The Bass Guitar Blog » Gigs http://bassguitarblog.com The Blog for Bass Players - Covering all the basses! Fri, 12 Feb 2010 22:28:07 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 Gail Ann Dorsey http://bassguitarblog.com/2010/02/gail-ann-dorsey/ http://bassguitarblog.com/2010/02/gail-ann-dorsey/#comments Fri, 12 Feb 2010 22:28:07 +0000 Benjamin http://bassguitarblog.com/?p=843 This one via the ever wonderful Steve Lawson, who posted a link to the first solo performance he ever saw, from a legendary British music show called The Tube, back 1986. Here is Gail Ann Dorsey playing (and singing) stop on by:

Gail Ann Dorsey is probably most famous for playing bass with David Bowie from the mid 90’s, but she has played with a huge list of artists and released he own albums. She is currently touring in the UK with Jonatha Brooke (tour dates here) and I’m sure she’ll be back in the US soon.

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]]> http://bassguitarblog.com/2010/02/gail-ann-dorsey/feed/ 5 Michael Manring and Steve Lawson – Live at ‘Round Midnight http://bassguitarblog.com/2009/10/michael-manring-and-steve-lawson-%e2%80%93-live-at-round-midnight/ http://bassguitarblog.com/2009/10/michael-manring-and-steve-lawson-%e2%80%93-live-at-round-midnight/#comments Fri, 09 Oct 2009 08:47:57 +0000 Benjamin http://bassguitarblog.com/?p=797 On Wednesday, in London, England, Manring and Lawson brought together Solo Bass from Both Sides of the Ocean. Starting with a workshop by Michael Manring at Chappell music.

I have to say, to Markbass‘ credit, the sound and tone of Michael’s playing was absolutely amazing. I first heard Michael play live almost a decade ago when I was over in California. I drove up to Oakland to catch an evening gig – quite an interesting adventure for a British Tourist! I remember the sound, and the Markbass set up seems to have taken it to a new level. One of the privileges of living in London is that I get to go to Steve Lawson gigs reasonably often – and take friends along too! But both players, in one place? That last happened 5 years ago, and thousands of miles away, so this time…

(click though and watch it in HD)

This time I was there. The workshop was excellent – and packed (thank you Chappell Music and Markbass). The key take away, for me at least, was thinking about playing in a more modular way. Little units of things – Michael talked about the various percussive noises he extracts from his basses – can be built up into rhythmic units. As Steve Lawson reminded me in conversation afterwards, improvisation isn’t ‘making things up’, it is rearranging the things that we know, in real time.

The evening gig, at the recently opened “Round Midnight Bar” featured sets by both artists, and two sets of them playing together – how often do you get to see a bass duo? Some really sensational playing (see the clip above), creating fantastic music. Here are some photos I took during the evening:

Check out Steve’s blog for more (including more video), see Michael’s home page and checkout “Manring and Lawson – Solo Bass from Both Sides of the Ocean” for audio from their last get together.



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]]> http://bassguitarblog.com/2009/10/michael-manring-and-steve-lawson-%e2%80%93-live-at-round-midnight/feed/ 1 Manring and Lawson – Solo Bass from Both Sides of the Ocean http://bassguitarblog.com/2009/10/manring-and-lawson-solo-bass-from-both-sides-of-the-ocean/ http://bassguitarblog.com/2009/10/manring-and-lawson-solo-bass-from-both-sides-of-the-ocean/#comments Mon, 05 Oct 2009 21:57:10 +0000 Benjamin http://bassguitarblog.com/?p=793 It hasn’t happend for 5 years, but on Wednesday evening, solo bassists Steve Lawson and Michael Manring will be playing. Last time they got together was in Santa Cruz, California, this time Round Midnight Jazz and Blues Bar is the venue, in London England. This is what it sounded like when they played together last:

Steve Lawson and Michael Manring live at Don Quixotes by solobasssteve

Michael and Steve have been regularly mentioned here (click on those links), most recently when Michael Manring explained the Hyperbass. Here’s Michael on his own on Youtube:

And the second half of the second tune in the Don Quixote’s set embedded above:

Via Steve’s Blog. It’s going to be amazing! Two solo bass greats, one stage :)

I’ll post pictures, and hopefully a video interview with them both as soon as I get back!

