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Tal Wilkenfeld's 2007 debut album was titled Transformation, and although it was an instrumental record made with a handful of New York City's top jazz musicians, the connotation seemed clear. [...]

Mention the name Brian Bromberg to bass thumpers, and what generally comes to mind is the image of a virtuoso of all trades. From his massive upright strokes on Michael [...]

TRIBUTES TO THE LIFE AND MUSIC OF THE LATE DAVID BOWIE roll on via the Celebrating David Bowie tour, consisting of former Bowie sidemen, and the David Bowie Is roving [...]

THE BASS WORLD LOST AN UNDERSUNG MASTER WITH THE passing of Robert 'Pops' Popwell, who succumbed to a heart attack on November 27, 2017, at age 66. During his peak [...]

Poundcake Words and Music by Edward Van Halen, Alex Van Halen, Michael Anthony and Sammy Hagar. Copyright [c] 1991 Mugambi Publishing and WB Music Corp. All Rights for Mugambi Publishing [...]

OTEIL BURBRIDGE IS AS IN-DEMAND to his fan base as he is professionally. There's the muso crowd that laid early claim to him for his jazz and fusion-informed fingerboard feats [...]

AMONG HIS FELLOW CORNERSTONE BASSISTS, THE LATE Donald 'Duck' Dunn remains one of the most understated and underrated in style and impact. That will, at last, change--thanks to a revealing [...]

THE TITLE OF LINDA MAY HAN OH'S WALK AGAINST THE Wind captures her fantastic journey: from playing Joan Jett covers in an Australian rock band as a teen to becoming [...]

IN LATE AUGUST 1971, VERDINE WHITE AND HIS BROTHER--EARTH, Wind & Fire founder Maurice--were among the seated crowd at the Troubador in Los Angeles to see their younger brother, Fred [...]

A LESSER-KNOWN ASPECT OF STANLEY CLARKE'S EARLY career is that while he was in the throes of revolutionizing the bass, the Philadelphia native had a solid three-year run in the [...]

FACED WITH INVITATIONS TO PLAY at bass events on opposite coasts on the same weekend, most musicians would pick one and beg off the other. Not Oskar Cartaya. He hopped [...]

Change For The World--Words and Music by Thomas Brenneck, Homer Steinweiss, Charles Bradley, David Guy, Nickolas Movshon, Nicole Wray and Leon Michels. Copyright [c] 2016 BMG Platinum Songs, Music Of [...]

AFRICA Words and Music by Leo Nocentelli, George Porter, Joseph Modeliste and Arthur Neville. Copyright (c) 1974 Bugaloo Music, Cabbage Alley Music and BMG Bumblebee. Copyright Renewed. All Rights Administered [...]

THINK SIR ELTON JOHN FROM THE BOTTOM UP AND IT'S impossible not to summon the late Dee Murray, whose R&B-rooted melodic might powered a dozen John discs. But another highly [...]

IN 1974, WHEN RITCHIE BLACKMORE FINALLY BECAME DISILlusioned with Deep Purple's growing love of funk, he jumped ship--taking most of Purple's opening act, Elf, with him and forming Rainbow. Aside [...]

CREDIT A RANDOM RECORD-BIN GRAB, AN OLD STUDIO BASS, and a sense of experimentation for Lake Street Dive's catchy soul stomp, 'Can't Stop,' featuring Bridget Kearney's propulsive sub-hook. For its [...]

THE DEATH OF DAVID BOWIE ON JANUARY 10, 2016, WAS A major loss for the music world and the creative arts overall. Like Miles Davis in jazz, Bowie's drive to [...]

HARKENING BACK TO HIS MID-2000S EMERGENCE WITH John McLaughlin and Chick Corea, Hadrien Feraud has likely elicited more jaw-drops and head-shakes than any of his contemporaries. Indeed, the Paris-born prodigy's [...]

AS A SIDEMAN FOR OVER 30 YEARS, there's nothing Nathan East hasn't done. Seminal recordings with Lionel Richie, Kenny Loggins, Whitney Houston, Eric Clapton, Michael Jack-son, Chaka Kahn, Phil Collins, [...]

ANTHONY JACKSON'S DOGGED DETERMINATION TO REALIZE (AND LATER, STANDARDIZE) HIS dream instrument, the 6-string contrabass guitar, survived early detractors. Reluctant builders, closed-minded producers and engineers, and doubting peers--not to mention [...]

NOT ALL '70S BASS HEROES WERE CREATED EQUALLY. While Stanley Clarke and Jaco Pastorius and their dexterous disciples reigned over the mainstream, one of the era's most original voices shared [...]

ARRIVING THREE WEEKS LATER THAN USUAL, AND WITH A jaunty new concert venue in the form of a Hollywood Golden Age theater, Bass Player LIVE! returned to Los Angeles on [...]

BILLY SHEEHAN MAY BE THE MOST USER-FRIENDLY BASS HERO IN ROCK HISTORY. For someone who has forged an inimitable 'lead bass' style, rife with innovative techniques, unparalleled physical command, and [...]

THE BED UPON WHICH GUITARIST JEFF BECK HAS BUILT his unparalleled solo career is lined with great bass and drum tandems, including Tim Bogert and Carmine Appice, Clive Chaman and [...]

