Marc Johnson – Bass I remember getting hold of that Marc Johnson ‘Concepts For Bass Soloing’ book when it came out. Still have it. It’s a really great book in terms of insights into how the whole thing works and why it isn’t #random noodling’ to used the common pejorative that we hear from musicians…

Reginald Veal – Bass Veal grew up in New Orleans where he began piano lessons at a very early age. After receiving a bass guitar as a gift from his father at the age of eight, Veal went on to later join his father’s gospel group as the bassist. Veal studied with the legendary New…

Adalberto Cevasco – Bass I am not entirely sure if this is Cevasco but a search though the discographies and the dates of the recordings suggests he is the most likely candidate. Cevasco first became known as a bassist in the group of guitarist Rodolfo Alchourron. With trumpeter Gustavo Bergalli, saxophonist Bernardo Bara and drummer Nestor Astarita, he…

Ralph Towner – Gutiar Towner was born into a musical family in Chehalis, Washington, United States. His mother was a piano teacher and his father a trumpet player. Towner learned to improvise on the piano at the age of three. He began his career as a conservatory-trained classical pianist, attending the University of Oregon from 1958 to…

Richard Bona – Bass Another Mike Stern recording, this one is from the 2003 album, ‘These Times’, It is a slinky little sucker but there are not real histrionics on here and it is not overly challenging a read.

Jay Anderson – Bass Anderson received a bachelor’s degree from California State University, Long Beach in 1978, then worked with Woody Herman (1978-1979), Carmen McRae (1979-1981), and a quartet led by Ira Sullivan and Red Rodney (1981-1986). Anderson remained with Rodney through 1992, also working with Michael Brecker, during this time, and played with Toots Thielmans and Joe sample for much…

Gary Brown – Bass Born into a family of musicians Gary Brown’s inevitable musical career began at an early age. By his eleventh birthday Gary was already performing in jazz bands with his two brothers and his father, jazz trumpeter Wilbert Brown. Gary went on to form his own bands and develop a talent and…

Al Di Meola – Guitar I am working on my guitar reading and found that I am again frustrated at the lack of decent material to work with so I thought, here we go again! I have been listening to Al Di Meola for probably 45 years and, over the years, I have learned that…

Jimmy Haslip – Bass Another one of those legends who has worked with everybody, Jimmy Haslip was an early exponent of the five-string bass which he took into his main band for many years, ‘Yellowjackets’ (not THE Yellowjackets, just ‘Yellowjackets’). Haslip waited until 1993 before releasing an album under his own name and it is…

Richard Sinclair – Bass Born in Canterbury, England, both his father (Dick Sinclair) and grandfather (also named Dick Sinclair) were musical entertainers around Canterbury. Richard was introduced to the ukulele at age 3 and the guitar at 6, and was only 15 when he met Hugh and Brian Hopper when they came to see his dad’s dance band.…