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Gov’t Mule Releases Album Featuring New Bassist

Southern rock jam band Gov’t Mule has released their first new studio album in three years, , which features the latest addition to the group: bassist Jorgen Carlsson. Jorgen, who grew up in Sweden, lives in Los Angeles where he has been a studio owner and musician. He has also formerly played in the band “Low Millions.” Jorgen replaced Andy...

Check out bassist Wies de Boevé, then 19 years old, performing “Czardas” in his first concert as a soloist.

Bassist Michael Janisch is a relative newcomer to the international jazz scene, but definitely worth checking out. The London Times described him as “always hip, melodic, and bouncey” while JazzWise said he’s “a muscular, fluent player with an irresistible pulse and virtuosic soloing technique.” Janisch is releasing his debut solo album Purpose Built on October 26th 2009. Purpose Built features...

Ex-Rolling Stone bassist Bill Wyman has released a new album, The Best of Bill Wyman’s Rhythm Kings,. This best-of release features 20 tracks remastered by Jon Astley and a 24-page CD booklet of an exclusive interview with Wyman. The booklet also includes track-by-track commentary by Wyman to give the inside scoop over the recording history of the band. Wyman left...

Today’s featured vid showcases the great bass work of Brad Russell, playing Chick Corea’s “Spain” to a recording with drummer Steve Smith. Brad is a freelance bassist who has worked with Clarence Clemmons, Pat Travers, Ric Derringer and Peter Cetera.

The Deftones have announced that they will be kicking off a series of fundraising events to help the family of Chi Cheng with the overwhelming medical bills accumulated for his treatment. Deftones are starting with a benefit show on November 19th, 2009 in Hollywood, California. Tickets are currently on sale and all proceeds will go to the Chi Ling Cheng...

The latest Bonnaroo DVD is set to be released on December 15, 2009. Live from Bonnaroo 2009 includes a wide array of artists and styles, taken from the 140 bands and over 200 shows from the 2009 event, and includes backstage footage and exclusive performances. Bonnaroo takes place each summer, and is hailed by many as one of the premier...

One of my current favorite bass players to hit the scene is Evan Marien. Voted one of 2009’s “Most Exciting Players” in July issue of Bass Player magazine, Evan has already accomplished a lot at age 23. A recent graduate of the Berklee College Of Music, Evan has already worked with some amazing musicians such as David Fiuczynski (he is...

Fretted or fretless? Make it a convertible

Our Facebook friend Kirk Dickison shared a video with us featuring this odd, “convertible” bass that allows fast switching between fretted and fretless modes. So we decided to dig around and find out some more. Mikhail Chtchetinine, inventor of the bass, shares the background for the instrument: “Having discovered the liberation of fretless guitar music, I went in search of...

Recently, Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones – along with band mates Jimmy Page and Jason Bonham – had considered touring as Led Zeppelin with a session singer. Original vocalist Robert Plant stated in 2008 that he “will not be touring or recording with Led Zeppelin,” even after the December 2007 reunion show attracted 1 million fans for a mere...

French double bassist Joëlle Léandre has carved a name for herself as one of the best improvisational bassists out there. Her latest release, Joelle Léandre and William Parker Live at Dunois, is a live recording with bassist William Parker where they show off their improvisational chops with a variety of bass techniques and disciplined skill. Léandre and Parker last collaborative...

The Zen of Ear Training – Part 2

In the last lesson we covered a few different strategies for starting to train your ears. This included singing with your instrument, singing over a drone, and singing intervals in all the keys. Now we’re going to take it a few steps further and work to really develop our ears ability to pick out notes and relationships. Remember that these...