STANLEY CLARKE'S LIBERATION OF THE BASS, AS JAZZrock fusion hit its stride in the early '70s, paved the way for similarly inclined doublers to let their freak fingerboard skills fly. [...]

JAMES BROWN TAUGHT ALL BASS PLAYERS THE importance of 'the one,' but few bassists have ever framed it like Earth, Wind & Fire's Verdine White. Between his running-start pickups and [...]

WINGS IS BACK OVER AMERICA. SOME 37 YEARS AFTER Paul McCartney's 'other' band found chart-topping success Stateside, 2013 has seen the release of Rockshow [Eagle Vision], a DVD reissue of [...]

HE COLOR PURPLE IS INDELIBLY DYED INTO the founding fibers of hard rock. Along with Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, Deep Purple formed the holy (hellish?) trinity of the idiom […]

HIS NAME PRECEDES HIM, AS DOES HIS LANKY 6'6' frame, featuring Avatar-like fingers that enable him to cleanly sound a C on the B, A, and C strings of his [...]

GIVEN THE QUALITY AND EXTENT OF THE BEATLES' CAT-alogue, covers of the Liverpool lads' songs have emerged as classic hits in their own right. On the R&B/funk side, that includes [...]

SINCE HIS ARRIVAL ON THE ISLE OF MANHATTAN in 1971, by way of his native San Antonio and the University of Miami, Will Lee's professional life has been all about [...]

THERE'S MUCH TO READ INTO THE TITLE OF KYLE Eastwood's latest CD, The View From Here. The 45-year-old bassist/composer has certainly had a unique career, gaining cult status as much [...]

PERHAPS MORE THAN ANY MUSICIAN ON A LANDMARK RECORDING, THE bass player can languish in anonymity even long after the song attains classic status. Witness Carl Radle, who from the [...]

WEATHER REPORT'S '70s STUDIO SIDES ARE CONSENSUS classics--vanguard on vinyl that remains vital to this day. It was in concerts, however, that the seminal fusion band fully secured its legendary [...]

THIRTY YEARS into a forward-reaching career filled with musical and technical innovation, Gary Willis is finally looking back. And that's a good thing. First, Willis reunited with his Tribal Tech-mates [...]

THE JAMAICA, QUEENS SECTION OF NEW YORK CITY IS RENOWNED FOR its rich musical heritage, owing to past residents such as James P. Johnson, Fats Waller, Count Basie, Milt Hinton, [...]

WHEN VICTOR WOOTEN SET OUT TO EMBRACE THE SINGER/songwriter realm, fans knew he was going to do it on his own terms; no 'palmystery' there. What has exceeded expectations, however, [...]

AS THE SUN SET ON THE 1960S, THE JACKSONS WEREN'T THE ONLY assemblage of aspiring adolescents from the heartland to head west for musical fame and fortune. The Memphis-born Sylvers [...]

CHANGE HAS BEEN AN INTEGRAL PART OF THE career of Marcus Miller the musician for hire. He's gone from young New York City session ace to Grammy-winning producer, composer, and [...]

THE GROUNDBREAKING MUSIC CURTIS MAYFIELD MADE IN the '70s was a bass player's dream: sparse, psychedelic soul grooves punctuated by Latin-inspired offbeat accents; falsetto vocals leaving plenty of sonic space [...]

Spontaneous-sounding and song-friendly, yet grand in scope, Rush's spellbinding new release, Clockwork Angels, follows the adventures of a young man across a steampunk landscape filled with alchemists, anarchists, buccaneers, sorcerers, [...]

FOR CLOSE TO 30 YEARS IN THE musical limelight, Artie Reynolds has kept his profile low and his grooves deep. Falling somewhere between James Brown and Will Lee in Hardest-Working-Man-in-Show-Biz [...]

WITH THE DOORS ENJOYING YET another resurgence--thanks to the recent release of 40th Anniversary CD and DVD editions of L.A. Woman, following last year's six-CD box set [A Collection, Warner [...]

ENTRAL TO ESPERANZA SPALDING'S BRIEF BUT BEDAZZLING career has been her flair for the unexpected. Just as we were settling into the notion that a 20-year-old acoustic bass-playing jazz vocalist [...]

PAUL SIMON MARKED THE 25TH anniversary of his immortal Graceland throughout his 2011 tour schedule, including a historic July revisit to Johannesburg, South Africa. By now, many bassists know that [...]

IT'S CHRISTIAN McBRIDE'S WORLD--we just live in it. Over the past few years, the larger-than-life bassist has risen to Wynton Marsalis-like stature as a jazz ambassador. McBride is well on [...]

IN THE HANDS OF JACK CASADY, THE teen-aged bass guitar soared to unprecedented new heights in the aptly named Jefferson Airplane. With blues, jazz, and R&B in his ears, the [...]

GIVEN THE LATE DONNY HATHAWAY'S musical genius and impact as an R&B vocalist, composer, arranger, and producer, his contributions to the art of bass are understandably pivotal. Matching his music [...]

With the bass world wrapping up a yearlong celebration of the 60th Anniversary of the mighty Fender Precision Bass, we thought we'd have the last word by looking back at [...]

With the bass world wrapping up a yearlong celebration of the 60th Anniversary of the mighty Fender Precision Bass, we thought we'd have the last word by looking back at [...]