Category: gig dates

Birmingham Bass Night is now LESS THAN A WEEK AWAY! You’re excited right? I know I am. It’s the first event like this that I’ve done since coming to Birmingham, and I’m REALLY excited to be playing alongside two properly excellent musicians – Lorenzo Feliciati from Italy, and Birmingham’s own Russ Sargeant. Both fabulous musicians who happen to play bass…

…By which I mean it’s clearly going to be a basstastic evening, but you won’t have to be a bassist to have an amazing time! This isn’t an evening of tuneless bass wankery. It’s a gig, with excellent music, that on this occasion is made by people who play bass. Life is far too short for bad music. So there won’t be any on my watch.

Gig details:

• Date: Sunday, March 17th 2013
• Time: 8:00pm (doors 7.30, I think… will confirm!)
• Venue: Tower Of Song
• Address: 107 Pershore Road South, Birmingham, West Midlands
• Venue phone: 0121 486 1300
• Country: United Kingdom
• Admission: £7 / £4 concessions
• Age restrictions: All Ages/Licensed

Here’s the Facebook event link. Go see what people are saying about it over there. Lots of people are looking forward to this gig. It’s going to be epic. Then… TELL YOUR FRIENDS!

Anyway, here are some artist bios, in case you don’t know much about us:

Lorenzo Feliciati – one of Italy’s most respected bass innovators, Lorenzo Feliciati’s combination of electric jazz with progressive rock and electronica elements, coupled to his amazing dextrous skill on the instrument, make for a compelling and exciting music-world.
Receiving his initial impetus to play bass from seeing Jaco Pastorius with Weather Report, Lorenzo added Mick Karn, Pino and Percy Jones to his list of fretless-inspirations and forged a celebrated career as both a side-man and a band-leader in his home country, and further abroad.
His latest project, Naked Truth, featuring King Crimson drummer Pat Mastelotto, brings together his twin loves of jazz and progressive music, and has been critically acclaimed worldwide.

Steve Lawson – it true that there aren’t too many musicians who’ve managed to forge an international music career as solo bass guitarists. But in the last 13 years Steve Lawson has toured the world, produced 20 albums (10 solo, 10 in collaboration), been featured in numerous magazines and newspapers, played most of the major bass events, had radio airplay on four continents, and built a reputation as one of the respected bass teachers and ‘new music economy’ thinkers around. His approach to looping and layering his bass in real time builds complex and beautiful soundscapes that sound very little like a bass at all. Has to be seen (and heard) to be believed. ‘Steve Lawson is a brilliant musician. I’ve known about him and listened to him for many years. He may not be one of the most famous bassists but he is definitely one of the most talented’ – Victor Wooten

Russ Sargeant – Russ Sargeant is a bass player and multi-instrumentalist based near Birmingham. He uses live looping and effects to create beautiful layered music – sound upon sound; sometimes with multiple instruments but mostly only using electric and acoustic basses. His music is a blend of Ambient, Jazz and eclectic sounds and has been described as, “subtle layers of sound that emerge gracefully like cinematic soundtracks”.

www.lorenzofeliciati.com
www.stevelawson.net
www.russsargeant.co.uk

After a two year absence, I’m heading out to California for the NAMM show in just a week’s time. I’m really looking forward to catching up with the many friends I’ve made at the show over the years. In amongst the schmoozing and nonsense, a great number of remarkable music-loving people come together at NAMM and I always relish the chance to catch up on everyone’s news and make plans for the next year!

I’ve managed to fill up my schedule pretty well, so here’s what’s happening so far:

• Thurs 19th – AltBass. at El Torito in Anaheim – the whole bill is Steve Lawson, Chris Tarry, Steuart Liebig, Darren Michaels, Tom Shad – music starts at 7pm.
• Friday 20th Jan – BassUp! at Viento y Agua Coffee House – also on the bill Steuart Liebig, Edo Castro, Stew McKinsey, Christopher “C3” Cardone, Brittany Frompovich, Zen Beer, John Ady, Rod Taylor, and Darren Michaels!
• Saturday 21st – AltBass Pt 2, at El Torito in Anaheim again – the bill this time is Steve Lawson, Julie Slick, Gustav Fjelstrom & Tom Shad.
• Sunday 22nd – House Concert in Sherman Oaks, CA – message me if you want to come. There may be limited spaces… the amazing Julie Slick will be guesting with me 🙂  $10 suggested donation…
• Monday 23rd – house concert in Newport Beach california – along with a lot of other people TBC.
• Tuesday 24th – at The All American Melodrama Theater in Long Beach, CA, with the wonderful acoustic guitarist Muriel Anderson. http://www.allamericanmelodrama.com/ – tickets $15.
• Thursday 26th – House Concert, Bayview, San Francisco. – See the facebook event page for details. (with Daniel Berkman on Kora!)
• Friday 27th – House Concert, West Oakland – see the facebook event page for details. (with Daniel Berkman and Lattanand)
• Saturday 28th – house concert in San Jose with Michael Manring – message me for details. $20 donation…
• Sunday 29th  – Northridge Music Center, Citrus Heights (Sacramento), CA – hybrid concert/masterclass, focussed on looping. http://www.northridgemusic.com $20.

More details will be added here as and when – if you need info on any of them, please message me via email, facebook or twitter and I’ll hopefully see you or the friends you send my way a a show! 🙂