Bass Videos

Mike Pope, Low-End Renaissance Man: July 2020 Issue

Published

4 years ago

July 1, 2020

Mike Pope… A Day in the life of a Bass Pontiff.

Mike Pope Cover - Bass Musician Magazine

From Editor, Raul Amador…

This ‘Day in the Life of Mike Pope’ cover has been in the works for several years. Kilian Duarte and his team spent a day with Mike at the Berklee College of Music. We are grateful to the faculty for allowing the team to record this day, and to the students that shared a glimpse into their growth process as bass musicians.

I sat down with Mike for a quick update earlier this year to get caught up on what has been happening since Kilian’s visit… here is what he had to share…

Now get ready for Kilian Duarte’s ‘Mike Pope… A Day in the life of a Bass Pontiff’. These eight videos are each loaded with great content. So, get comfortable and enjoy some very cool stuff!

Keep it low…
Raul Amador, Editor

For the uninitiated amongst us, Mike Pope is a jazz figurehead whose resume is one of the most impressive in our bass community.

With stage and studio credits such as Chick Corea’s Electric Band, Al Di Meola, Michael Brecker, and Blood Sweat and Tears, (among many, many others), he is a musical juggernaut and the working jazz musicians senpai. The creative mind behind the Fodera Pope preamp, as well as one of the integral designers in the foundation of Trick Fish amplification, he has a reputation both as an incredible performer, but also as a top-tier designer for bass tone and gear.

To add amazement to injury, he also happens to be a pretty darn spectacular jazz pianist, (no seriously, his phrasing and harmonic knowledge on the instrument is ridiculous). A Fodera signature artist, and a Berklee faculty member who happens to also be a really down to earth and a fun dude to hang out with and grab a coffee.

I was fortunate enough to meet Mike in 2009; being a bright-eyed and bushy-tailed young Berklee grad going on their first NAMM adventure, with a press badge and a 480p cam ready to make contacts and make first impressions.

When I had heard that Mike had come to Berklee as a faculty member, I reached out to him to see if a videographer and I could follow him around and document a ‘day in the life’ of a singularly awesome figure in the bass community. What proceeds is my videographer (Jeff Kesler) and I, documenting a full day in the life of an incredible musician interpolated in the heart of the Berklee faculty, showing his students learning and absorbing from his amazing wealth of musical knowledge.