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Fittingly, the Windy City’s contribution to the creative storm of ’60s sounds was a hot-blowing horn band. Named for the town’s transportation system, Chicago Transit Authority—soon shortened to Chicago—began in 1968 as a savvy septet ...

You don’t get to play with jazz legend Chick Corea without being a world-class improviser. Ric Fierabracci began this pursuit at the University of Miami’s storied jazz program, where he built the musical foundation for a successful ...

With bass in hand, Richard Bona speaks many languages—but catch him in the middle of a heartfelt phrase, and it’s as if his notes are chosen just for your ears. Add his haunting falsetto vocals, and now you’re listening to arguably ...

ON the road to becoming a solid, diverse musician, one of the most important and overlooked aspects is the study of rhythm. As a bass player it’s easy to get caught up in the other areas of practicing (such as scales and arpeggios) ...

Cheap Trick’s Tom Petersson was ever taught the “traditional” way to approach bass guitar, it didn’t take. As a founding member of Illinois’s most celebrated rock outfit, Petersson has long been a model for bassists interested in being ...

By Ed Friedland No single idea sums up the essence of bass playing better than the groove . Those who have it live by it, and those in need of it seek it out like the Holy Grail. But what exactly is the groove? • The word “groove” ...

“Is Charlie here yet?” I didn’t catch who asked the question this time, but the impending arrival of the veteran jazz bassist was clearly causing anxious excitement despite the bona-fide rock star already present. The room felt awkward, ...

Dan Lutz funks up the faith on Project Oasis’s highly enthusiastic and tightly arranged pop-gospel release, Bring It On [OCC Music; www.oasisla.org]. This fingerstyle groove is from the pre-chorus to the album’s call-to-action opening ...

Driving rain drummed mercilessly against Malibu’s lone highway, as if to remind the exclusive seaside town’s residents of life’s inescapable cacophony. Above the curvy road, snug and secluded, Flea’s hillside home seemed content amid ...

Los Angeles upright and electric player Dean Taba’s “Think of Juan,” from his live CD More Is More [Manasus Music], is so highly syncopated you might swear the tune is in an odd time—but it’s just this three-bar pattern in a quick ...

Two rock bass heavyweights will share the television spotlight this summer: Jason Newsted, venerated veteran of hard rock war machines Metallica and Ozzy Osbourne, and Sasha Krivtsov, a Russian émigré who has amassed an impressive credits ...

Michael Manring has waited a long time to make a true solo bass album. In fact, he’s been thinking about it since he was ten years old, just a year after he first picked up the instrument. Now 44, the electric bass virtuoso has finally ...

Among postwar Chicago musicians, Willie Dixon stands alone in the scope of his contribution to the blues. In the ’50s and ’60s the former conscientious objector and Golden Gloves boxing champion helped create the modern blues bass ...

Onstage with Earth, Wind & Fire, Verdine White cuts a wide swath. His dapper threads and flowing locks react to his kinetic dance steps like visual backbeats, while his buoyant bass lines bound off drummer John Paris’s kick and ...

Standing 6''5" and weighing 300-plus, Ernest "Big" Crawford loomed large in Chicago''s explosive postwar blues scene. Crawford’s slapped upright lines pushed recordings by the likes of Little Walter, Big Bill Broonzy, and Memphis Slim, ...

In last month’s column we explored the unique and powerful double-stop; two notes played simultaneously for harmonic and rhythmic potency. You may not realize it, but double-stops are behind some of the coolest (and most familiar) bass ...

Double the fun! Triple the pleasure! We’re always tempted to go for more—the double date, the triple-fudge sundae after the double cheeseburger, three rides for the price of two on the Intergalactic G-Force Roller Coaster—but usually ...

Mo’ this, mo’ that—let’s go modal! The term “modal” refers to a style of jazz that uses scales instead of specific chords as the basis for a song’s harmonic structure. (A “mode” is a type of scale.) Modal jazz was developed in the ’50s ...

Last time, I explored the basics of the abstract and beautiful chord progression that saxophonist John Coltrane made famous on his Giant Steps album. To summarize, the “Coltrane matrix” utilizes IIm–V7 clusters and V7 chords to frame ...

Most music has form. It’s the glue that holds a song together—the schematic that gives the music shape. Like the map of a neighborhood, a song’s form shows the way to get from here to there and back. It gives musicians the freedom to ...

I’ve heard a lot of bass players who could play killin’ solos over a few types of chords and modes—flying high with pentatonic gnat-notes through an extended G7 vamp or bebopping over a basic turnaround in B major. Most bass players ...

So you’re cool with C7, right? But what happens when you see a C79 chord coming at you?

Got 'Rhythm'?

When jazz musicians speak of “Rhythm changes,” they are referring to the chord changes of George Gershwin’s classic composition “I Got Rhythm.” Because of the simple nature of the original chord progression and its opportunities for ...

It’s one of the oldest and most functional musical surprises: the simple change from major to minor. This sound startles the ear with a poignant revelation—the clever completion of an artful musical maneuver. Sometimes our ears expect ...

Last time, I discussed how chord symbols are built and how to read them. Once you understand how a chord symbol is divided—i.e., where the chord prefix ends and the suffix begins—you know every note contained within that chord. But ...

When many people think of music reading, they conjure up images of ink-covered pages with turbulent maelstroms of syncopated 16th-notes swirling in all directions. When asked if they can read, they assume the questioner really means, ...