News - Page 421

The biggest bass tour of the year (so far) has been announced as the Victor Wooten Band and the Stanley Clarke Band will be hitting the road together throughout March. The bass heavyweights will begin their Spring Road Trip 2011 tour in Oklahoma City and work their way throughout the U.S., finishing up on the 26th as part of Gerald...

Korn and Disturbed are teaming up to co-headline the “Monster Energy Music as a Weapon V Tour,” which begins January 14 in Bloomington, Illinois and hits 45 U.S. cities, with more dates in the works. The two bands, anchored by bassists Fieldy and John Moyer respectively, just announced the second leg of the tour, which starts in March but is...

Believe it or not, 2011 marks 60 years since Fender introduced the Precision bass and revolutionized bass playing. (For a quick history lesson, check out this video.) To mark the occasion, Fender is producing a special limited edition 60th Anniversary Precision Bass. Built in the U.S., the Anniversary P-bass features an ash body, maple neck and fretboard with a modern...

French double bass master Renaud Garcia-Fons has just released his new album, Mediterranees, in the U.S. The 18-track album is an exploration of the music of the Mediterranean, which Garcia-Fons attributes to his Spanish and Italian roots. “There’s nothing ethno-musical or touristy about this project,” the bassist explains, “Simply a desire to be carried on a passionate thread of a...

Hal Leonard has introduced a new bass method, designed for children who want to learn the bass guitar, Bass for Kids: A Beginner’s Guide. The 32-book format includes 17 songs in layouts that allow the student to focus on one concept at a time. Lessons include selecting a bass, holding a bass, hand position, reading music notation and counting. Bass...

A new book chronicling Les Claypool’s career through photos has been published in a limited run through San Francisco based Rock Out Books. To Defy The Laws of Tradition is a collection of over 750 photographs taken by Jay Blakesberg’s 10,000+ image archive of Claypool’s groups including Primus, Holy Mackerel, Sausage, Oysterhead, and the Frog Brigade. Claypool also contributes an...

Unearth have announced that their first show of 2011 will be a benefit for their former bassist, Chris “Rover” Rybicki, who was killed by a drunk driver in 2010. The show will also feature Rybicki’s former bands. “We will be playing alongside another one of Rovers former bands No Choice as well as our friends in Screams of Erida and...

American rock band King’s X has released their first-ever live concert DVD, Live in London. The release, offered in a deluxe 2 CD/1 DVD box set or as a 2 CD release, was filmed in January 2009 at the Electric Ballroom in London. The band, featuring bassist/vocalist Dug Pinnick, guitarist/vocalist Ty Tabor and drummer/vocalist Jerry Gaskill, say the UK audiences...

12 Medium-Easy Jazz, Blues & Funk Etudes is a new series of books by Yellowjackets sax man Bob Mintzer written for all instruments, including bass. Designed for beginner- to intermediate-level musicians, this book covers 12 jazz, blues and funk etudes composed by Mintzer in a variety of jazz styles, tempos, and time signatures. A play-along CD is included, along with...

The Jelly Jam, a prog-rock trio featuring Dream Theater’s John Myung on bass, has had its first two albums re-released as high-resolution MP3 downloads on the Molken Music website. The band, rounded out by King’s X guitarist/vocalist Ty Tabor and Dixie Dregs drummer Rod Morgenstein, put out their eponymous debut in 2002 followed by The Jelly Jam 2 in 2004....

Bob Gallway’s bass instructional book J.S. Bach for Electric Bass has been updated to now include a companion CD. The book includes three duets and five solo pieces written by Bach and arranged by Gallway for bass. The CD is provided to facilitate mastery of the solo pieces and serve as accompianment for the duets. Tablature is included. Songs included:...

Bassist Nick Urlacher has announced he is leaving metalcore act The Word Alive as a life change. “I’ve decided to leave The Word Alive my friends,” he wrote in an online statement. “I will miss all of our friends, family and fans I’ve had the utmost pleasure and honor to meet along my travels with The Word Alive. My life...