Prime Jaco - Rick Suchow Does It Again

Rick Suchow has another buried treasure of a bass video that he just posted.

Rick is a bass player in New York who has played with Ringo Starr and a very long list of "cats", and I don't know who he has the videotape of with a live girl or a dead boy, but somehow he manages to get his hands on some of the most amazing off-the-map bass related materials around - isolated tracks from Jamerson and McCartney, videos of old classic shows, rehearsals before the Letterman show and SNL - some of it is unbelievable. Go check out his site, or add him on YouTube at - http://www.youtube.com/user/ricksuchow

But first, check out what he added today, what he calls a "never before seen" video of Jaco doing his signature tune,Teen Town, with Weather Report in 1977, which is prime Jaco, just about at his all time peak - clean, sober, and tearing it up. Check it out. They extend the song quite a bit, and Peter Erskine gets to let loose.Video de Ridiculoso!

New Flecktones + Wooten coming out

It has been more than a few years, but the band that made Victor Wooten famous is back together with all original members and making a new record called "Rocket Science".

And so, this being the music business, they have put out the necessary behind-the-music video of them doing stuff and looking all musician-y in the studio, talking about deep life lessons etc etc... but it does show Mr. Wooten playing some fretless, and an NYC 5 string Bass, not his usual Foderas. I am sure that there will be some serious bass shredage from VW on this album.

Two Russian Dudes Playing "Smooth Criminal" Duet on Carbon Fiber Cellos

Huh.

Don't hear that every day.

Speaking Of Play-Along Tracks...

Well, TrueFire, the online music instruction site, has about 200 different blues play-alongs for ya.

These range in tempo from 60 to 200 bpm and are in a variety of styles (chicago, texas, etc). Each one has an mp3 and a chart.

They have bass parts, but you can still solo over them.

Some are, eh, corny, but there are some decent ones up there for sure. If you are looking for some more free play-alongs there ya go.

http://truefire.com/jam-tracks/

Daily Licking 039: Minor Blues in C

Well, you greedy bastards sure like free stuff.

The ii-v play along has been surprisingly popular, so here is another very simple play-along track for you to pilfer.

This time it is a minor blues in C, with a couple of altered chords thrown in.

Follow the same drill as before, download the file and the chart, put the audio into a player that can do seamless looping (like Quicktime Player) and repeat ad infinitum and commence to shredding. There is no bass on this so you can solo or play a bass line along with the chords. Knock yourself out.

Enjoy.

http://www.divshare.com/download/14533893-8dc

Hadrian Destroying It At the Baked Potato

Good Lord. Utterly terrifying.

Hadrian Feraud taking a solo "Marching Powder" at The Baked Potato in Los Angeles (his new home town, apparently).

Win Lessons With Some Serious Players

GruvGear, a company that makes hand trucks and other gig related equipment is running a sweepstakes where bass players can win a lesson with various GruvGear endorsers.

They have assembled a serious rogues gallery of killer players to give lessons - Ray Reindau, Damian Erskine, Todd Johnson, David Dyson, Anthony Wellington, Norm Stockton and Derrick Murdock.

Dang. Thats like the Bass A-team. Here at Basso, some of these names are very well known and have been given the coveted seal of Basso Mucho Approvo.

You don't get lessons with ALL of them, geez. Greedy. Each week they pick a new winner and a specific player gives the lesson that week. If you are local to that teacher, you can do a face-to-face, but they will also do Skype lessons for remote teaching.

Sign-ups begin tomorrow, and the first teacher up is Anthony Wellington.

Check out the link below for dates and which teachers are scheduled for each week.

Brian Beller On Bass

Mr. Beller has released a new live record and also recently posted his entire catalog up on Bandcamp.

Beller has played with some scary, scary, people in the past - Dwezil Zappa, Steve Vai, Mike Keneally (also on his new album) and probably a bunch of others who are equally terrifying.

If you like rock-y, (but not dumb) fusion-y, (yet not wanky at all) grooves that have gritty yet sophisticated bass playing, go check out his new album "Wednesday Night Live". It covers a lot of ground, has a high ridiculoso content and will keep you listening for a while.

Basso Approved!

http://bryanbeller.bandcamp.com/