Bee Speed with Christian Grizzard by Ron Garant Originally from Atlanta, GA, Christian received a music degree from A.I.M., studying under Adam Nitti and Randy Hoexter, and even a few classes taught by guitar great Jimmy Herring. After finishing school, Christian worked on projects in Birmingham and later, Mobile, before relocating to Nashville where Bee Speed was formed. In addition to Bee Speed, he´s been involved with several recording projects - the new CD "Dig it Up", by Rob Thorworth, a Baltimore based singer/songwriter, and Bee Speed recently finished recording as part of the rhythm section for Nashville artist Jimmy Barret. Work on the second Bee Speed record is about to begin, and Christian is also starting to work on a solo CD. How would you describe the music of Bee Speed and do you take any special approach playing with electric banjo? The Bee Speed sound is a mix of rock, jazz, bluegrass, afro-Cuban, latin and free improvisation. The trio consists of Charles Butler on electric banjo and vocals, Justin Amaral on drums and percussion and myself on bass and vocals. We´ve sometimes been billed as "The Psychedelic Electric Banjo Show", and descriptions of our music have ranged from "rustic bluegrass" and "galactic jazz rock", to "an amalgam of roots rock, jazz, jammy psychedelic stuff". This is the first time I´ve been in a band with a banjo player and my approach has definitely evolved over the last year. When Charles runs his banjo through effects, he gets an amazing amount of sustain for the instrument, so I approach those moments much like I would a guitar trio, which is the setting I´m most familiar with. When he plays with a clean tone, I sometimes make adjustments, such as occasionally muting the strings with my right palm while picking the notes with my thumb. This gives me more of an "acoustic" bass tone. I see you have a bass banjo, tell us a little about that. I saw that bass at the NAMM show here in Nashville a few years ago and knew I had to have one. Now that I´m in a band with a banjo player, it´s perfect! I mostly bring it out for "acoustic" sets and radio appearances. Since I don´t have an upright, it´s nice to have a bass I can play that doesn´t require electricity. In addition to 4-strings, you also play a 6-string...which is your main instrument with Bee Speed and why? The bass I mostly play with Bee Speed is a Curbow six-string. Greg built it for me in 1997 when I was still living in Atlanta and it´s been my main instrument ever since. I need all those strings to play a lot of our music, especially on a piece like "La Maddalena", where I play chords and open strings at the same time. It was sad to hear of Greg Curbow´s sudden passing in August. He was a gifted craftsman who took pride in what he did, which is rare and refreshing to see in this world. He will be missed. In addition to the bass banjo and the six-string, I´ve recently been playing a Dean Rhapsody 12-string. I´ve been using it live on some of our newer songs, sometimes with a pick and sometimes with my fingers. The sound is huge! How did the name Bee Speed come about? From Charles´ brother, who lives in Hawaii and is studying the wonderful art of beekeeping. According to him, once you learn to move at "Bee Speed", you no longer get stung. That concept really resonated with the three of us, and the name stuck. Radio Bean is in 7/8, can you tell us anything special about coming up with the bass lines for it? It didn´t take long to come up with a line for the A section of the tune. When Charles showed me his part, the bass line just sort of fell into place without much effort. It was a fairly organic process. Some of the passing tones and licks I use in that section were developed during rehearsals and playing the song live. The bass part for the B and C sections had already been written out, so it was just a matter of me spending the time to learn them. The C section is pretty unpredictable, and took a while to get. We refer to it as the "Krusty the Clown" section. I enjoy playing Radio Bean live. We always stretch it out, which allows me to experiment with new ways of playing in seven, something I don´t often get to do. Focusing on our weaker areas with the intention of improving always helps us become better, and learning this song was a good example of that for me. Bassics Magazine Issue Number 40 CD Track Listing: 1  Celebrating Sipho - Gerald Veasley 2  Accelerated Development - Vail Johnson 3  Radio Bean - Bee Speed 4  Dreamin - Al Turner 5  Rooster - Oteil and the Peacemakers 6  Tap Dance on a Cloud - Nielsen-Goodman 7  Melody in Black and Grey - Gregg August 8  Altair - Bazar Blå 9  Blues for KJ - Yellowjackets 10  Waiting for Relief - Steve Venz 11  If - King´s X 12  Nimble Attitude - Bad Haggis - A transcription of the bass line to Radio Bean was also included on the enhanced CD .pdf file of transcription

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