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«Bass Culture – The John Entwistle Collection · Virtual Bass Amp »

Roscoe Beck – with Leonard Cohen

Posted by Benjamin on November 15, 2008 Filed under: Events, Gigs, Players tagged: Roscoe Beck

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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5 Responses to “Roscoe Beck – with Leonard Cohen”

  1. Steve Lawson, on November 15th, 2008 at 7:28 PM Said:

    Wow, can’t believe you’d not heard him before!

    The first few Robben Ford and the Blue Line albums are amazing – trio of Robben, Roscoe and Tom Brechtlein on drums…

    Would’ve loved to see that gig – I saw him with Robben in LA a few years ago. Great player 🙂

  2. Fender Blog » Blog Archive » Roscoe Beck - with Leonard Cohen, on November 15th, 2008 at 10:14 PM Said:

    […] Read more: Roscoe Beck – with Leonard Cohen […]

  3. Benjamin, on November 16th, 2008 at 6:52 PM Said:

    Shame on me! I wonder which other bassists should be on my ‘have seen’ list, but aren’t yet?

  4. Kev, on November 17th, 2008 at 10:16 AM Said:

    I must agree with Steve about Roscoe’s work with Robben Ford! Do check it out 🙂

    Glad you enjoyed the show.

  5. Benjamin, on November 17th, 2008 at 10:26 AM Said:

    OK… Sounds like time for me to go and buy some albums 🙂

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