News - Page 270

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....

This year marks the twentieth anniversary of Jens Ritter Instruments, and the bass maker is celebrating with a commemorative book of his work. “I started my career as an instrument maker in 1996. Now in September 2016 I am celebrating my 20th anniversary with a coffee table book with pictures of my favorite instruments from the last 20 years,” Ritter...

A live performance from the late, great jazz vocalist and pianist Shirley Horn has been remastered and released as Live at the 4 Queens. The May 2, 1988 show at the 4 Queens Hotel & Casino featured Horn in her longstanding trio of bassist Charles Ables (d. 2001, and who switched from guitar to bass to join her group) and...

The Devin Townsend Project has released its seventh studio album, Transcendence. The record, from the progressive metal group led by Townsend (Strapping Young Lad, Steve Vai) features the huge, epic sound for which Townsend is known, as well as his take on the Ween song, “Transdermal Celebration.” The band has double bass cred this time out, too, featuring not only...