Author Archives: Jonas

Helping Dennis Irwin

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Bassist Dennis Irwing needs help: he is battling cancer and has no health insurance. Joe Lovano and John Scofield team up with Jazz at Lincoln Center and Wynton Marsalis to bring together an incredible lineup of performers in a benefit concert for beloved bassist Dennis Irwin at The Allen Room (Broadway at 60th Street / NYC).
Mose Allison, Ron Carter, Bill Charlap, Jack DeJohnette, Bill Frisell, Jim Hall, Jon Hendricks, Joe Lovano, Wynton Marsalis, Paul Motian, John Patitucci, John Scofield and Sultans of Swing, with David Berger are donating their services and Jazz at Lincoln Center is donating its venue and staff to raise much-needed funds for Irwin through The Jazz Foundation of America. We invite the jazz community and music fans to come together in support of Dennis Irwin.

All tickets at $150 are available at the Jazz at Lincoln Center Box Office on Broadway at 60th St., by calling CenterCharge at (212) 721-6500 or via www.jalc.org. All proceeds from this concert will go to the Jazz Foundation of America for the Jazz Musicians’ Emergency Fund in support of Dennis Irwin’s emergency financial and medical support.

Congratulations, Herbie!

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Herbie Hancock’s new album “River: The Joni Letters” wins two Grammies: the “Best Contemporary Jazz Album GRAMMY” and the “Album of the Year GRAMMY”.

From the Verve press release: On “River: The Joni Letters”, Herbie Hancock aimed to dissect the lyrics of some of Joni Mitchell’s most famous songs. Instead of the instruments accompanying the lyrics, Hancock and producer Larry Klein arranged the music to interpret or express the emotions of the lyrics, all while keeping the melodies Mitchell fans know and love. This goal is most evident on “Both Sides Now,” one of four instrumental tracks on the record, which also features vocals by Norah Jones, Tina Turner, Corinne Bailey Rae, Luciana Souza, Leonard Cohen, and Mitchell.

Hancock first worked with Joni Mitchell on the iconic singer/songwriter’s Mingus record, an album comprised of collaborations between Mitchell and the great bassist and composer Charles Mingus. Together with Wayne Shorter, Hancock was part of a small group with which Mitchell tried to craft a new “conversational” approach to coupling lyrics with instrumental jazz.

Hancock and Klein worked for months, carefully reading through Joni’s lyrics and music, eventually paring their list down to thirteen songs that they hoped comprised a panoramic view of the poet’s work. They then assembled a group of the top musicians in the world, including the incomparable Wayne Shorter on soprano and tenor sax, the brilliant bassist and composer Dave Holland, (a musical cohort of Hancock and Shorter’s who shares their adventurousness, as well as the Miles Davis imprimatur), drummer Vinnie Colaiuta (a recent member of Hancock’s band as well as having played extensively with Mitchell and Sting), and Benin-born guitarist Lionel Loueke, also a member of Hancock’s band.

“River – The Joni letters” at iTunes: Herbie Hancock - River - The Joni Letters

There’s also a free podcast from Herbie Hancock available: Herbie Hancock - River-The Joni Letters - River-The Joni Letters

Eliane Elias’ new CD featuring Scotty’s Prescott bass

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Pianist Eliane Elias has dedicated her latest CD “Something for you” to Bill Evans. Her husband Marc Johnson, who was the bassist of Bill Evans last trio, played bass on this CD, and on “My Foolish Heart,” Johnson even uses the Prescott bass that belonged to Scott LaFaro. This bass was destroyed when Scott LaFaro died in a car accident in 1962, and got restored by luthier Barrie Kolstein in the 1980ies. Kolstein still owns this Prescott bass and has provided the instrument for the recording only.

Read more about this CD at All About Jazz.
For listening, click this Amazon-Link or iTunes-Link.

Workshop with Ben Wolfe at David Gage

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This season kicks off with a workshop from renowned bassist Ben Wolfe, professor of jazz double-bass at Julliard Conservatory. In the upcoming workshop, Ben will be concentrating on intonation.
Bassist-composer-educator Ben Wolfe was born in Baltimore, Maryland, but grew up in Portland, Oregon. By his early twenties, he was freelancing in the Portland area and also backing Woody Shaw and other national acts when they came through town. At age 23, he moved to New York, where he worked with musical luminaries such as Junior Cook, Jimmy Cobb, Dakota Staton, and the Mel Lewis Orchestra. By 1988, Ben landed a gig with Harry Connick Jr. and went on to record over a dozen albums and soundtracks, to perform on numerous world tours as musical director and a key performing member of the Harry Connick Jr. Orchestra. During his five years with Connick, Ben appeared on many television, radio, and other media performances. Ben then went on to the Wynton Marsalis Septet, where he stayed until the group disbanded.

