No Treble Archive for September 22nd

With just three months until their official 30th anniversary, the String Cheese Incident has released their 11th studio album. “Lend Me A Hand” is an “acknowledgment of [the fact] that, coming out of the pandemic, we all could use help.”

Joel Quarrington has been one of the world’s leading double bass players for over forty years. In this wide-ranging interview, we talk about “The Music of Don Thompson”, the pros and cons of being a principal bassist, and much more.

In August, we shared this incredibly popular video of Tim Starace working through Rush’s “La Villa Strangiato” on bass, keys, and pedals. YYNOT just shared this video of the band performing the tune live at Pala Casino on September 3rd.

John Patitucci had a fruitful tour of Italy in July of 2021, and now the rest of the world gets to hear the magic that happened along the way. His new album, “Live In Italy,” features him Chris Potter and Brian Blade.

This week in The Brown’stone on No Treble, Rich Brown is talking about FONK! That’s right, people. This lesson is an exercise in groovin’ and adding some ‘stank’ to your funk game.

YYNOT is on the road for some long-awaited live shows, and they’re also gearing up to release a new album. They’re giving us a preview of what’s to come on “Light And Shade” with this first track, “Burning Bridge”.

Aaron Patrick has announced he has left All That Remains. He made the announcement on his Instagram account saying the split was amicable.

Meet Francisco Javier, who has had a long and windy road down the musical path. Francisco began playing bass at an early age, putting it down, and picking it up again 30 years after. Here’s his story...

Eastwood Guitars is launching a new tribute bass to bring back a design from the ’60s. The Eko Rocket IV Tribute was first reintroduced by Eastwood in 2006 and will be coming back next year.

It’s always great to see a video with Wes Stephenson hit the feed. In this clip, Wes performs with the Mark Lettieri Group for a live-streamed show at the Guitar Sanctuary in McKinney, TX on Aug. 22, 2020.

Victor Wooten, Steve Bailey, and John Patitucci will be exploring the deep connection between bass and drums in this week’s free Zoom webinar. The Bass and Drum Summit will feature three sets of masters that helped set the standards for groove.

A month after he announced his departure from DragonForce, Frédéric Leclercq has a new gig. He’s joined the German thrash metal outfit Kreator.

Death By Audio has teamed up with The Black Angels and the Levitation Festival to create Phosphene Scream, a “space trippin’ delay, and reverb effects pedal.” The unit was designed to pay homage to psychedelic rock legacy of Austin, Texas.

Weekends are great for sitting back and enjoying music. So we’re sharing a nearly two-hour video today from Marcus Miller’s performance at Jazz à la Villette this year. Enjoy!

British singer Emeli Sandé has returned with her third studio album, entitled “Real Life.” If you get really into those grooves, it may be thanks in part to session ace Pino Palladino laying down the bass lines.

Love them or hate them, KISS has been rocking and inspiring people for over four decades. Now it looks as though they’ll be throwing in the towel after announcing a farewell tour called “One Last Kiss: End Of The Road World Tour.” The band made the announcement on the finale of America’s Got Talent after performing their iconic hit “Detroit...

I spotted this video of John Mayer performing on Jimmy Kimmel Live. I was in a hurry, so I almost skipped it. Then I realized Pino Palladino was on the bill, which of course made it required viewing.

In 2016, former Yes members Jon Anderson, Trevor Rabin and Rick Wakeman formed their own version of the band. They’ve taken the act on the road for the past two years and have documented their live show with a new album and film called Live at the Apollo. Yes Featuring Jon Anderson, Trevor Rabin, Rick Wakeman is rounded out by...

Introduced earlier this year, Hartke’s new HD500 Bass Combo is now shipping. The 35-pound combo is loaded with a pair of their HyDrive 10-inch drivers for 500 watts of power. “The HD500 features Hartke’s patented HyDrive speakers that transformed speaker technology by blending paper and aluminum materials into a speaker cone that produces an exceptional blend of warmth and attack...

I just discovered the artist known as Binkbeats, and I was glad I did. The producer/multi-instrumentalist handles bass, keyboards, and percussion on this tune, “Little Nerves,” and is joined by keyboardist Niels Broos on the tune. If you did this, you might want to check out his album, P.M.P.U. Part 1, which comes out next month.

