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It’s so gratifying to post a title like that one, “My new bass.” Don’t get me wrong, I love my “old” bass, which is to say that I love my:

  • French, 1880s double bass
  • German, 1964 hybrid double bass (carved top, plywood body)
  • Alembic Series II electric bass
  • Yamaha BB330F fretless electric bass with Bartolini pickups (more…)

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…and hipper and hipper things happen. I’m starting to see the light of day again, after having worked through a seemingly endless number of projects. But some amazing things have happened recently:

  • Tlahoun Gessesse concert in Watertown, MA
  • Took my first public melodica solo – on a Parliament tune
  • Took my daughter sledding for the first time in her life
  • Went to IAJE in NYC
  • Picked up my new bass, an AlterEGO Acoustic Figaro 4-string – it’s completely amazing.

More about my new bass very, very soon…

Rick

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A few thoughts from listening to the radio recently:

  • Have you ever noticed that Peter Frampton doesn’t have an English accent when he is singing the verse/chorus/etc. of Do You Feel Like I Do? on Frampton Comes Alive, but he does have an English accent when he asks the question (“Do you feel like I do?”) using the talkbox?
  • The best part about (I Got A) Bad Case of Lovin’ You by Robert Palmer is the drum fill going into the chorus. Ok, I confess, actually I think the best part is that low E in the bass part…
  • Eddie Van Halen was an incredible guitar player at one time.
  • There is so much delay on the snare drum on My City Was Gone by The Pretenders, it sounds like the drummer is ghosting 2 sixteenth notes afterwards. And this is the best part of the song.

That is all. Except for a few things about Rush…

Rick

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After finally having listened to everything on my iPod, today I went for shuffle play. Over the course of a few hours, I heard:

David Bowie – Oh! You Pretty Things (from Hunky Dory) – too much Rick Wakeman for my tastes, but still a killer tune from an amazing record.

Bjork – There’s More to Life than This (from Debut) – Ok, so she totally rocks, not matter what. I wrote arrangements of Hyperballad and Joga for a concert in 2005. Given that the instrumentation was vox, soprano sax, bass & drums, well it was pretty different sounding but great fun to do, and quite eye (or ear?) opening I guess. In fact, one audience member started a band after having heard our versions of the Bjork tunes. (more…)