I recently remembered how I was first introduced to the music of John Coltrane. It was while I was in high school in Tokyo. I went to an international school (ASIJ) and played in the school jazz band for several years, though I didn’t really listen to jazz. I had a vague awareness of what […]
Read more "The Music of John Coltrane – First Contact"A few people know this about me – I have a very difficult time memorizing lyrics, and I actually don’t listen to lyrics most of the time. I don’t know why – the only time it really becomes a problem is when I want to sing a song with a band. I’ve been thinking about it […]
Read more "Lyrics and My Life"Two of my favorite instrument companies of all time are Rickenbacker and Moog. If you listen to the genre of “progressive rock” then you have heard them a lot. Chris Squire of Yes and Geddy Lee of Rush – two of the gods of both prog rock and bass guitar – both used Rickenbacker basses […]
Read more "Mispronouncing Moog"The Paul Butterfield Blues Band is a legendary group that I remember reading about in Guitar Player magazine – probably while I was in junior high school in Tokyo – but never actually listened to or even heard. I was aware that they had a song called East-West, but didn’t realize how significant it was […]
Read more "Paul Butterfield Blues Band appreciation"One of the people I follow on social media is Bootsy Collins. He began his rise to fame as the bassist for James Brown, later joining George Clinton’s Parliament/Funkadelic consortium. But Bootsy became a star in his own right, with hit singles from Bootsy’s Rubber Band, his Star basses and glasses, numerous collaborations with Bill […]
Read more "Easter Reflections of a Buddhist Bassist"Catch Wave by Takehisa Kosugi – I think I found this at Amoeba Records in Berkeley, sometime after 2002 when this reissue was released. A perfect find for studying! It is very mysterious music – in fact, some may not even identify it as music. But it is music: music that makes you question what […]
Read more "Magnetic Live Electronic BLUES!!"I have a couple of ideas I am working on related to Miles Davis. One is a post about the insane prehistoric space funk of the live album Agharta, of which I have two different CD versions (both Japanese). The other is more ambitious – here’s how I put it last week: Pondering the gradual […]
Read more "Pondering the gradual electrification of the music of Miles Davis…"