“Ask him about throwing Roy Harper off a ferry!”

In this video preview from an episode of The Bass Guitar Channel Radio Show on Cygnus Radio with host David C. Gross and Know Your Bass Player “honcho” Tom Semioli, Richard Thompson discusses the bassists he’s employed over the years including Jerry Scheff (Elvis Presley, The Doors), David Pegg (Jethro Tull, Fairport Convention), Danny Thompson (Pentangle), Pat Donaldson (Fotheringay, Chris Spedding, Sandy Denny), Bruce Lynch (Kate Bush, Cat Stevens), Willie Weeks (Donny Hathaway, Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton), and Taras Prodaniuk (Lucinda Williams).

 

 

Just two years after she first picked up the instrument in her native Australia, Tal Wilkenfeld commenced studies at Los Angeles Academy of Music. She split college for New York City wherein she sat in on local jam sessions and quickly built her reputation as a top player. An invitation by Allman Brothers Oteil Burbridge and Derek Trucks to join the band on stage at their annual Beacon Theater residency led to widespread exposure and an impressive audition tape which she sent to Jeff Beck. Within months of that performance, Tal waxed her debut slab Transformation (2006) and was on the bandstand with Chick Corea. She later joined Beck’s band for several tours, one of which is  captured on the incendiary Live At Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club.

 

Wilkenfeld quickly rose to the top echelons of her profession, which is where she sits now, collaborating with the crème de la crème of rock, jazz, and pop artists including Prince, Herbie Hancock, Warren Hayes, Corinne Bailey Rae, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, The Roots, Wayne Krantz,  David Gilmour, Macy Gray, Ryan Adams, Pharrell, Buddy Guy, Jackson Browne, Todd Rundgren, Ringo Starr, Brian Wilson, and Dr. John to cite a very select few. Tal’s weapons of choice are Sadowsky basses, and EBS amplifiers.

 

Her solo bow entitled Transformation (2007) is a 21st Century jazz-fusion masterpiece.

 

Tal’s sophomore slab, Love Remains (2019) was a surprise to her “bass only” fans as she emerged as a formidable singer-songwriter, drawing influences as diverse 70s Laurel Canyon and 90s alt-rock!

 

Tal Wilkenfeld Sound & Vision…

 

Tal with Jeff Beck at Ronnie Scott’s “Nadia” https://youtu.be/drAv2FoYji8

 

“Transformation” https://youtu.be/iBKChtJ2AeU

 

“Corner Painter” https://youtu.be/sJuO_HKrVPQ

By Thomas Semioli

 

If you had to choose a role model of a classic rock bassist …look no further than this cat!

 

Huffington Post / Tom Semioli : Carl Radle: Eleven Bass Players Who Belong in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame https://bit.ly/38WUMh2

 

He was the consummate sideman who came to prominence on seminal sides and concert performances with Derek & The Dominoes, George Harrison, Delaney & Bonnie, Eric Clapton, Leon Russel, and Joe Cocker. Bassist Carl Dean Radle’s motifs are so essential to the compositions that he waxed with those aforementioned rock icons;  that if you were to play the songs without rendering his lines (near) verbatim – the tune sounds… wrong!

 

Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and migrating to Los Angles in the 1960s, Radle’s association with fellow Tulsan Leon Russell, then a prominent member of the Wrecking Crew, afforded Carl entry into the elite sessions circles.

 

Radle’s jaw-dropping resume also spans Gary Lewis & The Playboys,  The Concert for Bangladesh (with Klaus Voorman), Dr. John, Dave Mason, J.J. Cale, Buddy Guy, Rita Coolidge, John Lee Hooker, King Curtis, Bobby Whitlock, Art Garfunkel, Donovan, and Bob Dylan, to cite a very select few.

 

Carl’s weapons of choice included a ’65 sunburst Fender Precision with a blocked and bound neck, ’68 blonde Fender Telecaster bass with a single coil Telecaster pickup and a split-coil Precision pickup, MusicMan Stingray, and a ’75 Alembic.  

 

Radle’s fluid lines are a study in rhythm and space. His meld of staccato phrasing,  sustained notes, and unadorned countermelodies sounds deceptively effortless – which further exemplifies Carl’s mastery.

 

Among Carl’s finest recordings include his work with drummer Jim Keltner as captured on Joe Cocker’s Mad Dogs & Englishmen (1970).

 

To my ears, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs (1970) represents Carl’s most enduring recorded work and stands as a definitive example of the supportive role of the bass in a rock guitar-based setting.

