Vicente Archer: Mastering the Beauty of Jazz Bass from Classic Roots to Glasper’s “Code Derivation”

With a career that boasts credits on 150 albums, 15 as the main bassist, when asked to sit at the table of jazz bass heroes – Vicente Archer, will not.

Yet the modest 47-year-old American jazz bassist will sit at a table if it limns his curation and treatment of acoustic bass notes. In this seat, he is peaceful and insouciant when he speaks of his love of choosing the right note, presenting it in his own way in each musical opportunity–regardless of genre.

As it relates to music, Archer doesn’t limit himself, which has allowed him to become a highly sought-after educator and bassist. When musicians hire him for a gig, it’s not just for time-keeping, but they’re excited about how he will interpret and add to their compositions.

According to Terrell Stafford, a trumpeter and Director of Jazz Studies at Temple University in Philadelphia, Archer’s harmonic knowledge allows him to function in any genre, making his playing melodic and beautiful, with a strong pulse and time.

I had a chance to talk with Archer and his commentary on music was interesting.

A botanist, in detail, examines and has a commanding knowledge of flowers or plants in the sense of their different shapes, variegation, the way they blossom, or the fragrant tones they dispense. In our interview, Archer reveals a mysterious musical garden that reveals itself as he speaks of note pickings in each presented musical setting.

“It’s the attack. It’s the length of the note. It’s the roundness of that note. It’s also the punchiness of that note. It’s also the air around that note. It’s more how I am able to express that idea in the most musical way,” Archer says.

He adds, “The thing about any instrument, whether it is the bass or another instrument, is how you’re able to play a note that’s yours in a way. So when I play a single note, such as a C note, it is going to sound different from ten other people that play the same instrument.”

“For instance, I have an open A string, and I have A on my E string in the second position. Those two notes sound completely different on my instrument. Yes, the actual pitch of it is the same, but they both have a different sound to them.”

“If I’m playing a song, let’s say a ballad that is slow, I’m not just playing any A just because that’s what is written on the page, or that’s the chord that’s happening at that moment. I’m thinking about which A will produce the best sound for that moment in time, whether it’s with drums or without drums. Or if I’m just playing by myself.”

He goes on to say, “So I think about all that. So knowing all the A’s on my instrument, and knowing what sound they produce, and which one I want to play is important, not necessarily what is written on the page. That might not be how I want to get to that A. I might hear the A more woodier, more straightforward.”

“Maybe it’s a more direct note, or maybe I’m hearing slightly out of tune, which is also music too. I might be hearing all this stuff. So I don’t necessarily think there’s a specific technique to play one thing,” he says.

Let’s compare the E note on two pieces Archer is playing on. First there is “Mirai” from his debut album Short Stories, released in 2023, with music colleagues pianist Gerald Clayton, and drummer Bill Stewart. Then there’s a different way the E is treated on a Robert Glasper groove from In My Element‘s “FTB” (Blue Note, 2007). Its sonic landscape contrasts with “Mirai,” as the piece is more genre-blended with neo-soul, hip-hop and jazz, in many ways.

First let’s look at “Mirai.” The character of the E note is comforting, a tad enchanting, soft and inviting.

“The first half of the song is open, there is no key signature. There is an E pedal. There is no distinction of keys. So I let Gerald be free to play what he wanted. I told him what I was hearing and that’s what he’s playing. The chords for the next section still have E as the center tone,” Archer says.

He further explains, “All the chords are based off of E. Either E is the 3rd, the root, or the 7th, or whatever it could be of whatever that chord might be. E is continuous throughout the whole song. You can play that note from the beginning to the end. There are specific chords on the 2nd half. The 1st half is completely improvised. I let Gerald and Bill be free to do whatever they want.”

Now let’s look at the note E in “FTB.” “FTB” is in 4/4 time and the execution of the E ends a series of fifths, where Archer is accompanying Glasper during a moment where the harmonic progression is ||: Bbmaj7 Dmin7 | Dmin7 Emin7 | Bbmaj7 Dmin7 | Dmin7 :||.

With 8th notes he plays Bb, F, C, D, A, E. The E he ends the lick with, is plucked and twangs making the E sing for 2 beats, adding sauce to those particular measures.

