Will Lee Archives - Page 3

One of my all-time favorite videos we’ve shared goes back to 2012: Oz Noy, Will Lee and Keith Carlock performing “Schizophrenic” live in Tokyo. Here’s the trio cooking on “Steroids” from that very performance.

Back in 2009, the group known as DB III took the stage at Tokyo’s Cotton Club. The trio, consisting of guitarist Dean Brown, bassist Will Lee and drummer Dennis Chambers, performed one funky version of the Beatles’ “All You Need Is Love”. The tune, arranged by Brown, appeared on the trio’s album, , also released in 2009. Dig it.

Bassists Will Lee (The Late Show with David Letterman) and Roscoe Beck (Leonard Cohen, Robben Ford, The Dixie Chicks, Eric Johnson) provide the low end for singular guitarist/composer Oz Noy on his sixth album, . The album is a follow-up to the 2011 release of Volume 1, also featuring Lee and Beck. An Israeli native who has called the U.S....

It is always interesting to hear one prolific musician speak about another prolific musician. Will Lee did just that, sharing his thoughts on Jaco Pastorius. From his home studio (dubbed “The Beatles Museum”), Will starts off by playing a fretless bass, points at it and says “Jaco invented this thing… it’s amazing.” The interview covers a lot, including Will’s first...

The surge of jazz fusion in the ’70s produced some incredible music, especially the work of the virtuosic Brecker Brothers. Led by trumpeter Randy Brecker and saxophonist Michael Brecker, their self-titled debut blew listeners away with an electric sound that melded genres and spawned the classic track “Some Skunk Funk.” “When the band started back in the day, the original...

Twenty years after his solo debut, Will Lee has released his second album as a leader, entitled Love, Gratitude and Other Distractions. “I’ve been busy,” Lee says with a bit of a laugh when asked about the long period between solo albums, and it’s a fair explanation. The veteran bassist keeps his schedule packed between his daily gig of playing...

Name That Bass Line! is a fun show on YouTube that mixes skit comedy and famous bass lines. What more could you want? Each segment has ten mystery bass lines played by fellow YouTubers that the viewers have to guess. This episode features bassists Dave Baron, Will Lee, MarloweDK, DavidSinRocks, TJH3113, MusicLisha, Paul from “How To Play Bass Dot Com”,...

As a part of the CBS Orchestra, Will Lee’s bass playing is heard by millions of people every week on The Late Show with David Letterman. Millions more listen to him every day thanks to his prolific recording career that spans nearly 40 years and over 1,700 albums of nearly every genre. “What I’ve always loved about my career is...

Here’s Will Lee from back in the day, showcasing not only his bass chops, but also his writing and vocal chops too. The tune, “Recovery Road”, is one of Will’s compositions. Will is joined by a super group of musicians, including Robben Ford, Alex Acuna, Russell Ferrante, Bob Malach and Koono Schmidt. This recorded on the Swiss TV program “Jazz-In”.

Late next month, the Brecker Brothers’ entire Arista Records catalog will be released in a new box set format. The Brecker Brothers: The Complete Arista Albums Collection collects the group’s six albums released on Arista between 1975 and 1981. None of the albums have ever been released on CD in the US. During the span of those albums, the Brecker...

Guitarist Mike Stern’s new record All Over the Place features a veritable smorgasbord of bass talent: Esperanza Spalding, Richard Bona, Victor Wooten, Anthony Jackson, Dave Holland, Tom Kennedy, Will Lee and Victor Bailey. Like a kid in the rhythm section candy shop, Stern audibly delights in playing with these guys. Further, the quality of Stern’s writing, the variety of grooves...

Ohhhhh yeah. Here’s guitarist Oz Noy’s band, with the awesome pairing of bassist Will Lee and drummer Keith Carlock performing the tune “Schizophrenic” live in Tokyo. The well-named tune switches from funky to rocking and back. Will is definitely laying it down and having fun on this one.