Mike Gordon’s fifth solo album, OGOGO, is now available. The Phish bassist tapped longtime partners Scott Murawski (guitar/vocals), Robert Walter (keyboards), John Morgan Kimock (drums) and Craig Myers (percussion) for the record, although it wasn’t the same old recording session for the musicians. Producer Shawn Everett helped to coax new sounds out of them. “All five of us decided not...

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...

Today we will be tackling Jaco Pastorius’s bass line on the title track from Weather Report’s 1980 album, Night Passage. This is one of the best Weather Report albums. To me, it always sounds fresh and modern, like a timeless record. The group also includes drummer Peter Erskine and percussionist Robert Thomas Jr, who sound very tight together. In this...

Zander Zon is back with another epic solo bass performance of a movie soundtrack. This time, he takes on music from Gladiator.

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....

We’ve covered the spectrum of bassists here in the Reader Spotlight section. Anthony Cook is one of those bassists who comes to us with a wealth of experience. With 30 years under his belt, Anthony is now keeping busy as a full-time musician – something he says was “not an easy flight, but a determined one.” Here’s his story… Bio:...

Kala is celebrating the fifth anniversary of their U-Bass introduction by expanding the range with a bubinga model. Featuring a 21-inch scale, the Bubinga U-Bass is built using the distinctive wood for its top, back and sides while being rounded out with a mahogany neck and rosewood fingerboard. Other features include a rosewood bridge, exclusive Hipshot licensed black anodized tuners,...

Steve DiGiorgio may be known for playing fretless in death metal bands, but he’s a very diverse musician. Check out this clip of the bassist tracking the song “Calling” by Mythodea in the studio. DiGiorgio lays down punchy, melodic bass lines with on a Rickenbacker to give the song some extra drive. The track is available for download from the...

Duran Duran, famed for its 80s pop stardom, 90s resurgence, and love of art rock and Chic, has released its 14th studio album, Paper Gods. Bassist John Taylor told San Francisco’s Radio Alice that the album’s title refers to the “temporary obsessions” most people are guilty of indulging. He also said that work on the record began two years ago,...

A few months ago, Jordan Brown sent us some pictures of a bass he was having made. I knew even before it was finished that it was going to be a killer bass, and it looks like I was right. Brown, who is an active player in London, reached out to Italian luthier Matteo Rufini to build an instrument that...

Everyone who stays at this music thing for a time will likely find themselves lacking in motivation at some point or another. If practicing has become a chore, or if you can’t even bring yourself to pick up the instrument, perhaps some of these strategies might bring some fire back into your musical life. Take a break Sometimes we are...

The last time we featured bassist Mats Ödahl, he knocked us out with the video of him playing along to a Charlie Parker solo. Mats just shared a new video with us, which is quite different and shows the bassist’s diversity. “I wanted to share a new live-performance video from my Finnish band Hipster Slayer that I’m very proud of....

If not for bassist Phil Lesh, the Grateful Dead’s March 29, 1990 show at the Nassau Coliseum wouldn’t have been quite as noteworthy as it was. On that night, Lesh invited jazz saxophonist Branford Marsalis to sit in for one tune — “Birdsong.” He played it, and then, with the band’s encouragement, stayed for the entire second set. In the...

Last week was dominated by popular new bass gear stories and awesome bass videos. That, plus Damian’s latest column and a “How to Groove” lesson by MarloweDK make up the top 10 most popular stories, how-to’s and videos on No Treble for the week of September 15-21, 2013. Thanks for reading, commenting and sharing! Keep it low. 1. Vulfpeck: My...

Last month we featured a burning track by the Jonathan Scales Fourchestra entitled “TNFJ“. The song really caught readers’ attention with sick drumming, other-worldly steel drums, and of course, the extra funky bass line by Cody Wright. Wright, who uses a pick to play, also wowed us with a driving and percussive solo. Here is his new video tutorial on...

At face value, it may not seem like Elvis Costello and The Roots would be a natural pairing, but their new collaborative album Wise Up Ghost is proof that their musical visions sync up in a special way. The project started on the set of Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, where drummer Ahmir ”?uestlove” Thompson and The Roots are the...

