Jimmy Sutton with The Four Chrarms Shawn: Hi Jimmy, I just listened to your album. It's great. Jimmy: Thank you. It's a little old at this point, about couple of years old. Shawn: How long have you been playing? Jimmy: That's always a hard question to answer. Let's just say that I got an acoustic bass when I turned 16. Early on I kind of, messed with it a little bit. I didn't really take it up too seriously. Then maybe in around '89 I start playing a lot more often.

October 2002     by Shawn Burrell

Shawn: What kind of bass is it?
Jimmy: Well, the first bass was a blonde Kay M-1. And then you know, of course, I had to paint it black and put white stripes on it, pin stripes, outline it. And then the bass I play now is one that I got in' 95, and I've been playing it since it's a Kay C-1. I'm happy with it. I also own a King Moretone.

Shawn: How do you like the King Moretone?
Jimmy: It's definately got a different feel than the Kay. The neck is really wide. It's fat. It definitely has a much more unruly sound. Which is pretty cool. I like to play the King when Joel, my guitar player, and I perform as a duo. It's a pretty fun bass to play.

Shawn: What kinds of strings do you use?
Jimmy: For the E and A I use Oliv Pirasto. The D and G are Goetz or La Bella, whichever one is fresh. If you find old strings sometimes they tend to fray up faster than fresh ones. The reason why I don't have a raw A string or E string is because with metal wraps they resonate a little longer. So, it's kind of a good middle ground between slapping and pizaccato. Especially with the Four Charms, because I play both styles.

Shawn: I heard you use a mic and a underwood? How do you play live? Can you explain how you're set up?
Jimmy: Pretty much I have an Underwood that goes through a Gallien Krueger 400 RB. I have a little compression on it too and that goes through a Hartke four ten speaker cabinet. I also have a Sennhieser 604 that's microphone clipped onto my bass. The mic picks up the sound between the high-end F hole and the neck. That I send the mic signal right through the house PA. Sometimes this can be a little dangerous. If you're in a hurry, and you don't get to go out and hear what it sounds like before you perform, a lackadaisikal sound man can have the high end cranked up to where it hurts. The mic helps me to achieve a natural slap sound. And it picks out of a lot of high mids tones too, some of air you know what I mean?

Shawn: You don't get much feedback with the mic?
Jimmy: Once again going back to the sound guy he cranks it through the monitor system sometimes if I run into that situation then I tap on a mic and realize he's got it cranked through the monitor and I tell him to take it out completely. So far I haven't really had any bad feedback. But then again you're at the mercy of the sound guy, so it's best to have a band mate slap and and run out and hear it during sound check, you know. But you know I only use a little bit of that anyway, and I get more of the bottom end. You know, and low mids coming through my bass amp. You know if your bass sounds good, from there it's just a matter of getting it louder. I mean at least that's my theory. I want my bass to sound exactly how it sounds acoustically. Just louder, so it mixes in with the music and drums and everything and also so the guy in the back of the club can hear it. It all comes down to how your bass sounds and also how you play it.

Shawn: Where did you record your CD at?
Jimmy: Flatland Boogie was recorded at electrical audio recording also known as Ear.

Shawn: In Chicago?
Jimmy: Yes, Chicago. And the owner is Steve Alabini. He got wealthy and successful with recording with Nirvana. Smashing Pumpkins and that. He's was a big player in the whole grunge slacker movement. He's really into recording things naturally so his studio the rooms sound great. He has two rooms. We recorded in studio B And it's the size of the room was like twenty by twenty by maybe 35 foot high ceilings. And he has an awesome mic collection, and you know he's into old tube preamps, going into a 70s Board. We were trying to achieve that late-50's optimum high-fi sound.

Shawn: Did you use baffles or shields? I mean I'm assuming you recorded it all live and just used shields between each other.
Jimmy: No, the only thing was on me, I kind of faced into a couple of pieces of plywood, because I like the way that sounds. I like the way the sounds developes, If you face a corner, you know. I got into that when I, I bought a house in '95, and I was rehearsing and that had no furniture in it. I would just face the corner, and it just sounded great, you know. I thought, Why not record that way? So instead of physically facing the corner in the studio I built a little corner of plywood so I could still see the guys. And that helps, there's still bleedover from one mic to the other if the guitar mic is going to pick up a little drums and so on.