Archer accompanies the playing in a rhythmic pattern, emphasizing each chord with its root (1), fifth (5), and ninth (9). “We notice that this creates a stacking of fifths, which gives the sound a more open character due to the wide intervals,” says jazz pianist and educator Yves-Anthony Laur.

When discussing the significance of Archer’s overall style, Terell Stafford, Temple University’s Director of Jazz Studies says, “He’s figured out a technique and how to pull the string and make the string vibrate as much as possible to have a strong sustain but he’s also found a way to pull the string so that there’s a point on his attack. And the point is the first thing you hear and the sustained because of the way he pulls around the string makes that note very resonant.”

I spoke to Neurosurgeon Charles Limb and Communication Acoustics professor Kai Saidenburg about the resonance I felt when listening to some of Archer’s music in my car. The bass notes caused the door to vibrate. I felt the bass notes through my hand. Although this happens with any low frequency music, this time I really noticed it.

Both scientists said that it is a concept of vibrotactile, where “low frequency energy is palpable in the body. So you are literally feeling it and hearing it at the same time,” says Limb. Saidenburg adds that vibration at this low-hertz level for various instruments can make listeners “feel more engaged with the music and more inside the music.”

In music, the deep resonance of the acoustic bass has shaped the ways in which music embeds itself ontologically and neurologically, foregrounding the music listening experience deeper within the self, which composers and producers are privy to, as they are creating.

The role of the bass, and its low frequency sound is important within Western sonic ecosystems, as a key harmonic, melodic, and rhythmic role between musician to musician and musician to listener. Its sound enlivens compositions played within concert halls, and for recordings which are played in cars, the home, ear pods, music venues such as tight-seated jazz clubs, engaging anyone who listens, regardless of race, sex, class, or gender.

The universality of music, and its ability to transcend oral linguistic requirements for engagement and interpretation by listeners of diverse cultures is remarkable. Archer has traveled nationally and internationally for most of his life, sharing low frequency musical stories with his fellow musicians.

However, while the technicality of music is important to Archer, the beauty of offering oneself is very much needed also.

“What makes jazz so difficult, and why so many people leave it after studying it for a while, is that it requires so much from you personally. First, it’s the technical requirements. You have to learn how to play the instrument with clarity,” he shares.

“You also have to find a sound that’s your own. You’re not supposed to necessarily blend with another instrument, your same instrument. You’re supposed to blend with an ensemble, which means you need to find a sound that not only you like, but a sound that blends with both bass, piano, or what other instruments are on a bandstand,” he adds.

“And then, second of all, now offer yourself to the music.”

Since he was 16 years old, he’s been dedicated to the “sounds of music.” Along with his 150 albums, his recent album Short Stories (Cellar Live, 2023) received accolades as one of the best albums in 2023 by Downbeat Magazine.

This year, the 67th Grammy nomination list included John Legend’s album for kids, My Favorite Dream (Concord Music, 2024), Code Derivation by Robert Glasper (Imani Records, 2024), and Walk a Mile In My Shoe by Orrin Evans and The Captain Black Big Band (Republic Records, 2024). Archer is plucking his sonic grooves on all three albums.

Archer has been a long-time bassist for Robert Glasper, and has played with many other ensembles. Some include, The John Scofield Trio, Nicholas Payton, Donald Harrison, H.E.R, Willie Nelson, Danny Grissett, Norah Jones, Herbie Hancock, Wynton Marsalis, Jaleel Shaw, and many others.

Glasper’s sound honors the frameworks of jazz and hip hop, and he often shares that they have a parent-child relationship. In his band’s music there is sonic interplay that’s intertwined with cultural subtleties, and an understanding of the unique techniques of the two genres, and their historical evolvement. Archer and Glasper have a relationship that started over 25 years ago, and their music relationship has greatly pushed jazz forward.

Archer, Robert Glasper, Jazz and Hip Hop

In 1999, Archer shared that he met Glasper in Italy at a festival where Archer was performing with Donald Harrison. They were there for a week, says Archer, and while talking to each other a connection formed, as they realized they had the same friends and similar interests.

After hanging out at the festival, Glasper told Archer to “hit him up” when he finished school. So when Archer moved to New York, he did just that, and they started playing “immediately,” according to Archer. Glasper and drummer Damion Reid, who Archer previously knew from New England Conservatory, had a group and Archer joined.

