Victor Bailey

Randy Brown

posted on Fri, 03 Apr 2009 19:18:29

Victor Bailey Lowblow

I'm always careful to avoid the opinion of reviewers,after reading a one star review of Weather Report's "Mr. Gone" album in 1979.Please do the same with the review of Lowblow listed here before mine.Firstly the person who reviewed it says Bailey sounds like Stanley Clarke.As a pretty well known bass player myself for over three decades,I can say,and EVERYONE must know,Victor Bailey sounds NOTHING like Stanley Clarke.You'd have to be tone-deaf to make that assessment.I think Stanley must be the only lead bassist that guy ever heard.In spite of his influences Victor Bailey has always had an immediately identifiable style and sound,reminiscent of Jaco and Alphonso johnson but always uniquely his own.He says the music he writes has echoes of Weather Report?He IS Weather Report.That was him,remember?To say it sounds like a WR album is preposperous.Bailey is also very influenced by the funk and r&b of his time and has incorporated that with his WR influences to create his own sound.Other than being played with the thumb and slap technique,the song Graham Cracker is light years away from sounding like Larry Graham.And no other song on the album is played with the thumb or is funk,so how can you say the album overall shows Grahams' influence?Ridiculous.No one else slaps harmonically like VB.And while the song Lowblow shows Jaco's influence,it also shows that if anyone has created his own voice out of that influence,it's Victor.Check this out for yourself.Unless you're just a milion note fusion fan (and that's ok) this is one of the finest bass player records there is.I have no intention of belittlng or offending anyone,but if someone listens to this or any other recording of Bailey and thinks he sounds lke Stanley Clarke,that person just doesn't know what they're talking about,or hearing.They have NO business reviewing anything.
Randy B