Innehållsförteckning för February 2021 från Bass Player

When I first found out that Jason Momoa was a bass player as well as a star of cinema and TV, I assumed that for him, perhaps bass was merely a hobby: a way to pass the time on set. Believe me, I couldn’t have been more wrong. As I found out when I sat down with Jason at opposite ends of a recent Zoom call, the man is obsessed with our instrument to the point where it has become a cornerstone of his personal philosophy, just as it is for you and me. This was his first ever interview about his love of playing music, he told us, and it reveals a completely different side of his character. Despite his fearsome exterior (he didn’t play Conan, Aquaman, and Khal…

One remarkable fact about Israel Crosby is that for a player of a notoriously huge instrument, he was on the diminutive side himself—the end pin of the bass would only extend enough to keep the body of his three-quarter-size Kay off the stage floor. But what a sound he could get from his instrument, dancing across the fingerboard with complete control from bottom to top, and a punchiness that was testament to his energetic technique. Ahmad’s Blues is indeed a bluesy album, but the trio’s slick interplay allows for some forays into swing and even mambo rhythm. Crosby’s sweetly subtle counterpoint on the title track, for example, takes the concept of walking bass and uses it to weave interest around Jamal’s tastefully busy piano. Crosby steps confidently into the spotlight…

Shearing brought Crosby and Fournier together one last time for Jazz Moments, an album of promise and quality. It was also Crosby’s final recording before his untimely death, which makes it poignant, and even painful, to listen to—hence its position here, rather than because of its quality, which is high. He is on exceptional form; by now he and the drummer were so tight they could practically brush each other’s teeth. The extent of what was lost when Crosby joined the great jazz combo in the sky is evident on his ultra-cool, even nonchalant-sounding, always technically brilliant solo work on songs such as ‘Making Whoopie’, or the smoothly-delivered fullness of the plaintive ‘What’s New?’ which is part blues regret and part silent movie soundtrack. The overwhelming vibe of the album,…

Robert: “Jason, what is your earliest memory of getting excited about the sound of the bass guitar?” “The Uplift Mofo Party Plan and Sailing The Seas Of Cheese still get played monthly” Jason: “Actually, it’s funny when I think back on it. My very first album that I ever bought with my own money was The Uplift Mofo Party Plan by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The second album that I ever bought was Sailing The Seas Of Cheese by Primus. For me, it was skateboarding that got me into those bands. I was a really big skateboarder back then, I was super, super into it. I’ve always been into it my whole life, and so that was my introduction to that particular kind of funk sound. When it came…

We’re so used to thinking of our fingers moving towards the floor when we play an ascending bass part that it comes as something of a shock to see the unique former Yellowjackets bassist Jimmy Haslip in action. Not only does he play a left-handed bass, he strings it upside-down, in other words his low B string is physically lower than his high C. Add to this his phenomenal ability when it comes to fast soloing, and your brain ends up tied in knots. Fortunately we have the great Grammy-winning bassist right here, 69 years old and full of energy, ready to talk about his unorthodox technique, some of the many albums on which it appears, and his memories of taking bass lessons 46 years ago with a certain J.…

Behold our world-beating bass gear review section, where we bring you the crop of each month’s new, interesting or otherwise relevant bass guitars, bass amplifiers, bass cabs, and bass effects. Occasionally we’ll review a guitar effect if it’s useful for bassists, but generally speaking, this zone is reserved for bass-specific gear. We take our reviews seriously. BP is the last English-language print magazine devoted solely to bass in the world, and we have readers all over the planet, so we’re responsible about our conclusions. If a product is worth your time, we’ll say so; if it’s flawed, we’ll make that clear. We’re not answerable to advertisers in any way, and our tests are independent of the views of musicians, manufacturers, and distributors. When you read about a product here, you’re…

