Archive for April 2018 - Page 3

Boyd Matson shared this epic video, saying “Abraham Laboriel is one of the world’s greatest bass players according to Paul McCartney. A lot of musicians must agree because he is the most recorded bass player of all time. I got Abraham, Pee Wee Hill, and some other great musician friends to record this sort of dueling bass jazz-funk groove.” This...

The legendary reggae rhythm section of Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare (aka Sly & Robbie) have teamed up with Norwegian jazz trumpeter Nils Petter Molvaer to release Nordub, an album that blends “the colorful atmospheres of Norwegian Jazz and the energetic grooves of Jamaica.” The band, which is rounded out with Eivind Aarset on guitar and Vladislav Delay on electronics,...

Novacorda’s Barbaros bass is a design that’s nearly five hundred years old. Well, at least that’s where the inspiration came from. “The bass guitar was named after Barbaros Hayreddin Pa?a who was an Ottoman admiral of Sultan Süleyman‘s fleet,” the Novacorda website explains. “The design of the bass is based on the cross-section of one of his 16th-century warships of...

Do you know what the Byzantine Scale is? How about Double Harmonic Major? Gypsy Major? Well, after this episode of Talking Technique, you will. But this episode is about so much more than just a scale – in it, we’ll cover 11 strategies to get a new scale under your fingers. The goal here is to embed the scale so...

I’m really digging this band with Riccardo Oliva on bass. And like the last time, they’re taking on a great tune from back in the day: Chick Corea’s “Spain.” “We had so much fun playing this tune! Hope you enjoy this crazy arrangement…” guitarist Matteo Mancuso shared.

Grindcore masters Napalm Death have compiled 31 songs for an album called Coded Smears and More Uncommon Slurs. Taken from tracks recorded between 2004 and 2016, the compilation brings together rarities and exclusive songs for over 90 minutes of music. Bassist Shane Embury spoke on the album earlier this year. “We can’t believe how much we have achieved in support...

After teasing the news on Facebook, System of a Down has announced they will be returning to the stage in 2018. The band, anchored by Shavo Odadjian, will be playing at least five shows this October including a headlining spot on the Aftershock Festival. Three of the other dates include support from At The Drive In and Skeleton Witch, while...

Hiwatt was on hand at this year’s Musikmesse to unveil the DR401, which they declare as the “most powerful all-tube bass amp in the world.” The tube head features three ECC83’s and one ECC81 in the preamp with a whopping eight KT88’s in the power section to produce 580 watts RMS before clipping. Custom made in England, the amp has...

We’ve seen plenty of bassists tackle Bach’s Prelude to the first Cello Suite, but never quite like this. Polish bassist Joanna Dudkowska produced this video performing the iconic piece in her many personas. “The film presents four of my various music personalities,” she shares. “I work as a session musician in Poland. I wanted to show the work of session...

Peter Erskine and his Dr. Um band are back at it, and this time they’re “On Call”. The new double album features a CD of studio recordings plus a CD of a live performance in Ochiobello, Italy on July 30, 2017. The former Weather Report drummer’s band once again includes pianist John Beasley, saxophonist Bob Sheppard, and bassist Benjamin Shepherd....

In our last series of lessons, we had a look at a chorus of a Bob Mintzer blues over four episodes. Well, today we are putting just two bars of music under the microscope. This line is from a Cannonball Adderley solo on a tune called “Limehouse Blues.” Now the line itself isn’t super tricky, but in this pretty intensive...

I’ve seen this video being shared around Facebook lately. When I finally got the chance to watch it, I was completely knocked out. Greta Van Fleet did a session for 101WKQX in The Sound Lounge and performed “Highway Tune,” which is the first single from the band’s debut EP Black Smoke Rising. Surprisingly, I had no idea about this band,...