No Treble Archive for November 7th

Lea Bass Guitars honors Randy Fullmer with the Wyn Tribute line, featuring his designs and original components, with proceeds supporting cancer research.

Jimmy Garrison delivers an extended upright bass solo during John Coltrane's 1963 performance of “Impressions” on Jazz Casual with the Classic Quartet.

Ministry releases its final album, “Hate to Go - Take Out Or Delivery,” featuring bassist Paul D'Amour and Paul Barker's first appearance in over 20 years.

Mike Herrera’s new Sterling signature bass embraces punk simplicity with one working volume knob, two dummy knobs, and an Orange Creamsicle finish.

Foo Fighters light up Amazon Music Live with “All My Life,” as Nate Mendel’s bass drives the band from the center of the crowd.

On "Big Band Bass," John Goldsby steps into the spotlight with the WDR Big Band, featuring eight originals arranged by Bob Mintzer and Vince Mendoza.

Emma Anzai, known for her dynamic bass playing with both Sick Puppies and, more recently, Evanescence, is our guest for this month's podcast.

JavaJazzFest dropped this excellent video of Incognito performing at the festival this year. Here’s the band tearing through “Colibri” and “The Bass & Keys/Supersonic Lord Sumo.”

Peter Hook and his band The Light have announced a 2025 tour of North America with his son, Jack Bates, sharing the bass duties.

Each month, we tally up the most popular bass videos on No Treble to form an excellent playlist. Here are the top 10 reader favorites for the month of October 2023.

During one of the NAMM shows, I was chatting with Evan Marien about his work with drummer Dana Hawkins. Evan told me that Dana was not only a great drummer, he was also a phenomenal bassist. Here’s proof.

Sublime with Rome has returned with a new EP called “Tangerine Skies,” which continues the band’s mix of ska and alternative rock with four new tracks.

America Paz recently debuted a new look for her Dingwall NG3 to create what she calls the “Sailor Bass.” The stock instrument was painted by artist “El Miedo,” who specializes in applying fluorescent colors to anime styles.

Martin Miller’s band was joined by Chris Buck for this performance at Guitar Summit 2022. The band, with Ben Jud handling the lead vocals and bass, takes on Prince’s “Purple Rain.”

Jazz pianist Emmet Cohen has released “Uptown in Orbit” with drummer Kyle Poole and bassist Russell Hall. Hall is completely in step with Cohen in blending styles from the years.

In this new “Bass & Creativity” lesson by Olivier Babaz, we explore two rhythmic directions for building new ideas in our solo phrasing. First up is managing the “one.” The second is examining our length of melodic fragments.

Rick Such shared this great video from Indy Jazz Fest 2021. He titled it “Victor Wooten and his band giving the crowd a lesson in time signatures at Indy Jazz Fest 2021?. Indeed it is.

A rare concert from Eberhard Weber has just come to light with the release of his new album, “Once Upon a Time – Live in Avignon”. Taken from a 1994 solo bass concert, the recording is a showcase of his innovative approach to the bass.

Earlier this year, Jackson Guitars and David Ellefson introduced the X Series Signature David Ellefson 30th Anniversary Concert Bass CBX V. Now they’re following it up with a four-string version, dubbed the CBX IV.

In 2019, Herbie Hancock, Christian McBride, and Vinnie Colaiuta took the stage at the Newport Jazz Festival. Here’s a clip from the event featuring the trio. Masters at work!

After debuting with a six-song EP in 2018, Dallon Weekes and indie-pop band iDKHOW have dropped their anticipated first full-length studio album, “Razzmatazz”.

Allparts Music Corporation has announced the acquisition of the Leo Quan Company. The news was shared on the Allparts Facebook page.

Petros Klampanis is a very melodic bass player with incredible intonation. He’s our guest for this month’s episode of Groove – The No Treble Podcast. Enjoy the conversation...

The Drum Channel recently shared this incredible clip of The Jazz Ministry, the supergroup comprised of Abraham Laboriel Jr., Abraham Laboriel Sr., Michael Landau, and Greg Mathieson. Here they are performing “GOE” at the Drum Channel studios.

Swedish hardcore-punk legends Refused have returned with their fifth album, entitled “War Music.” It’s the followup to 2015’s “Freedom,” which broke a 17-year break from new music from the band.

In this video, we’ll work through a great pattern that I learned from the great trombonist Dave Glen. It’s a fantastic way to make the transition between scales and arpeggios and also helps you to relate them more naturally to different chord types. I found this very useful when I first heard Dave talking about it and I think you...

The Blues Beatles is a favorite around here, and this video features the band performing a concert live at Vicentina Aranha Park in Brazil. Once again, Bruno Falcão handles the bass (and some backing vocals) on the band’s unique covers of Beatles tunes.

Southern rockers Blackberry Smoke have released a new acoustic album called The Southern Ground Sessions. Recorded at Southern Ground studios in Nashville, the six-song EP is described as a companion to their recent album Find A Light and features stripped back versions of songs from the LP. They also include an acoustic cover of the Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers...

