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Archive for May 2015 - Page 3

John Patitucci Goes to Brooklyn on Latest Album
New Albums

John Patitucci Goes to Brooklyn on Latest Album

John Patitucci isn’t just a famed jazz double bassist and jazz bass teacher. He’s also an electric bassist, and his latest album, Brooklyn, features him playing electric exclusively. Credited to the John Patitucci Electric Guitar Quartet, the album also features Brian Blade (drums) and electric guitarists Adam Rogers and Steve Cardenas. By the way, a documentary about Patitucci, called, fittingly...

Victor Wooten Band: Brooklyn
Bass Videos

Victor Wooten Band: Brooklyn

If you caught Victor Wooten and his band during his tour supporting Sword And Stone / Words and Tones, you know how epic a show that band put on. Here’s a video filmed from the audience at Billboard Live in Tokyo (August 20, 2013) show – with two cameras to capture it all. What a groove… and dig it when...

Devi Ever FX Reintroduces Silver Rose Fuzz Pedal
Pedals & Effects

Devi Ever FX Reintroduces Silver Rose Fuzz Pedal

Devi Ever FX is re-releasing the Silver Rose with some upgrades. The company, which was acquired by the people who run Dwarfcraft Devices in 2013, says that the monster fuzz pedal’s updated circuitry allow for extreme versatility. “[The Silver Rose] covers all the ground of the original with some serious improvements, like swapping out the IC Muff clone for a...

Proberaumsession: Gerda
Bass Videos

Proberaumsession: Gerda

Bassist Lukas Pamminger shared this video with us of a musical project called “Proberaumsession”. Lukas said the band just meets “in the practice room with no preparation at all and start to jam… if we like an idea we make a song out of it. The rapper comes up with a hook and freestyles the verses. This particular song “Gerda”...

Kiesel/Carvin Guitars Unveils RV69K Roy Vogt Signature Vanquish Bass
Basses

Kiesel/Carvin Guitars Unveils RV69K Roy Vogt Signature Vanquish Bass

Nashville bassist and educator Roy Vogt has teamed up with Kiesel/Carvin Guitars to release the RV69K Roy Vogt Signature Vanquish Bass. The 6-string bass, which is the first bass to carry the Kiesel badge, is made in the USA in the company’s custom shop and can be ordered with a variety of options. Standard features on the RV69K include an...

In Memoriam: Louis Johnson
In Memoriam

In Memoriam: Louis Johnson

Bass legend Louis Johnson, the funk session musician who played on Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean”, has passed away of undisclosed causes. He was 60 years old. Nicknamed “Thunder Thumbs,” Johnson was born in Los Angeles in 1955 and learned to play bass alongside his brother George. The duo would work alongside each other with Bobby Womack, the Supremes, and Billy...

Sammy Hagar & Michael Anthony are At Your Service
New Albums

Sammy Hagar & Michael Anthony are At Your Service

Not many bands can release a live greatest hits record as its debut. But not many bands have a personnel roster like Sammy Hagar and The Circle. At Your Service features Hagar’s onetime Van Halen bandmate Michael Anthony on bass, and late Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham’s son Jason on drums, as well as Vic Johnson, Hagar’s longtime guitarist. The...

Maxon Introduces the BD10 Hybrid Bass Driver
Pedals & Effects

Maxon Introduces the BD10 Hybrid Bass Driver

Maxon has announced the BD10 Hybrid Bass Driver, a bass overdrive pedal that features a symmetrical clipping circuit for “heavy yet articulate distortion.” The company teamed up with famed Japanese bassist Masaki to design the unit to keep up with extended techniques. The BD10 has a dedicated clean level for mixing in your dry signal. It also boosts up to...

West Coast Get Down: An Interview with Miles Mosley
Interviews

West Coast Get Down: An Interview with Miles Mosley

Miles Mosley is a man that keeps busy. Since we last talked with the Los Angeles native, he’s done extensive touring and been featured on several albums including Kendrick Lamar’s chart-topping To Pimp A Butterfly. His most recent work can be heard on bandmate Kamasi Washington’s album The Epic, where Mosley supports a wall of sound in an innovative new...

Simon Fitzpatrick: “Nessun Dorma” Solo Bass Performance
Bass Videos

Simon Fitzpatrick: “Nessun Dorma” Solo Bass Performance

Simon Fitzpatrick has taken “Nessun Dorma” – one of the most well-known tenor arias in opera – and turned it into a solo bass arrangement. “Nessun Dorma” (“None shall sleep”), is from the final act of Giacomo Puccini’s opera Turandot. For this performance, Simon is playing his Sei Bass Flamboyant 6.

Stuart Hamm Releases “The Book of Lies”
New Albums

Stuart Hamm Releases “The Book of Lies”

Stuart Hamm, a bassist known for his bass instruction, as well as his work with virtuoso guitarists like Joe Satriani and Steve Vai, has released an instrumental record, The Book of Lies. The album features not only a seven-piece suite for solo bass, but also four songs featuring a full band. Other players on the record include John Mader, Chester...

Practicing vs. Performing for Musical Growth
Ask Damian Erskine

Practicing vs. Performing for Musical Growth

Q: I’ve been playing the bass in a blues band for two years. Then we started playing rock and funk songs, and my practicing has always been based on what I hear and what I feel. I don’t really count in my head, and I’ve hardly worked my scales but my band keeps telling me that what I play is...