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Archive for July 2009 - Page 4

Player News

Player Watch: Ruth Davies

Bassist Ruth Davies has been featured in a piece by the San Jose Mercury News. Davies is a freelance bassist for jazz and blues and has an impressive discography including Grammy-winning and Platinum records. From her website biography: Ruth has performed with such jazz and blues greats as Charles Brown, Clark Terry, John Lee Hooker, Bonnie Raitt, Jay McShann, Van...

Ask Damian Erskine, Columns

Ask Damian Erskine: Bass Line Stylings

How can I make my bass lines more interesting without feeling like I’m playing too much? I feel like when I try and do a little something to add flavor, I’m just forcing licks into the music and over-playing. A: Yeah man, there’s definitely a fine line to be drawn. There are a million ways to add flavor to the...

Player News

Interview with Stellastarr* bassist Amanda Tannen

Decider DC has published an interview with bassist Amanda Tannen from Stellastarr*. Stellastarr has moved from RCA to their own Bloated Wife label after RCA’s merge with Sony. For those of you who are not familiar with them, Stellastarr* is an alternative indie rock band based out of New York City. They’ve been around since 2000 and just released a...

Player News

Les Claypool: Fungi Feature!

JamBase has a featured article on our favorite “clown prince of prog rock,” the musically eclectic Les Claypool. Claypool recalls his early beginnings on bass, “We [Les and his father] went down to Al’s Music, he knew Al, and we bought this Fender P-Bass copy. I pulled weeds all summer to pay for the damn thing. And because there weren’t...

Bass Lessons

Untold Secret to Melodic Bass lesson: More on Lead-Ins

This lesson is derived from Jon Burr’s The Untold Secret to Melodic Bass. Be sure to check out the complete method book in downloadable PDF, Kindle Book and the all-new paperback formats. I’d bet that you, the reader, have written something, and then later on felt like you found something else that really should have been in there. Well, this...

Player News

John G. Lee launches new jazz label

Bassist John G. Lee has co-founded a record label dedicated to jazz, Jazz Legacy Productions. The label will be celebrating jazz with the release of four albums: Cyrus Chestnut’s Spirit, Heath Brothers’ Endurance, Steve Davis’ Eloquence and Sharel Cassity’s Relentless. Cassity is a new-comer among the other veteran musicians, a trend that is by design of JLP records. They plan...

Bass Videos

Ian Enderson: Bass exercise in G minor

Bassist Ian Enderson submitted this video to our Youtube group, and we were glad he did. Check it Ian’s tone on this excercise, and we think you’ll agree: Do you have a video you’d like to share? Send it our way.

News

Wesfest 4 raises $21,000 for Wes Wehmiller Scholarship at Berklee

The fourth annual Wesfest benefit concert took place at the Knitting Factory in Los Angeles in February, raising a record $21,000 for the Wes Wehmiller Endowed Scholarship Fund at Berklee College of Music. The event was established in 2006 by Wes’ family and friends, honoring the legacy of Wehmiller, a Berklee graduate and accomplished bassist who died of thyroid cancer...

Bass Gear

NAMM Watch: Fender’s product highlights

Fender Musical Instruments is presenting a wide range of basses and bass gear at the Summer NAMM show. Basses Geddy Lee Jazz Bass Standard Jazz Bass V Bass Accessories Sub-Lime Bass Fuzz Pedal Bass Amps 115 Pro Cabinet Bassman TV Ten Bassman TV Twelve Bassman TV 15 Bassman TV Duo Ten For more information, visit Fender.com.

New Albums, Player News

Twiggy Ramirez Interview

Marilyn Manson bassist Twiggy Ramirez (Geordie White) was recently interview by France’s NRV TV. You can see the full video interview here. Ramirez talks about the bands newest album, The High End of Low, and what went into its making and his return to Marilyn Manson. He mentions the more “organic” direction the band took in this album, recording it...

Player News

D’arcy (Ex-Smashing Pumpkins) on air interview

Ex-Smashing Pumpkins bassist D’arcy Wretzky randomly dialed in to Q101 in Chicago. The “unprompted and unplanned” phone conversation between D’arcy and DJ Ryan Manno can be heard unedited on Manno’s blog. D’arcy left the Smashing Pumpkins 10 years ago and has not done many interviews since. When Manno asked “What are you doing with your life?” she talked about living...

New Albums

New Release from Modest Mouse: No One’s First, and You’re Next

Modest Mouse is releasing a new album No One’s First, and You’re Next available on August 4th. The band includes singer/lyricist/guitarist Isaac Brock, drummer Jeremiah Green, and bassist Eric Judy, and has gained a strong following in the music scene since their formation in 1993 from outside Seattle. The track list for No One’s First, and You’re Next includes: 1....