News - Page 266

The Brad Mehldau Trio has released Blues and Ballads, its first album since 2012. The trio, led by pianist Mehldau, features highly respected contemporary jazz bassist Larry Grenadier, who is also known for his past trio work with guitarist Pat Metheny. Jeff Ballard is the trio’s drummer. Blues and Ballads sees the trio, as it did on 2012’s Where Do...

Rock supergroup Gone is Gone has announced a tour in support of their upcoming self-titled EP. The band is helmed by Mastodon’s Troy Sanders and includes Queens of the Stone Age’s Troy Van Leeuwen, drummer Tony Hajjar, and keyboardist Mike Zarin. In addition to the tour, they’ve released a second single from the album. Sanders calls “Starlight” a personal song,...

Garbage has released its sixth studio album, Strange Little Birds, the group’s first since 2012’s Not Your Kind of People. The band, which released its eponymous debut in 1995, has retained its original personnel throughout the years: Duke Erikson, Butch Vig, Steve Marker and vocalist Shirley Manson. All the members play a variety of instruments and produce. Vig, perhaps most...

Jaco Pastorius’ music, as played in the past and closer to the present, are the focus of Now & Then, the two-CD import set from the Jaco Pastorius Big Band. The first disc of the Japanese import is the “Then” part of the package, featuring previously unreleased takes from Jaco’s 1981 “Birthday Concert.” The second disc is primarily culled from...

Legendary rock band Pink Floyd has started its vinyl reissue campaign of its full catalogue with four albums: The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (the band’s 1967 debut), A Saucerful of Secrets, the double LP Ummagumma and the soundtrack from the film More. All the albums, pressed on 180 gram vinyl, feature Roger Waters on bass, with designs replicating...

Bassist, educator and No Treble contributor Joe Hubbard is releasing “Alien Nation”, the first single from his upcoming recording project. The 7-minute track fusion track features the formidable keyboardist George Whitty (Michael Brecker, Dave Sanborn, Santana, Brecker Bros.) and the legendary jazz fusion drummer Tom Brechtlein (Chick Corea, Robin Ford, Wayne Shorter, Al DiMeola). Besides the amazing song, Hubbard also...

Only a few of the songs on Paul Simon’s 13th solo studio album, Stranger to Stranger, feature bass, but when the bass is used, it’s in good hands. Carlos Henriquez (Wynton Marsalis Septet) and Bakithi Kumalo (known for his work on “You Can Call Me Al” from Simon’s 1986 album, Graceland) share bass duties on the tune “The Riverbank,” with...

Hard rockers Volbeat have not only a new album — its sixth, Seal the Deal & Let’s Boogie — but also a new bassist, Kaspar Boye Larsen. Larsen (The Hitchcocks, The Kandidate) played with the band on its most recent tour and his bands supported Volbeat in the past. He even performed live with the group on its first European...

Crowbar’s lineup has gotten a little shakeup after the band announced that bassist Jeff Golden has left their ranks. Bandleader Kirk Windstein made the announcement on Facebook. “As many of you may have heard, we have parted ways with Jeff Golden, and he is no longer our bassist. Being in a band is like being in a relationship and things...

Heavy metal supergroup Hellyeah has released its fifth studio album, Unden!able. The record its the band’s first since 2014’s Blood for Blood and the first featuring Kyle Sanders (Bloodsimple, MonstrO) on bass. (Sanders is also the brother of Mastodon bassist Troy Sanders). The band also includes Mudvayne vocalist Chad Gray, former Nothingface guitarist Tom Maxwell and former Pantera/Damageplan drummer Vinnie...

Primus bassist Les Claypool and Sean Lennon began to jam together in 2015 when Lennon’s band, Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger, opened for Primus, and that musical connection spawned an album: The Claypool Lennon Delirium’s Monolith of Phobos. “I use the metaphor that a musical interaction or jam is a conversation, and the best conversations are the ones that...

The Melvins have gone through a lot of bass players over the years. So, on its latest album, Basses Loaded, the band decided to go for broke and feature six different bassists. Some, like Jeff Pinkus (Butthole Surfers), Trevor Dunn (Mr. Bungle/Fantomas), Jared Warren (Big Business) and Dale Crover, have appeared on Melvins albums before and perhaps will again. While...