Focusrite has a new USB audio interface dubbed the Scarlett 2i4. Featuring two inputs and four outputs, the 2i4 is housed in an anodized aluminum unibody chassis. The two combo XLR inputs allow for plugging in your bass, guitar, or microphone. Each input’s gain knob has a signal halo around it that changes color to inform you about your signal....

Bassist Pablo Elorza has started a new series on YouTube he’s calling “Deep Into Electric Bass Classics” with the infamous Jaco Pastorius tune “Havona.” Elorza rips through the tune, then breaks it all down for everyone trying to learn. He speaks in Spanish, but don’t worry, there are English subtitles for his in-depth analysis. Time to hit the woodshed!

Two years after her self-titled solo debut, Julie Slick has returned with Terroir, which is now available on BandCamp. Full of lush soundscapes, inspired compositions, and incredible bass playing, the 10-song album’s title offers several dimensions to the album’s meaning. ”Terroir is a French word, meaning ‘from the earth,’” she explains. “It is used to describe the qualities of a...

This week we’re featuring a beautiful custom Xylem 5-string bass. This particular bass is a neck-through design featuring a black limba body with a bookmatched macassar ebony top, accented with bocote and maple. The quartersawn neck is bird’s eye maple and has an ebony fretboard and custom inlays of a tomoe and falling leaves. All the electronics are Bartolinis, including...

After settling up with customers left from the demise of King Doublebass brand, luthier Jason Burns went to work to create a new upright venture catering to the alternative bassist. Blast Cult officially launched this month with their One4Five model bass, a design cultivated from Burns’ 20 years of building. Among the first instruments built under the moniker is a...

Victor Wooten has released The Music Lesson Soundtrack. The album, which is the first all-original release for his new VIX Records label, is culled from the audio version of his book of the same title and is only available digitally. Wooten describes the album as the “largest musical project [he has] ever completed to date.” The bassist recruited his brothers...

Tony Palmer’s 1969 documentary on Cream bassist Jack Bruce is now available on DVD. Jack Bruce: Rope Ladder to the Moon is a 55 minute documentary on the singer-songwriter, filmed around the same time that he was recording his jazz-oriented solo record, Songs for a Tailor. The film proves to be a snapshot of Bruce during a pivotal time in...

Q: How would you describe a good practice session and how would you break it down? A: I think I’ve probably answered this in different ways in past columns, depending on the topic. In short, I’d tailor the practice time and routine based upon your own personal attention span and needs. I have the problem of getting bored quickly when...

Here is a cool video from Zon endorser Alex Bershadsky. Alex resides in Israel, where he performs with his band, The Looney Tunes. His composition, “Butterfly Trap”, evolves from a thoughtful solo bass idea into a full band ballad, and then into a funky fusion jam before returning to solo bass.

No Doubt’s Tony Kanal took the time to speak with press last week during bandmate Gwen Stefani’s fashion show in NYC, saying that the band is revving up for a new album and tour. The ska-rock band is still in the process of writing their sixth studio album, which will be their first new material since 2001’s Rock Steady. Kanal...

New York City jazz bassist Joe Martin has released his second CD, Not By Chance, on Anzic records. Not By Chance features eight original compositions by Martin, and a Jaco Pastorius tribute, and includes Brad Mehldau on piano, saxophonist Chris Potter (also on bass clarinet) and Marcus Gilmore on drums. “Three of my favorite musicians. They not only possess powerful...

Meet bassist Phil Wain, our player in the spotlight for September 22nd, 2009. Bio: A fretless specialist who loves his Wal bass, Phil sees music as a spiritual exercise and strives for those moments when the music plays him. He can be seen in a variety of settings on the London gig scene. His heart is in jazz but he...

Bassist Esperanza Spalding performed at the White House for the Obama family in early 2009, celebrating the music of Stevie Wonder. This video clip includes her performance of “Overjoyed”. Spalding is currently on tour and will continue to be through December of 2009. A complete tour list is available from her web site.

Music lawyer Donald S. Passman has updated his “industry Bible” with an upcoming seventh edition of All You Need To Know About the Music Business, to be released November 17th 2009. If you’re a musician and are not familiar with this book it should be on your list. Passman gives extremely relevant and organized advice on how to navigate in...