LAIRAT lairat.com $3990 The Stega bass, built by luthier Paul Lairat, was originally released back in 2004, and continues to be one of the company’s most popular models. Pairing a futuristic aesthetic with a versatile onboard preamp, the Stega Deluxe bass promises to be both eye and ear-grabbing, a combination that certainly has our interest piqued. Lairat’s growing artist list seems to bear this out, with the likes of Dave Marotta, Pepe Hernandez, Etienne Mbappé, Marc Guillermont, and fusion phenomenon Gabriel Severn all now using the company’s instruments. Build Quality The unusual body of the Stega has five different types of lumber: The edge splints are walnut and ebony, while the main body is mahogany with a wenge veneer. Various different kinds of lumber are available from Lairat, but our…

Price | Forté D $999, NXT112 $899, NXT210 $1099 Made In | USA Power | 800W RMS output @ 2ohms, 700W RMS @ 4 ohms, 350W RMS @ 8 ohms Speaker | NXT112 12” speaker; NXT210 2 x 10” speakers Features Forté D | Four-band EQ (Bass: +/- 10dB at 65Hz; Lo-Mid: +/- 10dB at 250Hz; Hi-Mid: +/- 10dB at 1kHz; Treble: +/- 10dB at 3.5kHz), Bright switch, Adjustable BFT Drive circuit, on-board Parallel Dynamic Circuit, Aux input and headphone out, effects loop, dual Speakon outputs, studio-quality DI with selectable pre- or post-EQ and line out, tuner out NXT210 cab (NXT112 cab) | Neodymium magnet woofers, High Intelligibility Reference Series Tweeter, ported, lightweight Italian poplar with Baltic birch baffle, Black Bronco Tolex, 8 ohms, 500W (400W) RMS, phase-coherent crossover with…

Vintage have added a four-string electro-acoustic bass to its Statesboro’ series of guitars, designed like the other models in the series by guitarist and blues historian Paul Brett. Promoting a ‘bluesman on a budget’ theme, the bass comes with a satin matt Whisky Sour finish, an all-mahogany construction and gold-plated die-cast machine heads. The neck is also mahogany and has 20 frets, while Vintage’s three-band preamp, phase switch, tuner display, and low battery indicator make the bass a user-friendly item. Ernie Ball has recently announced a new range of Ball Family Reserve models, among them two basses—a Stingray 5 Special in Kinetic Blue, and the equivalent four-string in Natural Okoume. For the recent birthday of the late Jaco Pastorius, bassist Alex Lofoco has released an instructional book of lessons called…

Here, Crosby and Fournier joined trumpeter Howard McGhee, pianist and arranger John Young, and guitarist George Eskridge, to back the vocalist Lorez Alexandria, whose range and naturally smooth phrasing benefited hugely from their solid backbeat. On this LP, Crosby takes more of a backseat than he had done with Jamal, such as on the jazz-blues of ‘Nature Boy’, and the wistful ‘I Was A Fool’, with the latter featuring some easy-rider fifth and octave work. However, he cuts loose a lot more on ‘No Moon At All’, which is full of descending chromatic walking and occasional double stops. The late-night smokiness of ‘Trav’lin’ Light’ has the bassist generally working on the root, and letting the sound ring for the fullness of the beat—a lovely contrast to his sparse, staccato syncopation…

David: “I’m curious if a longer, 35” scale neck would work better with your larger hands?” Jason: “I play on everything. I don’t let my hand size stop me from playing anything. Right now I’m doing mandolin and ukulele, so it’s always a bitch transferring from one instrument to the next, but I enjoy everything. I play bass every day, I play guitar every day, when I’m away from my family, and when I’m on the set, because I constantly like to be in my right side of my brain.”…

Mr. Bungle, the California-based five-piece, were formed in 1985, and have always inhabited slightly vague musical territory in their sporadic periods of activity since then. Their singer Mike Patton is better known for his work with Faith No More, who tip a hat to the more eclectic work of Bungle from time to time, but who generally remain much more digestible in their approach. In 2021, however, Mr Bungle are arguably enjoying a higher profile than FNM for the first time, thanks to an astounding album they recently released on Patton’s label, Ipecac. The album, The Raging Wrath Of The Easter Bunny Demo, is a modern reworking of the 1986 demo of the same name. Back then it was a cassette of attempts to play thrash metal; the just-released version…

