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I started a quest to find terrific blues music and incredible musicianship when I was just a little kid. I also have a tremendous appreciation of fine musical instruments and equipment. One of my greatest joys all of my life was sharing my finds with my friends. I'm now publishing my journey. I hope that you come along!


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Showing posts with label Victor Wooten. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Victor Wooten. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 29, 2023

Jeremy Green - Standing Eight - New Release Reviewx

 I just had the opportunity to review the most recent release, Standing Eight, by Jeremy Green and it's a cool jazz rock instrumental release with plenty of juice. Opening with No Jacket Required, Jeremy Green and Mike Stern on guitars lay in some great dialog over excellent drum work of Keith Carlock and featuring the excellent bass lines of Jimmy Haslip. Very cool. Will Lee lays down a funky bass line and fine soloing on Ain't No Chevy and Carlock is incredibly tight with Green and Robben Ford really working it on guitar and including the fine trumpet work of Mark Levron. Green and Michel Cusson really put on a great show on Close with a Jab and the solid bass work of Moto Fukushima sets a super framework for the highly articulate drumming of Carlock. Excellent. Wrapping the release is Car Rock with Oz Noy paired with Green on guitar and an aggressive bass line by Ian Da Souza. With bluesy yet adventurously jazzy guitar riffs, and the phenomonal drum work of Carlock, this is a solid closer for a solid release.  


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Monday, October 28, 2013

Stony Plain Records artist: Eric Bibb - Jericho Road - New Release Review

I just received the newest release, Jericho Road, from Eric Bibb and it's masterful. Opening with Drinkin' Gourd, a quiet but powerful track Bibb crafts a beautiful track complimented by African drums and woodwind. Freedom Train has a broad expression of openness and unconstrained feelings. Let The Mothers Step Up steps up the jazz feel with feelings of the best of Joni Mitchell jazz rock or Steely Dan. Have A Heart is a terrific song with the strong jazz fusion sound crafted by Meshell Ndegeocello. Vocals floating lightly on a bed of musicianship makes this a delightful track. Guest vocals by Ruthie Foster add a a textural warmth as well. The Right Thing is more of a musical chant featuring Victor Wooten on bass and lush vocal backing by Paris Renita and Glen Scott. Can't Please Everybody is a really cool track with an irregular beat kind of a mix of blues, funk and jazz rhythms. I really like this track, crafted like a 3 dimensional song. A sonic sculpture. There is also a nice slide guitar solo on this track that meets up with the tight drumming by Glen Scott. Excellent! The Lord's Work has a much more straight forward blues rock sound with reverb on light guitar work adding significant interest. Session Horns Sweden add cool horn interweaving and guest vocalist Cyndee Peters is nicely featured. With My Maker I Am One has the simplicity of Mali blues but overlaid with contemporary American sounds. Cool. They Know is a cleanly finger picked acoustic number with only Bibb on vocals. Very nice. She Got Mine has a lot of the sounds of country blues roots but with contemporary styling. Gospel like vocals give the track very strong highlights. Good Like You is another track with an unconventional rhythm pattern. Bibb's vocals are particularly solid on this track and the acoustic is forward in the mix over additions of backing vocals and sound effects by Glen Scott, Oscar Bibb, the harmonica of Jenny Bohman and Session Horns Sweden. Lastly, One Day At A Time is a predominitely vocal ballad with vocals by Glen Scott, Chinika Simon and featuring fretless gourd banjo by Michael Jerome Browne and Neville Malcolm on upright bass. This is one of the best Eric Bibb releases that I have heard and certainly the best one that I have had the opportunity to review.


