Flemming Dørken
Born and raised in 1987 in the town of Skive, Denmark, Flemming Dørken grew up listening to whatever his parents and siblings were listening to. Besides various kinds of Worship music, these bands would include The Beatles, Queen and Abba. Music wasn’t really an integral part of his life until his mid to late teens where, heavily influenced by his older brother, he started listening to jazz, funk, fusion and the likes which he has been doing since.
While attending a boarding school in 2003/2004, Flemming and a good friend “suffered from” a massive soccer-epidemic, spending many hours a day training and discussing ways to further their way towards becoming professional soccer players. The epidemic ended abruptly when the friend was severely injured in a skiing accident and Flemming didn’t have the motivation to move on alone. This left a huge hole in his life and something had to fill the gap. Enter the bass.
Once again heavily influenced by his older brother, who is also a bass player, he decided to pick up the bass, and he has barely put it down since.
Virtuousity always had a certain appeal on Flemming and he was immediately drawn to the likes of Victor Wooten whom he learned the most from as a beginner.
In 2007 Flemming joined a worship band in the Christian youth group of his home town currently consisting of a metal-influenced guitar player, an African drummer with no musical training (but a good sense of rhythm), two singers and funk-lover Flemming which often results in interesting takes on different songs. Here, he plays an MTD Kingston Zephyr 6-string bass which has the “nicest neck in the world”, as he says.
As of the 24th of June 2009, Flemming will be residing in Cresskill, New Jersey until sometime in 2010 where he will move back to Denmark and begin studying linguistics (probably).
Articles by Flemming Dørken:
Cheikh Ndoye Project: Below Level
Having more than one bass in a band has been done many times before but when it happens, it’s often with the purpose of highlighting one of the basses as a solo instrument. In this video it’s more about the groove as bassist and leading man Cheikh Ndoye shares the bass role with David Segal.continue reading »
Brian Blade and The Fellowship: King’s Highway
Brian Blade and The Fellowship visited the Chicago Music Exchange in March and performed three songs. One of those was the band’s own tune, “King’s Highway”. The video is a little long, so if you want to skip forward to bassist Chris Thomas taking a pretty cool bass solo, it’s around the 7:50 mark. (I...continue reading »
Joshua Young: Bruno Mars “Locked Out of Heaven” Bass Cover and Improv
We first featured Joshua Young almost four years ago and said to watch out for him in the future. Well, the future is now. This is Joshua – six years older than the previous video – displaying blazing chops and improvising over Bruno Mars’ “Locked Out of Heaven”continue reading »
One Man Band: Giulio Carmassi Performs Brecker Brothers “Slick Stuff”
In this video Giulio Carmassi not only covers Will Lee’s bass part in “Slick Stuff” by the Brecker Brothers, he covers everything else as well! Talk about a multi-instrumentalist!continue reading »
Sebastiano Mereu: The All-Bass “Full House” Theme Song
There was a time when the Olsen twins were those tiny and adorable sitcom stars on a show called Full House. I’m sure that those of you who remember the show also remember the theme song. Sebastiano Mereu shares his bass arrangement, noting that it was a lot of fun to play. Turns out, he...continue reading »
Omar Rojas: Timba Funk
Today’s video features Peruvian bassist Omar Rojas performing his song “Timba Funk” on quite a few basses and some iPad-cowbell and various other iPad-instruments. There is also a shout out about his latest release at the end of the video. Thanks to Gabriel Zarruk (@gzarruk), who shared this one with us on Twitter.continue reading »
Jeff Schmidt is Back: “And I Crumble” Solo Fretless Bass
Jeff Schmidt made a solid impression with many great videos a couple of years ago. He has been away from the solo bass scene for quite a while now, but the wait is over. Jeff is back with a brand new solo bass performance of a composition he calls “And Now I Crumble”. Great to...continue reading »
Impact Fuze: “Splatch” Cover
The Musikmesse show in Frankfurt, Germany is coming up, so to mark the occasion, here’s a video from the Musikmesse two years ago. This is the French/Russian power trio, Impact Fuze, with Anton Davidyants on bass doing a funky jam over Miles Davis’ tune “Splatch”.continue reading »
Sharay Reed: Groovin’ to Jackson 5 and Stevie Wonder
If you don’t know bassist Sharay Reed by now, you should definitely check him out (start here, then come back, or vice versa). In this video, Sharay says he was grooving on a couple of songs his dad wanted him to record, the Jackson 5′s “Darling Dear” and Stevie Wonder’s “I Was Made to Love...continue reading »
Michał Grott: Preludio
This video features Polish bassist Michał Grott, first in a band situation and then performing a piece for solo bass called “Preludio”. Nice harmonic work and the tapping is pretty cool too.continue reading »
The Bass Solo: A Guide to Soloing More Freely 
Eric Avery Quits Nine Inch Nails 
Fabienne Gilbert: Come On Come Over 
Funk Bros: Love Is Like An Itching In My Heart 
Capturing Your Ideas: Transform Your Musical Inspiration into Reality 
Andrea Lombardini: By This River 
NHØP: Autumn Leaves 
Performing Live: Memorization vs. Reading vs. Improvisation 
Tom Pesch and his Ric: Rush Play-Along 
