RIP Sky Saxon
Bassist and singer Sky Saxon passed away on Thursday in Austin, Texas. He was 63 and had been in the ICU with an undisclosed illness since Monday. Saxon had a long music history: he founded Seeds in 1965 releasing four albums with hit singles “Can’t Seem to Make Mine” and “Pushing Too Hard.” Saxon also played with the Ya Ho...
Nate Mendel back with Sunny Day Real Estate
Bassist Nate Mendel has returned to play with Sunny Day Real Estate, after playing with the Foo Fighters. The reunion will be followed by a tour scheduled for this fall. Sunny Day Real Estate has split and re-formed two times already (once in 1998, reuniting without Mendel, and then again in 2001). Mendel’s comments on the reunion: “I wasn’t around...
Classic Metal Show features Ian Hill
Bassist Ian Hill, from Judas Priest, was a featured guests on this past weekend’s “The Classic Metal Show”. The buzz is that Judas Priest is working on a new album, A Touch of Evil: Live, to be released July 14 during the band’s summer tour. The album will feature 10 songs never released live. Rob Halford told Billboard.com, “I love...
Deftones re-record without Chi
The Deftones have re-entered the studio to re-record Eros, a project started last year that was interrupted with bassist Chi Cheng’s tragic car accident in November. Former Quicksand bassist Sergio Vega has been playing with the band since then. From their myspace blog, Deftone’s state in revisitng their work it “doesn’t best encompass and represent who we are currently as...
Lesson: Master the Fretboard – Part 1
One of the essential skills for any bassist is mastery of the fingerboard. At any point in time you should know exactly where you are and where you can go. Most of us have the first part of that down, it’s rare that you’ll be playing and not know where you are, but how many people have an understanding of...
Metallica bassist Cliff Burton biography available
The official biography of Metallica bassist Cliff Burton is now available. To Live Is to Die: The Life and Death of Metallica’s Cliff Burton highlights Cliff Burton’s career with Metallica and includes information on the making of the ground-breaking first three Metallica albums, Cliff’s short career and tragic death three and a half years after joining the band. The book...
Sara Wasserman debuts “Solid Ground” with Rob Wasserman & Christian McBride
Sara Wasserman, the daughter of legendary bassist Rob Wasserman debuts Solid Ground, an album seven years in the making. Solid Ground features Rob Wasserman as a guest musician, along with Aaron Neville, bassist Christian McBride, Lou Reed, turntablist DJ Logic, Jane’s Addiction drummer Stephen Perkins and Living Colour’s Vernon Reid. Preview the album: Amazon.com Widgets Sara’s had quite the musical...
New Release: Kind of Brown by Christian McBride & Inside Straight
Jazz bassist Christian McBride has released “Kind of Brown”, the debut album by his quintet Inside Straight. In addition to McBride, the quintet includes Eric Scott Reed on piano, Steve Wilson on sax, Carl Allen on drums and Warren Wolf on vibes. The album is an energetic acoustic jazz recording featuring seven original compositions, and includes renditions of “Where Are...
Ultimate Bass Play-Along: Geddy Lee & Rush
Alfred Publishing is releasing another bass tab book covering the work of prog-rock master bassist Geddy Lee. The Ultimate Bass Play-Along: Rush provides faithful transcriptions and play-along tracks on an included CD. As an added feature the CD contains a play-along version of each song (without the bass) as well as the complete track. It also includes software to slow...
Funeral details for Hugh Hopper
If you read our previous post you know of the passing of bassist Hugh Hopper. Information about the details of his funeral have been released by his wife Christine: Hugh’s funeral will be on Thursday 25th June at 10am at Deerton Natural Burial Ground, which is situated close to the village of Teynham, in Kent (postcode: ME9 9LL). It will...
Victoria: a new live release from Arthur Kell
Bassist and composer Arthur Kell has released a new album, Victoria / Live in Germany on Brooklyn Jazz Underground Records. The album features Loren Stillman (alto sax), Brad Shepik (guitar) and Joe Smith (drums) and was recorded live in Cologne and Karlsruhe (Germany) in May 2008. Kell has been around the New York jazz scene for over twenty years, playing...
The Low Show II at Nashville NAMM
July 17th 2009 will mark the second installment of The Low Show at this year’s Nashville NAMM show, at The Rutledge from 7:30 to 11:00pm. Bassists Bryan Beller (Steve Vai, Dethklok), Doug Johns (Buddy Miles), Sean O’Bryan Smith (Billy Ray Cyrus, Rebecca St. James) and Roy Vogt (Dickey Betts, Jerry Reed) will be performing with their bands in a bass-focused...