Anthony Jackson

Hi,

This time one of my favorite bassists. One more time we see an awesome bassist starting his carrer in a completely different instrument than bass. Anthony Jackson started in piano, then guitar and ended in bass guitar. In the end he made the obvious choice, don't you think?

Anthony had the great James Jamerson as influence. This is one of the few times that we do not see the name "Pastorius" next to "influence". For me Anthony is one of Jaco's influences and not the other way around. Anthony won his space in the bass world in the Jazz, Fusion and Funk styles. Jackson is well know for is six string bass and the riffs and the powerful walking bass lines that he makes with it. Just listen to his great discography and find it for yourself. Check his Facebook website to know more about this talented bassist.

In the meantime stay with this great video. He's amazing and with this other musicians...

Stay tuned,
Eremita.

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Featured video #2

Hi,

Here is the second featured video of this month. Hope you enjoyed it as i did and don't miss the new one at the side bar.

Stay tuned,
Eremita.

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Mike Stern All Over the Place Bassists

Hi, 

I already have Mike Stern’s new album in my hands. Listening to it is a marvelous journey that ends in the agreement with all my colleagues; this is a 5 stars album that you must hear. Surfing the net you can find some really good reviews about the wonders of this album. Since it's not the theme of this blog i wont review the album but i will review and talk a little about the bassists that play it. I will link you to some of the reviews that i think that are good. To be honest, I really don´t think I'm able to review a CD of this quality!

1. AJ

2. Cameroon

3. Out Of The Blue

4. As Far As We Know

5. Blues For Al

6. OCD

7. You Never Told Me

8. Half Way Home

9. Light

10. Flipside

11. All Over The Place

Check the cover and the track list, and pay attention to the names of the songs. Now, let’s focus in the bass part of this album and in the bass players that perform each music.The first music is AJ. The name of this song is the initial letter of Anthony Jackson, the bass player that Stern invited to perform this music with him. He also plays the last music All Over The Place. Next one is performed by a Cameroon born bassist. He is Richard Bona, and plays beautiful bass lines. Personally, it's one of my favorite bassists in this album. His reggae musicality it's just amazing. One of the goods things of jazz is that you can "put" almost any other type of music "in" it. He plays in Cameroon and in Light. Light is one of my favorite musics. Simple grooves, complex results. Tom Kennedy plays Out Of The Blue. A beautiful music with a beautiful acoustic piano. Next bassist is Esperanza Spalding in the upright bass. She plays As Far As We Know, a very deep and dramatic song. The 3 songs that come next are all played by Dave Holland and Will Lee. They are Blues For Al, OCD and You Never Told Me. Next it´s my favorite music. It´s played by Victor Wooten and he does, as always, a godlike job. The riffs, the solo, and the riffs again. Everything is amazing. Finaly comes Flipside a music played by Victor Bailey. 

In the end, we have here a very good album that anyone that likes jazz should buy. I will make a specific post for each bassist that we talked here today.

Check this websites:

http://www.criticaljazz.com/2012/05/mike-stern-all-over-place-heads-up-2012.html

http://www.notreble.com/buzz/2012/06/19/a-review-of-mike-sterns-all-over-the-place/

http://thejazzbreakfast.com/2012/06/11/cd-reviews-pat-metheny-mike-stern/

http://www.forbassplayersonly.com/Reviews/Mike-Stern-All-Over-The-Place.html

Stay tuned,

Eremita

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Mike Stern new album - All Over the Place

Hi

Mike Stern is releasing a new album. You probably are wondering why I am posting about a jazz guitarist. It's simple, this album has eight different bassists playing it. Mike invited some of the best bassists that we all know and made a album with their precious collaboration. It features bassists like Victor Wooten, Victor Bailey and Dave Holland so we can only expect goods things coming from this album. The sad thing is, we still have to wait. All Over the Place will be released in June 19 and this time I don't find any pre-sale in Ebay or Amazon. Expect my personal review as soon i can hear it decently.

Mike Stern All Over the Place

Stay tuned,

Eremita

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Best bass songs - Part 3

Hi,

Marcus Miller

This time i will talk about a bassist for the second time in this blog. He is a multi-instrumentalist that in the end found that the bass was the best way to express his thoughts and feelings through music. He has a very large work portfolio that goes from simple (or not that simple) covers from other renowned musicians to elaborated original musics that you can hear in his vast discography. And the featured best bassist of this best bass song post is... Marcus Miller.

Personally I feel that he has to much cover musics and does not have sufficient original ones. The next music kinda makes me feel that he has the potential to do more original stuff. However, he is also a producer, and with that in mind i can understand why he does more covers than original stuff. This is just an opinion, please correct me if I'm wrong.

Now lets talk about the bass song that we will hear. I will choose Power. That's an awesome music that is totally made by him, I obviously had to chose one that had this property. This music is form the album M^2, a Grammy award winning album that catapulted Marcus Miller to big stage.

Lets watch this video and listen to this awesome music. The very good news are coming next.

As promised I'm providing you some fresh news about Marcus Miller. He is releasing a new album this month. The album is entitled Renaissance and obviously is a must buy for a bass and jazz lover. The release date for Europe is May 28 as long as Amazon is right. I will write a personal album review of Renaissance as soon as I lay my hands on it. It is already purchased it and i cant wait to hear it.

