Buy a BassDay CD and win a Windmill Bass!

If you buy now a BassDay CD for 10 Euro, you automaticly have the chance to win a Windmill Proto 24, 5-string Bass! When you buy more as one CD you have more chance to win. After 450 CD's are being sold we anounce the winner! Please add your email addres!

Listen to the CD here

Listen to the CD here

Listen to the CD here

Win this Bass:

Windmill Proto 24
Price: 3.590,- Euro
5-String
Body: Ash
Top: Flamed Maple
Finish: Natural Satin
Neck: 5 piece Maple
Fingerboard: Rosewood
Machinehead: Schaller black
Bridge: Windmill 3D
Pickup: Windmill MM + SC (Humbucking) with Ebony Cover
Electronics: Windmill, Active 3-band

Marcello Sebastiani - “BASS EXPRESS” (Drycastle CDD 029 – 2009 )

“ I like the double bass and the electric bass, from Charles Mingus to Paul Mc Cartney, from John Lindsay(in Jelly Roll Morton’s Red Hot Peppers) to Jaco Pastorius.
When Marcello Sebastiani asked if I would have liked to write the cover notes of his album as a solo Bass Express, I accepted immediately: I’ve been appreciating and following this musician and teacher for years, and besides, there is an instinct to follow in the field of music criticism. After having listened to it, I realized that my instinct was right. Bass Express is a brave album because it doesn’t limit to afro-American music and spreads the sound reflex of the double bass both in a planetary dimension (America, Europe, Asia) and in a time shift, touching the year 1723 (La Sonnerie de Sainte-Geneviève du Mont de Paris by Marin Marais , G.B. Lully’s pupil), after having crossed the 1900 with Four Preludes by Erik Satie.
After a deep sight, you can appreciate the precise, accurate and narrative pagination of the album: that prevents the listener from an occasional listening of the sequences. The first five pieces are re-readings, agreements, adaptations of pieces, from a classic repertory. A sort of jazzed up bridge (C.Q.) follows and leads to three compositions inspired by India, three mantras adapted to double bass with various tonal centres, written by Sebastiani. Another bridge, the influence of Marais’ musical scoring and we get to other three compositions, this time strongly jazzed up (the coltranian Equinox and the ellingtonian In a Sentimental Mood, and the most original Bass Express). In other words, it is a sort of multiethnic album, which can be outlined as follows: classic pieces / jazz bridge / Indian pieces / classic bridge/ jazz pieces / folk tail. A whole musical career, an entire life are summed up, in that way.
The repertory choices find a reflex -but with different lights- in the instrumental and stylistic ones: in the field of classical music, Marcello Sebastiani frequently uses the over recordings and shares between the bow and the pinched often overlapping them; in the ethnic and jazz field, the picking prevails and the over recordings disappear, as to highlight the concept of instantaneous composition, of performance, even if mediated by the recording studio. In the real dynamic of pieces, however, the styles aren’t strictly separated, but they interlace themselves in an unexpected way creating the polichromy which makes Bass Express unique in his gender. The
four preludes of Erik Satie (Chevaliers normands ed une jeune demoiselle; Prèlude d' Eginhard; Le Nazarèen; IIème Prèlude du Nazarèen) have a meditative character, with sounds that change stretching to the dark. The variations in pinched introduce rhythm restlessness, generating an elastic tension that doesn’t modifybut brings up-to-date - the pages of Satie. In the austere and martial piece of Marais the overlap of the picking to the bow lightens the metronomic course, coming gradually unhinged at the level of execution and by means of improvisation.

Sebastiani’ s jazz component becomes evident in C.Q., bi-thematic piece (in reality two timbre-thematic sections); here, to beyond the mingusian references, the autonomy and the expressive wealth of the double bass boast, and it becomes able to narrate and sing. In the three mantra it is the horizontal dimension of the phrasing that leads to a great freedom, hardly withheld by the attraction of the gravitational tonal centres; notes beaten again with micro variations and a sitaristic development, confer to the pieces an intimately Indian dimension, the result of deepened sound experiences on the side of the tablas player Badal Roy. It is not a case that the original composition Bass Express has been chosen like the title of the whole album: the chasing low turn that constitutes the cell-base leaves the place to the improvisation, carrying the apotheosis of a solo that maintains its structural steadiness. The historical role of double bass meets the dimension of invention, without for this renouncing to be the pillar of music. It is thus also for Equinox and In a Sentimental Mood, where melody, harmony, timbres mingling are suggested
and make us to catch a glimpse with an happy choice of time and taste. The most delicate, memorial, lyric is the tail of Tutte le funtanelle “. Luigi Onori

Visit: www.marcellosebastiani.com

Bruno Tauzin - Solo Bass

Bruno Tauzin
www.bassebruno.com

Bruno Tauzin has just released a new solo bass CD and it's quite a beautiful musical statement!


