Corey at the wonderful NoTreble website is looking for bassists to feature in the sites Player Spotlight pages. I was very happy to be featured this month. You can see the article by clicking here It’s a neat site for bassplayers and well worth stopping by. It has lessons, interviews, news and all the features […]
Category Archives: bass
Ah yes! As of today as I practise my new electric upright I find out I am the featured player in the spotlight at http://www.notreble.com Enjoy!
Over the time of playing I’ve fallen in love with manipulating the shape of notes. Aspiring musicians are often impressed with the speed and athleticism of flash playing but that’s never really moved me. Sure, I dig the sheer joy in the playing of Fats Navarro, Charlie Parker and others but it’s shaping notes that […]
Bass. Music is basically oom-pah or oom-pah-pah and we bassists are responsible for the oom. Truth is in most styles of music it’s pretty similar. We play roots and roots and fifths in so many types of music. It took me ages to realise that the skill in playing bass often came from playing the […]
After a long absence Balkan acoustic melodicists Luna Kalamata are getting back together to play the Gillespie Park festival in North London in September. Luna Kalamata formed to play music that they loved from Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria and the Balkans. Later we added Klezmer and other music to the repertoire. Luna Kalamata are a large […]
Stop Press (Oct 2010): The Furniture Facebook Page seems to have taken off pretty well so there is more mileage in this than I thought: Go to Furniture Facebook Page ——————————————————————————————————————— Original post June 2009 I’ve not really used Facebook as a way to promote music so far. It doesn’t seem to be well-built for […]
Doug was such an inspiring and amazing talent I felt the need to write a little about him. I always loved his funky and frenetic playing even though it was always light years from my own. You’ve heard Doug on seminal Santana albums and maybe live with David Bowie and on great Billy Cobham and […]
As I looked forward to taking a lesson with Steve Lawson (something we have oft talked about) I gave some thought to other teachers I’ve had on bass. As a musician and a teacher, I am fascinated by the whole process. Now, after a lesson with Steve, I am ready to finish getting this post […]
Yeah, practice is essential for musicians or for anyone trying to get better at anything. A writer on language once told me that unless you are serious enough to spend half an hour a day on something – you aren’t going to progress. My own experience with practice has been more up and down. Those […]
OK, I still use a music-stand on this jazz gig I’ve been playing for months. There often are new tunes but mostly it’s there out of laziness as I haven’t bothered to learn the changes of some of the tunes, though I’m sure I’d know them at a push. What do you think of musicstands […]
Phil Wain 