 Jonas Hellborg's command of his instrument flabbergasted musicians when he came out of Sweden in the early 1980's. His gleefully flamboyant virtuosity made the more startling by his punk stage presence. When Jonas soloed, white flags were waved across fusiondom. He may have been a rock musician, initially - to a considerable extent he still is - but he cornered all those slumming jazz cats in matters of improvisational daring and originality. He was fast, of course (how many other bass players could play unisons with full-tilt McLaughlin), but of greater interest were the ways in which his slap technique, his lead lines, and his revolutionary chordal approach all served to extend his instruments potential. He stressed that he was a bass guitarist, rather than an electric bassist, but some of the techniques he was incorporating transcended guitar, too.  |
