For their fifth album, the Oregon-based Rhythm Dogs took advantage of the pandemic downtime to create their finest effort, aptly titled “Rewired.” The band fuses the...
On “The Dogfather,” the Rhythm Dogs’ first album in seven years, the Portland band returns with an unusual blend of groove-based jazz, funk, ska, blues, Latin,...
Meet Mark von Bergen Clearly the most important instrument in funk and R&B music – OK, together with the drums – is the electric bass. While...
Meet Mark von Bergen – Clearly the most important instrument in funk and R&B music – OK, together with the drums – is the electric bass....
James Brown was the Godfather of Soul and Soul Brother No. 1. While everyone in his band contributed to his unique sound, it was the bass...
Meet Mark von Bergen – Part II of our series on great reggae bassists focuses on dub music. Dub was pioneered in the early 1970s in...
Meet Mark von Bergen – In no musical genre does bass play a greater role than in Jamaican music. From the mid-50s through today, popular Jamaican...
Meet Mark von Bergen – In the last issue, we featured women bassists who have played a prominent role in jazz and funk music. In this...
Meet Mark von Bergen – The latest issue of DownBeat lists what it considers to be the most important guitarists of all time. Among the 75...
The various styles of African music have had a worldwide influence on modern jazz, rock, and Latin music. The rhythms are often hypnotic, with bass lines...
Alert readers have noticed that this column has paid scant attention to the bass players of rock and roll. The jazz police, of course, have...
In this issue we present Part 2 of our ongoing series of great bass-drum duos. The rhythm section is the most important part of any...
This issue we feature great bass-drum duos. We all know that the rhythm section is the most important part of a band. As Jaco used to...
This month we focus on the Upright Man – masters of the upright bass, standing bass, acoustic bass, double bass, contrabass – whatever you call it,...
Today music fans are not only listening in the comfort of their homes but they are also watching. Thirty years ago, there may have been one...