Last week, one of my own personal heroes passed away. Mon Legaspi of Wolfgang, The Dawn, and Kontra was 54 when he went into cardiac arrest. He was in the US at the time, and the news was broken to the general public by his current band, The Dawn, via their social media page.
He was one of my favorite bassists, hands down. I remember when I started playing the bass, Wolfgang's Halik ni Hudas was one of the first songs I tried to learn, right after learning how to play RHCP's Soul to Squeeze and Under the Bridge, since we needed to play those songs. I also learned both the rock and acoustic version of Wolfgang's Hell Looks at the time - and I was incredibly proud of myself when I was able to play it passably. Looking back, it wasn't one of the most complicated songs in Wolfgang's repertoire - or even in my own repertoire - but that song kicked so much ass and I felt cool as fuck playing it.
If Buddy Zabala influenced me with his walking basslines, and Flea was my go to bassist for all that funk, Mon was my guy (in a manner of speaking) for fast basslines. In many of Wolfgang's recordings, Mon's bass would often take the backseat to Manuel's guitars - and for good reason, I guess - but when I sat down and studied the basslines through very cheap headphones at the time, I realized that there was much more to Mon's notation than just providing the backbone for the song. I mean, he and Wolf did that perfectly, yes - they were a great rhythm section for a four-piece band. I remember watching them live at a school concert once, and while the mix left plenty to be desired, their songs didn't feel like it was lacking any melody even when neither Basti nor Manuel were providing the melody (usually when Manuel was soloing).
And that got me into thinking, that maybe there was something to be said about the lowest register providing more than just rhythm, maybe it could also provide a melody of sorts. Of course, it wasn't an easy thing to achieve; you needed to provide the backbone still, so you'd have to use your fills to round out the melody without losing the backbone (because if you, the bassist, got lost, then there was a chance that your drummer could get lost too). This meant that you needed to have at least a working knowledge of the key and chord you were playing - which sounds pretty basic, but I'm dumb that way.
If Francis Reyes is to be believed, Mon had a pretty good mastery of his chords, modes, notation, and scales. And it isn't that hard to believe; his history as a bass player for showbands inspires confidence in the possibility that he was a master of the low end, even if he never really took the time to show off during his gigs. And I love that despite all of the experience he's had, he could still fuck up on stage - and keep grinning about it, as shown in the video below.
Thanks for all of the memories, Mon. Your fans will miss your presence in the low end, and I believe that your band mates both past and present will miss you.