In 2004 Pekka Rautionmaa produced the 52 minutes music-documentary “First Lady Of Bass” about electric bass innovator Carol Kaye for the Finnish broadcaster YLE. There’s a long extract of it on YouTube.
Carol Kaye started her career as jazz guitarist in the late nineteen-forties. In the late nineteen-fifties she started working in the music studios of Los Angeles, playing guitar for legends like Sam Cooke and Ritchie Valens. In the early sixties she picked up the electric bass. Thanks to her talent of creating catchy bass lines, her music reading ability and her versatility in all kinds of styles, she soon became the number one electric bass player in Los Angeles.
Carol Kaye recorded among others for Elvis, Ray Charles, The Beach Boys, Simon and Garfunkel, The Byrds, The Monkees, The Doors, Frank and Nancy Sinatra, Count Basie, Hampton Hawes, Mel Tormé and Barbara Streisand. Her TV and movie credits include Mission Impossible, Hawaii 5-O, M*A*S*H, Streets of San Francisco, In The Heat Of The Night, Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid, Bullitt and Sugarland Express.
In the documentary Carol Kaye demonstrates her electric bass and electric guitar playing and plays together with Brian Wilson. There’s a lot of interesting first hand information about the studio musicians of Los Angeles who played on many great pop, rock, easy listening and soundtrack recordings.
The extract on YouTube contains quotes by Perry Botkin (composer/arranger), Don Peake (guitar player/composer) and sound engineer David Gold, co-owner of Hollywood music studio “Gold Star” where among others Ritchie Valens, Eddie Cochran, Herb Alpert and Phil Spector recorded.
To my knowledge the documentary is not available on DVD.
Nancy Sinatra’s “Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)” is a masterpiece of minimalism. Just a voice telling a dark love story and a haunting guitar.
The man who played the haunting guitar is Billy Strange, a veteran studio guitar player, singer, arranger, composer and producer. He was so kind to talk with me about the birth of this enthralling song.
Lost & Sound: Did you arrange the song?
Billy Strange: There was no arrangement. I just played what I thought was appropriate and Nancy liked the way it was sounding, so we recorded it.
L&S: Why did you decide to record it with just one guitar? BS: It was just as if the song called for it. More than one instrument would have been too many.
L&S: What kind of sound effect did you use on the guitar? BS: I used a tremolo effect. There is a small box that creates it, made by Vox, I believe.
L&S: Do you remember which amp and guitar you used?
BS: The amp was my old Fender Twin and the guitar was the Gibson 335 that Nancy gave me
L&S: Where did you record it? BS: It was recorded at either United Recorders or Western Recorders in Hollywood. The engineer was Eddie Brackett.
L&S: Did you and Nancy record live together or did you lay down the guitar first? BS: We recorded it live with no overdubbing at all.
‘Bang Bang’ took a long time to make some noise
Nancy Sinatra’s version of the Sonny Bony written “Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)” was a sleeper. When it came out in 1966 on the LP “How Does That Grab You?” it didn’t make a big impact. Cher’s original version was a big hit, though. This changed dramatically over the years. Nancy Sinatra’s take on the song is better known today. The song had a late breakthrough in 2005 when it was used for the soundtrack of the Quentin Tarantino movie “Kill Bill”.
L&S: Do you have any special memories regarding the recording session? BS: I recall that Nancy and I were both very pleased with the way it turned out. I think it was done in one take.
L&S: How do you feel about the fact, that the song became popular again thanks to the “Kill Bill” soundtrack? BS: It was very gratifying that it was felt to be “the” song for the movie main title.
L&S: How would you interpret the lyrics? BS: It is simply a very sad love song about lost love, as I see it.
Thanks to the music documentary The Wrecking Crew many great Los Angeles studio musicians of the nineteen-sixties get more and more recognition. But one important guitar player has been overlooked: Howard Roberts.
Musicians like drummers Earl Palmer and Hal Blaine, electric bassist Carol Kaye, guitarists Tommy Tedesco and Billy Strange or keyboardist Don Randi slowly get some recognition. More and more music lovers start to understand how much these versatile musicians contributed to popular music.
But “Lost & Sound” reader Scott pointed out, that jazz guitarist Howard Roberts’s work as a studio sideman has been overlooked. He’s right. Like jazz guitarist Barney Kessel, also Howard Roberts (October 2nd, 1929 - June 28th, 1992) contributed his priceless playing to pop hits, movie and tv scores.
Howard Roberts was very busy recording with Elvis Presley, Bobby Darin, Harry Nilsson, The Beach Boys, Sam Cooke, Peggy Lee and adding his guitar to movie soundtracks like “Bullitt” and “Dirty Harry”. But still he had the time to pursue his own career performing and recording as jazz guitarist. And he was also a dedicated teacher.
A good starting point to read more about Howard Roberts and listen to his music is Mike Evan’s Howard Roberts Site.
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bass, guitar, recommended, studio musicians | Tagged: Brian Wilson, Carol Kaye, documentary, electric bass, en, Los Angeles, music | 
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Posted by Jan Derrer
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