Buzz

Reader Spotlight: André Bowman

Meet bassist André Bowman, our player in the spotlight for September 29th, 2009. Bio: Hailing from Buffalo, NY, I started playing bass at age 9, beginning with acoustic bass and picking up electric a couple years later. Receiving several awards throughout high school with the jazz band and orchestra, I continued my studies at Berklee College of Music, to which...

Last time we talked about some of the general concepts involved in making the switch from Electric to Upright Bass. It’s a fairly big subject, so we are going to continue down this road for the next several installments. As I mentioned last time, an accomplished Electric player can often pump out a line on an Upright after only a...

Massimiliano Atzeni seems to be specializing in short Youtube videos featuring riffs, and ideas that are often looped. At the moment, there are probably around 150 short, looped riffs like that, so it was hard to choose one. It probably illustrates his ability just as well to go with one of his latest. He calls it “Vegetariano”: Check him out...

Wouldn’t it be great to be able to throw your bass stand into your gig bag or backpack (without breaking the zipper)? Cooperstand has developed a new type of guitar/bass stand that is compact, versatile and can be operated with one hand. The Cooperstand is manufactured in Nashville Tennessee from assorted American hardwoods, designed to let your instrument stand securely...

Guitarist Oz Noy has released Schizophrenic, his latest album to feature his unique approach to music and guitar. Oz is joined by Late Show with David Letterman bassist Will Lee and SNL bassist James Genus, as well as guitarist Steve Lukather, and drummers Dave Weckl, Keith Carlock and Anton Fig. I caught a live performance of Oz Noy at 55...

In this week’s lesson, Jon takes us through some key fundamentals in upright bass playing. Balance Balance is the key. It takes many pounds of pressure to hold a string against the fingerboard with enough firmness to get a good fundamental tone; this force needs to have a counterweight applied against it. The objective is to get maximum weight into...

We came across this great video of bassist Gary Willis playing an incredible bass solo: Willis founded the jazz-fusion group Tribal Tech with Scott Henderson in 1984. He has also worked with other notable musicians including Wayne Shorter, Dennis Chambers, and Allan Holdsworth.

In case you missed them, here are some of the most popular features from last week (September 21st through 26th). Jon Burr shows us how to make transposition much easier in his latest lesson: “By the Numbers“. Meet Phil Wain, our player in the spotlight. Damian Erskine discusses the topic of learning new styles. in his weekly Ask Damian Erskine...

Jazz bassist Scott LaFaro is being honored with the first biography on his brief but influential life, Jade Visions: The Life and Music of Scott LaFaro. The biography has been written by LaFaro’s sister Helene LaFaro-Fernandez and includes contributions by notable jazz writers highlighting LaFaro’s contributions to the bass community. LaFaro made his mark on the scene with the Bill...

Bassist and composer Ben Allison will be releasing his ninth album, Think Free, on October 13th 2009, with Palmetto Records. Think Free features Allison on bass with Steve Cardenas on guitar, Shane Endsley on trumpet, Rudy Royston on drums and Jenny Scheinman on violin. The album consists of eight originals by Allison, and continues his “train of thought” from previous...

Greg Bagley is a Seattle-based freelance bassist who currently endorses Kinal basses. By the looks of his videos on Youtube, it seems that he can play just about any style well. He also shows off several of those Kinals and other basses. This is his solo bass version of How Insensitive by Antonio Carlos Jobim played on his Kinal Kompact...

CruzTOOLS has introduced the GrooveTech, a new tool in their line of musician tools for bass and guitar. GrooveTech’s hex key set is matched to virtually all bass makes. The complete feature list for the GrooveTech includes: 6-in-1 screwdriver which includes two Phillips tips (#1 and #2), two slotted tips (1/4” and 3mm tip for vintage-style bridge saddles), and two...