Bassists - Page 139

Nails bassist George Kaufman has passed away at the age of 58, following aneurysm surgery. A memorial service was held on Thursday in Yonkers, NY. Kaufman’s band, The Nails, released two albums in the 80s, including the hit “88 Lines about 44 Women”. He was also a music teacher and owner of Supreme Sound Engineering, a company producing sound modules...

Today’s featured bassist is Wester Désamours, hailing from northern Haiti, and our newest Facebook friend. At the age of five, Wester made his own guitar out of an oil drum, some wood and nylon strings. Since 2003, Wester has been studying music, composing and recording his debut album First Step. Check out Wester’s web site at www.westerbasla.com.

Adam Nitti has signed on to endorse Aguilar Amps, selecting the DB 750, two DB 410 cabinets and a Tone Hammer preamp/D.I. as his rig for live performances, and the AG500 and DB112 cabinets for studio use. “The DB750 is one of the most musical pieces of bass gear I have ever played through. Combined with my DB410 cabinets, this...

In a recent interview with Washington State’s Legacy Project (via Seattle Post-Intelligencer), former Nirvana bassman Krist Novoselic ended any hope for new Nirvana releases. While Novoselic said there are no more unreleased tunes, he did say there’s “a lot of video”, and that he and Courtney Love (the widow of Nirvana’s front man, Kurt Cobain) are on good terms again....

“A childhood dream came true for me last week…” Sean Kelly told Blabbermouth.net. “I was asked to play in one of my all time favourite bands, Helix!” Kelly, frontman for Canadian glam-rock band Crash Kelly, will be the new bassist. According to Kelly, Crash Kelly will still be “going strong through 2009 as well”, despite his new obligation. Helix will...

How will you spend retirement? Oh yes, you’re enjoying huge success as the bassist for your band right now, but what will you do after you’ve corralled boatloads of money and the limelight fades? It’s a tough question, but one to which Ryc Rienks has found a solution: instrument repair. Rienks toured as bassist with The Drifters in the 1970s,before...

Roscoe Beck has been on the road with Leonard Cohen for a worldwide tour. After 98 concerts abroad, they landed stateside February 19th at the sold-out Beacon Theatre in New York City. Fans were elated to see the 74-year-old Cohen perform again after his 15-year absence from the stage. As musical director and bassist, Roscoe Beck led the touring band,...

We first caught this on the back of Bass Player magazine: “Please welcome, Mr. Victor Wooten”. Victor Wooten is the latest endorser of Hartke. Wooten used Hartke’s HyDrive cabinets and LH1000 amps during the SMV tour (with Stanley Clarke and Marcus Miller), and is now using them on the Béla Fleck and Flecktones tour. Wooten explains: “There are plenty of...

Hartke Systems founder Larry Hartke decided he wanted to find great, unsigned bass players from around the world, so he published his cell phone number with a call to action. Over 5,000 players responded by sending in their CDs and web sites to him, and he’s since selected three winners. Each will receive Hartke artist equipment endorsements and industry exposure....

Jazz/rock fusion pioneers Return To Forever are back with an upcoming 2CD set and DVD. If the success of their 2008 USA and European tour is any indicator, the new album “Returns” will be well-received. Releasing on March 2nd, it will be the band’s first since 1979 with the original lineup of Stanley Clarke on bass, Chick Corea on keyboards,...

In a recent interview with The Daily Aztec, Primus bassist Les Claypool shares what we can expect to hear from him soon. His latest album, Of Fungi and Foe will be released March 17. Claypool described this venture as “kind of dark and creepy” and “a little more moody than some of the stuff I’ve done in the past.” Should...

New York-based EMI Music Publishing inked an administration deal recently to market and represent funkmaster Bootsy Collins worldwide. In case you been livin’ in an un-funki-fied state and didn’t know, baby, Collins is the funkalicious bass player of Parliament/Funkadelic fame. He originally got his start in James Brown’s backup band, and after “P-Funk” went on to form Bootsy’s Rubber Band...