Archive for January 2012 - Page 9

Gary Willis! Here’s the bass master taking a solo during a live performance with the Borlai-Kinsey-Willis Trio in October, 2010, on a tune named “Essaouira”. Scott Kinsey – who was with Willis in Tribal Tech – is on keys, and Gerg? Borlai is on drums. Want to check out the whole tune? We’ve got you covered:

Overt?n Amplification will be debuting a few new pieces of gear at the upcoming NAMM Show, including the Flyweight 500 amp, the Tremor 10mini combo, and the T?nLink-DI, which will be the company’s first foray into outboard gear. Overt?n Flyweight 500 The Flyweight 500 builds on Overt?n’s Flyweight 200 and pumps up the power to 500 watts at 4 ohms....

After putting out a teaser last week, Van Halen has released their tour schedule for what will be their first outing since their 2007-’08 “reunion” tour. The current lineup includes David Lee Roth as well as Alex and Eddie Van Halen, with Eddie’s son Wolfgang Van Halen on bass. Wolfgang of course replaced longtime VH bassist and current Chickenfoot bassist...

This live performance is a real gem. The Who’s Roger Daltrey and John Entwistle teamed up with The Chieftains for this live performance in February 1994. The concert took place at Carnegie Hall in celebration of Daltrey’s 50th birthday. Here, the group performs the Who’s “Behind Blue Eyes,” with Entwistle working his magic on an acoustic bass guitar. Be sure...

Paul McCartney‘s songwriting is legendary, but the inspiration for those compositions was never widely known. That’s about to change in February, when the former Beatle releases his newest album, Kisses on the Bottom, one that takes the bassist in new musical directions while keeping an eye on the past. Kisses on the Bottom is focused on jazz standards, or as...

AC Guitars has released a new model, dubbed the “Salace”. Built with the help of Paul Sugden, the bass was intended to be a headless design, but is also available with a headstock. Though AC Guitars builds to suit, this particular Salace is a 6-string bass with a wenge body and Maracarpra top. The neck is made of 7-pieces of...

After reading the previous column in this two-part series, I’m hoping you’ve had a chance to check out some music featuring the playing of Willie Dixon and Duck Dunn. Their old school approaches to playing blues compliments the players they accompanied and reflects how novel full-band blues recordings were in the 1950’s and ’60’s. Early on, blues recordings typically only...

Here’s one for the metalheads! Nick Schendzielos of Cephalic Carnage made this incredible playalong of the group’s bass-heavy song “Ohrwurm,” from their album Misled by Certainty. “I had a lot of “fun” making this video,” Schendzielos wrote. “I wanted to increase the watchability for musicians and non-musicians alike, so I tried out some new things like Picture in Picture, and...

Hand made in Italy, the Wood & Tronics Chronos is the company’s take on the single cut design, and a great one at that. Wood and Tronics was founded by Enrico Pasini and luthier Erik Furlan after Pasini, who was a frequent visitor and admirer of the Fodera Guitars shop, decided to follow his dream of making his own custom...

Armed with passion and determination, Ontario-based bassist Grant Freifeld got his start building instruments after becoming disgusted with “cheap painted plywood guitars” and basses that are “someone else’s idea of custom.” After apprenticing with Joe Kovacic of Lado Guitars, Freifeld created his own brand, Grant Bass. His humility allows him to be more open to ideas, citing that expanding his...

Last year saw the release of drummer Terri Lynne Carrington’s Mosaic Project, featuring a star-studded cast of all female musicians including one of our favorites, Esperanza Spalding. Carrington recently released this official video for her song “Unconditional Love,” taken from a live performance at the Red Sea Festival in Eilat. Spalding pulls double duty, laying down a soulful bass line...

Andres Rotmistrovsky, who has gained popularity for his solo bass arrangements, has released his first solo album, entitled Upbeat. The record includes the bassist’s original compositions written while studying at Berklee College of Music, as well as arrangements of standards. “This album is [named] after several years of studying the powerful effects that can be created with rhythm, when accenting...