Ben is currently teaching at Juilliard School of Music: Jazz Division Ben Wolfe was recently awarded a grant from Chamber Music America’s New Works: Creation and Presentation Program, funded through the generosity of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.

If you want to learn more about Ben, please visit www.myspace.com/benwolfemusic

David Gage String Instruments and Ben Wolfe will present this Workshop with Ben Wolfe one night only at David Gage String Instruments, 36 Walker Street, New York, NY.

HPF Pre (by fdeck)

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Series 3

hpf3Type: preamp
Feautures: volume control, adjustable high-pass filter, Input impedance / capacitance: 10 MΩ / 220 pF, Phase (polarity reversal) switch

This preamp was developped and is manufactured as part-time business by bassist Francis Deck. He doesn’t sell to outside the US: “Unfortunately, the world still has borders. The HPF-Pre product does not carry a CE marking. There may be other countries where the lack of regulatory approval is also a problem. While I am confident that the HPF-Pre would be approved if tested, the cost of testing runs into the thousands of dollars. This is simply impossible for a very small business.”
However, Francis makes the schematics of his preamps available to public for DIY projects.

https://sites.google.com/site/hpftechllc/home/hpf-pre

NAMM 2008

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“The NAMM show is the largest music products trade show in United States. Held every January in Anaheim, California, USA the show brings together all facets of the music products industry to reveal new musical instruments/products and ideas to help music products retailers and manufacturers become more successful. More than 80,000 NAMM Members and guests attended the January 2007 show. The NAMM Show is not open to the general public.”

Spanish double bass forum

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“Es un placer informarle de que hemos inaugurado dos nuevas secciones en los últimos días. Un sub-foro dedicado a las nuevas tecnologías musicales (Finale, Sibelius, mp3, etc) y una galería de fotos curiosas relacionadas con el tema del contrabajo.
Además de esto, hemos asociado recientemente el dominio www.contrabajo.es con el foro, lo que nos permitirá en un futuro ampliar las posibilidades de nuestra página.
Esperamos que estas novedades sean de su agrado y le invitamos una vez más a que participe en nuestro proyecto.”
www.forumcontrabajo.foroactivo.com
www.contrabajo.es

Bass 2008 at Paris

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“A very big convention for bass players from all over the world will be held for the first time in Paris at the CONSERVATOIRE NATIONAL SUPERIEUR de MUSIQUE et de DANSE de PARIS from the 30th of October to the 3rd of November 2008.
This meeting will include renowned artists representing all styles: classical, contemporary classical, avant-garde and jazz – publishers and producers, instrument makers and all you can imagine that exists for and about the bass and the double bass.
Players will do master-classes, show-cases, clinics and recital performances.
A competition of composition for double bass is organized, a player’s competition with four categories recital, orchestra, Jazz, contemporary music, and a mini-bass competition (7 to 18 years old) will be held.
Master classes and competitions will be held in the morning, performances will take place in the afternoon. Each evening a big concert-panorama will have place with players from different styles following each other on the same stage.
Our wish is to produce encounters and discoveries, to improve learning methodologies and teaching methods, to emphasize technical and expressive progress, to decompartmentalize and to create exchanges and new links.

Classicals :
Božo Paradžik, Dan Styffe, Niek de Groot, Giuseppe Ettorre, Alberto Bocini, Roman Patkolo, Boguslaw Furtok, Jeff Bradetish, Yoshio Nagashima, Teppo Hauta Aho, Ekkehard Beringer, Daniel Marillier, Thierry Barbé, Bernard Cazauran, Lasse Lagerkranz, Rinat Ibraghimov, trio Bass’in, Joel Quarrington, Gottfried Engels, Antonio Garcia Araque, Diana Gannett, Miloslav Gelinek, Hans Sturm, François Rabbath, Paul Ellison, Thom Knific, Marc Morton, Catalin Rotaru, George Vance, Luis Cojal…..

Jazz:
Rufus Reid, John Patiticci, Benoit Dunoyer, Bruno Chevillon, Claude Tchamitchian, Riccardo del Fra, Frederick Monino, Renaud Garcia Fons, Hein van de Geyn …

Contemporary music: Barre Philips, Stefano Scodanibbio, Jean-Paul Celea, Jean-Pierre Robert, Michel Thouseau…

Baroque: Tobias Gloecker, David Sinclair, Rob Nairn, Joe Carver, Michael Greenberg, Richard Myron …

The 2008 team: Thierry Barbe, Riccardo Del Fra, Didier Goury, Gregoire Blin, Jean Damien Lagarde, Claudine Petiot, Sylvain Lamotte.”