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]]> http://bassguitarblog.com/2009/10/manring-and-lawson-solo-bass-from-both-sides-of-the-ocean/feed/ 2 Jeff Beck Performing This Week…Live at Ronnie Scott’s with Tal Wilkenfeld http://bassguitarblog.com/2009/04/jeff-beck-performing-this-week%e2%80%a6live-at-ronnie-scott%e2%80%99s/ http://bassguitarblog.com/2009/04/jeff-beck-performing-this-week%e2%80%a6live-at-ronnie-scott%e2%80%99s/#comments Sat, 11 Apr 2009 11:18:21 +0000 Benjamin http://bassguitarblog.com/?p=686 OK, he isn’t actually playing this week at Ronnie Scott’s, but Jeff Beck does have a new DVD coming out, and that’s its title:  Jeff Beck Performing This Week…Live at Ronnie Scott’s. The DVD features bassist, Tal Wilkenfeld - a Sadowsky Basses  and EBS amplifiers and cabinets user who’s tour credits include Chick Corea, Eric Clapton, Joss Stone and on…

Jeff Beck will be on tour and I’ve been told that there will a chance to meet him too. Check out “Led Boots” from the DVD, featuring Tal too, pretty cool stuff:

“Led Boots” video clip from Jeff Beck’s Live at Ronnie Scott’s DVD: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yg0nGAzNHc

There’s also a bit of a thing going on with Panasonic. Concert attendees that have a Panasonic Lumix DMC-G1 will have a chance to take photos of Jeff Beck performing and submit them to the “Best of the Tour” series for JeffBeck.com. The first 10 owners who show up at the venue will get a special Panasonic VIP pass, which allows them backstage access for a photo opportunity with Jeff Beck. Panasonic will be raffling off two TZ5 class Digital Still cameras at each of the North American concerts.

You can get Performing This Week: Live at Ronnie Scott’s on Amazon and the full list of Jeff Beck Tour dates are on the site. They start on 10th April 09 in New York at The Fillimore, and go through to 23rd April in Oakland at the Fox Theater – loads of dates. No Panasonic prize, but tour dates in Europe too:

  • UK and Ireland: 24th June Brighton Brighton Dome, 25th June Birmingham Symphony Hall, 27th June Manchester Manchester Apollo, 28th June Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, 30th June Belfast Ulster Hall, 1st July Dublin Vicar Street, 3rd July Southampton Guildhall, 4th July London Royal Albert Hall.
  • Holland: 12th July Weert, Holland Bospop Festival, Sportpark Boshoven.
  • France: 13th July Sete, France Festival Jazz a Sete @ Theatre de la Mer, 15th July Antibes, France Juan Les Pins Jazz Festival.
  • Switzerland: 17th July Montreux, Switzerland Montreux Festival.
  • Belgium: 19th July Limburg, Belgium Peer Festival.
  • Spain: 22nd July Barcelona, Spain Pueblo Espanol, 24th July Madrid, Spain Festival Veranos De La Villa, Casa De Campo, 25th July Cazorla, Spain Blues Festival , 27th July Alicante, Spain Festival de Musicas del Mundo.

Enjoy!



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]]> http://bassguitarblog.com/2009/04/jeff-beck-performing-this-week%e2%80%a6live-at-ronnie-scott%e2%80%99s/feed/ 2 Back Ups – Avoiding Gig-asters http://bassguitarblog.com/2009/03/back-ups-avoiding-gig-asters/ http://bassguitarblog.com/2009/03/back-ups-avoiding-gig-asters/#comments Mon, 23 Mar 2009 18:36:04 +0000 Benjamin http://bassguitarblog.com/?p=667 Well, South by South West (or should I say “South By…”) was even more full on that I had imagined, and I had imagined it being very full on. Oddly, the thing stuck in my mind isn’t a gig, it was looking across at a rig. It got me thinking about having back ups and avoiding bass disasters…
mainspare-001

