Buzz

Black Sabbath bassist Terry “Geezer” Butler released a statement Tuesday remembering his friend and band mate Ronnie James Dio. A brief excerpt from his latest entry: “It’s impossible to express in mere words the relationship Ronnie and I, Wendy and my wife Gloria had. He was much more than a friend, fellow musician, band mate. If I have a soul,...

Here’s a great way to take a 10 minute break on a Friday: Watch this live performance of Alain Caron and his band at Cabaret de Montreal, performing “Sam The Clown”. Wait for the bass solo!

Carrie Brownstein, former guitarist for Sleater-Kinney, has announced a bass solo contest on her NPR Blog, Monitor Mix. After receiving bass solos on her voicemail from her friend, she thought “If one bass solo could make my day, how would I feel after hearing 10 bass solos, or 20? More importantly, how would you feel? I bet you would feel...

After taking his tour of “Tutu Revisited” through Europe and Japan, bassist Marcus Miller will be bringing his show to the US this summer. Miller will be hitting up the east and west coasts in nine dates, beginning in Georgia at the Atlanta Jazz Festival on May 29th. “Tutu Revisited” refers to Miles Davis’ 1986 album, Tutu, which Miller played...

Trey Gunn has teamed up with drummer Marco Minnemann for a new album, Modulator. The recording of Modulator has a twist: the entire album was composed and produced over top of a live, 51 minute drum solo by Minnemann. “This was the hardest recording I have ever taken on,” says Gunn. “The challenges of this process prove the old adage...

This Chilean trio features Antonio Restucci on acoustic guitar, Emilio Garcia on mandolin and Marcelo Cordova on electric bass. They’re performing the tune “Evocacion” live in a Chilean jazz club.

We covered the launch of Bootsy Collins’ Funk University back in March. Since then, Bootsy’s confirmed an all-star cast for the initial guest-professor line-up, including Les Claypool, Victor Wooten, Divinity Roxx, John B. Williams, T.M. Stevens and Dennis Chambers. Class enrollment is still scheduled to start July 1st at Funk University. The university is now boasting daily uploads of new...

Magna Carta Records has released New World Man: A Tribute To Rush, an album that combines the labels previous two Rush tribute releases, Working Man (1996) and Subdivisions (2005), plus three previously unreleased tracks. Bassists Billy Sheehan, Robert Berry, Nathan Peck, Juan Alderete, Stu Hamm and Ron Tole all perform on the album. New World Man Track Listing (and performers):...

Q: I’ve almost gotten through all three videos, really good stuff in them. I really like the concept of knowing patterns/visualizations to have handy when your soloing, like your ascending 4ths, alternating major/minor, and alternating 6th/7th fingerings. I think I got away from having a set of licks/patterns when improvising, which I can see now is a big mistake! Seems...

This is the Hungarian folk song, “A csitári hegyek alatt”, adapted to bass guitar and performed by L?rincz Viktor, aka Victor L.

In response to complaints about the amount of space wah and volume pedals take up on pedalboards, Morley has released new, smaller scale versions of their respective effects boxes. The Morley Mini Wah and Volume pedals measure 6.75” in length, 4.5” wide and 2.75” in height. The Morley Mini Wah features an On/Off switch and a wah level control. The...

Reader Spotlight: Todd Erickson

Meet bassist Todd Erickson, our player in the spotlight for May 18, 2010. Bio: Denver-born, Maine-raised, Boston-honed, lead-singing, songwriting bottom dweller for “hippie-shredder” rock trio “FREERIDER”. Began recording original material in 1983 with “Still Missing” as lead-singing bass player. Received a Boston Music Award in 1987 for “Best Rock Song” with his former pop/punk/metal trio, “SHAKE THE FAITH”. Currently writing...