Archive for March 2010 - Page 8

As an upright player you have to make many moving parts work together in order to get the tone you want. Both hands play different roles in crafting your tone, but the real voice of our instrument comes from the bow. If you are new to the upright and haven’t taken the time to really find and fine tune your...

Fender is celebrating the 50th anniversary of their Jazz Bass model with a special edition that brings together features of the past and present. Though the style has remained mostly unchanged, the Jazz Bass has had some tweaking through its first 50 years, especially during the ’60s and ’70s. The Fender 50th Anniversary Jazz Bass features ’60s-era styled finish in...

Hal Leonard has announced the release of the Jaco Pastorius Bass Method. The method is penned by Ray Peterson, a bassist who was one of Jaco’s private students. The book/CD package will be comprised of note-for-note transcriptions of songs and solos along with detailed notes on the technique and theory behind the music. Also included are lessons that were gathered...

Q: Have you ever felt, for any reason, like NOT doing a gig and if so, for what reasons? A: Of course!! More important than the reasons why (there have been SO many), though are the ways in which it is possible to alter ones perspective so that it is not as dreadful. I have been lucky enough to have...

Ansir Music is sponsoring a bass giveaway this month on No Treble. One lucky reader will get a custom-built Ansir bass, and they’ll be posting videos and photos throughout the coming weeks to showcase the building process for the prize bass. Ansir founder Jody Michael has a unique process of building basses. First, he starts with a questionnaire. Players are...

Jazz bassists Mike Holstein and Ron Brendle have released a new album as a duo. The album, called Rhizome, was released this month by Brendle’s LoNote Records, based in North Carolina. Brendle, who studied with Charlie Haden at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in Smyrna, Florida, has performed along side jazz legends such as Charlie Byrd, Clark Terry, and...

Meet bassist Toby Webb, our player in the spotlight for March 2, 2010. Bio: Originally from Memphis, Tennessee, I’ve been been playing since 1979 and toured and performed as a session player with many top Asian acts. I’ve produced a couple of CDs for independent artists as well as my own band, OSS. Location: Kulua Lumpur, Selangor, Malaysia Day gig:...

We first discovered the music of Miles Mosley a year ago thanks to Youtube, with his performances of Voodoo Child and Shine. Since then, we’ve wanted to learn more about this unique bassist who is pushing the upright to new heights, who studied with legendary bassists John Clayton, Ray Brown, and Al McKibbon, and who has one of the best...

Though it may not come as a surprise, it is official: Eric Avery has once again quit Jane’s Addiction. The bassist, who rejoined the band in 2008, announced it via his Twitter profile. “That’s it,” He writes. “With equal parts regret and relief, the janes addiction experiment is at an end.” This came just hours after Jane’s Addiction finished its...

Check out this smoking live video from 1983 of the amazing Oscar Peterson Big 4 band featuring this lineup: Piano: Oscar Peterson Guitar: Joe Pass Double Bass: Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen Drums: Martin Drew The tune is called “On Danish Shore” and starts with NHØP laying down the melody and soloing like only he could.

Sublime fans will be pleased to hear that the controversy surrounding the band’s name has been resolved, and original members Eric Wilson and Bud Gaugh will be hitting the road in April with new frontman Rome Ramirez, under the banner “Sublime with Rome”. Fourteen years after the death of founding member Bradley Nowell, the group is excited to be officially...

This is the final installment of Dr. D’s 3-part Slap Bass series. Check out part 1 and part 2. In addition to having its own specialized musical and technical considerations, Playing Upright Slap has its own particular instrumental setup issues. Here are some basic things slap players need to think about when customizing their bass for their specific situation. String...