Bruno has a really nice ear for melody and harmony (and it sounds like he's spent some time in the classical wood shed...  very reminiscent harmonic movement!).  If you're looking for a chop fest, this may not be the release for you, but I found every track to be very satisfying from a purely musical standpoint.  Although I may not be one to listen to a whole album of solo bass very often (with the exception of some early Dave Holland releases) this music is very soothing and comforting!  Bruno makes nice use of open strings, harmonics and double-stops and his lines are very organic.  My overall impression is that, while you may not be bumping this while cruising the strip, the music here creates a very nice atmosphere.  I found myself enjoying this as a soft soundtrack in the house while doing some other things (and that's a much bigger compliment than it sounds..!).  The music asks you to sit back and let it in...  it won't force itself upon you.  Very worth checking out if you have a little patience.

review by Damian Erskine for Bass Musician Magazine

Ratko Zjaca - Continental Talk

Ratko Zjaca (g)
John Patitucci (b)
Steve Gadd (dr)
Stanislav Mitrovic
Rabdy Brecker (tr)



Surpassing boundaries, building bridges, bringing people together. It is clear from the biography and discography of the brilliant Croatian guitarist, Ratko Zjaca, that he is very much driven by these concepts. Earlier CDs are called Crossing The Border and The Bag Is Packed and, meanwhile, flights between Zagreb and New York have become a comfortable routine and English the predominant language. Ratko Zjaca stands as a symbol of the ongoing evolution of American classic jazz as it increasingly becomes a country-uniting form of communication.

No wonder, then, that Ratko has named his début album for In+Out Records Continental Talk. The dialogue between the new and old world is functioning much better. With him as moderator, far fewer conflicts arise than is the case on political platforms. A bilateral exchange without pre-conditions and prejudices, in which the string sorcerer is on the same level as accomplished artists such as trumpet player, Randy Brecker, bassist John Patitucci and drummer Steve Gadd creates a new æsthetic of improvisation. "Two years ago, when I recorded Crossing The Border with John, and shortly afterwards started to play live with Randy and Steve, I knew instantly that I wanted to do my next recording with them," said Ratko. The decision to realise this project came about when he was on a plane with his friend and saxophone player, Stanislav Mitrovic. “It was a case of small talk above the clouds, between America and Europe. Which is the reason the CD is called Continental Talk.”

Quite early in Ratko Zjaca's career, there were vivid indications of his extreme global yearning. After completing his classic studies at the University of Zagreb, the highly talented guitarist attended the conservatory of Rotterdam, where he plunged himself head on into the world of modern music. He attended master classes as well as individual lessons given by Joe Pass, Jim Hall, Pat Metheny, Mick Goodrick, Mike Stern, Bob Brookmeyer and John Abercrombie, at the same time dedicating himself to the study of composition. After Rotterdam he attended the New York University School of Music. Soon the young Croatian had gained the status of being something of a secret weapon on strings and he won the recognition of famous colleagues, not only in the USA but also in Europe. He worked with such great artists as Benny Bailey, Gary Peacock, Reggie Workman, Al Foster, Miroslav Vitous, Ron Carter, Jimmy Cobb, Alvin Queen and Adam Nussbaum.

For his dream ensemble, the heroes of his youth, Zjaca wanted to write music that was perfectly fitting. He says: "This was extremely simple, considering the line-up. An almost natural process, an organic symbiosis". This symbiosis continued during the session. Zjaca, Brecker, Patitucci, Mitrovic and Gadd merely had to look at each other, giving a short nod, and the creative energy poured forth like a lava stream. Only one take was required for each one of the twelve titles. Every band member was receptive to the impulses of the others and was immensely communicative. "I never wanted an album for my ego," said Ratko Zjaca. "My intentions were, first and foremost, to achieve an exchange at the highest level. And this actually worked! I cannot possibly describe how much we enjoyed this moment. But it can be heard, it sounds so obvious and pure. I have never felt better during a recording session." And he was never better than on Continental Talk.

More info

Out now: Goldhammer

Check out the first solo cd of Marius Goldhammer
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