News - Page 317

Only Prince drops two totally different albums in one day. The first, a solo record called , is a return to classic, ’80’s-style Prince funk. The stuff is unmistakable. Prince produced, arranged, composed and performed the music on the album, along with Joshua Welton, according to the Sacramento Bee. Welton is a young producer and husband of drummer Hanna Ford...

During his long career as a bassist and producer Bill Laswell has always defied expectation, working in almost every genre, from funk and jazz to world and ambient music. And he continues to do so with his latest collaborative project. The Dream Membrane features David Chaim Smith reading selections from his work, “The Awakening Ground”, over dark ambient music from...

If you love R&B, soul and jazz bass you know and love Jerry Jemmott, who popped up again on national TV recently backing Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin on The Late Show With David Letterman. A two-time Grammy winner, Jemmott was discovered by saxophonist/bandleader King Curtis, gained fame as a session player in the 1960s and started a solo career...

Dick Lövgren is a bassist as at home playing jazz as metal. While he’s a trained jazz bassist, since 2004 he’s been more well-known for his work with Swedish experimental metal band Meshuggah. His Meshuggah sound, created by playing with a pick exclusively, is evident on the band’s second live recording, CD/DVD set , which documents a May 2013 London...

After filling in for bassist Paul DiLeo for several months, bassist Jeff Rouse is now a permanent member of Fozzy. The rock band, fronted by WWE star Chris Jericho, announced the news in a press release. “Jeff is an incredible musician and singer who has spent the last decade playing in Duff McKagan’s Loaded and is also the lead singer...

Wow. Flying Colors kicks into the second song of its second album, , with a big ol’ blast of bass, courtesy of Dave LaRue. Just check out “Mask Machine” in the video we featured yesterday. Flying Colors is the creation of former Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy, LaRue and guitarist Steve Morse (both known for their work in the Dixie...

We lost legendary jazz double bassist Charlie Haden this summer, but he lives on through his music – that includes music that few people have had a chance to hear, until now. The Impulse! label has issued a previously unreleased performance of Haden and jazz guitarist Jim Hall (Hall died in December 2013, just a little more than 6 months...

Toronto electric bassist Rich Brown, known for his widely varied studio work as well as his playing in the group Gamak and the modern jazz band he leads, rinsethealgorithm, has released a solo bass record, . The album, which features solo and multi-tracked bass compositions, includes a wide range of textures from his cover of Little Dragon’s “Twice” to the...

Dream Theater experienced a homecoming when it played the Boston Opera House earlier this year and The Berklee College of Music Orchestra and Choir made a guest appearance. The band has a deep association with Berklee. Guitarist John Petrucci and bassist John Myung are Berklee alumni. Drummer Mike Mangini was a professor at the school before joining Dream Theater. The...

Jazz instrumentalists have the luxury of playing music all over the emotional scale, says superstar jazz bassist Stanley Clarke. That might mean pieces that are way up, way down, or esoteric. You would be right if you guessed that his latest album with The Stanley Clarke Band, , is on the cheerier end of that scale. Why did he go...

Feel the need to hear some new music from Billy Sheehan and Mr. Big? Consider that need sated. Sheehan and the rest of the original lineup of Mr. Big (including vocalist Eric Martin, guitarist Paul Gilbert and drummer Pat Torpey) reformed in 2009, and is the second release (2011’s What If… was the first) from the revitalized rockers. The opening...

It looks like Black Sabbath will be returning to the studio again in 2015, according to Metal Hammer’s interview with Ozzy Osbourne. The band, anchored by bass wizard Geezer Butler, will reportedly record one more album with a final tour cycle. “The whole Sabbath experience this time around was great,” Ozzy told Metal Hammer. “We all made friends, we didn’t...