News - Page 298

Toronto-based contemporary jazz ensemble, The Brad Cheeseman Group, has released its self-titled debut album to acclaim from no less than bassist (and No Treble columnist) Damian Erskine. Erskine says the band, featuring Cheeseman on electric bass, offers “Fantastic music, expertly played and 100 percent devoid of ego-driven writing and playing.” The band, active since 2012, started gaining notoriety in 2013...

The identity of Slipknot’s bassist is no longer a mystery. Band leader Corey Taylor recently revealed on Chris Jericho’s podcast, Talk Is Jericho, that, as suspected, that former Mastodon tech/onetime guitarist for Krokodil, Alessandro “Vman” Venturella is in the band, along with new drummer Jay Weinberg, son of Max Weinberg, son of the E Street Band’s Max Weinberg. Taylor praises...

Metal mainstays Korn have announced that they will be celebrating their self-titled debut album by performing it in its entirety on an extensive US tour. Focusing on more intimate venues, the trek will begin at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago and snake across the entire country over the month of October. The record, which was released in 1994, changed the...

Welsh singer/songwriter Judith Owen is teaming up again with bass legend Leland Sklar for a handful of U.S. tour dates. Dubbed the “After Party” Tour, the trek will see the duo performing at theaters in Portland, Seattle, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Boston, and New York during mid-September. Sklar has been playing with Owen since recording her album Ebb & Flow last...

Newly unearthed modern jazz recordings from a Nov. 14, 1958 Hamburg, Germany performance by Oscar Pettiford Quartet have been released on the collection, We Get the Message. Pettiford, a highly influential double bassist/cellist, was known for saying that the center of his work was “to pass on the message.” Sadly, he was able to do so for only so long...

Joe Satriani’s 15th album, Shockwave Supernova, sees the guitar great not only try on an outlandish alter ego, but also features a world-class band — bassist Bryan Beller (Dethklok, Steve Vai, Dweezil Zappa, The Aristocrats), keyboardist/guitarist Mike Keneally, and drummer Marco Minnemann. “I couldn’t have asked for a better band to help bring these songs to life,” Satriani said. According...

Progressive metal band Symphony X has released its ninth studio album, Underworld. With bassist Michael LePond (Affector, Rattlebone, Mike Bino Project) holding down the low end, the album takes its inspiration from the classic Dante poem the “Divine Comedy,” particularly its “Inferno,” as well as the ancient Orpheus myth, said Symphony X guitarist and songwriter Michael Romeo. “So there’s the...

Although Roger Waters released Amused to Death in 1992, its look at an entertainment-obsessed society still rings true, which helps make the remastered version of the album even more powerful. The record, featuring a slew of bassists (Waters, John Patitucci, Guo Yi, Tim Pierce, John Pierce, Randy Jackson, and Jimmy Johnson) has been given a new 5.1 surround sound remix...

Latin jazz bassist John Benítez has launched a new set of instructional books focused on his own bass method. The John Benítez Bass Method Volume 1:- Freedom In The Clave: A Rhythmic Approach To Bass Playing focuses on strengthening your rhythmic confidence with a set of rhythmic independence exercises over a clave. Written with Ian Stewart, the book aims bolster...

Darren Michaels has released Seasons, a 10-song collection that delves into the bassist’s singer/songwriter style. The album, which is his first full-length solo project in seven years, showcases his lyrics and creative bass playing with thought-provoking lyrics, altered tunings, and a chordal approach to the the bass. Michaels utilized an arsenal of three basses to record the whole album, one...

Legendary funk/soul/R&B/rock band Sly & the Family Stone was energetic and on the rise in 1968, with two albums — Dance to the Music and Life — already behind them. Live At The Fillmore East October 4th & 5th, 1968, captures the sound of a great band with an incomparable electric bassist — Larry Graham, who went on to create...

The sound of reggae/rock band Sublime remains alive via its bassist, Eric Wilson, through the band Sublime With Rome. Wilson is the only Sublime member currently in the group, which has released its second album, Sirens. The album is being billed as a return to the band’s roots, with a rawer sound like that of the original band. See if...