April 2013

Spending my high school years playing electric bass in a series of jazz, rock and fusion groups meant quickly learning and adapting to different styles. Within rock there was the looser ‘arena rock’ style and also the much tighter and punchier style favored in New Wave music and by artists such as the Police. Jazz music required considerable harmonic depth, the ability to improvise and swing and communicate. Fusion required all of those things, and also needed the added skills of slap & pop techniques. For me that meant time listening to and practicing with the records of Stanley Clarke…

It seems that whether self-taught or formally trained, most guitarists learn a very rock-centric style of playing based on the music they most enjoy hearing. Through the years they might find themselves limited by this or simply seek to inform their music with different styles. A new Lick Library instructional DVD seeks to provide established guitarists with the tools they need to add fusion styles to their arsenal. But how is the method? To find out check out my Tom Quayle From Rock to Fusion Instructional DVD Review. Type of DVD: Music instructional DVD Where to buy: Lick Library Store…

I have already covered other works from Hiromi Uehara over the past few years, including her 2011 release ‘Voice’. That was a great record that featured the same trio as on Move, with bassist Anthony Jackson and drummer Simon Phillips. It would be easy to call this recording ‘more of the same’ or evolutionary, but is that a fair description? To find out, let’s take a journey with the Hiromi Trio Project ‘Move’. Musical Genre: Jazz Where to buy: iTunes Music Store Artist: Hiromi Trio Project Description: During the recording of Voice, Hiromi connected with Jackson and Phillips in a…