Bass Solo

In February the superb and in-demand jazz bass player Larry Grenadier released The Gleaners, a recording for solo acoustic bass on the renowned ECM label. It was riveting playing, getting into a variety of styles and methods. And perhaps something is in the air, as Soul of the Bass is a release by an equally important and enthralling bassist, playing (mostly) solo and showing listeners how an instrument usually in the role of accompaniment can take the lead, alone.

The title of this latest release from bassist Neil Swainson is fitting: HERE FOR A WHILE. Amen to that. At 68, he’s had not just a long career, but a most distinguished and impactful one. In Canada and internationally, a world-class musician.

The progressive German death metal band OBSCURA was founded in 2002 by guitarist/vocalist Steffen Kummerer and drummer Jonas Baumgartl. The band caused a stir when they - out of nowhere - toured as support for SUFFOCATION on their European tour in 2006 and when they independently released their debut album 'RETRIBUTION' that same year…

Excellent addition to any Rock music collection
Featuring: Allan Holdsworth and Joe Satriani
I would give all of these songs a 5 (with a few possible exceptions). The marks deducted were for the albums short playing time (approx. 35 minutes) and the situation of the track listing (I would rather "Simple Dreams" switched with "Country Music").

The works gathered here hail from two different sets of string quartets: the four so-called Solo Quartets by Franz Anton Hoffmeister and Gioachino Rossini’s six String Sonatas (or Sonate a quattro). Both sets differ from the ‘normal’ configuration in that they allow a double bass to take part, albeit in different ways. Rossini, who composed his sonatas at the age of 12 (!), left out the viola and gave the double bass a more or less conventional bass role albeit with occasional virtuosic outbursts.

These "double bass quartets" of Franz Anton Hoffmeister, a Viennese composer and publisher well known to both Mozart and Beethoven, are not written simply for one member each of the string family from violin to double bass; the bass is explicitly conceived of as a replacement for the first violin. That might seem an awkward order, but the charm of the music resides in the variety of elegant solutions Hoffmeister finds for the problems this configuration causes.