Archive for September 2012 - Page 4

Contemporary jazz quartet Fourplay have released their thirteenth album, entitled Esprit De Four. Originally formed in 1991, the band currently consists of bassist Nathan East, drummer Harvey Mason, keyboardist Bob James and guitarist Chuck Loeb. This is Loeb’s second recording with Fourplay and the band is taking advantage of the new direction. “In the songwriting and recording process, we were...

Led Zeppelin has confirmed the release of Celebration Day, a film of the one-off reunion concert they performed at London’s O2 Arena in 2007. The film will be shown in theaters worldwide October 17th with CD, DVD, Blu-ray and LP formats and hitting shelves on November 19th. Anchored by bassist John Paul Jones, the band reunited for the concert to...

Q: I do regular cover gigs, but I also play with a few original artists and I’m worried about them conflicting. I was wondering how you balance your “work” gigs with your “fun” gigs? A: I have touched on this in previous columns, but this is a topic worthy of its own dedicated discussion. For starters, this is a subjective...

Here’s an incredibly energetic duet by Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen and pianist Tania Maria. NHØP is in his usual top-notch form with ridiculous speed and agility. Check out his masterful right hand technique at the 2:12 mark, and then be ready to want to practice.

Megadeth has announced a 20th anniversary edition of their seminal album Countdown to Extinction, which will be released October 16th in a box set as well as in digital format. The two-disc lift-top box set will contain a remastered version of the album as well as a previously unreleased 1992 concert recorded live at the Cow Palace in San Francisco,...

Josh Townsend is a bassist with one very cool nickname (“Bass Mountain”). Josh, like many others in the spotlight here, has awesome parents who helped him get his start in music at an early age. But it wasn’t until his high school years did he discover the bass, and that – as is also the case with many – was...

Last time, we kicked off a bass line construction series of lessons with a study in improvising on some funk in the key of C. This time around, we’re focusing on some new phrasing ideas for the trusty old minor pentatonic scale. In this case, we’re using the A minor pentatonic scale: A, C, D, E, G The exercise covers...

It’s a very rainy day here today, and this tune seems to fit perfectly. Of course, any time we feature Avishai Cohen is a good day to us. Here’s Avishai with his trio, performing the tune “Remembering”. Avishai really starts getting down around the 2:25 mark!

On-Stage Gear has a new clip-on stand light called the LED509. Featuring 9 LED lights, the LED509 can clip onto most music stands and illuminate up to four pages – a nice feature for bassists with large charts to read. It’s also designed to stand on its own on a flat surface. The power switch offers two brightness settings, while...

This month marks Höfner’s 125th anniversary, and part of the celebration includes a new hardback book that documents the company’s time in the business. Founded by luthier Karl Höfner in 1887, the company makes violins and guitars, but is renowned for their violin bass as made famous by the Beatles’ Paul McCartney. The 328-page book offers over 400 images and...

iHarmony is an app described by its creator as “a fully complete collection of scales, chords & harmonizations…” The harmonization part of the description describes what is actually a list of chord qualities for every note in a given mode (i.e.: Maj7, -7, -7, Maj7, Dom7, -7 & -7(b5) for the Major modes), which is quite handy. While I wouldn’t...

I’ve been watching tons of videos with Oteil Burbridge lately. Check out this one of him playing “Search Yourself” with the Aquarium Rescue Unit live at the Jacksonville Jazzfest. Burbridge really brings the band together and gets some time to shine by vocalizing his solo spots.