UA-67516091-1

BMF ROSTER

#SIDE ONE
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INTERVISTA A PIER MICHELATTI
​«Registrare non è come suonare live, in studio si sente tutto, la minima imprecisione viene amplificata, e anche se io preferisco un po’ di “sporcizia”, quello che consiglio è di applicarsi sotto quest’aspetto, cercando di mantenere però un minimo di qualità interpretativa, insomma, di non suonare come un basso midi...»
Collaboratore fondamentale di Fabrizio De André, parte integrante di dischi e progetti di nomi quali Enzo Jannacci, Vasco Rossi, Giorgio Gaber, Fiorella Mannoia, Adriano Celentano, Anna Oxa, Roberto Vecchioni, Loredana Bertè e tantissimi altri, Pier Michelatti è un bassista estremamente espressivo, con un approccio strumentale raffinato e potente al contempo. Turnista di rara intelligenza, Pier è uno dei musicisti che ha contribuito in modo decisivo all’emancipazione del basso elettrico in Italia, senza mai ricorrere a manierismi o involontarie clonazioni. 
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GETTING A GLIMPSE OF THE INFINITE WITH
"ONE OF THE NECKS":
INTERVIEW WITH LLOYD SWANTON
«Just the fact that you embrace a double bass like you’re putting your arms around a person - there’s nothing else like that. Acoustic has that lovely fat, woody grain to its tone, so that you can focus on just playing the right notes at the right time, and that’s usually enough for a given situation. Electric makes you have to think more about movement and activity»

