While preparing the "Walking Bass Workshop" I'm giving at my music school at the end of this month, I accidentally stumbled across this very cool swing version of U2's song "New Year's Day" and since I love to "kill two birds with one stone" I decided to start the new year with the transcription of this tune to wish you all the best and especially peace for 2016 in a musical way.
The key of "New Year's Day" is an unusual G sharp minor (G#m). In order to play that song on a four string bass I suggest to tune down half step and play in A minor.
5 years ago I posted the transcription of the original U2 song. Take a look:
2015 was a pretty busy year for me: playing over 50 Live-Shows with different bands, working hard at my music school STAGE AHEAD in Wiesbaden and doing a lot of workshops, clinics and teaching throughout the year. But on the other hand I did less posts here on my bassblog compared to the years before, what I regret, but 2016 will be more again, promised!
To start the new year, let's have a look at the Top 10 most viewed posts of 2015:
This years Christmas song transcription is of course by "The Eagles", continuing my Eagles-Transcriptions project I started in october this year. But in fact this song is not an original Eagles tune, because "Please Come Home For Christmas" was originally written by the american blues singer and piano player Charles Brown and already released in 1960. The Eagles covered the song 1978 for a holiday single. It was the first Eagles song featuring Timothy B. Schmit on the bass, who replaced the original bassplayer Randy Meisner.
This week I'm on tour with my band on "Fuerteventura" an atlantic island, which belongs to Spain and so I thought this nice little song by Weezer would perfectly fit for this weeks "Weekly Bassline":
Vielen Dank für die rege Teilnahme an meinem kleinen Gewinnspiel. Ich habe viele tolle Anregungen für neue Workshops bekommen und freue mich darauf diese im nächsten Jahr umsetzen zu können.
Im folgenden Video erläutere ich Eure Vorschläge und am Ende ziehe ich auch die zwei Gewinner der Gutscheine für einen Wochenendworkshop eurer Wahl:
HERZLICHEN GLÜCKWUNSCH
an die Gewinner!
Ich werde Euch die Gutscheine per Mail zusenden und ihr könnt mir dann mitteilen für welchen Workshop ihr diese einlösen möchtet.
35 years ago on December 8th 1980 a man and his vision for a better world was shot dead in New York.
R.I.P. John Lennon
Imagine is the biggest song of his solo carrier. The Rolling Stone magazine ranked "Imagine" at #3 in its list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time".
Here's the original video clip John and Yoko filmed on a misty day in June 1971 at their home in Tittenhurst Park Ascot, England.
In 1999 BMI named "Imagine" one of the top 100 most performed songs of the 20th century. Here's a very nice version by The Yellowjackets feat. Randy Crawford.
To me the message of this song is as topical as never before in these times of terror all over the world, so we should never forget these wise words of John Lennon.
In 2003 I had the privilege to meet Randy Crawford in person. I was on tour with Marla Glen and in July of this very hot summer The Crusaders and Marla Glen played a package show in a big top somewhere in Austria.
We were playing first and right in the middle of our set one of our roadies walked on stage and put a little note in front of me on the floor. I was musical director of the band back then and Ronnie used to do this, if something went wrong our some problems occur. But this time the note had a big smiley on it and said: "Randy is sitting right behind the monitor desk and having a great time :-)". So I turned my head left and there I saw Randy Crawford sitting on a flightcase and rockin' to our music. She caught my glimpse, smiled and gave me a thumb up! This surely was a great moment for us.
After the show, she invited us to her dressing room, where she offered champagne and told us how much she enjoyed our music. She is such a lovely, warm-hearted person, although she had bad problems with her hips and only could walk with a walking cane.We were talking like old friends, making it a very memorable moment of my life.
"Street Life" is the title track of the 1979 Crusaders studio album of the same name.The album version of the song with a prolonged rubato type intro and extended solos is 11 minutes long. I transcribed a 6 minutes long version from the Crusaders compilation CD "Gold".