the years. When I was 13 I was playing electric bass in my brother’s band, before I started on upright. When we rehearsed, we used to play this game where we would shut off the lights and somebody would start an idea, and you couldn’t come in until you could think of something that made sense with what was already happening. So I was already thinking that way. The best compliment the quartet got was when Herbie Hancock saw us and said, “Man, you guys are picking up where we left off with Miles.”

You cite Danilo as a key member, as well.

Absolutely, Danilo brought a deep knowledge of Afro-Cuban music and Latin folkloric rhythms. He’s so sophisticated rhythmically that anything Brian and I would cook up, he would come up with some polyrhythmic figure against it that would expand it. Plus, he has perfect pitch and perfect harmonic recognition, so he was one of the few piano players that were able to enter Wayne’s harmonic world. To me the piano chair was maybe the hardest chair in the quartet, because you had to read Wayne’s music, and all of the voicings were written out, often without chord symbols. But Danilo is a great reader of music, as well. Thankfully we all were. We would get Wayne’s scores, and he gave us the freedom to design and create our own parts by drawing from the entire orchestration. So I would take the bass part for a section and maybe the bassoon part for another section. At the core of it was our constant exploration of Wayne’s harmonies. We would listen to a chord change or progression and ask each other, What is that? And you would have to go to the piano and try to figure it out. Wayne had the ability to make minor tonalities sound bright and major tonalities sound dark.

Fortunately you’re keeping that music alive with the Legacy Of Wayne Shorter band. Can you talk about that and what else lies ahead in 2025?

The legacy gigs have been great — having guest saxophonists like Chris [Potter], Mark Turner, and Ravi Coltrane. We have a number of gigs in 2025. I’ll be doing dates to support Spirit Fall, with either Chris or Nicole Glover on sax and Brian or Olbed Calvaire on drums. In June I have a week at the Blue Note in New York with what I’m calling The Reverence Project, featuring Nate Smith on drums, James Francies on keyboards, and Darryl Jones on bass. So for me, the quest continues on both basses.

Transcription: Root Reveal

In tandem with his frequent musical partners Chris Potter on reeds and Brian Blade on drums, John Patitucci affords himself the space and freedom to explore the full melodic, rhythmic, and sonic capabilities of his acoustic bass, his 6-string bass guitar, and his ’65 Fender Precision on his latest album, Spirit Fall.

Example 1 shows the main A-section upright bass line of “Think Fast,” a veritable jazz sub-hook for Potter and Blade to engage and exchange ideas with. Lean ahead and make the space as important as the notes.

Example 2 is from the Afrobeat-inspired “Lipim,” delivered on John’s ’65 Precision Bass. Letter A is the A section, as heard from the start of the track. Bar 8 is a fill space throughout. Letter B is the B section, which moves to the IV minor for a nice tonality change. The bass part drives the track, so sit in the pocket with a slight push.

Example 3 shows the 6-string chord voicings in the A and B sections of “Spirit Fall.” Letter A has shifting major 7th voicings over the open A-string pedal for the first four measures, followed by 3rd-in-the-bass triad inversions for the final four bars. The B section (letter B) gets crunchier-sounding, with John dropping the major 3rd to a minor 3rd for the first four chords, creating minor major-7 tonalities over the A pedal. He then turns to minor 7 voicings (and a closing major 7 chord) to reharmonize the same melody as heard in the last four bars of letter A (both doubled by sax). For all of the four- and three-note chords in the example, pluck the lowest notes using thumb downstrokes and the remaining upper notes with index-finger upstrokes.

“Think Fast”

“Lipim”

“Spirit Fall”

Gear

Bass guitars Yamaha TRBJP2 signature 6-string (butterscotch, 35″ scale); Yamaha prototype #1 semi-hollow signature 6-string; 1965 Fender Precision

Strings D’Addario EXL165SL Nickel Wound (.032, .045, .065, .085, .105, .130); ECD82 Chromes Flat Wounds (.050, .070, .085, .105, .130)

Acoustic basses 1859 Gagliano; 2015 Gagliano copy by Trevor Davis; circa-70-year-old Pöllmann; Bisch and Daniel Navea Vera French-style bows; Pirastro Evah Pirazzi and Olivs strings; Gage Lifeline pickup, DPA 4021 clip-on mic

Amp Aguilar DB 751 and Tone Hammer 500 heads; Aguilar GS 410 and SL 112 cabinets

Effects Line 6 HX Stomp; Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler; Seamoon Octatron; Seamoon Funk Machine; Grace Design FELiX 2 Preamp/EQ/DI; Grace Design m303 Active DI

Other Gruvgear Signature Straps; Mooradian cases

Links

www.johnpatitucci.com

YouTube Page