My father, Laurence Canty, who has died aged 74, was a bass guitarist who turned a bass guitar instructor, each as a lecturer at Goldsmiths, College of London, and as a personal tutor in his north London flat, the place he instructed future skills together with Colin Greenwood, the bass participant of Radiohead, and Yolanda Charles, who has performed with musicians comparable to Paul Weller and Mick Jagger.
He additionally wrote an tutorial ebook, Electrical Bass Guitar – A Full Information (1978), which many bassists around the globe, together with George Anderson of Shakatak and Dave Swift of Jools Holland’s Rhythm and Blues Orchestra, have acknowledged as an affect on their enjoying.
Laurence was born in Hampstead, north London, the eldest of the 5 youngsters of Invoice, a start, deaths and marriages registrar for Camden council, and Patricia (nee Mann), a instructing assistant. He developed his love of the bass as a youngster, enjoying alongside to early Shadows hits on his mother and father’ gramophone.
After Finchley grammar faculty he studied economics at Lancaster College (1967 to 1970), and there based a progressive rock band referred to as Undercarriage together with his fellow college students Andrew Fry and Del Slade – the group ultimately relocated to London, enjoying stay gigs till folding in 1975. After that he went on to carry out with a variety of live-oriented outfits, together with Homer’s Odyssey, a calypso band, and Zodiac, a profitable capabilities band with London residencies on the Lyceum and the Hammersmith Palais.
He additionally usually performed within the pit band for musical theatre productions – although by no means for lengthy, as he most well-liked the liberty that jazz music provided him.
In 1976 he took over as bass guitar lecturer at Goldsmiths from his buddy the jazz bassist Mo Foster, and he led the course for the subsequent 20 years whereas additionally instructing privately in Muswell Hill. Greenwood’s bass line on Airbag, the primary observe of Radiohead’s OK Pc album, was the results of a lesson on chord concept with Laurence.
Along with his tutorial ebook, in 1998 Laurence co-wrote What Bass with Tony Bacon, a information to purchasing and sustaining a bass guitar. From the late Eighties to the late 90s he additionally crafted a month-to-month column, Bass Case, for the journal Making Music.
In 1996 he ended his London commitments so he might return to dwelling completely in Lancaster. There he shaped the Latin jazz band Quay Change with Fred Binley and Amy Price, and entertained audiences throughout the north-west of England for 20 years till a mix of Lewy Physique dementia and Parkinson’s illness prevented him from enjoying.
He first met my mom, Jean Harrison, whereas they had been each finding out in Lancaster, though they didn’t get collectively till the mid-80s. They by no means married, and separated within the late 90s, however remained pals. We survive him, as do his siblings, Ruth, Paul, Mark and Philip.