The trio was given Thursday nights by the owner of the Up and Over club in Brooklyn, New York. After a year, the owner gave them another night that was devoted to jazz and hip hop. Those nights also included trumpeter Keyon Harold, drummer Mark Colenburg, and other notable young jazz players.

“The guy was really kind to us. I don’t think we made any money but it was nice to have a place to play. We were playing other places as well. That gave us a place to work our thing out. So I’m grateful for that,” Archer shares.

At this time, their relationship with Blue Note Records began to emerge. The legendary label saw something special in what the young collective led by Glasper was doing. But it took time.

“We had to do a demo for the label. This was a different time. The label would come out to a lot of our shows, different places here and there to check us out, even with the demo.”

Blue Note Records signed them in the 2000’s, and people found a new, hip but also meaningful expression of jazz on their albums. For their album “Covered” (Blue Note, 2015), their YouTube videos presenting the album’s songs, combined, have surpassed 30 million views. Canvas (2005), and In My Element (2007), are two other releases from Blue Note.

Those jazz and hip hop nights at the Up and Over club seemed to be a place where Glasper, Archer, and others would develop a particular jazz/hip hop sonic milieu. They would create tunes within the cadre of jazz improvisation, ensconced with instrumental expressions of hip hop digital sensibilities and phrasing, also pulling in whatever other genre or artist they wanted to engage and re-present.

Then there is the band’s musical dexterity, which is able to carry the vision out. Glasper and many of his colleagues are academically trained, and have had personal and musical relationships with jazz and hip hop artists/producers. Some include Q-Tip, Mos Def, JDilla, Herbie Hancock, Mulgrew Miller and a plethora of others. Also, many grew up in homes with musical parents, some played in churches as youth, etc. As a result, it seemed to have yielded an unusually keen and genre-assorted ear, again, groomed and developed perhaps from an early age.

So when they intertwine the genres of hip hop and jazz, it’s not clumsy or rushed, but with great musical sapience, sophistication and yes, adventure. Hip hop is also an aural ecosystem that is not easily culturally reappropriated, and requires a deep understanding of the facets that make up the genre.

Archer notes that when jazz musicians try to force hip hop into their music without understanding it doesn’t work.

“It doesn’t sound connected. It’s like a pianist who’s never listened to hip hop, but they think, ‘I like hip hop drumming and I just want somebody to play a hip hop beat on my song,'” he shares. “The song has nothing to do with hip hop. It doesn’t even show you the elements of hip hop,” he says.

Archer on Jazz Bass Lines and Hip Hop

I brought up to Archer a bass line from a hip hop classic by a 1990’s trio of emcees, one female and two males, who called themselves Digable Planets. Many years later, people still get excited about their infamous bass lick that supported the rap lyrics of their jazz sampled classic, “Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat),” released on Pendulum/Elektra Records in 1992.

When discussing this, he immediately puts on his professor’s hat, and makes me make the distinction between the bass line as a sample in the song versus the original bass line. Archer is a faculty member at Boyer College of Music and Dance at Temple University in Philadelphia, Berklee College of Music, and The New School of Music in New York. These are three of America’s top music schools.

So let’s make the distinction Archer asks for. The sample is different from the original bass line, that comes from the bass intro from Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers 1978 piece “Stretching,” played by bassist Dennis Irwin. Ironically, Irwin was a bassist for John Scofield, like Archer. The song’s producer, Buttafly, loops the intro bass line of “Stretching” throughout the track, lowers the pitch and slows it down, where it becomes a tad unrecognizable.

Buttafly also uses horn samples on “Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat),” and in the opinion of some, created an iconic presentation of sampling. American journalist Tonya Pendleton calls it “one of the best uses of sampling in music history” in a documentary of the group on an episode of TV One’s Unsung. The sampling and rap style was instrumental in the song winning a Grammy in 1993 for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group.

Archer shared that many bass lines from jazz records were and are sampled by hip hop producers. I researched and discovered that many of these bass line samples were taken from an intro solo bass line of a jazz classic, and looped throughout the track.

He also mentions a new album he’s on, that is about the relationship between jazz and hip hop sampling.

Code Derivation and “Madiba”

“Have you listened to Code Derivation?” Archer asked. I had to admit, I hadn’t listened to it enough to discuss.

