Buzz
Steve Harris’ British Lion Announces European Tour and Live Album
Iron Maiden bassist Steve Harris is taking his band British Lion on a European tour throughout November and December. The trek, which is their most extensive outing to date, will focus on the club circuit while visiting countries they’ve yet to play. It will also include new music from the band. “It’s been great fun taking British Lion out on...
Preparing for a College Bass Audition
Q: I am thinking about entering a music program when I get to college. How should I prepare for playing bass in a college program? What will I need to know? How good do I need to be? A: Whenever I speak with younger players getting ready to enter a collegiate music program, my first instinct is usually to tell...
The Bassmonsters: Live in Prague
The 2016 BASSEUROPE convention just wrapped up, and it was quite a week of bass goodness. Held in Prague, the event included tons of double bass performances and clinics. Here’s a clip of The Bassmonsters performing during the convention. The song is the group’s theme song, written by the talented bassist and composer Simón Garcia. This lineup of the Bassmonsters...
Pickpocket’s “Sojourn” Was a Long Time Coming
Craig Strain’s band Pickpocket has released its debut album, Sojourn, after a decade’s worth of work. Strain, who is the band’s leader, primary songwriter and bassist, first began playing bass at age 14. He’s worked in a variety of genres throughout his career, including jazz, hip hop, folk, pop, rock, country, rnb, soul and funk. And now, he’s celebrating the...
Reader Spotlight: Eamonn Morris
There’s a great scene in the movie School of Rock, where Jack Black’s character asked one of the students what she had been playing during music class. The student tells him it was a cello, and he said “here’s a bass… tip it on it’s side, and ‘cello’, you’ve got a bass.” While that’s not the exact story of bassist...
Creative Bass Lines: Beat Displacement
Here we have the second installment of the Creative Bass Lines, and this month, it’s “Bass Gruv”. For this we’re looking at a Headhunters-esque bass groove I wrote. This would fit the harmony of an E dominant 7th chord, or for a crunchier sound, try setting up a vamp with an E7?9, too. I wanted to introduce some of you...
Jonathon Burgess and Sophie Aked: No Love Dying
Bassist Jonathon Burgess sent us this video of his project with vocalist Sophie Aked. In this video, the cover Gregory Porter’s terrific tune, “No Love Dying.” We always dig the bass and vocal duos, and this one is no exception.
Matt Brewer Returns With Quintet Effort
Jazz bassist Matt Brewer (Greg Osby, Steve Coleman, Vijay Iyer) leads a quintet on his latest recording, Unspoken. All the members of the quintet are top-notch players and improvisers younger than 40: tenor saxophonist Ben Wendel, pianist Aaron Parks, guitarist Charles Altura and drummer Tyshawn Sorey. Together, they bring to life seven original Brewer compositions, and their versions of Bill...
Bass of the Week: J Ferro Basses Escalon
This week we’re checking out the J Ferro Escalon bass. The model is part of a new series created by industry veteran Jose Ferro, who spent 17 years as Executive Vice President of ESP Guitars. Available in four- and five-string versions, the Escalon features neck-through construction with a five-piece maple and mahogany neck matched to mahogany body wings. Its top...
Talking Technique: The Pistol Grip
If you’ve been following this column for a while, you know we place a lot of emphasis on the details of good technique, including the left hand. Sometimes, though, we go to see our favorite bass players and they have the “pistol grip”. So is it really necessary to use one finger per fret and good posture on the fretboard?...
Serena Dominguez and Tim Carey: Isn’t She Lovely
Tim Carey shared his latest video, and as always, we were quite impressed. “It’s a duo version of ‘Isn’t She Lovely’ featuring 17 year old Serena Dominguez on guitar and vocals,” Tim shared. “We stuck to the same basic arrangement as the original but added an extra solo section so we could both have some fun on the changes. It...
Robert Glasper Experiment’s Latest Is A Product of Equals
The Robert Glasper Experiment’s exploration of jazz and hip-hop continues on the group’s latest, ArtScience. The band’s bassist, Derrick Hodge, whose sophomore solo album The Second dropped in August (check out the No Treble interview), not only holds down the low end, but also sings one of the record’s first singles, “Find You,” according to Billboard. The core band members...