Hello my friends upright bass slappers!
First I’d like to thank everyone for checking out [i]the Art of Slap Bass[/i] and signing to the forum!
Promoting slap bass has been one of my main projects in last 10 years. This w-site is a first step that I have planned to do in order to get more attention from “official” bass circles.
Since this section is for introducing to each other, I’ll write few words about myself…
I play upright bass for almost 20 years now. I started because of rockabilly. I figured I’d never be able to convince my parents to buy me an instrument just because I play in Rock’n’Roll band, so I enrolled to the classical music school. They didn’t have enough bass students, so that worked out great (and the school was free). I even got an instrument from them to practice at home! I used it mostly to play slap, but I kept my promise to my parents and finished the school. They also kept their promise and bought me a bass.
Later on I developed love for other music genres like jazz, punk, bluegrass, blues, world music (Balkan and Middle Eastern) and classical. I got Conservatory degree in classical bass and degree for jazz bass and arranging, but slap bass was always my first love and most important thing in my life. I enrolled into all those schools, just to learn “official” way of playing bass, so I can use it to develop slap technique and my musical taste.
I had an honor to play with many great musicians like Lemmy Kilmister, Slim Jim Phantom, DJ Fontana, Scotty Moore band, Deke Dickerson, Wanda Jackson, some great blues legends like Billy Boy Arnold, Jody Williams (both from Howling Wolf’s band) and numerous jazz, world music and classical orchestras.
I’m currently involved in a few projects:
FISHTANK ENSEMBLE – Gypsy (Balkan, Flamenco, Swing) style band with some American folks and great French violinist. This band keeps me really busy these days with average of 100-150 shows per year.
ATOMIC SUNSET – We take Rockabilly more like an inspiration than following all the rules. We take chances and experiment (but never in a hippie, jazz rock, funky etc direction). Some people love it, some people hate it, but it’s definitely not the band that goes on a safe path. The best description was written on Jumpin from 6 to 6 w-site: “Atomic Sunset are to Rockabilly what the Clash are to Punk music. They try to push the boundaries and don’t want to limit themselves to just one type of music.”
SOLO – I was featured on a few world music CDs as a solo artist. Sometimes I perform with the band under my name and I plan to record a solo CD with original compositions in Balkan and Middle Eastern style.
It’s always the hardest part to start ball rolling at the beginning. I really appreciate all your help and wish that this forum will become great place to share the knowledge and help others finding useful information about this great technique. Please spread the word as much as possible!
At the end I’d like to mention that all the articles on AOSB will always be signed. If they’re written by me, that’s really just my opinion and conclusion of my 10 year long research. This forum should be great place to open discussion about those as well.
Keep slapping and see you all somewhere down the road!
Your bass slappin’ friend
Djordje Stijepovic
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