nickhoorwegmusic

Once in a while as a musician, you hear someone that totally changes the way you play music and your instrument. The longer you play for, and the more music you hear, the amount of times that it happens gets less and less frequent, but probably more profound each time.

Viktor Krauss is one such musician for me. It was a revelation for me, coming from a jazz background on the double bass, to hear a double bass player that isn’t a jazz player, and one whose style I could really relate to. Viktor has been the bassist with Lyle Lovett for many years and is basically a Nashville guy; his sister is singer Alison Krauss AND he is one of Bill Frisell’s regular bassists… which means that he’s a great ’song’ bass player - one who is all about providing the best accompaniment for the song, no matter the setting - and can be very comfortable in an improvising, song based setting like Bill’s. His sound and time feel are incredible and he’s very funky too.

Every day for about six months, a little while ago, I played along with Bill Frisell’s album ‘Gone, Just Like A Train’, and doing that totally changed my bass playing for the better (I think so, anyway). Viktor’s bass playing on that record is great; solid, simple, supportive, unobtrusive and so strong. By trying to cop all the bass parts on the album, I found I developed a different sound and attack on the instrument, and it made me think much simpler. I also found that my feel for playing ghost notes on the double improved. Ghosting on the electric was something that always came naturally, but it frustrated me that I couldn’t get it to feel as natural on the double. Because it’s a part of Viktor’s style, and very apparent on ‘Gone, Just Like A Train’, after that six months of playing along, I got it!

Since then, I’ve managed to amass quite a Viktor Krauss collection - every album he’s on with Bill (plus a stack of bootleg concerts), some Lyle Lovett stuff, two great albums by a quirky and wonderful violinist named Casey Driessen, albums with Gabriela, Jerry Douglas, Alison Krauss, as well as his own two solo albums. Across all of these recordings, I’ve only heard Viktor play about 7 or 8 solos, and at least three of those are on a Lyle Lovett DVD. Frisell mentions in the liner notes to ‘Gone, Just Like A Train’ that Viktor has scary, monster chops but you’re likely never to see them. Absolutely correct! Unbelievable chops… The best example is on the song ‘Go Jake’ on Frisell’s ‘Nashville’ album - bass solo is seriously happening. 

Hearing Viktor Krauss inspired me to stop trying to be jazz musician and just be a bass player. I’ll be forever thankful to him for that!

Nick