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Saturday, October 13, 2012

Big Time Bass - Edgar Meyer, Ray Brown and Victor Wooten

Raymond Matthews Brown (October 13, 1926 – July 2, 2002) was an influential American jazz double bassist, known for extensive work with Oscar Peterson among many others. Ray Brown was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and had piano lessons from the age of eight. After noticing how many pianists attended his high school, he thought of taking up the trombone, but was unable to afford one. With a vacancy in the high school jazz orchestra, he took up the upright bass A major early influence on Brown's bass playing was the bassist in the Duke Ellington band, Jimmy Blanton. As a young man Ray Brown became steadily more well known in the Pittsburgh jazz scene, with his first experiences playing in bands with the Jimmy Hinsley Sextet and the Snookum Russell band. After graduating from high school, hearing stories about the burgeoning jazz scene on 52nd Street, in New York City, he bought a one way ticket to New York. Arriving in New York at the age of twenty, he met up with Hank Jones, with whom he had previously worked, and was introduced to Dizzy Gillespie, who was looking for a bass player. Gillespie hired Brown on the spot and he soon played with such established musicians as Art Tatum and Charlie Parker. From 1946 to 1951 he played in Gillespie's band. Brown, along with the vibraphonist Milt Jackson, drummer Kenny Clarke, and the pianist John Lewis formed the rhythm section of the Gillespie band. Lewis, Clarke and Jackson eventually formed the Modern Jazz Quartet. Brown became acquainted with singer Ella Fitzgerald when she joined the Gillespie band as a special attraction for a tour of the southern United States in 1947. The two married that year, and together they adopted a child born to Fitzgerald's half-sister Frances, whom they christened Ray Brown, Jr. Fitzgerald and Brown divorced in 1952. Around this time Brown was also appearing in Jazz at the Philharmonic concerts, organised by Norman Granz. It was at a Jazz at the Philharmonic concert in 1949 that Brown first worked with the jazz pianist Oscar Peterson, in whose trio Brown would play from 1951 to 1966. Between 1957 and 1959, he appeared on Blossom Dearie's first five recordings for Verve Records. After leaving the Trio he became a manager and promoter as well as a performer. In 1966, he settled in Los Angeles where he was in high demand working for various television show orchestras. He also accompanied some of the leading artists of the day, including Frank Sinatra, Billy Eckstine, Tony Bennett, Sarah Vaughan, and Nancy Wilson. He also managed his former musical partners, the Modern Jazz Quartet, as well as a young Quincy Jones, produced some shows for the Hollywood Bowl, wrote jazz bass instruction books, and developed a jazz cello. In Los Angeles he composed music for films and television shows. From 1974 to 1982, Brown performed and recorded a series of albums with guitarist Laurindo Almeida, saxophonist and flutist Bud Shank, and drummer Shelly Manne (replaced by Jeff Hamilton after 1977) under the name The L.A. Four. He also joined up with Milt Jackson again to record the classic Jackson, Johnson, Brown & Company (1983), featuring Jackson and Brown with J. J. Johnson on trombone, Tom Ranier on piano, guitarist John Collins, and drummer Roy McCurdy. In the 1980s and 1990s he led his own trios and continued to refine his bass playing style. In his later years he recorded and toured extensively with pianist Gene Harris. In the early 1980s, Ray Brown met Diana Krall in a restaurant in Nanaimo, British Columbia. According to Jeff Hamilton, in an interview recorded on the "Diana Krall Live in Rio" DVD, he first heard Diana Krall play at a workshop and, impressed with her piano skills (she was not yet singing) introduced her to bassist John Clayton. Hamilton and Clayton both encouraged Krall to move to Los Angeles to study under Ray Brown and others. In 1990, he teamed up with pianist Bobby Enriquez and drummer Al Foster, for Enriquez's album, The Wildman Returns. During 1990 - 1993 the "Legendary Oscar Peterson Trio" reunited, with Oscar Peterson, Herb Ellis and Ray Brown, with either Bobby Durham or Jeff Hamilton added on drums. Albums of this group earned no less than 4 Grammy Awards. In May 1993 this group ended, while Oscar Peterson suffered a severe stroke. Ray played for a time with the "Quartet" with Monty Alexander, Milt Jackson and Mickey Roker. After that he toured again with his own trio, with several young pianists like Benny Green, Geoff Keeezer and Larry Fuller. The last edition of the Ray Brown Trio was that with pianist Larry Fuller and drummer Karriem Riggins. With that trio he continued to perform until his death in 2002; he died in his sleep, after having played golf, before a show in Indianapolis. Probably his last recorded show was in Europe, during the Bern Jazz Festival, on May 4, 2002, with Larry Fuller and Karriem Riggins. “To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson If you support live Blues acts, up and coming Blues talents and want to learn more about Blues news and Fathers of the Blues, Like ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorites band! ”LIKE”