I guess a lot of you heard already but I made a big step on my road to recovery last night. My last gig was at a late night jazz venue in January and after seven months away from gigs it was a relief to return. Yesterday I played a ninety minute rehearsal plus a […]
Category Archives: bass
OK, fingers crossed this carpal tunnel thing is under control. My doctor wants me to start gigging now to see how it goes. She’s reviewing it in November. I play with no ill effects nowadays though I sometimes get the symptoms when I sleep. I’ confident. I’m now starting to think of the whole […]
It all started pretty early. My uncle lent me a bunch of LPs in my mid-teens which included a couple of Osibisa records. My burgeoning rock/reggae/funk mindset was blown by their sound; they blended West African sounds with rock and soul in a similar manner to Santana’s Latin infused rock. And the band featured London […]
I was delighted when the lovely people at No Treble agreed to publish an article on the late, great Doug Rauch, one of my favourite players and a relatively unsung musical force. Here’s what some other guys had to say about Doug: Jeff Berlin: “… another slap bass player who would have been as big […]
I started writing record reviews for the No Treble website in October. Why? Well I love music and though I never saw myself as a writer, several paths led me to an increased confidence in writing and led me to feel it was worth having a go. I owe most of it to the web. […]
August 30th So happy now after last night. I played bass for a ninety minute rehearsal and a full church service at All Souls Langham Place. Feeling good..very thankful for all the advice, help, encouragement and prayers I’ve received! Full report at https://philwbass.wordpress.com/2010/08/30/im-back-first-public-performance-since-my-wrist-injury/ August 24th About to make my comeback. I’m playing with no ill […]
Steve is a unique person and musician and he creates beautiful music that often draws the listener into his world. Steve has developed surely the widest audience of any solo bassist – he plays music – it just happens to be the bass guitar that he uses as a tool to paint with. His music […]
I have uploaded a few tunes from a fabulous gig we did in May 2009. The audio is not fantastic: I recorded straight to mp3 from my beloved Zoom H4 recorder. I played by Wal fretless electric bass and Maciek Pysz is on electric guitar. Kate Hayes is singing and Pierre Hellio is on drums […]
OK, you should know your scales and arpeggios in many patterns if you play bass but during a lesson with Steve Billman, he noted that often you find yourself quickly ascending across the strings and then running up and down the G string. Steve had adapted some ideas that Frank Gambale had about playing diagonally […]
I started doing some CD reviews for the NoTreble website. It’s an enjoyable exercise: I get to listen to some great music and try to improve my writing. NoTreble is a great resource for bassplayers: videos, lessons, reviews, news, interviews and articles about a wide spectrum of bassists. I was delighted when chosen for their […]
Phil Wain 