Two neatly stacked amps on the stage at the venue. Now, I’ve heard talk about Ashdowns  (and other) amps failing, but no-one was taking any chances with this set up – one amp labelled “MAIN” and one labelled “SPARE”. Well, there were no failures at SXSW, but it got me thinking… What failures could I deal with during a gig? I usually have:

  • A ’spare’ bass – a little unusual, but because I play fretted and fretless, and have a double case, I always have both with me.
  • Spare strings – this is a bit of a no-brainer. That said, I’ve broken one string on stage in 25 years.
  • Spare lead – not much extra to pack, and it means I can bail out any clowns that don’t bring enough leads.
  • A Bass Guitar Tool - for light repair work.

So that covers most of the front end. My usual big-gig cab has multiple drivers, so if one speaker blows, it should carry on, all be it at lower volume – a nice advantage of something like a 2×12, 8 x10, and  the like. Most bass cabinets are wired in parallel or parallel plus serial, so as long as the speaker coil doesn’t short when it fails, the cab should carry on. To be really sure you could stack two cabs (i.e. two 4×10’s to give an 8×10) I guess. I haven’t gone down that road, yet…

That leaves the amp / pre-amp as the single point of failure. At a bigger gig, you just loose your monitoring – you can still go through the main PA, and have some bass in a near by wedge. At a smaller gig, you might well be stuck. It seems pretty expensive and laborious to carry around a second amp, but if you want to be 100% backed up that seems the only option.



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]]> http://bassguitarblog.com/2009/03/back-ups-avoiding-gig-asters/feed/ 2 Roscoe Beck – with Leonard Cohen http://bassguitarblog.com/2008/11/roscoe-beck-with-leonard-cohen/ http://bassguitarblog.com/2008/11/roscoe-beck-with-leonard-cohen/#comments Sat, 15 Nov 2008 19:17:03 +0000 Benjamin http://bassguitarblog.com/?p=380 Last night I got an invite to see Leonard Cohen at the O2 arena in London. He might be in his mid 70’s, but he still gave a performance with more standing ovations than I could count. He had a great band behind him, but obviously I was watching the bassist carefully.
Roscoe Beck played on electric bass, fretless and upright. I’d not heard Roscoe before, for which I was roundly scolded by the fellow musician with me. Roscoe Beck has produced a number of tutorial videos, including: Blues Foundations, Beginning Blues Bass, Volumes 1 & 2, and has been a regular contributor to Bass Player magazine. He’s even had two signature Fender basses created for him, the Roscoe Beck Signature Five-String Bass and the Roscoe Beck Signature Four-String.

OK, so I had heard of his name. As well as Leonard Cohen, he has recorded with Robben Ford, Jennifer Warnes, and played with Joe Satriani and  (stand back while the thin-stringed guys stream). That gives you an idea of his high level of talent on the bass.

He has played on or co-produced at total of five Cohen albums to date, and is the musical director for Cohen’s current tour, as well as bassist and vocalist. He held down a solid bottom end through the 3 hour concert, with some very eloquent fretless playing, and rock solid fretted playing. One thing I noticed was that the upright Roscoe played on a few of the songs looked like an Upright Bass with a lined fretboard. Not see one of those before.

When he is not on the road, Roscoe appears most Tuesday nights at the legendary blues nightclub Antone’s, as bass player in the famed Antone’s house band. A talented bassist very worth checking out.



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]]> http://bassguitarblog.com/2008/11/roscoe-beck-with-leonard-cohen/feed/ 5 Seth Horan Hits the UK http://bassguitarblog.com/2008/09/seth-horan-hits-the-uk/ http://bassguitarblog.com/2008/09/seth-horan-hits-the-uk/#comments Mon, 29 Sep 2008 17:08:05 +0000 Benjamin http://bassguitarblog.com/?p=223 Not literally you understand, but in the metaphorical sense! US Bass readers may have noticed something missing – its Seth, he’s run over to the UK. If you haven’t come across Seth before, checking out his music is a definite must for any bass player (Seth here on reverbnation – click to listen), he is a very unique bassist/singer-songwriter. Great player. Great voice.