Meet Matt Thomas, who decided he wanted to play guitar at first, and decided maybe “four strings would be easier.” He later determined this wasn’t the case, but he stuck with it. Today, he enjoys gigging after his day job is done. Matt is this week’s No Treble reader in the spotlight (you could be next!) Here’s his story… Bio:...

Last month, Marilyn Manson parted ways with longtime bassist Jeordie White, aka Twiggy Ramirez. No replacement was named, but Manson recruited bass monster Juan Alderete to anchor his band at Ozzfest meets Knotfest in San Bernadino on November 5th. Alderete has an impressive pedigree of heavy music starting with his work in Racer X in the 1980s. He also spent...

No Treble reader Axel Roks shared this excellent video by Ralph Hermans, who plays his tune “Duet in Cm.” “I just wanted to share this video with you. It is a beautiful piece of music composed by Ralph Hermans, a young and incredibly talented bass player,” Axel shared. “He normally plays with big Belgian hip-hop acts but, in this video,...

Time to stop whatever you’re doing to catch up on some serious bass goodness – AKA the monthly top 10 video list. Here are the No Treble reader favorite videos for the month of October 2017, in order of popularity. Thanks for watching, commenting and sharing. 1. Frank Zappa: Black Napkins (Live, 1977) Frank Zappa’s 1977 performance at the Palladium...

Barton Applewhite of Barton Basses sent this in for us to check out and it stopped me in my tracks. This monstrous 11-string fretless Harpbass includes a four regular bass strings plus seven standalone harp strings. “[The bass is] constructed of swamp ash [and] a flame maple neck through with a cocobolo top,” the luthier shares. “It has Bartolini pickups...

Today we’re going to go over a few tips on how to spice up a groove using octaves. Of course, we’ll focus on good fingering practices to make the notes sound smooth and connected. You can use this technique when practicing rudiments and scales, but check out this PDF to work up an example using one- and two-chord grooves.

Eduardo Machado gets down on this video with his trio, which features pianist Gil Reis and drummer Marcio Bahia. These guys bring it!

New Order fans will get an inside look at the band from the perspective of bassist Peter Hook in his new book entitled Substance: Inside New Order. The 768-page documents the band’s beginnings, which grew from their previous work as Joy Division. “We didn’t really think about it afterwards. It just sort of happened. One day we were Joy Division,...

Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo’s documentary about the late Jaco Pastorius, who revolutionized electric bass playing, before dying tragically at age 35, is almost here — the film and its soundtrack are set for a Nov. 27 release. The first single from the Jaco soundtrack is Trujillo side project Mass Mental’s version of “Come On Come Over” from Pastorius’ 1976 debut...

Back in October, we shared a video of Harmless Funk, featuring bassist Dave Marks. The group performed the Meters’ classic, “Cissy Strut”. Dave just sent me the next video of the band from that same session. “This time it’s a cover of David Sanborn’s arrangement of [Ornette Coleman’s] ‘Ramblin’” he shared. “…bit more of a ‘bass-ey’ one.” We dig.

Loaded, The Velvet Underground’s last studio album with Lou Reed, is now available in a deluxe six-disc box set called Loaded: Re-Loaded 45th Anniversary Edition. The set features the original 1970 album, remastered in stereo and mono, demos and alternate mixes, a remastered/re-edited version of Live at Max’s Kansas City (recorded during the band’s stand at the venue, which occurred...

BassMods has introduced the K534, a 5-string bass that pays homage to a classic style. The model is built with a chambered alder body and a bolt-on maple neck with white binding and pearloid block inlays. Each K534 is made to order and built for a dual pickup configuration. Pickup options include Bartolini Dual Coil Brights, Bartolini Deep Tone Dual...

A couple of months ago, we featured a video from Berklee’s 2014 Alumni Reunion Concert featuring Abraham Laboriel Sr. performing with his sons. Here’s another song from that performance, with an additional family connection. Laboriel Sr. is once again joined by his sons – Abraham Laboriel Jr. on drums and Mateo Laboriel on guitar – as well as Jetro Da...

Another great bassist has left us. Rick Rosas, who served as longtime bassist for Neil Young, has passed away at the age of 65. The cause of death has not been released. Affectionately known as “Rick the Bass Player,” Rosas got his musical start in an instrumental surf band called Mark & The Escorts in the early 1960’s. The core...

If you’re a fan of Bob Dylan and/or The Band, you always knew that they made far more music together than was released on 1975’s The Basement Tapes. Now, all that music, originally recorded in the summer of 1967 in the basement of the West Saugerties, New York – home known as “Big Pink” – is available on a 6-CD...

A few days ago, we shared a video from the archives featuring Alessandro Corsi playing a resophonic bass. That was one popular video, and it reminded me of this week’s bass of the week: the Gold Tone PBB Resophonic. The PBB is built with a mahogany body, rosewood fingerboard, and maple neck. Its aesthetic appeal is rounded out with a...

As bassist for Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan and The Doors, Jerry Scheff’s sound epitomized rock bass tone in the ’70s. Thousands of bassists have studied his style while learning The King’s live version of “Suspicious Minds,” the psyche-penetrating bass groove from “Riders on the Storm” by The Doors, and countless other songs from Scheff’s career. That’s why we’re kicking off...

