Maybe not one of the most recognised bass players but he was in the immense jazz fusion band The Mahavishnu Orchestra who  introduced me to the ferocity of their music.
He became a photographer after the orginal band broke up.

Oh, that is sad, rest in peace Rick Laird.

Wikipedia has a nice page on him and his career.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Laird

Wow. Amazing career.

That was no mean feat keeping everything grounded in Mahavishnu. RIP Rick.

Found a nice interview from Guitar Player: http://users.cs.cf.ac.uk/Dave.Marshall/mclaughlin/art/laird.html


(It's a little hard to read on the screen)


I've been enjoying (trying to) play along with some Mahavishnu Orchestra stuff - stuff I listened to a lot when I was younger. Some parts are absolutely impossible for me to figure out (mainly the unison run stuff) but the vamps are so cool! Just need to build up to them. He gets overshadowed by the other virtuoso musicians in the group - but I realized - he is a virtuoso accompanist!

Finally put my Rick Laird tribute post together:

Nice episode, and nice playing!

Quote from: David Houck on July 10, 2021, 02:33:55 PM
Nice episode, and nice playing!

Thank you! I think I'm going to try and do the whole piece, maybe some others - even just the basslines are very challenging material, the other instruments are inconceivable!