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Quotes
With The Uptown Horns: "These guys are funky as 19 feet of chit'lings with onions and gravy on the side. Now that's funky!" Review from the Right: Review from the Left: "Man, I haven’t heard nothing like that since Duck Dunn! You’ve been my musical director. You’ve been my friend. You’ve been my brother. You’ve been all that stuff. I love you and the band." "It sounds great...extremely funky...
"Smoking…."
"Great playing."
"You are too funky." "Ivan is one of the best bass players I’ve ever worked with. He can play my music. He has the right flavor. And there’s nothing that I’ve ever given him that he couldn’t play, even when he’s heard it for the first time or just read it for the first time. We groove. He’s one of the best. And I’ll always admire and cherish the time that we play together and hope it happens again soon." "Ivan Bodley, that fabulous bass player, he’s fantastic. I love him. Anytime anyone needs a good bass player, I suggest that they call Ivan because he’s the best."
"Aside from his bass playing, which is flawless (most of the time), he has a terrific disposition. Ivan is one of the most consummate musicians that I’ve ever played with. He’s a good guy, and I really love him." "Ivan is the baddest. There’s nobody any better, bass player and conductor. At 6’5" you can’t miss him. There’s really no one better than I’d rather have Music Directing than Ivan Bodley. Real easy going, easy to work with, nice guy." "The guy is a great bass player. We’ve played all over the world together. You can’t go wrong with this cat. Ivan is also a great conductor. And I rely on him heavily for that. Ivan is also a really great acoustic bass player. Not many people know that. He’s going to be playing with me, and I with him, for a long time to come. This is the kind of guy you want on bass. You want him on stage with you. This cat is aces all the way around in his presence on the bottom end." "You are so good. I truly enjoyed working with the [Uptown Horns] band. All of you in addition to being very talented are nice guys." "Very funky, Funkboy!" "How about that Ivan Bodley…seriously, folks…he’s the man!" – Will Lee
"I had a very good time! The band was so funky it was insane! Thanks for making me feel so welcome."
With Sam Moore:
"How are you going to do better than that? That was great! What a great band!" With The Uptown Horns and Howard Tate: "The punctilious Uptown Horns Revue…were eager and forceful." "The Uptown Horns, tried-and-true R&B professionals….So when the songs built to crescendos, as so many did, with Mr. Howard Tate's voice breaking through them like a buoy bobbing up and down through waves, the music had a grand, heaving power." "Howard Tate's voice is still in great shape, and he sang in a wiry drawl and punctuated phrases with birdlike falsetto trills over his band's frisky grooves and the surging roar of the Uptown Horns."
"Sam Moore (of Sam & Dave) and his nine-piece band pulled out all the stops. In front of a crowd of 8,000, they alternated between segments that were flashy, when the band took more attention, and emotionally moving, when Moore's voice was the star. For several tunes, Moore's vocal contribution was mostly there for color and highlights while the heavy lifting was done by the band led by bassist and musical director Ivan Bodley. His band, which has been with him only since April and still had songsheets in front of them to perform, backed him as if they had been playing with him much longer."
With Alexander Markov's "Rock Concerto:" "The show will remain unforgettable for the audience. The combination of both rock and symphonic music fascinated the audience. It was like a feast." With Alexander Markov’s "Rock Concerto:" " It was a fantastic night. There was a standing ovation for Alexander Markov, Gregg Gerson and Ivan Bodley. The harmony of the symphony orchestra and the rock group was fascinating. The "Rock Concerto" was received with great interest due to it’s combination of genres. One of the most interesting parts of the show was where Bodley played the darbuka (hand drum)." With Alexander Markov’s "Rock Concerto:" "It was an unforgettable night. It was totally fantastic and fascinating. Markov played his "Rock Concerto" with bass player Ivan Bodley and drummer Gregg Gerson, who have worked with world-famous stars." With Jazz/Funk Unit: "Bassist/bandleader Ivan Bodley lives up to the description of his sound: bebop with bump. He gives backbeat to modern standards."
"Bassist/producer Ivan Bodley gets to make syncopated groove music out of jazz standards. It’s feisty and fun." Jazz Jackpot! Review: "Impassioned and equally intelligent, featuring Bodley’s buzz-like bass work. Hats off to the Jazz/Funk Unit."
" * * * * [four stars]. Jazz/Funk Unit tight and swinging, delightfully different." " Ivan Bodley, producer, arranger, and bassist... I’m happy to inform you the record is at least twice as interesting as the accompanying story."
