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Featured
Musician - January 2010
Name
:Bill Athens

Instrument: double bass and electric bass
Early Years/Education:
I'm from northeastern Wisconsin, which had a limited music scene. A
friend of mine, drummer Ryan Biesack, who had moved to Oregon, wrote to
me suggesting I move here too. So I moved here in July of '97 at age 22
and bought a double bass and started practicing. Prior to that I was
playing electric bass. Ryan and I had a fusion band back then called
“Waymilky.” After awhile I decided to return to college, so I went to
Portland State University. I've always wanted to play music and started
on the electric bass in the 8th grade. I wanted to play drums, but my
dad bought me an electric bass. My friend had a guitar, and I wanted to
play with him, so that's why Dad got me a bass. I was into rock music
but got more and more interested in jazz when I started studying more
seriously. In high school I didn't really do music other than choir. In
Portland I bounced around playing both classical and jazz. From my
practicing habits in college I got tendinitis. In classical playing you
have to hold the notes down a long time while bowing. So I quit playing
classical. Around that time I got a gig on a riverboat (Queen of the
West) with a great band that included tenor saxist Tim Wilcox, drummer
Todd Bishop and pianist Reese Marshburn. It was a lot of playing. This
immersed me into playing jazz with some great players. The gig lasted
three years. When I returned to Portland, I started playing with Mary
Kadderly, Bill Beach, Dan Balmer, etc.
Teaching:
It's a very different challenge than playing. Taking someone who has no
point of reference for what I know how to do and trying to instruct
them on how I learned, or trying to think about how I figured it out
twenty years ago is hard. There's not a lot of literature on teaching
the bass. I teach classical bass at Clark Community College and at
George Fox University. At PSU I majored in classical bass and studied
with Ken Baldwin. I was in the PSU orchestra and opera. I also studied
improvisation with Darrell Grant. I received my performance degree from
PSU in 2002.
Bands:
I have my own band, but we don't play very often. It's a quartet with
Jed Wilson, Tim Wilcox and Ken Ollis. I'm also in groups led by Ben
Darwish, Shirley Nanette, Mary Kadderly and Robert Moore. I'm in the
Jazz Composer's Orchestra and in Trio Subtonic. I play in Trio Subtonic
(with Galen Clark and Jesse Brooke) when they play at home. When they
go on the road, they use Sam Howard on bass. I have a family, so I like
to stay close to home.
Musical Influences:
Since I started on electric bass, I'd have to say an early influence
was Cliff Burton (Metallica); then there's Jaco Pastorius; Ron Carter
(he made me want to play double bass); Dave Holland; Charlie Haden (in
terms of improvising, the progression of double bass playing has gone
to playing more and more, and Charlie, from the time of his most famous
recordings, is playing less and less, and his personality is getting
stronger in his playing); Charles Mingus, (his authority on the
instrument is striking); Larry Grenadier (I like his phrasing, his note
choices). Lately, I've been really appreciating Paul Chambers and Percy
Heath. As far as educators go, Ken Baldwin, who was a classical player,
really taught me how to play the bass, he gave me a mastery of the
instrument I'm able to take to one style or the other. Dan Schulte also
had a very positive effect, very supportive. My best lessons from him
were in those off-handed moments when he'd suggest something. Then I'd
think, why didn't I think of that!
Most Satisfying Experience:
There's a thing that happens sometimes when I'm playing when I lose a
sense of my physical self, my consciousness is viewing the situation
from a different point. I like to go there, but I don't go there very
often. It's hard to get there, ego gets in the way. It happened once
when I was playing with Nancy King and Dan Gaynor, and it lasted for an
entire song. We were playing “If You Never Come to Me.” It wasn't just
me, the audience felt it too.
Favorite Recordings:
“Sun Ship” John Coltrane; “Roxy and Elsewhere” Frank Zappa; “Miles
Smiles,” Miles Davis (where I heard Ron Carter for the first time); Pat
Metheny, “Rejoicing”; Dave Holland “Triplicate”; Charles Mingus, “Ah
Um”; Jimmy Giuffre, “1961 disk 1 and 2”; a cool band from Europe
made up of Americans called Jules + Binoculars, “Music of Bob Dylan”;
Keith Jarrett, “The Impulse Years”; Bad Mehldau, “Vol. 4” (when I
really got into Larry Grenadier).
Discography: Paxselin
Quartet: “A Guide to Desolation Wilderness”, 2004, independently
released, and “Hollow Earth,” 2007, Diatic Records. Chris Mosley:
“Outside Voices,” 2007, Diatic Records, and “Semi Somnus,” 2009, Diatic
Records. Trio Subtonic: “The Aqueous,” 2007, independently released,
and “Cave Dweller,” 2009, independently released. Mary Kadderly: “Nancy
King and Mary Kadderly,” 2006, independently released. Marianna and the
Baby Vamps: “I Don't Mind,” 2009, independently released.
Gigs:
New Year's Eve with Mary Kadderly, The Allison Inn, Newberg; January 2
with Robert Moore and the Wildcats, Momma Mia; January 22 with Trio
Subtonic at Jimmy Mak's; January 29 with Marianna and the Baby Vamps,
Tony Starlight’s Supper Club; January 30 with Shirley Nanette, The
Heathman Hotel; February 6 with Mary Kadderly, The Heathman Hotel;
February 5 with Trio Subtonic, Everybody's Brewing, White Salmon,
Washington.
Future plans:
I'll be on a new CD later this year in a group led by Tim Wilcox (tenor
saxophone) that will also feature David Goldblatt (piano) and Charley
Doggett (drums). Other future plans include basically working on my
playing. I'd like to up the level of what I'm doing. I'd also like to
make musical statements that are more personal, take more ownership of
what I'm doing.
Other comments:
I think some of the distinctions between the bebop of New York and the
West Coast Cool have carried over to this time. The spirit of the music
has a different sound here (on the West Coast). It comes from the
lifestyle; our intensity is more refined.
-- by Rita Rega
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