Groove Podcast - Page 6

In 1996, bass player Rhonda Smith did something that few musicians can ever lay claim to. She joined Prince’s astounding backing band, The New Power Generation. The years, miles and practice that brought her to this moment cannot be underestimated. Getting on Prince’s radar is tough enough. Getting a place in this ferocious musical tsunami of funk is a whole...

There’s crazy stories and then there’s really crazy stories. The timeline of Arthur Barrow’s success falls into the “really crazy story” category (without question). Barrow – a young musician trying to find his way – decides to teach himself the electric bass in 1974 while attending the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas. He was studying composition and organ,...

Tony Levin is a bass specialist. Pure, simple and rhythmic. Bass players know how hard it is to find one’s voice. Levin has not only found his voice, but a very distinct sound, playing style and groove, whether he’s playing electric, upright or the Chapman Stick. It would be easy to lump him into the progressive rock genre (consider his...

Take one second, head over to Google Images and do a search for Jack Casady. A life in images. That’s not Photoshop. That’s him. A lifetime of electric bass history and evolution all rolled up into this individual who played for Jefferson Airplane, Hot Tuna and more. He’s – rightfully – in the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame and...

Who is Divinity Roxx? Musician? Bassist? Rapper? Singer? Producer? Performer? Composer? Musical director? Much more. Divinity Roxx is a true artist. The electric bass is her tool to get her message out. She mixes and crosses genres (from rock to rap to funk to jazz). She was both the bassist and Musical Director for Beyonce from 2006 – 2011. She’s...

Jeff Berlin had a moment that he describes as “the dark night of the soul” at the age of sixty. Now, he’s 63 and he’s reflecting. He’s reflecting on his career as one of the most influential electric bass players who has ever lived, and he’s being critical of just how critical he has been about the state of the...

Imagine playing the bass when your last name is Pastorius. Many of us might think that this is a blessing. There is no question that Jaco Pastorius is one of (if not THE) founding fathers of the modern electric bass. His son, Felix Pastorius, has no desire to carry-on the legacy, other than to find his own path with the...

Is there a better way to celebrate the one year anniversary of Groove – The No Treble Podcast than to dive into the amazingly, unconventional and beautiful playing of Stuart Hamm? Back in the late eighties, I made the mistake of thinking that Hamm was a full-on rocker, due to his work with Steve Vai, Joe Satriani and Frank Gambale....

When I was growing up – and was a young and impressionable musician – every bass player wanted to be Jaco Pastorius (that’s not true, the rockers wanted to be Billy Sheehan). These virtuosos seemed unreachable. There was no Internet. There was no Twitter. No Skype. All we knew about these icons was what we heard on vinyl, cassettes and...

The Music Lesson is a book that will forever change you. Not because it was written by one of the world’s greatest bass players, but because the message is core to living a life worth celebrating. Music is all over Victor Wooten. He was bathed in it from the womb (that’s not a clever play on words, just ask him)....

Lamb of God was one of the headliners at this year’s three-day hard music festival known as Heavy Montreal. Bassist John Campbell was willing and able to sit down in the blazing sun to talk about everything from why he used to play with only three strings on his bass, to the sad situation that found his singer Randy Blythe...

If we’re going to refer to the late/great John Entwistle as “The Ox,” we should probably start referring to Steve Lawson as “The Octopus.” When you listen to his music (and yes, this is music… not just someone playing the bass), it seems unreasonable that what comes out of his instrument is the work of two hands on a bass...