Archive for May 2015

Welcome to your weekly dose of the best in bass. Otherwise known as the No Treble top 10 reader favorite stories and videos of the week. Thanks as always for reading, watching, commenting and sharing. 1. Wayne Shorter & Esperanza Spalding Duet Tavis Smiley hosted Wayne Shorter and Esperanza Spalding on his PBS show. Described as a “3 camera 1...

French company CG Lutherie has introduced the UbiQ, a new model that blurs the lines between bass and guitar. The six-string singlecut bass features a multi-scale design and is tuned EADGBE. The bass’s scale ranges from 30.9 inches to 32 inches while its maple fingerboard has a compound radius from 20 inches to 23 inches. It’s headless design revolves around...

We’re celebrating Christian McBride’s birthday today with another amazing performance. This one was recorded in 2012, live at KPLU with pianist Peter Martin. Doesn’t get any sweeter than this. Happy birthday, Christian! (After this one, be sure to check out a more recent clip from KPLU, where Christian’s trio performed “Fried Pies“.)

Five years after his first signature bass with the company, Adam Clayton has once again teamed up with Warwick to collaborate on a new version of their Streamer CV bass. The Warwick Adam Clayton Streamer CV Signature bass is built in the Warwick Custom Shop in Markneukirchen, Germany. The bass is built with an extra light swamp ash body finished...

I’m not sure there’s a more exciting band out there today than Snarky Puppy. The band has just released their new album, Sylva, along with Metropole Orkest. Here they are performing “The Curtain” from that album, with bassist and band leader Michael League playing both electric bass and Moog keybass on the tune. And does anyone have more (or better)...

Early 1970s Yes is in all of its glory on the 14-CD box set Progeny — Seven Shows from Seventy-Two. The set features recently unearthed recordings from seven full concerts performed in North America between Oct. 31 and Nov. 20, 1972, back when Close to the Edge was a new album. Live material from that year’s tour is also well-known...

Of the few bassists who play a 7-string bass, no one makes it sound quite like Jeff Hughell. The veteran death metal musician gets a unique sonic fingerprint through his instruments and his unique techniques. He works the entire fretboard with lots of two-handed tapping and sweeping runs. Hughell’s individual sound and dedication have led him to work with a...

Holy smokes, this one is impressive. Billy Sheehan along with guitarist Tony MacAlpine, keyboardist Derek Sherinian and drummer Mike Portnoy took the stage in 2012 at Zepp Tokyo, as the supergroup known as PSMS. Here they are performing “Apocalypse 1470 B.C.”, which has some of the most impressive unison parts you’ll ever hear.

Graham Parker and the Rumour has continued to build on its 2011 reunion with the release of Mystery Glue. The band, in its original lineup, includes bassist Andrew Bodnar, known for his years of work with Parker and on recordings like Elvis Costello’s “Watching the Detectives.” What is the mystery glue of the title? Parker explains: “When Swiss astrophysicist Fritz...

We’re celebrating Leland Sklar‘s birthday today with a throwback to his 1990 tour with Phil Collins. This clip from Knebworth has the band digging in on “Sussudio” in front of close to 120,000 fans, and you can tell Sklar is getting into it. The session ace gave us the scoop on this bass line during our Stories Behind the Songs...

Top jazz double bassist Gary Peacock (Keith Jarrett, Paul Bley, Bill Evans) has released Now This with his Gary Peacock Trio, which includes Marc Copland on piano and Joey Baron on drums. The album isn’t just a new record, though, its release also celebrates Peacock’s 80th birthday, which occurred on May 12. For Peacock fans, the record also features new...

Q: I’ve been studying for a while now, and I’ve been practicing my scales and modes as much as possible over changes. I’ve also been working through arpeggios, including the methods you talk about in your Improvisor’s Path book. For example, I’ll work arpeggios through tunes in different inversions and so on. However, when I go to solo freely over...