GIBSON www.gibson.com $799 Launched in 1997 and designed personally by sometime Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna bassist Jack Casady, this semi-hollow-bodied bass guitar has enjoyed more or less consistent acclaim since then for its tones, feel, and build. As the lack of a solid body and its resolutely old-school look has led some of our community to assume that the Epiphone JC lacks versatility, our mission today is to take a deep dive into the performance of the 2021 version, and see what it can actually do. Into the psychedelic rabbit-hole we go... Build Quality Without wishing to sound too much like a dewy-eyed nostalgist, this bass feels like an artifact from another era when you slide it out of its gigbag. The shallow, wide body occupies more of a…

Price| $3990 Made In| France Body| Walnut and ebony splints, mahogany and wenge body, curly walnut top Neck| Maple, wenge, mahogany, walnut Frets| 24 Pickups| Delano Xtender Electronics| Glockenklang Controls| Stacked master volume/mids, stacked treble/bass, pickup blend, active/ passive switch, split pickup switch Hardware| PL by Gotoh, ABM bridge Weight| 9 lbs Left-hand option available|Yes Case/gig bag included| Gigbag WHAT WE THINK Plus| Great design, great tones, plays beautifully Minus| Some minor headstock dive when seated Minus| An excellent, forward-looking instrument BGM RATING…

Hello again! It’s fair to say that you don’t need a degree in astrophysics to be able to play a pentatonic scale. The structures are easy to visualize, sonically accessible and also fall very conveniently under the fingertips. However, the one downside of pentatonic scales is also the very reason why we use them—their dissonant tonality is minimal due to the omittance of semitones. In other words, it’s very hard to play anything that sounds bad, as all the notes are good ones. The one downside of pentatonic scales is also the very reason why we use them—their dissonant tonality is minimal due to the omittance of semitones Still, some tension is a good thing, as it evokes resolution. The question arises: If we want to use pentatonic scales for…

Over the past few columns, we’ve been looking at the double thumbing technique and getting ourselves tangled up with some fairly complex slap lines. In the last instalment, we focused our attention on playing triplets using a down-up-pop sequence. This enabled us to play some blisteringly fast lines, as well as being a neat way to outline chords. True mastery of slap bass will mean you will be able to play lines that might otherwise be performed using the fingerstyle technique In this month’s journey into the technique, we’ll introduce an additional picking element—the second finger. This will mean that we now have four ways of playing the string with the picking hand: Thumb down and upstrokes, and pops with the first and second fingers. It seems likely that we’ll…

The three-band rotary equalizer is said to emulate the response of classic Trace Elliot multi-band graphic EQ filters Like many of our colleagues in the bass community, we were very taken with Trace Elliot’s highly portable ELF head when it appeared a couple of years back, so we’re keen to get our hands on the longstanding amp-makers’ new combos from the same range. Again designed to be lower back-friendly—the press release specifically states “an ultralight, ultra-portable package that players can carry in one hand,” which your chiropractor will appreciate—the range currently runs to two models. We’re told that the ELF 1x8 combo measures 12” by 10.2” by 13.3” and weighs only 17 pounds, while the 1x10 combo measures 13.3” by 12” by 14”, and comes in at 18 pounds. Bassists…

The acclaimed trio of Jamal, Crosby and drummer Vernell Fournier hit big with this live LP. Although only eight tracks eventually made the final tracklisting, in total there had been 43 songs recorded from sessions at Chicago’s Pershing Hotel on January 16, 1958. Accessible and groove-filled, this highly-respected album has gone on to sell over a million copies, and enabled Jamal to open the Alhambra Club, which became the band’s established base thereafter. Crosby and Fournier are absolutely locked in together on the songs included here, giving the pop standards a serious funkiness that allowed Jamal’s jazz piano to explore and develop on top of the production, as he improvises around and against the rhythm. The trio’s calling card was and remains the sprawling, soaring, eight-minute-long cut of ‘Poinciana’, which…

