Buzz
Mark Clarke Releases “Moving To The Moon”
For 40 years, Mark Clarke has been asked to make his own solo album by friends and fans. The veteran bassist, who performed with Colosseum, Uriah Heep, Natural Gas and others has finally listened. Moving To The Moon is 10 tracks of “new classic rock”, blended together by a bassist able to draw from decades of experience. Clarke was born...
Gerald Veasley Releases Electric Mingus Project
Gerald Veasley has a new album out, one he calls a “re-imagination” of well-known tunes written by acclaimed jazz composer and bassist Charles Mingus. Electric Mingus Project features songs ranging from “Haitian Fight Song” to “Boogie Stop Shuffle”, and performed using instruments such as the EVI (Electronic Valve Instrument) and EWI (Electronic Wind Instrument). Veasley says the album isn’t just...
Wanna Be Great?
Q: In your opinion, what is it that separates the “greats” from the rest of us mortals? A: In short, thousands of hours spent working hard at their craft. Great work really is 99% perspiration, and 1% inspiration. I see this constantly in my students and my peers. The one thing that every great musician I know or have read...
Zander Zon: “Yesterday” for Solo Piccolo Bass
Zander Zon has posted his latest video, and his first arrangement of a Beatles tune. Awesome, as usual!
The Music of Paul Chambers (Volume 1)
Author Mikko Nurmi’s The Music of Paul Chambers (Volume 1) is a new book offering a comprehensive look at the style of one of the great jazz bassists, Paul Chambers. Through the use of full transcriptions of Chambers’ work, Nurmi includes insights through analysis and theory, as well as related exercises. “It may be helpful just to see what someone...
Reader Spotlight: Becky Baldwin
Meet Becky Baldwin, a bassist from Bristol England and our player in the spotlight for March 22, 2011. Bio: I grew up in Trowbridge, Wiltshire and got my first bass guitar for my 13th birthday. It has been my biggest passion in life since that day! I moved to Bristol in 2009 to study bass performance at BIMM university, and...
Contest: Win an Ansir Custom Built Bass — Designed Just for You!
The winner of the Ansir Music Custom Bass giveaway is Nick Badgio, a bassist from Salisbury, NC. Check out Nick on Facebook, or via his band, The Chobey Badgio Band. Congratulations Nick! Ansir Music is sponsoring an incredible custom bass giveaway (valued at $2,000) to help all you bassists kick off spring 2011. Ansir’s founder, Jody Michael, will consult with...
Ufo Walter: Machine Gun, Solo Bass Edition
Bassist Ufo Walter sent this video in, featuring him playing the Jimi Hendrix classic “Machine Gun” using a looper and Pitch FX for the lead. Buckle up!
Lee Rocker Releases The Cover Sessions EP
Former Stray Cats bassist Lee Rocker has just released The Cover Sessions, a six track EP of songs he grew up listening to ranging from the Beatles’ “Come Together” to the Allman Brothers hit, “Ramblin’ Man.” In an interview with OC Weekly, Rocker explained how the project came about. “The story behind [the] EP is that over the past few...
Spector Introduces Legend 4X Classic Bass
Spector has expanded their Professional Series with the introduction of the Legend 4X Classic. All the features of the new X model are the same as the original Legend 4 Classic, with the exception of a new body shape. The X strays from the NS-Bass design that the company is known for and dives into a more classic rock style....
Tale of the Fingers: An In-Depth Look at the Paul Chambers Tune
Editor’s note: help us welcome Keith White as a new contributor on No Treble. I was checking out Mark Saltman’s column, in which he reviews the melody in Paul Chamber’s tune “Tale of the Fingers”. This is a notable melody, so I decided to analyze the tune’s structure and melody as a follow up to Mark’s great column. First, let’s...
Jaco Pastorius & Toots Thielemans: Sophisticated Lady (1982)
Two masters at work, Jaco Pastorius and Toots Thielemans, perform Duke Ellington’s “Sophisticated Lady” in this 1982 performance in New York City. Youtuber jazzz65 added the nice visuals to this audio recording. Thanks to Ingrid Pastorius, for sharing this video with us.