Marcus Miller - Renaissance Album Cover

Best,

Eremita

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Walking Dark Album review

Hi bass lovers!

Jasper Hoiby - Double bass player

Here it comes my personal review of "Walking dark" the fourth album edited by Phronesis. As i said earlier this band is led by the double bass player Jasper Hoiby. He is the leader but he is not the band. In this album we can clearly see that all musicians have a very strong contribution in the music composition. In the end, as a fan of bass and double bass above all other instruments, I humbly say that the pianist Ivo Neame and the drummer Anton Eger are both as good as Jasper Hoiby.

Now lets talk about the album. As i opened the CD case and read the title, the first impression was that i would be listening to a dark kind of jazz in the hours to come. The art and the title clearly suggest that. In my opinion that's not entirely true. In the album we find songs that take us to a melancholic state and others that made you feel kinda strange. For example, while listening to The economist I found myself with an huge desire to get up from my chair and start to dance like if i were in the middle of a dance club. On the other hand the four songs that come before the The economist are introspective and mysterious. The "dark" presented in the album starts in Charm defensive and ends in Zieding. Before that we can find very good songs where you can find all the power that comes from the double bass played by Jasper. For example in Suede Trees, a very "simple" music that can light up your day.

Anton Eger - Drummer

Ivo Neame - Pianist

My favorite songs off all are The economist and Zieding. That's were the irony comes, these songs are composed by the drummer Anton Eger (I feel that a couple of my friends won't shut up about this... I'll take that risk). In the The economist the synergy between Ivo Neame and Anton Eger is absolutely amazing, the results are described in the previous paragraph. My advice is that you don't listen to this album, especially this music, while you are in your pause at work... you can find yourself doing something stupid like i almost did.


In the end this is a totally must buy for a jazz lover. Here you can find some really good songs performed by really good musicians. One more time, Phronesis in their best. Note that this is a personal review, all the bright and dark are personal. I'm always open to positive or negative comments as long as their are constructive.

Walking Dark - Phronesis

Track list

1 - Walking Dark 

2 - Passing Clouds 

3 - Democracy 

4 - Suede Trees 

5 - Upside Down 

6 - Charm Defensive 

7 - Lipwash - part I 

8 - Lipwash - part II 

9 - Zieding 

10 - The Economist 

11 - American Jesus 

12 - Eight Hours

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Phronesis - Great Double Bass and more

Hello!

Its with great pleasure that I present you Phronesis. Formed in 2005 and with their first album released in 2007, they quickly achieved a great reputation in the jazz world. They are a jazz trio leaded by the double bassist Jasper Hoiby. Next to him are Ivo Neame at the piano and Anton Eger at the drums. Nowadays they are known as one of the most successful  jazz trios present in the UK. Stay with Abrahams New Gift from the album Green Delay (2009), really nice music. Take a good look at that first riff from Jasper Hoiby at double bass.

Now, why am i posting this band, at this moment? Because they are released a new album! Yes, more of them is always welcome. The album's name is "Walking dark". I did not listen to it already but as soon I get this heard at least 20 times I will post a personal review. Visit their website to know more and to listen to a few tracks from them. If you are in UK you can see them performing live at May 13 and few other dates next to this one.

Phronesis - Walking Dark released April 2012

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John Patitucci

 Hello,

This post is for my friends "Fakes" and... She has a true name but i don't remember it, i just can remember her face...------------------------------------------------------------------------------->

She is in an Erasmus program at Salermo University. It's with a bit of jealousy that i write this, check the pictures bellow and realize why. Italy... While i'm in University of Minho, surrounded by roads and sick urbanization, she is in that country... NOT FAIR!

At this point "Batmuma" is crying thinking that she's been forgotten. Not true... (Paint is an amazing tool)

Now 2 fotos from Italy to justify my jealousy...

And the most important thing, lets "Bass talk".

I just found this Italian bass player, and guess what, he is an amazing bass and double bass player. His name is John Patitucci. He has a solid career in jazz music. He actually won various prizes and polls in the jazz world. Check his official website.

Stay with this interpretation of Bach by John Patitucci.

Best,

30''

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SMV - The bass supergroup

There are some bands that we all know that are super groups. A Perfect Circle, Velvet Revolver and Foo Fighters are good examples of this. What's not that common it's a super group were we only see bassists. The result is a spectacular album that is a must for every bass lover. Victor Wooten, Marcus Miller and Stanley Clarke in the same stage? What do you want more?

Released in 2008, Thunder from SMV

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Lonnie's Lament (John Coltrane) by Marcus Miller

Hi again!
This time I bring you Marcus Miller with this fabulous interpretation of Lonnie's Lament. Not his song! (It actually belongs to the acclaimed jazz musician John Coltrane from the album "Crescent", check it out really good).  Ear this, It's almost as good as the original.

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Origins - Stanley Clarke

Stanley Clarke (born June 30, 1951 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American jazz musician and composer known for his innovative and influential work on double bass and electric bass as well as for his numerous film and television scores. He is best known for his work with the fusion band Return to Forever, and his role as a bandleader in several trios and ensembles.

The present- This man still haunts the stages.

Sources: Wikipédia

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