News - Page 255

Tal Wilkenfeld will be hitting the road this fall for a tour that will take her up the West Coast. Starting at Phoenix, Arizona’s Musical Instrument Museum, the trek will snake up California before heading through Oregon and Washington. Wilkenfeld and her band will wrap up on October 13th at the Biltmore in Vancouver, British Columbia. Part of the tour...

Ever wonder how No Treble came to be? Founder Corey Brown shared the details in the latest episode of the Contrabass Conversations podcast, hosted by Jason Heath. Starting with his beginnings in music, Corey chronicles his journeys with the bass and the web. Get the scoop on his work with the Jaco Pastorius website, No Treble, and more by listening...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Serbian bassist Nenad Vasilic, known for his blend of jazz and Balkan styles, has released his first trio recording, Wet Paint. Vasilic, who previously recorded in slightly larger groups, focused on walking the line between vintage and modern sounds with his trio and even reached into his own past in the attempt. The album includes a cover of his favorite...

Etienne Mbappe handles both bass and lead vocals on his fourth solo effort, How Near How Far, released under the name, Etienne Mbappe & the Prophets. Mbappe (John McLaughlin’s 4th Dimension, Joe Zawinul, Robben Ford, Slif Keita, Ray Charles, Steps Ahead, Bill Evans) has focused more on instrumentation than vocals on this record. “The concept of the Prophets,” Mbappé said,...

After announcing it earlier this year, Cliff Williams has officially retired from AC/DC after a nearly 40 year run. The bassist joined the band in 1977, just two years after their debut album, and played on every subsequent release. “I’m just ready to get off the road,” Williams stated in a video interview. “[I need] family time now and just...

Three Berklee College of Music bass professors have written a new book about playing jazz bass, simply called Berklee Jazz Bass: Acoustic & Electric. The writers – bass chair emeritus Rich Appleman and bass professors Whit Browne and Bruce Gertz – are longtime faculty members at the Boston college, and between them have mentored artists like Esperanza Spalding, Bryan Beller,...

Peter Hook and the Light are returning to North America this Fall to perform the works of Joy Division and New Order. The trek will have the bassist revisit his former bands by performing Joy Division and New Order’s compilation albums Substance live, sequentially and in their entireties. “Released in August 1987, New Order’s Substance was originally conceived as a...

Led Zeppelin has re-released its 1997 BBC sessions collection as the The Complete BBC Sessions, featuring eight previously unreleased sessions from BBC radio. All the recordings of the band, featuring bassist John Paul Jones, were captured during BBC radio performances between 1969 and 1971. The previously unreleased recordings include three performances from a 1969 session once believed to be lost....