Israel Crosby was in serious demand at this point in the final years of his career, and appears here on three of the eight tracks from his fellow double bassist Jones. The bandleader also contributes cello to several songs, such as the seven-minute ‘Falling In Love With Love’, on which Crosby’s walking bass forms an ever-shifting anchor to the guitar-like solo contributed by the leader. Crosby is relentless from the first beat, holding down the rhythm while adding textural touches and syncopated elements where needed. It’s the sound of a musician at the top of his craft, and the unison passages of ‘O.P’ are testament to a technique refined over the years. It is a loss to all of us that his career was truncated so unexpectedly. The bassist’s other…

The Kentucky-based quartet Black Stone Cherry have spent close to two decades reaping the rewards of their successful blend of rock, metal, country, and blues—with a stable line-up that shows no sign of deviating from their chosen path. Bassist Jon Lawhon, joined by frontman Chris Robertson, guitarist Ben Wells, and drummer John Fred Young, is on super-solid form on BSC’s new album, The Human Condition, recorded in his own facility, Monocle Studios. If you’re interested in finding out about the principles that have kept this band sane and loaded with epic bass parts, read on... Find the right band “It’s essential that you find like-minded people to play music with. The goal is to achieve a level of success that will allow you to travel all over the world and…

My dad was an awesome drummer and all-around musician, and he always had instruments lying around the house, so I was always checking things out and tinkering around. When I was about 12, he decided to build his own electronic kit and got into MIDI recording, and he asked me to learn ‘So Lonely’ by the Police on his bass so he could try capturing a live bass and drums take. I was obsessed with the way the bass combined both melody and rhythm, and basically haven’t put it down since. I learned every CD in the house, and thanks to my mom, we had a killer collection. She was the only mom I knew who listened to Alice In Chains, Nine Inch Nails and Nirvana. My dad and I…

BERGANTINO https://bergantino.com $999, $899, $1099 When the topic of feel or playability comes up, it’s probably fair to say that many bassists think in terms of their respective instrument, not their amp. Players don’t usually emphasize feel or playability as a chief characteristic of an amp rig, perhaps because those qualities are harder to quantify in a component that isn’t in direct contact with your hands. To most players, tone is just what comes out of the cabinet—the sound. But when you have a bass in your hands, you want it to feel good. It’s not fun when you’re fighting for every note: You start thinking too much about playing rather than performing or recording. The incredibly dynamic Bergantino Audio Systems Forté D bass amp and NXT, or Neo X-Treme…

Hey there, bass players! In our previous column, we spied major arpeggios in their natural habitat. We learned how to use them in a ‘I-IV-V-I’ chord progression, discovered that Paul McCartney frequently put them to good use, and realized how effortlessly they provide the groove to Memphis soul classics. The next logical step is, of course, the minor arpeggio. We’ll highlight the difference between major and minor, adapt the exercises to reflect minor tonality, and discover a few aural examples of arpeggios in action. As we begin playing songs, we start to realize that it’s quite rare to have a chord progression with all major chords—even when we’re dealing with a three-chord folk, rock, or country song. A simple progression like C-Am-F includes, obviously, an A minor chord. Some players…

Hey everyone! In my last two columns I looked at the workings inside a typical solid-state bass amplifier. Let’s now look at valve amps: What are they, and how do they differ from solid-state units? First of all, we tend to think of valve amplifiers as rather old technology, because the valves themselves—otherwise known as ‘tubes’, ‘vacuum tubes’, and ‘thermionic valves’—were invented as far back as the first decade of the 20th century. Valve amplifiers are still in production, of course, although in smaller numbers for us bassists compared to our guitar-playing colleagues. Let’s look at why we still love this so-called ‘old’ tech. All right then. Why should we care about valves? Well, before tiny integrated circuits such as transistors existed, the majestic vacuum tube—with that recognizable glow—supplied all…