Archive for 2017 - Page 2

I recently met a player in Portland who completely blew me away. (We soon realized, we only live two blocks away from each other!) He’s new to town and hasn’t been gigging here yet. His girlfriend plays in the symphony and he’s been getting his bearings in the new city. Long story short, we got together over at his house...

Bassist John Ferrara and percussionist Seth Moutal have released their second composition, and it’s mesmerizing. “This one is an original composition with me tapping polyrhythms and doing auxiliary percussion with my feet, and Seth playing a hand drum and aux percussion with his feet,” Ferrara shares. While that sounds complicated, it’s a natural and great feeling groove. “Mouth Say Tongue”...

We had the chance to chat with many bass players over the course of 2017, between the Groove Podcast and our other interviews. Here are the top 10 reader favorites of the year. 1. Groove – Episode #32: Joe Dart Let’s just call it a “mutual admiration society.” Vulfpeck bassist, Joe Dart, has always been very kind to the No...

Luthier Aaron “Ray” Ross has been cooking up a new style of bridge this year, and he’s created an amazing bass to showcase it. His 27th bass features the new saddle-less “universal bridge.” “Coming up with something new is a violent, painful way to create, this took 4 months of agony and hand work,” Ross writes. “I was a little...

We covered a lot of new basses in 2017. Here are the top 10 reader favorites of the year. 1. Ibanez Ashula SRAS7 Hybrid Fretted/Fretless Bass Ibanez shocked many bassists again this year by introducing a new Ashula bass. The SRAS7 is a seven-string model that has a unique hybrid fretted/fretless design with three strings over a fretless purpleheart fingerboard...

Will Lee is rounding out 2017 with a funky little video for the song “Wisps”. Written by drummer Stefano Volpe, it also features Lee’s jamming buddy Oz Noy on guitar. The bassist kicks off the video with his signature brand of humor before laying down a nicely syncopated groove. Volpe shared his gratitude on Facebook by writing, “Mr. Will Lee...

Jayme Lewis knows how to celebrate the holidays with some killer cover songs. After tackling “Thriller” for Halloween, the bassist is back with his band and a funky rendition of Donny Hathaway’s classic “This Christmas.” “Merry Christmas! 2017 was a stellar year here at TheBassist.net and I hope it was full of joy and blessings for you and yours!” Lewis...

Damian Erskine is our longest running columnist, for good reason. His Q&A column is one of the most popular features we publish each and every week. Of the 50-plus columns Damian published this year, here are the reader favorites for 2017. 1. A Drummer’s Perspective on Bass Playing For this column, I asked a good friend of mine – Seattle-based...

Evgeny Pobozhiy has a new video out featuring his collaboration with Federico Malaman, Valeriy Stepanov, and David Sagamonyants. The group play’s Evgeny’s original tune, “The Aether.” We dig this!

David “Lenny” Stallworth, who anchored Roy Hargrove’s RH Factor and toured with Maceo Parker, has passed away. Raised in Moss Point, Mississippi, Stallworth started playing bass at 11 years old and one year later joined his first band: The Super Soul Movement. At eighteen he joined the show band Poo Nanny and toured the Chitlin’ Circuit where he got the...

Bass and drum duo Royal Blood have announced they’ll be coming to the U.S. for a headlining tour in 2018. Fronted by bassist/vocalist Mike Kerr, the band will be hitting the road in support of their latest album, How Did We Get This Dark? The tour kicks off in Brooklyn, New York before heading to Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Georgia, Florida,...

Larry Grenadier takes the melody and an awesome solo on this live version of “Father and Sun” by the Wolfgang Muthspiel Quintet. He also creates a spacey groove with drummer Brian Blade to propel the ethereal song.