Archive for June 2021 - Page 5

Bass virtuoso Charnett Moffett has returned with his seventeenth album as a leader, entitled “New Love”. The bassist describes the music, recorded in trio and quartet band formats, as a love letter to humanity.

In what seems to be a prog lover’s dream tour, King Crimson has unveiled the “Music Is Our Friend” tour. The outing will see the band accompanied by the California Guitar Trio for the first half of the tour and The Zappa Band for the second half.

I’ve really been enjoying the videos Julia Hofer has been creating with Thomann’s Guitars & Basses. In this one, she takes on Joe Dart’s funky bass line on the Vulfpeck tune, “Back Pocket”.

Forty-seven years ago, Charles Mingus performed with his band at Carnegie Hall. A live album, “Mingus At Carnegie Hall”, was issued but excluded much of the 2-hour performance. Now the full concert has been released as a deluxe edition.

G&L Guitars is showing some love for lefty bassists with a new southpaw version of their Tribute Fallout Bass. Originally launched in 2019, the Fallout Bass is a short-scale model loaded with the company’s Magnetic Field Design humbucker.

Here’s a great new video featuring Cory Wong’s new collaboration with Dave Koz, from the upcoming album, “The Golden Hour”. Yohannes Tona lays down the low end on the title track. I love how this really gets grooving around the 2:10 mark!

At long last, Wolfgang Van Halen’s solo project Mammoth WVH has released its debut album. Van Halen wrote, performed, and recorded all the parts. Although his family name looms large, Wolfgang finds his own sound to live up to that legacy.

Matthew Garrison has just launched a fantastic new app for learning from the bassist. The app is described as a “living and evolving archive of the creative works of Matthew Garrison.”

Consider the Source has created a video for their NPR Tiny Desk submission, and it is fantastic. I love the acoustic version of this band, the instrumentation, and the tune.

Bass great Juan Nelson has passed away at the age of 62. A cause of death has not been announced. Nelson is best known for his unrelenting grooves with Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals. Harper posted about his passing on social media.

Spaceman Effects has launched the Aurora, an analog BBD-style flanger packed with features. That includes two LFO types, two tape emulations, and a static comb filtering option.

I stumbled upon a newly remastered version of Weather Report’s live performance in Belgrade on October 31, 1980. Jaco Pastorius is on fretted bass on this one, with the band tearing through “Birdland”, with Jaco’s “Liberty City” in the mix.