Berklee Bass Department: Silent Night… In Tunisia

For years, Steve Bailey has sent a holiday video for us to share with you. In celebration of the holidays, here’s the latest, with a note from Steve:

Having been on Sabbatical for the Spring semester, working on a new solo/duet album (duets with Ron Carter, Ian Anderson, Becca Stevens, Howard Levy, Dennis chambers, Mikes Stern, and more) and a new Bass Extremes album, I was prepared to forego this year annual holiday bass tune. My goal was, except for a couple of recording sessions in my office/studio, to avoid the campus for the whole semester.

Just after Thanksgiving, I was at my studio in Myrtle Beach, recording with Victor Wooten and Gregg Bissonette. We converged to make an album similar in concept to the original “Bass Extremes” from back in 1992. Vic and I started writing on Monday and Tuesday with Gregg coming in on Wednesday to record for three days. Through those days, I kept humming the opening melody to Dizzy Gillespie’s “Night in Tunisia” and when I got to the high C, “Silent Night” kept slipping out. We started jamming on it and “Silent Night… In Tunisia” was born. And so was our Holiday Retrospective 2018!

Back in Boston, John Patitucci was in residence so he came in for a few minutes and nailed some great solos. The next day we got Joe Dart while he was visiting Berklee for a clinic (he did his signature part in ONE TAKE)!!! And added retiring faculty member and double bass “swing-meister” Whit Browne who is retiring after over 40 years teaching at Berklee… and added Mike Pope, electric and double bass virtuoso, who is our newest faculty member.

Being on Sabbatical, I was able to come back down to Myrtle Beach and mix.

Happy holidays!

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  1. Lenny Mo

    Wow, slick. You Berklee guys are the stuff.