Hadrien Feraud | “Hadrien Feraud”

“Hadrien Feraud”

www.hadrien-feraud.comIf you haven’t heard of this guy (kid, really! mid-twenties…  yikes!), get out from under the boulder and look him up.  He is single handedly raising the bar on technical ability on the electric bass.  This kid is FAST!  The refreshing thing is that he is also, quite obviously, harmonically deep.  I can only imagine, with the playing experience he’s getting now, he’ll be taking the instrument to some interesting places over the years.  You’d be a fool not to keep an eye on this guy if you’re a bass player.  Very hip Chordal voicings, mind blowing finger-style technique and an interesting ear for harmony.

He also keeps good company, having tutelage under Dominique Piazza and hanging with guys like Linley Marthe is about as good as it gets.  Oh yeah, he’s also John McLaughlin’s new bass player!

The only complaint (not the best word for it, but it’ll do) is that, when he solos, he plays VERY fast for a LARGE majority of the time.  I can also hear (what sound to me to be) a lot of pattern playing that seems to ignore harmony.  That said…  his patterns are VERY interesting and, typically, require fingers at least a foot long, as far as I can tell.  He has a lot of patterns that move up or down the neck in harmonically vague (thusly very useful in many situations) and chromatically interesting spider like ways.  It really is fun to watch.

Honestly, this young Parisian is just SO talented, it’s scary.  This self-titled CD (with guests such as John McLaughlin and Linley Marthe) is, although very much a showcase of his abilities, a supremely interesting listen.  There is a lot going on here and it’ll take far more than one sitting to take it all in.  Very reminiscent of McLaughlin’s work and Weather Report inspired (I would guess), there is also a lot of interesting electronic experimentation and some very hip low-fi fun interspersed.

It’s so fun to listen to him solo like he does that people often forget to mention how good a BASS player he is.  His tone is beautifully round, punchy and thick.  His pocket and note choices while grooving are first rate.  Basically, you have: Solo’s that are so technically proficient, you have to laugh (in a very good way, Hadrien!), wonderful writing, fun post-production and top notch bass playing.

Why WOULDN’T you buy this CD?