Archive for February 2014 - Page 6

Hard to believe how fast 2014 is already moving. Maybe it is in part due to all the great bass videos we were able to watch in January. Of the 31 we featured, these 10 were tops with readers. 1. Chuks Okpu: Chuk for Chick There are plenty of musicians who call themselves multi-instrumentalists, but Chuks Okpu is the real...

Adam Neely and Justina Soto make a great duo. Here’s their latest, a bass and voice take on Cole Porter’s “So in Love.” Neely and Soto shot the video as part of their aptly named Rooftop Sessions series.

Music and sculpture combine in renowned jazz bassist Rufus Reid’s five-movement composition, , based on five sculptures by artist Elizabeth Catlett. Each movement of the piece, written for a large jazz ensemble (including Reid on bass), corresponds to a sculpture by Catlett, the late African-American artist (she died in April 2012 at age 96) whose grandparents on both sides were...

Students of improvisation are often looking for the quickest way to learn vast amounts of new material, all while sounding great immediately. Oftentimes this translates into playing a large number of tunes for a few minutes each. In the short term, such practice sessions can be helpful. This is especially true if we need to learn a great deal of...

It’s incredible to think about how much music Herbie Hancock has made. He was honored this past year at the Kennedy Center, and the diversity of styles is astounding. In this video, a cast of some of the world’s finest musicians play through songs that define Hancock’s career, and that includes some heavy hitting bassists. Dave Holland roots the band...

Norm Stockton has released , a 234-page instructional book aimed at helping bassists working in a worship setting. Stockton, who spent six years playing bass for Lincoln Brewster, takes a different approach to the book than you might think. “As opposed to a comprehensive methodology for all things bass, this will be more of a collection of the nuggets –...

Add some bass gear news from NAMM to a handful of epic videos, and then add a bass lesson, a message from Flea and a Bass of the Week and you get one terrific top 10 list worth checking out. Here are the most popular videos, stories and features on No Treble for the week of February 2-8, 2014. Thanks...

Traynor has expanded their Small Block series of bass heads with the SB500H. A companion to last year’s SB200H, the new amp delivers 500 watts while weighting a mere four pounds. The SB500H retains many of the same features of its smaller brethren, including active and passive inputs, a 4-band EQ with low and hi mid controls, and the company’s...

So this video was apparently the first time bassists Errick Lewis and Michael Manring performed together. And they just decided to improvise it all the way through. Sweet.

Black Flag’s personnel is in flux once again as bassist Dave Klein announced he’s quit the band to rejoin punk band They Stay Dead. “I guess I should OFFICIALLY (puns!) say that I’m no longer playing with [Black Flag],” Klein wrote on his Facebook page. The news came the same day that Rolling Stone published a story stating the band...

Tonecraft Audio launched this year with their flagship product, the Tonecraft 363 Tube Direct Box. The interface is made for all instruments that use a 1/4″ connection, but the company’s designer Ryan Feves notes that it was created with a slant towards upright and electric bass. “While the DI is not exclusively for bass, [Jon Erickson] and I are both...

When Adam Stevens first heard the tune “Rude” by Reggae/pop group MAGIC!, he said he couldn’t get the song out of his head. A week later, he recorded this all bass cover of the tune. And that makes it just a little sweeter, to us at least.