Rewind: New Basses, Oteil Burbridge Grooves, Jaco & Toots, Scott LaFaro and Ansir Custom Bass Contest
Here are the most read, most popular stories and features on No Treble for the week of March 20 – 26, 2011.
1. Contest: Win an Ansir Custom Built Bass — Designed Just for You!
Ansir Music is sponsoring an incredible custom bass giveaway (valued at $2,000) to help all you bassists kick off spring 2011. Ansir’s founder, Jody Michael, will consult with the lucky winner to craft their one-of-a kind bass that is perfect in every way. Enter before April 25, 2011! The Ansir Secret—It’s in their US Patented…
2. Spector Releases Alex Webster Signature Bass
Spector has just released a new Alex Webster Signature Model bass, designed around their Euro5LX. One of the instrument’s key features is a faster neck, which is slimmer front to back, to facilitate playing the fast and technical riffs, as the Cannibal Corpse bassist is known to play. The fingerboard is ebony with blood red…
3. Trucks Tedeschi Band: Midnight In Harlem, Live with Oteil Burbridge
Oteil Burbridge lays down one tasty groove behind Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi in this live performance of “Midnight in Harlem”, recorded at the 2010 Crossroads Guitar Festival at Toyota Park in Bridgeview, IL. This tune was written by Trucks & Tedeschi Band’s vocalist Mike Matteson. Kevin sent this to me, and I’ve lost count…
4. Spector Introduces Legend 4X Classic Bass
Spector has expanded their Professional Series with the introduction of the Legend 4X Classic. All the features of the new X model are the same as the original Legend 4 Classic, with the exception of a new body shape. The X strays from the NS-Bass design that the company is known for and dives into…
5. Player Spotlight: Becky Baldwin
Meet Becky Baldwin, a bassist from Bristol England and our player in the spotlight for March 22, 2011. Bio: I grew up in Trowbridge, Wiltshire and got my first bass guitar for my 13th birthday. It has been my biggest passion in life since that day! I moved to Bristol in 2009 to study bass…
6. Jaco Pastorius & Toots Thielemans: Sophisticated Lady (1982)
Two masters at work, Jaco Pastorius and Toots Thielemans, perform Duke Ellington’s “Sophisticated Lady” in this 1982 performance in New York City. Youtuber jazzz65 added the nice visuals to this audio recording. Thanks to Ingrid Pastorius, for sharing this video with us.
Q: In your opinion, what is it that separates the “greats” from the rest of us mortals? A: In short, thousands of hours spent working hard at their craft. Great work really is 99% perspiration, and 1% inspiration. I see this constantly in my students and my peers. The one thing that every great musician…
8. Tale of the Fingers: An In-Depth Look at the Paul Chambers Tune
Editor’s note: help us welcome Keith White as a new contributor on No Treble. I was checking out Mark Saltman’s column, in which he reviews the melody in Paul Chamber’s tune “Tale of the Fingers”. This is a notable melody, so I decided to analyze the tune’s structure and melody as a follow up to…
9. Listen: Lessons Learned from Scott LaFaro
In the past four years or so, I’ve been asked to write or speak about Scott LaFaro many times. Each time I delve back into the experience, I find another side of the story to tell. That’s because my brain is constantly processing all of the information that I put into my head by transcribing…
10. Gibson Releases Thunderbird Short Scale Bass
Gibson has just released a short scale version of their classic Thunderbird bass. The bass has a 30.5″ scale, which the manufacturer explains is favorable for players with shorter arms or smaller hands as well as beginners and students. They also note that these short-scale basses aren’t just for novices, as Jack Bruce and Paul…
