Archive for December 2019

At the end of each year, we take a look back at all the best it had to offer. We also take a moment to remember all the bassists who left us. Each one of them helped to shape the musical world, from pop to jazz to black metal. They may be gone, but their music will always live on.

Hartke is expanding its range of bass amplifiers with the new LX Series including two models: the LX5500 and the LX8500. The amps, rated 500 watts and 800 watts, combine Class D power sections with a tube-driven preamp and Hartke’s tone stack EQ.

It has been a while since we’ve seen a new video by Jesús Rico Pérez, but thankfully that all changed this morning with his release of this cover of the Mau Lao tune, “Les Chemins d´Èlodie.”

Elijah Nelson of Seattle death metal band Black Breath has passed away of undisclosed causes. He was 40 years old.

Opeth bassist Martin Mendez has announced that he has a new band called White Stones, and that band will be unleashing a new album called “Kuarahy” in 2020.

We’ve been running our Bass of the Week feature every week since 2011 with the goal of “showcasing low-end instruments ranging from beautiful to bizarre.” Of the 50-plus basses we featured in 2019, here are the top 10 reader favorites.

Rufus Reid has a new duo album coming with pianist Sullivan Fortner on the vinyl-only label Newvelle Records. Luckily, the company also captured video of some of the recording session.

Bassist Max Gerl has been playing along some of the most exciting band leaders in jazz today, and now he’s stepping out front. He’s just released his debut album, “Tbilisi,” which features his work on both electric and double bass.

We covered the news of more than 80 new bass models coming out in 2019. These 10 got the most attention (and views) from No Treble readers throughout the year.

Kevin sent me this incredible video of Alphonso Johnson‘s band performing Mongo Santamaría’s “Afro Blue,” which was popularized by John Coltrane. This was a new group Alphonso formed earlier this year - and what a killer band it is!

Last year we shared the news that Victor Wooten and Steve Bailey were working on a new “Bass Extremes” album. Now it seems things are continuing to move forward with the group as they'll be hitting the road for a week of dates in January.

We share a video every day of the year. Of the nearly 365 videos we shared in 2019, here are the top 10 reader favorites. These videos have been watched tens of thousands of times, including a bunch of views by us too.