In recent months his fans have even had the chance to help produce his new album – not many players give their listeners than opportunity! Seth performs in Camden, London tonight at Bar Monsta at 7:30pm with UK solo bassist/singer-songwriter Kev Cooke (tickets £6.00 here) – check Kev’s MySpace page too.

Full dates for Seth Horan’s UK tour, via reverbnation:

09/24/2008 08:00 PM Clitheroe, UK Keystreet Bar of Music  
09/25/2008 09:00 PM Manchester, UK The Thirsty Scholar  
09/26/2008 08:00 PM Newport, Wales, UK Blackwood Miners Institute Tickets
09/27/2008 04:30 PM Lille, FR EuroGuitar  
09/28/2008 07:30 PM Milton Keynes, UK The Dolphin  
09/29/2008 07:30 PM London, UK Bar Monsta Tickets
09/30/2008 08:00 PM Plymouth, UK Ride Cafe  
10/01/2008 08:00 PM Newquay, UK Belushis  
10/02/2008 08:00 PM Cornwall, UK The Taphouse Tickets

Enjoy! And if you get along to one of the gigs it would be great to hear from you!



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]]> http://bassguitarblog.com/2008/09/seth-horan-hits-the-uk/feed/ 0 Everyone on Bass? http://bassguitarblog.com/2008/07/everyone-on-bass/ http://bassguitarblog.com/2008/07/everyone-on-bass/#comments Tue, 15 Jul 2008 17:48:00 +0000 Benjamin http://bassguitarblog.com/?p=26
I had the opportunity to see Lightspeed Champion last week, at KoKo in London, as part of the iTunes festival. I’ve bee a long time fan, since bumping into them (well, lead Dev Hynes) on a plane last year. However, this was the first time I’d seem them live.

It was a great set (and a good crowd at the venue). What struck me most was that almost everyone in the band took a turn on bass (with only the violinist not picking up the 4 string wonder). It made me wonder two things:
  1. How many bassists are multi-instrumentalists?
  2. How comfortable would you be playing someone else’s bass during a gig?
Having a broader outlook than just bass guitar is always a good thing – expanding your sense of melody, harmony and rhythm.
I didn’t manage to convince these hardcore Lightspeed Champion fans to take up bass, which is a shame (another one of those bass not for girls say the girls moments). They did put up with me taking photos over their shoulder – fair deal.
As you can see, after the crowds have gone, KoKo is an unusual venue – it describes itself as the most opulent venue in London. The sound and lighting was excellent, and it definitely counts as a bass player friendly venue – unlike a few I could mention.
Lightspeed Champion have their own blog (strong language warning), which is quite an entertaining read. However, it didn’t solve the mystery of the night for me: What is this bass:

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]]> http://bassguitarblog.com/2008/07/everyone-on-bass/feed/ 2 Darbucka London Gig – Take Two – Write Up http://bassguitarblog.com/2008/06/darbucka-london-gig-take-two-write-up/ http://bassguitarblog.com/2008/06/darbucka-london-gig-take-two-write-up/#comments Sat, 07 Jun 2008 07:00:00 +0000 Benjamin http://bassguitarblog.com/?p=24 Premier UK solobassist Steve Lawson pulled together an excellent evening at Darbucka in London. First up, hello to all of you who were at the gig – it turned out to be a bit of a social media fest, with a major part of the on-line UK Bass and social media community there. Sharing the gig with lots of friends made it even more enjoyable!

Steve kicked off with a solo Bass piece and got everyone settled before Lloyd Davis stepped on stage. I wouldn’t have put myself down as a Ukelele fan, but Lloyd’s voice captivated the audience, including me, as he treated us to wonderful songs from a former generation. Broad musical horizons make for a good bassist.


Steve and Lobelia took to the stage with a mix of their own songs and special treatments of covers. Lobelia’s voice and Steve’s bass playing looped together into a powerful musical mix – I’m thinking there will be an album on the way! Some-one was videoing, so you might even find a clip or two from the evening on their YouTube channel.

