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 [More...]

TC Electronic have been busy busy again. The latest twist on the TC Electronic Classic450 Bass Amp – it’s called the Staccato’51, developed in conjunction with Rocco Prestia. Rocco is best known for holding down the bass in Tower of Power – a band he joined at 14 – and is a much renowned bassist. Checkout Rocco’s web page or the Rocco Prestia Live At Bass Day DVD). His style probably accounts for the name, if you are not familiar with Rocco’s very percussive style, you should be! He’s using the amp with TC Eletronic’s RS410’s and two RS212’s. [More...]

Hope you are holding the low end down!

Just wanted to share a couple of things that are going off…

• The site has moved on to a bigger faster server.It’s a process that’s kept me busy for a bit! We’re in the hands of Redcatco for WordPress hosting – I think they are great, but I would, I run the place .
• It’s been an amazing two years since the blog started. Over 12,000 people a month visit the bass guitar blog, and that number is growing every week, we’d outgrown the server where we started and I hope we out grow this one too – thank you for creating a great community, I enjoy hanging out here and reading the comments. It’s my bass dojo!
• A site redesign is in the works – for those that read via the web, I’m keen to make the site a bit easier on the eye! There’s over 150 posts on the site, which leads me on to…
• Guest bloggers. It’s something that’s worked really well. We’re looking for a few more guest bloggers and guest posts – you don’t want to hear my voice all the time . In the new site design every guest blogger will have a profile page, so you can find out a bit more about them, with links to their music and what they do.

Interesting bass stuff up next! Keep the comments, links and news coming! And thank you again!

September 2009 and Michael Pedulla introduces a new bass, the Nuance, the latest in a long line of basses from the US-based going back to the late 70’s, when Pedulla started making the fretless Buzz Bass . The Nuance was designed as an acounstic instrument, focussing on tonal subtleties. Says Pedulla:

It has been fully field tested with a number of Pedulla Artists, including Tim Landers, Mark Egan, and David Buda.  Tim Landers used the Nuance live and in the studio and sums up the sound as:

“It exudes a boutique quality but with a much more useful array of tones.A bass that not only sounds fantastic on it’s own but remains punchy and distinct even through a dense mix, a winning combination for me!” [More...]

This week I had the immense pleasure of talking with John Patitucci, from his New York home. The main topic of conversation was the new Album from the John Patitucci Trio album  - “Remembrance” – on Concord Jazz, his sixth album for the label. This is a series of posts, covering the album itself, and discussions with John around the art of playing bass.

The album, released on the 4th August,  is a stunning piece of work, featuring John on upright and electric bass, with Joe Lovano on tenor and alto clarinet and Brian Blade on drums. There are eleven tracks that pay tribute to jazz icons including Ray Brown, Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, Sony Rollins, and a host of others.

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