“We recorded a jazz track, had a producer sample the track and make another song out of it, just to show you the direct line of how it works,” Archer says. “If you look up Digable planets, or A Tribe Called Quest you have to look up the jazz reference. This is an album that’s in real time in a sense,” he shares.

I went back, took some time and listened to the album and “Madiba” captured my attention. “Madiba” is a Glasper original jazz composition that begins with an unaccompanied, terribly sophisticated ‘won’t stop’ bass line. It follows the compositional anatomy of the bass line as a solo intro, which is done in many jazz classics.

But also, I felt it was reminiscent of Art Blakey’s “Stretching” sample used in “Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat),” with a bass lick playing over and over. Like many hip hop classics that utilizes a jazz bass sample, particularly in the 90’s, Archer is driving a particular lick for part A of “Madiba,” so I’m a little confused.

Although this is not the “flipped” track that shows sampling in action, Archer’s repetition of the same lick almost sounds like it’s a sample. This thought is further encouraged as DJ scratching-like sounds emerge and re-emerge shortly after the intro. He is playing the theme in Part A for some time. Thus, sheepishly, I had to ask Archer if his playing in part A of “Madiba” was a sample. He told me “no.”

I believe that with so much music out there, many don’t care if it is a sample or a live musician hired playing on the track. However, it is important to know the distinction, as a student of music and the bass, as Archer shared earlier. In the past 50 years, not only are most listeners not concerned with whether samples are present within a song, if they were, it’s hard to tell if a sound is a digitally altered sample or an original lick to many.

In a 2012 podcast interview with Jesse Thorn, Robert Glasper speaks of how hip hop producer J Dilla could take drum samples and make them sound like a real drummer. Sampling is clever, adept, and artistic curation of sound.

So no, the bass line on Code Derivation‘s “Madiba” jazz track is not a sample but illuminates Archer’s technical discipline. One of the things that made the Roland TR-808 and new digital technology machines great is their ability to play a sound over and over, for as long as one wishes. But for a musician to play a lick over and over with a digital-like precision, is always kind of crazy to me, and I mean this in the very best way.

Let’s attempt to examine what’s happening in “Madiba.” Analyzing the piece with Laur, he notes that “the main theme (in section A) is played on the double bass, designed as a riff or pattern. Its powerful melody relies on strong motifs.”

He adds, “This section is in G minor and stands out for its asymmetrical phrasing: it consists of 4 bars in 4/4 followed by 1 bar in 3/4, for a total of 5 bars and 19 beats. Part A is repeated four times, twice as a double bass solo, and twice with the addition of rhythm, featuring an elegant piano entrance by Robert Glasper.”

There’s more that happens in the second part, or Part B. “It gradually introduces new instruments: the saxophone and trumpet. The piece’s construction is ingenious, with instruments joining one by one, like building blocks, to create a new sonic landscape,” adds Laur.

It’s an exceptional composition by Glasper that does many things, but for this conversation it highlights the beauty of acoustic bass lines in jazz. This notable bass line also shows why hip hop producers and rappers such as Q-Tip, Buttafly, Erik B. and Rakim, and so many more were enamored by these jazz bass lines. The sampled bass lines gave sonic low-frequency and creative vigor to hip hop hits and they found new meaning to a younger generation.

Immediately following Glasper’s composition of “Madiba” is a new version by famed hip hop producer Hi-Tek. It’s entitled “Madiba (Flipped by Hi-Tek) Ft Oswin Benjamin.” Hi-Tek is known for working with artists 50 cent, Phife Dawg, 9th wonder and a slew of other hip hop headliners and chart toppers.

Hi-Tek’s “flip” is an intentional, skillful, snipping and reworking of Glasper’s jazz composition into a hip hop production. Unlike the jazz composition, this sampled version of “Madiba” has more of Glasper’s piano playing, and less of Archer’s bass playing as well as that of other instruments. In addition, two-time Grammy nominated Oswin Benjamin is rapping.

Again, Glasper has taught the parent-child relationship between jazz and hip hop, and showcases it in “real time,” as Archer says. “Madiba” contains one of the top 10 jazz bass lines of new albums released in 2024.

On that note, Code Derivation received a 2025 Grammy nomination for Best Alternative Jazz Album.