Yolanda Charles was not to make it on the night, but Miriam Jones stepped in, with Jez Carr on keys. It was a treat, as I’ve been hoping to catch her live for a while – definitely a welcome addition to the UK music circuit (yay for trans-atlantic marriages!).

Finally the Dodds/Lawson/Woods Trio took to the stage (tracks on Reverbnation here). Roy Dodds was on fire on drums, with Patrick Wood supplying some amazing Rhodes and Guitar playing. Steve did the Lawson thing on bass… Everyone around me was transfixed! I’ll post here when the new album is out (due soon apparently)!

You can check out Basswulf and photo’s from me of the event here. Social media is definitely changing the music world for the better – read Alan’s wonderful stody about that side of the event here on the Broadstuff Blog.



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]]> http://bassguitarblog.com/2008/06/darbucka-london-gig-take-two-write-up/feed/ 1 Darbucka London Gig – Take Two http://bassguitarblog.com/2008/06/darbucka-london-gig-take-two/ http://bassguitarblog.com/2008/06/darbucka-london-gig-take-two/#comments Mon, 02 Jun 2008 07:55:00 +0000 Benjamin http://bassguitarblog.com/?p=23 For anyone who went along to London Solo Bass Night or who missed it and wished they were there, you’ll want to that Steve and Lobelia will be performing as a duo (congratulations Mr and Mrs Lawson!) – you can get a taster of the material in Steve and Lobelia’s YouTube videos.


There will additional guests including another chance to see Yolanda Charles, as well as Lloyd Davis on Ukelele and the Dodds/Lawson/Wood trio (listen on Reverb Nation). Fuller details on the event’s Facebook page or here on Steve’s blog.

It will definitely be a corker, with some serious bass and ear-opening music. I’ll be there, with my better half and a better camera this time, hopefully checking out the Darbucka World Music Bar menu too! I’ll be reporting back…



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]]> http://bassguitarblog.com/2008/06/darbucka-london-gig-take-two/feed/ 0 London Solo Bass Night http://bassguitarblog.com/2008/03/london-solo-bass-night/ http://bassguitarblog.com/2008/03/london-solo-bass-night/#comments Wed, 05 Mar 2008 18:53:00 +0000 Benjamin http://bassguitarblog.com/?p=19 Last night saw a special evening for hard core bass fans in and around London. Yolanda Charles, Steve Lawson and Todd Johnson took to the stage for a spectacular evening of solo bass.

Todd was out with the crowd before the show, sharing his passion for bass and showing off his rather nice signature Zon Bass. By the time it came to kick off a very good size crowd had gathered at Darbucka. It is a superb venue (unless you happen to be a photographer, in which case the ambient light will render even your best kit useless – that’s my excuse anyway :) ). Check out their menu, you will want to eat there!

Yolanda Charles took to the stage for her first solo gig. Yolanda has played with artist like Robbie Williams and Paul Weller, but is now an artist in her own right. Quite rightly too, as she filled the room with her grooves, using just a simple loop pedal and raw her talent. Very funky stuff, a wonderful voice!


Next up was Steve Lawson himself, and my chance to see the Looperlative in action. It is a very serious piece of kit, judging by the other-worldly sounds Steve coaxed out of it as he tap danced on more pedals and controllers than this blogger could count. Some old and some new tunes, all very Steve, resulting in very satisfied fans in the audience. I don’t think that anyone there will ever forget his rendition of ‘a wonderful world’. Which leads us neatly on to Todd…

Todd Johnson’s first trip to London since he was a teenager! This was just one stop on his hectic European schedule, he was off to the lucky folks at ACM next. If you like Jazz, you’ll love Todd. He is well known in the bass world for his tuition DVDs (check him out youtube) and the A-list of artists he has played with. With the able support of a digitech Jamman for a couple of the tracks, he swung the house.

The finale featured Todd and Steve playing a piece together, seamlessly alternating melodic rolls like true solo bass brothers! For those in London, keep a look out for other events from Steve at Darbuka (for facebook folk, check out steve’s fan page), which is a regular haunt for the recycle collective. I’ll definitely be back!



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