The Arrival of Lee Moretti

by Allee Futterer –

At age twelve Lee Moretti of Providence, Rhode Island started rockin’ on the guitar. After a few years and some professional seasoning she found herself not only playing guitar in the high school jazz band but also playing the bass. Her high level of natural ability and love of music carried her to Berklee College of Music where she became a dual major in Guitar Performance and Music Business. Although her declared primary instrument was guitar, she developed a strong love and became quite attached to the bass.

As she says, she has a very rhythmic approach to music so playing bass was a natural. The role change from guitar to bass is what makes the bass so attractive to her, “Switching from guitar to bass is like putting on a different mind”. Where as guitar plays a melodic role the bass’s closest companions are the drums and the groove. Lee has a pretty real approach to the bass; playing what she would want to hear from the low-end as a melodic instrument, “My immediate instinct is to make the pocket happen…after that I aim for something more melodic.”

Though Lee was born exponentially more gifted than most people, dipping her fingers in everything from poetry to music, but she still had to iron out her weak spots. While at Berklee she coerced the bass department chairman to let her into some bass performance classes. One of those was Oscar Stagnaro’s “Latin Bass Lab” that’s what really got her reading and pocket in check. Musically speaking, she is very in tune with her roots so when it comes to improvising, Lee thinks of lines linearly and with less arpeggiating than most bassists. It’s evident in her playing that she thinks in melodic phrases and it gives her a very old-school and bluesy sound.

You may have seen Lee on MTV touring with Third Eye Blind as their multi-instrumentalist/live sampler, but if you live in the Boston area you can also she her live with her bands, The “Lee Moretti” Band, The Lowsy Instruments, or her up and coming all female band “The Furies”. Her musical aspirations right now are taking off as she mobilizes the Furies. She calls this band a “fever-fem” band, as they heavily reference bands such as The Dead Weather, Led Zeppelin and even Jeff Buckley! The lovely ladies in her group are also students of Berklee College of Music and Frost School of Music at University of Miami. This band will have their first live performance and CD release show at Boston’s Hard Rock Cafe on April 9th, where they are sure to be a hit.

Lee is going place fast, so be sure to keep an eye out for her in one of her bands in a town near you soon!

Follow Lee on Twitter @ Leemoretti