JUAN
(Juan's quotes are taken from the terrific Bass Player magazine article now up on the official site in the press section.)
"I can't stop listening to this record [John Coltrane's Om] It makes my heart beat faster. What I would give to have seen him in this era...I've also been listening to a lot of jazz pianist Cecil Taylor. His compositions give me the same feeling I had when I first heard Frank Zappa's music. It's like listening to someone who speaks a different language, yet you understand...Eddie Palmieri and Fela Kuti are two musicians we listen to backstage before we perform; their music inspires us and connects us. I would feel odd if I didn't listen to them each night before we go on." - Juan
"...So I'm being exposed to all sorts of stuff. Omar and Cedric are huge dub fans, and Jon has introduced me to all sorts of music from the Haiti area - plus, he's really into avante-jazz guitarist Sonny Sharrock. And Neil Young - I just never got into him until Jon played me the right cuts, in the right environment, and it was like a lightbulb going on..." - Juan
BP: Who else do you listen to for inspiration?
"John Paul Jones, for sure. James Jamerson, absolutely. And Steve Evans. He plays with slide guitarist Roy Rogers, and he produced several of John Lee Hooker's records. I took lessons from him for years. He really pushed me in all the right ways. He's a sick, sick bass player, he's heavy into Delta blues, and he's in the clubs every night. And there's Paul Farnen, an instructor from my Musicians Institute days. He's one of those guys who can listen to anything and completely break it down. Coltrane? No problem. All these guys made me a better bass player." - Juan
Juan Alderete on the influence of hip-hop on his bassplaying...From Bass Guitar Magazine
CITAZIONE
When I first heard hip-hop in the early Eighties, I found it to be compelling and wanted to incorporate it into my playing. I knew this music was going to have a big impact on popular music, but back then I couldn't have fully realized what a huge influence it was going to have on my bass playing. More than any other influence since Jaco Pastorius, the basslines I heard on early hip-hop records had an impact on how I played and thought about the bass. I bought as many hip-hop records as I could afford, from the days of the early East Coast pioneers to the West Coast explosion, but during 1992 and 1993, one record never left my deck, and that was Dr. Dre's The Chronic.
