Ed the Bass Player profile picture

Ed the Bass Player

About Me

I live and work in Starkville, Mississippi. I play the electric bass (fretless and fretted), as well as acoustic fingerstyle guitar, and I sing. I love music and I perform whenever possible. For many years I have been a “semi-professional” musician; I play anywhere from 2 to perhaps 6 times a month, usually locally.

I am fluent in many styles, including jazz, blues, R&B, folk, country, rock, and I’ve sung in church choirs for years. I believe that I’ve played in at least 70 bands, choirs, and musical groups, beginning when I was in high school. I’ve been a band leader many times, and was a church choir director for three years. Although I’ve studied music at various times over the years, I am mostly self-taught. I can read both bass and treble clef.

When I’m not performing music, I teach at Mississippi State University. I’m also a husband and a father.

Some of my groups that have Myspace pages are Ed & Doug (a jazz duo), the Mississippi J azz Alliance (a 5-piece jazz combo), and Warnock & Swan (a blues duo). I also have a page as Ed Swan , which has some of my acoustic guitar recordings. When I lived in DC, I was a member of The Oxymorons (a funky, New Orleans-style R&B rock band).

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 29/05/2007
Band Website: myspace.com/edgtrbassplayer
Influences:

I’ve been influenced by hundreds and hundreds of different musicians: bass players as well as players of many other instruments. When I first began playing the bass in the 1980’s, the work of two musicians in particular meant that I just had to study the fretless bass: Bakithi Kumalo’s wonderful work on Paul Simon’s Graceland album, and of course Jaco Pastorius. Then I heard Marcus Miller’s work on David Sanborn albums, and I had to learn to slap. But I think I’ve learned the most from the many great musicians that I’ve been privileged to play with in the years since.


Record Label: I perform in the Golden Triangle Region.
Type of Label: Indie

My Blog

About the groups and songs

Summertime: Ed Swan's JAZZ Alliance is an offshoot of the Mississippi Jazz Alliance that I put together this past summer for a fundraising event for our local schools; the idea was to play more vocal-...
Posted by on Mon, 01 Oct 2007 21:04:00 GMT