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Michael Manring and Steve Lawson – Live at ‘Round Midnight

Benjamin — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 08:47:57 +0000

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.

Mark Bass Pedals

Benjamin — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 10:04:04 +0000

A bit more NAMM2009 bass news, with thanks to Alun Vaughan, who posted about the new Mark Bass pedals on twitter. Here is a YouTube clip about them, via Bass Guitar magazine, showing the new range. They look solidly built to say the least!

Steve Lawson also got a nice shot of them:

Mark Bass Pedals - photo by Steve Lawson

You can see more of Steve’s photos in this post on his blog: Photos from NAMM so far… The Mark Bass Pedal range includes a DI box (lots of the pedals have an XLR DI output around the back), a booster (with filters), a Valve Compressor, Octaver (-1 octave -2 octaves), a distortion, a synth pedal, a chorus/flanger and a reverb (the “reverbaro”). The latter two have USB connections to link to a computer for editing - all very high tech!

Bassists aren’t know for heavy use of effects pedals, but there are a number of multi-effects boxes on the market from the likes of Line 6, Roland/Boss, Yamaha et al designed for bass. Stomp boxes are the predecessor to the multi-effects unit, and give you one dedicated effect in a box. Again, there are a fair few purpose built stomp boxes for bass (for example, those from EBS), but I’m sure the Mark Bass boxes will be a welcome addition. There is something reassuring about having a box that does just one thing, with nice analogue dials to adjust the settings and then leave in place when you’ve got “that sound”.

Bass Fretboard Map

Benjamin — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 08:50:48 +0000

A pretty discovery, via Steve Lawson’s shared feed. Train hits boy (don’t ask me!), aka Wayne, has produced a brilliant coded map of the fretboard, covering standard tuning on a 4 string bass:

Very handy! Print, memorize and then program into your brain and fingers!

Tags: fretboard

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Michael Manring and Steve Lawson – Live at ‘Round Midnight

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