"Burning, man..." With The Uptown Horns: "Too bad there was no room for dancing in the crowded house because there was an awful lot of energy flying around due in no small part to the solid rhythm section playing of Ivan Bodley (bass). It was very clear that there wasn’t a single weak link in the chain. This was an evening with the cream of the crop, and if you missed it—kick yourself a little." "Ruth Gerson was accompanied by a sharp rhythm section in which was especially notable the excellent bassist Ivan 'funk boy' Bodley." With Ruth Gerson: " 'Weakest Link in the Chain' has evidence of the lively and funky bass of Ivan Bodley, who is much more than simply a sideman. Al basso del bravo e simpatico." With Ruth Gerson: "Bassist Ivan Bodley is a precise and versatile instrumentalist who also adds an indisputable choreographic element with his Bermuda shorts and purple hair." "Ruth Gerson decided to drive away the wind and rain outside with the help of the inseparable Ivan Bodley, a virtuoso bassist, who thanks to a series of solos—an exceptional one on 'Come To Me' — outweighed the limited number of musicians and instruments." With Willie Nile and Eric Bazilian: "Tall bassist Ivan Bodley with purple hair and a ring in his lip was really something to see." Ivan "Funkboy" Bodley talks to Mike Visceglia about playing with the legends of soul, the value of hard work, and his psych degree. Ivan, how’d you get the nickname "Funkboy?" Like all good nicknames, it was given to me by my friends. I was a DJ in college in New Orleans and always seemed to be the cat who knew about funk, R&B, Memphis, Motown and soul records. You're from Chattanooga, Tennessee. Why did you choose to go to New York as opposed to nearby Nashville, another great music city? Actually, I went to New Orleans first, and I got to learn from the immense wealth of soul and funk music there. I decided on NYC because of job opportunities, coupled with the fact that music I really liked was coming out of there. You've played with more Rock and Roll Hall of Famers than almost anyone I know—Percy Sledge, Solomon Burke, Bo Diddley, Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, the Shirelles, Ben E. King—and you’re currently working with Sam Moore (of Sam and Dave) as the musical director. How did you get to play with such legends? I started out with Shirley Alston Reeves, original lead singer of the Shirelles, playing along with the late, great drummer Crusher Green. Crusher brought me into the mighty Uptown Horns Revue, the world's greatest R&B/rock & roll horn section, bar none. And little by little I met and got to play with all of these icons.
In addition to your degree from Berklee College of Music you have a BS in psychology! Why did you switch? I was a senior in high school before I ever touched a bass. So when it came time to go to college I wasn't ready to commit to a music career. Psych was an interest of mine, so I got the degree. Later, I decided to give the music thing a shot. So I went to Berklee and graduated Magna Cum Laude in 18 months. Tell me about the different basses you play, and the amp you're currently using. I lucked out on my first bass, a 1978 P-Bass. I still use it all the time on recording sessions. I became the first endorsee of Warrior Instruments, and I have three of them. My current main ax is a fretted Warrior Funkboy 5-string. I have a headless, bodyless Warwick I use as a piccolo bass; it was a gift from my pal Stanley Clarke. I also have an Alembic Explorer-body 8-string, various "Franken-basses" (like Peaveys that I've put Bartolini pickups in, and a Peavey graphite-neck bass that is my airline baggage-handler's special), and the "Doghouse," my late-Sixties East German plywood bass, which sounds amazing. My speakers are always Hartke; I use Hartke heads when I can get them and Gallien Kreugers when I can't. Typically I'll use one or two 4x10 cabinets with a Hartke 4000 head. You've recently put out your first CD as a leader. Tell me about iBOD. It's instrumental jazz and funk, rhythm and harmony, blues and soul, with a little commentary on the human condition thrown in for good measure. I redid two jazz standards and I took two traditional songs, a Native American lullaby and a Jewish folk tune, and re-harmonized them in a jazz style over funk grooves. The other six tunes are my compositions. You can check it out and get it through my website, funkboy.net, and at myspace.com/funkboynyc. If you were to impart the greatest lesson you've learned from the veterans you've worked with, what would that be? In the end it all comes back to lessons I learned from my parents. You have to be fundamentally a good and honest person, and always do the right thing. There's luck involved. But the harder you work, the luckier you seem to get. MIKE VISCEGLIA is the bassist and musical director for Suzanne Vega. His self-published book, A View From the Side, featuring interviews with Marcus Miller, Will Lee and others, is available at mikevisceglia.com
When Ivan Bodley gets a call, he knows he can probably handle the gig: The Berklee grad has played everything from acoustic upright to 8-string electric bass ranging from intimate jazz duos to 150-piece symphony orchestras and for audiences of up to 30,000. His resumé lists some of the greatest performers in classic pop and R&B, including 17 Rock and Roll Hall-of-Famers. These gigs present their own challenges: As bassist and musical director for Martha & the Vandellas and former Sam & Dave singer Sam Moore, Ivan has the heavyweight task of copping the hallowed lines of Motown’s James Jamerson and Stax’s Duck Dunn, all while responding to the aesthetic demands of modern audiences. How do you go about interpreting the work of bass legends while incorporating your own voice? It’s a very subtle thing. It can involve little things like shifting the pocket forward slightly, adding occasional grace notes for a little extra grease, or throwing in fills that aren’t on the original but are completely within the original player’s style. People have an emotional connection to their favorite songs and want to hear what they love. I’m not a museum curator, but I need to have intimate knowledge of the original song, especially if it’s a famous part. Then it’s possible to inject live energy, excitement, or my own personality to the bass line, as long as I remain completely respectful to the song, the artist you’re working for, and the audience. How do you get that intimate knowledge of the music? I go back to the original recordings and learn them note for note. I’ll try to mimic their tone and articulation, and even learn their mistakes. I want to crawl inside the music. I play along and try to make my bass sound like part of the recording. Then I can start to absorb that particular player’s time, feel, and style.
As a bassist and music director, how do you get the right feel with a new group of players? I immediately want to start feeling them out and seeing what they can bring to the table. I look to see if they’ve got the skills to read, play with feel, and follow direction. My job is to focus the band’s energy and interact with the other musicians in the best way I can to support the artist, while adding as much groove as I can as a bass player.
--Ben Goodman Can be heard on:
Currently Spinning: Gear: Rig: Hartke 4000 and 3500 amps with Hartke 2.5XL 2x10 + 5 cab or two Hartke 410XL 4x10 cabinets. Effects: DigiTech BP50, Line 6 Bass POD. "The Bass POD has a great B-15 model that I use."
Ivan "Funkboy" Bodley uses Warrior Basses, Hartke Amplification, |
