Articles by Kevin Johnson - Page 610

This month marks Höfner’s 125th anniversary, and part of the celebration includes a new hardback book that documents the company’s time in the business. Founded by luthier Karl Höfner in 1887, the company makes violins and guitars, but is renowned for their violin bass as made famous by the Beatles’ Paul McCartney. The 328-page book offers over 400 images and...

I’ve been watching tons of videos with Oteil Burbridge lately. Check out this one of him playing “Search Yourself” with the Aquarium Rescue Unit live at the Jacksonville Jazzfest. Burbridge really brings the band together and gets some time to shine by vocalizing his solo spots.

The Stooges are back to making new music, says bassist Mike Watt. The band, which hasn’t released any new material since 2007’s The Weirdness, is still in the very formative stages of writing. “I’ll tell you this: James Williamson a few months ago had me put bass on nine songs that he gave to Ig [Iggy Pop] and Ig is...

Philadelphia soul groups always hit the spot with me, so when Ted “Blyss” Gould, sent in his all bass cover of “People Make the World Go Round” by the Stylistics, I was sold. Enlisting the help of drummer Dante “Taz” Roberson, Blyss shows up in triplicate in the video playing the bass line, melody, and the chords. His axes are...

Tony Levin has released an iPad app version of his book Crimson Chronicles: The 80’s, which documents his time with the legendary prog rock band King Crimson through pictures. Levin, who is also an avid photographer, includes hundreds of photos from his collection to show what life in the band and on the road was like. Beyond the photos from...

Steve Lawson has released Invenzioni, the first of three albums with guitarist Mike Outram. Recorded in 2010, the album was the first time the duo had ever played together, though the music would suggest otherwise. “We’d never played together, we just set up our stuff and started playing,” said Outram. “What you hear is two people playing music together for...

Here’s another mind-blowing video by Italian bassist Serino Gianni, who takes a stab at Bach’s world of counterpoint with a composition for two basses. Gianni plays each part on separate sides of the screen with incredible precision and musicality. This one takes a few views, because you’ll be looking back and forth at the different parts as they go by.

This week we take a look at the Citron AE4 and AE5 Swallow Basses built by luthier Harvey Citron in collaboration with jazz legend Steve Swallow. Citron first presented Swallow with one of his acoustic/electric basses, and their work went from there. It was Steve’s perfectionism that pushed the bass builder to invent a new bridge. “Working with Steve has...

Nathan East’s prolific playing has graced so many albums, it would probably be easier to list who he hasn’t work with rather than who he has. The Philadelphia-born, San Diego-raised bassist picked up his first 4-string at 14 after studying cello in school and went on to be one of the world’s most in-demand session players. He’s been called on...

Backed by legendary session bassist Joe Osborn, 14-year old guitar wunderkind Matthew Davidson has released his first EP entitled Step Up. The four song collection was produced by Osborn, who also adds low end to the mix with his Fender Jazz. The bass legend took Davidson under his wing several years ago after hearing him perform at the Shreveport, Louisiana...

Ibanez has given its Premium treatment to their ATK model, resulting in the ATK800E and the ATK805E. Beyond being built at their Premium Factory to premium quality standards, the company’s bass designers spent a lot of time researching and developing the pickup configuration, which includes a CAP double humbucker in the bridge position and an Ibanez proprietary CAP Sonic Arch...

I’ve been hooked on listening to Tom Tom Club lately, after the news of their new album coming out this month. A splinter group of The Talking Heads, the band was formed by bassist Tina Weymouth and drummer Chris Frantz in 1981. “Genius of Love” is not only a huge hit for them, but its hypnotic groove has also been...