News - Page 397

Bassist David Pastorius and his band, Local 518, have released their second album in the U.S., Sense of Urgency. The album features Pastorius on bass with Local 518 members Al Brodeur on guitar and keyboards, Bjarne Jannik Kjaer on drums, steel drums and keyboards, Anthony Darmana on percussion and Dijeradoo and Dave Hoag on keyboards. Other performers on the CD...

Bassist Meshell Ndegeocello has just released Devil’s Halo through the Downtown record label. This is Ndegeocello’s eighth album to date and features live music energy, but thematically resting on loneliness and alcohol. Ndegeocello has explained part of her muse: “I live in Hudson, N.Y., and you can walk the whole town in about 10 minutes. The unifying factor is the...

South African psychedelic rock dub group BLK JKS (pronounced “Black Jacks”) have released a new album After Robots on the Secretly Canadian record label. The BLK JKS have been sharing performances with both Dirty Projectors and Afro-pop icon Femi Kuti. After Robots lives up BLK JKS description, you’ll hear raw township sounds mixed with reggae and blasts alternative rock. BLK...

New York’s Iridium Jazz Club has announced Jacofest, a four-night concert event honoring the late, great Jaco Pastorius. Bassists Victor Bailey and T.M. Stevens will be performing with many of Jaco’s former bandmates and colleagues, including trumpeters Miles Evans and Lew Soloff, saxophonists Alex Foster and Butch Thomas, trombonist David Bargeron, keyboardists Gil Goldstein and Delmar Brown, guitarist Billy “Spaceman”...

Jazz bassist Dave Holland is currently performing with his Overtone Quartet featuring saxophonist Chris Potter, pianist Jason Moran and drummer Eric Harland. Throughout Holland’s four-and-a-half decade career he’s also played with Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Chick Corea, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock and Jack DeJonhette. Holland says he came to the bass by circumstance, “I was in my first band when...

Bassist Robin Duhe has a new album out, Life released on his own Blaise Two record label. Duhe was an original member in the band Maze, starting with them in 1974 and playing on almost all their albums. It’s his licks that open the tracks “Joy and Pain,” “Happy Feelin’s,” and “Golden Time of Day.” In 2004 Duhe stopped working...

We received this great video of bassist Tony Levin performing with King Crimson in Japan. Check out that thumb! The performers included Levin on bass and vocals, Adrian Belew on guitar and vocals, Robert Fripp on guitar and Bill Bruford on drums. Levin has a few different projects cooking this fall, he just finished a 3 day tour with L’Image...

Bassist Christian McBride is on the road for the next two months. Here’s the latest: October 3: Christian McBride & Inside Straight Kayenn Jazz Festival in Cayenne, French Guiana October 4: Christian McBride & Inside Straight Jefferson Center/Shaftman Performance Hall in Roanoke, VA October 9: KPFK-FM Peace Awards with Christian McBride, Ziggy Marley and many, many more Ford Amphitheater in...

Flea will be teaming up with Thom Yorke on October 4th and 5th at the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles. “In the past couple of weeks I’ve been getting a band together for fun to play the Eraser stuff live and the new songs etc… to see if it could work!” Yorke said, via Radiohead’s Dead-Air-Space blog. “We don’t really...

Guitarist Oz Noy has released Schizophrenic, his latest album to feature his unique approach to music and guitar. Oz is joined by Late Show with David Letterman bassist Will Lee and SNL bassist James Genus, as well as guitarist Steve Lukather, and drummers Dave Weckl, Keith Carlock and Anton Fig. I caught a live performance of Oz Noy at 55...

Jazz bassist Scott LaFaro is being honored with the first biography on his brief but influential life, Jade Visions: The Life and Music of Scott LaFaro. The biography has been written by LaFaro’s sister Helene LaFaro-Fernandez and includes contributions by notable jazz writers highlighting LaFaro’s contributions to the bass community. LaFaro made his mark on the scene with the Bill...

Bassist and composer Ben Allison will be releasing his ninth album, Think Free, on October 13th 2009, with Palmetto Records. Think Free features Allison on bass with Steve Cardenas on guitar, Shane Endsley on trumpet, Rudy Royston on drums and Jenny Scheinman on violin. The album consists of eight originals by Allison, and continues his “train of thought” from previous...