Shawn: How long did it take to record?
Jimmy: Man, I think we spent about three days recording it, actually playing.

Shawn: Is that your own label, High Style?
Jimmy: Yes it is. And if you wanted to be really technical, I use a Neumann C-17 on the bass. Its just one mic.

Shawn: How far away from your bass was it?
Jimmy: It depends on the song. Anywhere from ballpark, maybe a foot to foot and a half.

Shawn: Do you have any plans for a national tour?
Jimmy: No, a European tour. The national tour, I don't know. It's pretty tough. Well, we play so much around Chicago. There's so much work here. It's a great live music town. All the clubs to the all the people with money, any society type parties, and so on. It's kind of hard to leave, and for us to tour, you know, I just imagine us playing clubs where they're not that many people, and they're apologizing and saying, "You should have played here, and sorry all our friends are such slackers." I don't want to put the band through that. The Four Charms kind of like, we teeter somewhere between R and B, swing, rockabilly, blues you know. Our sound now is kind of developed a little more than the CD. The CD is pretty much straight jump R and B swing kind of stuff. If this was 1995 or 96 we could ride the whole swing movement. But realistically, it's not there anymore. So no. No plans right now. I'm into playing festivals, going to places where there will be a lot of people, and there might be a change we'll hit certain cities, here and there, maybe going to Austin you know around February sometime. And I would love to get up a California and play. But I think we definitely need some money gig to get out out there. I don't feel like getting on a van and trying to go tour unless things change you know what I mean? Over time a lot more people might know who we are. Since we don't tour and we're not on a label that really pushes us. But maybe we will get on a label on this next CD, but still it's hard if you don't have a big machine behind you. And I think a lot of times people tour, I don't want to sound like I'm against touring, but either you're a band that has to get out of town just to play more shows or you're in Chicago where if you can play and we have a regular gig at the Green Mill. It's a fabulous place, been there since 1907. It's a regular jazz music venue. And the nice thing about it, is it's not the theme park. You know it's straight ahead music. They don't really exploit it in a very commercial way. That's the hip thing about the club. You no what I'm saying.

Shawn: Yeah I understand completely.
Jimmy: Not that I wouldn't love playing in other cities.

Shawn: What are your plans for your next CD?
Jimmy: we're still working on some material. We have some holes, some songs that we want to get in there, but we just haven't written them. We do have material for the next CD, but it's not complete yet, and as far as recording it, I think we're definitely going to go for a different sound from the last CD. We're talking about where we're going to record it. We might record a little here and there. But we definitely know we need to get one out very soon. And as far as, the difference, I think it'll be a little more blues influenced, but I use that lightly. It isn't going to be blues with a capital B. I think it will like Chicago blues. It will a little more rhythm and blues influenced. If that makes any sense.

Shawn: Pretty much. How much do you rehearse on your own or with the band?
Jimmy: Not very much at all. Just 'cause we play so much, but we're been trying to do schedule rehearsals to get new material in. And as far as me rehearsing on my own, not very much at all. That's why I'm glad I perform at least three times a week.

Shawn: Do you write most of the material, or is it a group effort?
Jimmy: I think I write most of it, but it is definitely a group effort in there. Both Joe Patterson the guitarist and Jonathan Doyle the sax player are good at writing parts and harmonies.

Shawn: Who do you think are your biggest influences?
Jimmy: Influences. Willie Dixon is a huge influence. Milt Hinton. Definitely Willie Dixon, I love how simple yet effective his style is. Also I like Thelma Terry. That's somebody that Kevin Smith turned me on to. She recorded maybe six songs. She used to do play in Chicago, a chick from Michigan. She was working in Chicago. Gene Krupa was her drummer for the recordings at the time. Pretty short musical career. Thelma Terry's Playboys. And also a really big influence, and not being a bass player, is Ronny Dawson, especially in his working ethic and his aura was a huge influence. As far as new bass players, you know, definitely I only saw him play once, but Rick Ramirez, and of course Kevin Smith, and Beau Sample, definitely someone to watch because he's so young and good. I was not that hip when I was that age.

Shawn: I appreciate talking with you Jimmy. Your playing and tone on the CD is just great. I love the Big Three Trio stuff.
Jimmy: Thank you. There might be more of that influence on the next record. Thanks for calling.

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