Time for some Adam Stevens goodness. This time around, Adam utilizes all five of his basses, which includes an upright, a U-bass, a Jazz, a Precision and Roscoe LG-3000. Lots of bass goodness on this one.

Forty five years ago, the Jimi Hendrix Experience headlined the first major rock festival on the East Coast. Now the band’s appearance has been released as Jimi Hendrix Experience: Miami Pop Festival, an album of previously unreleased material from the concert. The album has eleven tracks: nine from their morning set with two from the afternoon set. Alongside the classics...

Atoms For Peace have released new details on their highly anticipated debut album, which they first announced last year. The band revealed the album title, AMOK, as well as the track listing. The exact release date, however, is still left at “early next year”. The supergroup – comprised of Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea, Radiohead singer Thom Yorke, and...

Q: When I hear you playing I think how amazing your technique is and the way you apply it to whatever you want to say through your bass. In the past I didn’t mind about the sound of the notes I was getting. I tried to play fast and didn’t really see or hear what the hell I was doing....

It has been a while since we featured a video of the bassist known as BassGirl. This young bassist just keeps getting better and better with each video too. Here’s a recent video of BassGirl performing Chick Corea’s “Spain”. Also cool: her dad is the drummer. It is so nice to see a young, up-and-coming bassist appreciating great music from...

Ashdown Engineering has unveiled a limited edition of their Little Bastard amp head called the LB-550. The new amp couples their Little Bastard tube preamp section with the 550-watt digital power section from their new MiBass head, resulting in tube tone in a lightweight head weighing in at 6.2kg (approximately 13.6 puonds). The preamp uses ECC83 and ECC82 tubes and...

Many students have trouble mastering vibrato technically and understanding its usage musically. There are numerous debates regarding vibrato usage in musical contexts, so today we will focus on a simpler matter: how to achieve technical mastery of this skill. From an instrumental point of view, our goal is to have complete control over the width and speed of our vibrato,...

After suffering a major stroke on Friday November 4th, bass legend Chuck Rainey is expected to have a full recovery, according to his wife Susan. “Thank U Dear Friends for all the prayers and healing Light,” Mrs. Rainey posted on Facebook. “Chuck had a stroke Friday night but the prognosis is good for a full recovery. Please keep him in...

Editor’s note: we’re featuring a different bass play-along every day this week. If you have one you’d like to submit (by you or someone else), send it to [email protected]. Charlotte Robinson, aka CharGuitarGirl, is a 21 year old bassist from Swindon, England who really digs The Subways, thanks to their “Kickin’ bass riffs”. In today’s bass play-along, Charlotte nails the...

Last week, No Treble readers really dug Davie504‘s FleaBass Funk video which took the top slot overall, and Magnus Sjoquist‘s big sounding uBass video made the top 10 as well. Our interview with extreme metal bassist Alex Webster was a happy addition for many of our readers, who responded with their clicks and positive comments about putting extreme metal in...

Gadotti Guitars has introduced their newest model, the King Bass, available with 4, 5 and 6-string configurations, and fretted or fretless. Manufactured in Brazil, the bass is a neck thru body design featuring Honduras Mahogany and Maple for sustain and brightness, with a Cocobolo fretboard. The electronics include Kent Armstrong H4BE active pickups as well as Kent Armstrong active circuitry....

Backbeat Books has released The Funky Bass Book, compiled and edited by former Bass Player magazine editor Bill Leigh. The 256 page book offers a huge collection of “funked-up wisdom and inspiration”, tracing back to the pioneers of R&B, soul and funk, to the latest hop-hop, neo-soul and Gospel. The book’s forward is by Bootsy Collins. The Funky Bass Book‘s...

Here’s a live Montreux Jazz Festival of Stanley Clarke‘s “School Days”, performance by Clarke and George Duke. The video gives you a close up look at Clarke’s Alembic bass (and playing!)

Jim Clench, a bassist from Montreal who performed with April Wine and Bachman Turner Overdrive, has passed away at the age of 61. Clench had been battling lung cancer. Clench was with April Wine from 1970 until 1975, performing on the band’s hits including “You Could Have Been a Lady” and “The Whole World’s Goin’ Crazy”. After his break from...

Aguilar Amplification has announced the TLC Compressor, the newest addition to their line of bass gear. The TLC Compressor is designed for both recording and live use and features a four-knob layout with a wide range of attack times, as well as variable threshold and slope levels. Features include: Threshold control: variable from -30 to -10 dBu Slope control: variable...

Bootsy Collins, one of the funkiest bassists ever, shares his formula for a basic funk line. Just keep it on the one, and you can do anything you want with it!

Bassist Ben Williams was this year’s winner of the Thelonius Monk International Jazz Competition and has been making a splash in the music scene since. Williams took first prize in the competition with Duke Ellington’s “Caravan” performed with vocalist Dee Dee Bridgewater. Judges included notable bassists Charlie Haden, Ron Carter and Dave Holland. Williams recently performed with his quartet, including...