News - Page 257

English jazz/rock fusion pioneers Soft Machine played the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland in 1974, and now the audio and video recordings of that performance are available in a CD/DVD set called Switzerland 1974. The group at the time featured Roy Babbington on bass, as well as Allan Holdsworth on guitar. Holdsworth only remained with the group for 15 months,...

Bob Dylan has taken on some American pop standards, and according to a Los Angeles Times review of Shadows in the Night, the bass leads the way. “Guided by bassist Tony Garnier‘s liquid lines, ‘Shadows’ is an exercise in precision, each syllable essential, each measure evenly weighted,” reviewer Randall Roberts writes. Garnier is Dylan’s longtime bassist and has also worked...

Johnny “Spazz” Hatton, double bassist for the Brian Setzer Orchestra, lays down the basics in Rockabilly Bass: Slap Technique, Creating Bass Lines & the Rudiments of Rockin’ String Bass. Hatton, who has also played a host of styles with a wide variety of artists (including a 1967 concert with Elvis Presley) covers a multitude of bases in the title from...

If you love live records, vinyl albums, and heavy drone/psychedelic band Om, you need to take a look at Live. The band includes Al Cisneros (also known for his work in Sleep) on vocals and bass. The four-track record is intended to capture the sound of the group’s 2013 European tour. Around 1,000 copies of the album were pressed and...

Longtime grindcore purveyors Napalm Death are back — this time with the band’s 15th studio album, Apex Predator — Easy Meat. The record includes “How the Years Condemn,” written by bassist Shane Embury, who has been with the band since 1987. “Musically I wanted this track to encompass lots of different rhythms and nuances in the short space of time...

Kim Gordon, best known as Sonic Youth’s bassist, is heading out on a tour of a different kind in February — a book tour. The noise rock queen now recording in Body/Head has penned a memoir, called Girl in a Band, which she’ll discuss in an 11-stop book tour featuring Q&A sessions with literary, music, and art professionals, according to...

King Crimson’s latest iteration features not only three drummers, but also stalwart bassist Tony Levin and founding guitarist Robert Fripp. King Crimson, although established in 1969, is no relic of a past musical age and the prog-rock band’s fall 2014 tour garnered accolades. That tour’s sound was captured live at Sept. 30 and Oct. 1, 2014 concerts at the Orpheum...

This promises to be a good year for vinyl-record loving and/or audiophile Rush fans. Universal Music Enterprises is reissuing the majority — 14 albums — of the trio’s Mercury releases throughout the year, beginning this month with 1975’s Fly By Night, which was the first record to feature Neil Peart on drums. Bassist/vocalist Geddy Lee and guitarist Alex Lifeson founded...

Gov’t Mule and guitarist John Scofield have released a rarity — a live album featuring original bassist Allen Woody (also known for his time with The Allman Brothers). The music on Sco-Mule is culled from two late September 1999 shows the Mule played with Scofield in Georgia. The shows weren’t recorded by audience members, and while the live album was...

Progressive-metal outfit Periphery had too much metal for one album, so instead of releasing one, they’ve put out two — Juggernaut: Alpha and Juggernaut:Omega. The records are really meant to be listened to as a whole concept piece, with Alpha providing backstory and Omega focusing on the main character’s journey, according to drummer Matt Halpern, who noted that the dense,...

Good things can be found on dusty old cassette tapes — like live music made by three jazz legends playing as a trio. Swingin on the Korner: Live at Keystone Korner by the Red Garland Trio with Philly Joe Jones and Leroy Vinnegar offers more than 150 minutes of previously unreleased Garland music. The tracks for the album were pulled...

The No Treble Crew is in Anaheim, California to cover all the bass-related news from the 2015 Winter NAMM Show. Be sure to check in throughout the show and in the days following for the most complete coverage from the world of bass.