MUSICAL HEROES WITH KAL – Jerry Wonder
December 5th, 2009 | By Kal
In the same way that Eric Clapton had an influence on my guitar solos, Jerry “Jerry Wonder” Duplessis has had a massive influence on the way I play the bass.
You may or may not know that I only really picked up a bass for the first time about two years ago. Before then, like most people, I’d overlooked the importance of that part of a band, and deemed players of the instrument as “people who weren’t cool enough to play guitar”! How wrong was I? (rhetorical)
Born in Haiti, in fairly modest surroundings, Jerry Wonder has gone on to work with the biggest names in the music industry. Any list that includes Michael Jackson and Mick Jagger, is an impressive one. However, his first break came with his cousin’s band. His cousin, if you didn’t know, is Wyclef Jean and the band was the Fugees. Like them or hate them, my opinion is that the Fugees were everything that was right about hip hop, and never needed to play into the hand of those who say hip hop is based on constant violent and misogynistic references.
The Fugees’ biggest album, and one of the best in their genre, came in 1996. The Score shot them to international consciousness and launched the musical careers of both Wyclef and Lauryn Hill as multi-million record selling solo artists. Even if you haven’t really heard of the Fugees, you should at least know two or three of the singles from that album. Ready or Not and Killing Me Softly were the most famous, and you might also recognize the near acoustic rendition of No Woman No Cry, led by Wyclef Jean – all classics tunes in my eyes.
Some will level a particular criticism at all three of the songs that I have named. They are either covers or in the case of Ready or Not, which samples Enya’s Boadicea. Again, these echo criticism levelled at hip hop in general, and some people say, that this is why the genre cannot be taken seriously. I’d agree with you if the whole thing was just a DJ playing an old record, but this is where Jerry Wonder comes in.
For me, his two main strengths are exactly the attributes that a top bassist should have. He creates a rhythm with the bass that often changes the whole feel of a song (or cover version), and he is also able to intertwine his bass part with lead guitar or keys, in a way that means that he is using the bass to its fullest extent – as a rhythm instrument and almost as a lead instrument at the same time.
Most of the time, as I said before, we take the bass part of a song for granted. And maybe this is the bassist in me speaking, but a lot of the time, if you took their part away, you’d feel something vital was missing. Perhaps one of the reasons I really enjoy live performances from bands is because you can hear the bass line against what you are accustomed to. It gives the song an added sharpness.
I don’t usually link away from robandkal.com, so feel privileged. Check out this video, Jerry is coming in and out of the shot on the right hand side, but even if he’s not always visable, he’s definitely audible and he’s doing all of the things that I mention!
Maybe the new bassline in Can’t Help Me Now isn’t a coincidence, eh?