 

 

Carl Radle Sound & Vision…

 

Derek and the Dominos

 

“Got to Get Better” https://youtu.be/ywdU0C2GH2o

 

“Bell Bottom Blues” https://youtu.be/FclW0go4Cfc

 

“I Looked Away” https://youtu.be/PMlmoLvRBNQ

 

“Anyday” https://youtu.be/QrWK5XWuGpk

 

Eric Clapton:

 

“Let It Rain” https://youtu.be/vFoheneUfU0

 

“Motherless Children” https://youtu.be/9EZlmqWmcqw

 

“Let It Grow” https://youtu.be/YpDlmop0uYU

 

Delaney & Bonnie & George & Eric “Comin’ Home” https://youtu.be/aazChqk4U-c

 

George Harrison “You”  https://youtu.be/3xnTWee4eAI

 

Rita Coolidge “Superstar” https://youtu.be/e4Xi1I78Kms

 

Leon Russell “Stranger in a Strange Land” live https://youtu.be/Hjy7RAu8TJ4

 

Joe Cocker’s Mad Dogs & Englishmen

 

“Delta Lady” https://youtu.be/uIz8n4fprxw

 

“Darling Be Home Soon” https://youtu.be/RCl-zznJ5so

 

“Space Captain” https://youtu.be/RCl-zznJ5so

 

An award winning first-call session cat and among the most in-demand touring bassists on the planet, it would be easier to list the artists whom Nathan Harnell East has not played with on stage and on record!

East, who prefers (and endorses) extended range Yamaha bassists, grew up to the sounds of Philadelphia and has incorporated his reverence for jazz, rhythm and blues, soul, and rock into platinum records aplenty by Eric Clapton, Fourplay, Herbie Hancock, Kenny Loggins, Michael Jackson, Daft Punk, and Herbie Hancock to cite an extremely select few.

Dig Nathan with Whitney: https://youtu.be/YohL_QJhFaw

Dig Nathan with Slowhand: https://youtu.be/–ND7U44k_M

Dig Nathan with The Eurythmics https://youtu.be/Uhpu2N4rQZM

Dig Nathan’s “Daft Funk” https://youtu.be/07GgekHHud8

An accomplished singer, cellist, educator, composer, producer, in 2014 Nate waxed his debut solo album, which, of course, featured his famous friends Stevie Wonder, Slowhand, Ray Parker Jr….the list goes on and on and on…

Courtesy of Duck Dunn Remembered Com

“I listen to the first playback, then go back into the studio and play half of what I did!” Donald “Duck” Dunn

 

Along with James Jamerson Jr., Carol Kaye, and many of the Wrecking Crew players of the early 1960s, Duck established the electric bass as the bedrock of popular music by way of his work in Booker T. and the MG’s and as an in-demand A list studio player.

 

Dunn’s style is a master course in the use of rhythm and space. Play through his transcriptions and you discover not a superfluous fill, grace note, nor rapid-fire motif. Duck let the music breathe, and by doing so you can hear the song within his bass passages.

 

A player whose influence is incalculable, Duck’s legendary weapon of choice was the Fender Precision outfitted with heavy gauge LaBella’s akin to his peer Jamerson – which he amplified with various Ampeg rigs, most notably the B-15, again akin to the aforementioned Motown icon. 

 

So what Donald “Duck” Dunn done? Booker T. & the MGs, Ray Charles, The Blues Brothers, Roy Buchanan, Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, Isaac Hayes, Albert King, Ritchie Havens, Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding, Elvis Presley, Diana Ross, Muddy Waters, Bill Withers, Neil Young, The Manhattan Transfer, The Staples Singers, Boz Scaggs, Tom Petty, Stevie Nicks, Freddie King, Crosby Stills Nash & Young, Jerry Lee Lewis…to name a scant few. 

 

Nick Rosaci’s transcription book Soul Fingers: The Music & Life of Legendary Bassist Donald “Duck” Dunn – is essential reading for all bassists who work in a pop, rhythm and blues, soul, funk, rock context.

 

Every track Duck cut is worthy of exploration – so rather than choose one of his more popular passages, dig this somewhat obscure Slowhand recording “The Shape You’re In” https://youtu.be/yFVXxxvkFiU

 

Tony Senatore’s Booker T. medley with some of Duck’s classic passages: https://youtu.be/6KdK2KyZlAg

 

Kenny Aaronson, Tom Semioli in the Duck Dunn shed!