​BACK TO TOP
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ALL THAT FOR JAZZ: 
​INTERVIEW WITH ATTILIO ZANCHI
Attilio Zanchi is an unlimited and creative artist being active since the beginning of the ‘70s. As a faithful partner of Paolo Fresu for many years, Zanchi can boast an infinite pedigree such as important recordings with Sheila Jordan, Bobby Watson, Garrison Fewell, Franco D’Andrea, Tony Scott, Tiziana Ghiglioni and many other jazz artists and not just it...
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INTERVIEW WITH STEVE YORK
​​A LIFETIME OF MUSIC INSPIRED BY THE LOVE FOR THE BASS FREQUENCIES
Steve York is a bassist with a really solid background. He’s the perfect partner for several musical contexts ans he’s definitely a musician who in a long and honourable career  has combined reliability with creativity, which is one of the rarest skill.  Steve has made available his bass playing to the very cream of UK and US rock; the pioneering  adventure together with Manfred Mann, his art-prog history with the unforgettable East Of Eden, three seminal albums along with Vinegar Joe the band which he shared with Robert Palmer and Elkie Brooks. And moreover his gold collaborations with Marianne Faithfull, Dr John as well as the great and always regretted Graham Bond...
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BORN TO "FIGHT" FOR THE MUSIC:
INTERVIEW WITH
​MAURO GARGANO
«The bassist is a figure who always continues to play, even if everythings stop. He looked like a compass to me which gave the direction to the music.  I’ve always seen him like a sort of quiet figure but he stood out also for his discretion and for his responsibility. We could consider it as a father figure....»
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A JAZZ ATTITUDE WITH A ROCK PERSONALITY  
​INTERVIEW WITH
INGEBRIGT HÅKER FLATEN
«I like to create surprising sounds of music with my groups and try to avoid the obvious path without it becoming forced» 
This is a really hard task to encompass a musician like Ingebrigt Håker Flaten in a specific genre as well as to associate him to a single group or music trend.
This Norwegian electric and upright bassist, born in 1971, is endeed one of the most surprising and avant-garde artist out there....The list of his collaborations is really impressive: they range from The Young Mothers to the incredible trio The Thing (with Mats Gustafsson and Paal Nilssen-Love); from the suggestive and overwhelming quintet Atomic to the Scorch Trio, together with Raoul Bjorkenheim and Frank Rosaly.
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A CONVERSATION WITH ONE OF THE MOST SOUGHT-AFTER BASSIST:
​INTERVIEW WITH
​NEIL STUBENHAUS
«Let’s face it, Jaco changed the world of bass. He changed it for me in a big way. I should also credit him for helping to make me confident enough to leave my upright in the closet. He was a friend and I cherished that lucky friendship. A Jaco, a Hendrix, a Brecker comes along once in a lifetime. I can't predict if there is more evolution to come, but anything can happen. Expression is individual, and in the ear of the beholder»
Neil Stubenhaus has played on something like a thousand albums, collaborating with some great stars like Quincy Jones, Gino Vannelli, Blood, Sweat&Tears, Tom Scott, Barbra Streisand, Larry Carlton, George Benson, Steve Cropper, Randy Crawford, Al Jarreau, Commodores, Julio Iglesias, The Isley Brothers, Dionne Warwick, Ute Lemper, Smokey Robinson, Natalie Cole, Burt Bacharach…The list is far from being complete. He’s able to enhance music proposals that are close to Adult Oriented Rock as well as to soul; he’s refined and essential in fusion context, accurate and implacable in rock music. 
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EXPLORING THE ROOTS OF JAZZ IN FINLAND:
​INTERVIEW WITH 
ULF KROKFORS
«Sometimes you hear people play the bass like it is a treble-clef-instrument and that is great. I love Miroslav Vitous for example! But in the music we try to do the bass needs to fulfill a more "bassic" role. Maybe not so many notes but instead strong own melodic lines. It is possible because our music is mostly very open harmonically»
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THE ART OF BASS  TOLD BY ONE OF ITS LEGENDS:
​INTERVIEW WITH
​MO FOSTER
«I sometimes get very depressed when watching YouTube videos of young bass-players trying to impress. They completely miss the point about the role of the bass: its function is to support the other instruments and to dictate the emotional content of the harmony above»
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LIKE A SOUND SCULPTURE SHAPED BY THE BASS LINES 
INTERVIEW WITH ADELHARD ROIDINGER
«In 1978 I met Jaco Pastorius at the Jazz Festival in Berlin and we became close friends after he heard me rehearsing on stage. He jumped on stage and said: «Hey Adelhard, what you are playing? I never heard those lines in the USA before». Since this time he always called me, when he was touring with Weather Report in Europe».
Surely we are faced with a great interpreter of double bass as well as a fine composer, who’s able to maintain his clear and recognisable signature style within the universal and multifaceted language of jazz.
Adelhard Roidinger is a model role as regards the dynamics of the instrument and he’s a leading figure in a kind of jazz landscape that we could define as romantic and expressionist...
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JUST BEHIND THE MYTHS OF JAZZ, THE STORY OF AN AUTHENTIC AND PRICELESS CAREER:
INTERVIEW WITH
​ENZO PIETROPAOLI
«There’s always something to learn and the thing I keep searching is not a “plus” but rather a “minus”; even there, we should aspire to be more in touch with ourselves, by overstepping the clichè and the patterns, and by accepting with love our limits so as to make them a distinguishing feature»
Enzo Pietropaoli is the historical memory of the Italian jazz. An not just of it: Enzo went into the substance of jazz in a multifaceted as well as clever  manner always inspired by his own restless and creative curiosity. He’s a skilled and very appreciable musician both on upright and electric bass...
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THE MUSICIAN OF “TWO WORLDS”:
INTERVIEW WITH
​MARK WADE
«The more I  listened to jazz, the more I realized that if I was to be able to participate in this music I was going to need to approach it as a double bass player»
Directly from New York City, Mark Wade’s debut solo album, Event Horizon, has been the first and successful step to international fame, and it gained the unanimous approval of critics and audience. As a jazz musician with a launched career in classical music and clearly  as a composer, Wade has proved to be one of the most distinctive voices as regards the transversal communication between seemingly distant musical universes. 
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A RISK-ORIENTED CAREER:
​INTERVIEW WITH STEUART LIEBIG
How would I define my bass playing?
​I used to think of electric bass as a combination of double bass, guitar and a drum. A while back, I add cello to that list. I guess that might set up some of the concept. 
Steuart Liebig is endeed a musician who doesn’t gravitate towards a single area,  even if for convenience (not of his own!) he is usually associated to a kind of avant-garde that is closely related to jazz. Clearly, this is a too restrictive definition of his work as well as of the intentions of the artist, also looking at his own peculiar sound on 6-strings bass and his approach respectful of the tradition – not only jazz – but highly risk-oriented, given how many times he’s engaged in recordings and solo performances. 
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A VISIONARY BASS WITH AN INTIMATE AND UNLIMITED SOUND:
INTERVIEW WITH MARK EGAN 
«When I joined the Pat Metheny group in 1976 was the beginning of the real developmental period when I started to play fretless bass. I realized that the instrument was so expressive and that a melody or bass line could be played countless ways with different nuances around the notes. I realized that the bass is a very vocal instrument»
Mark Egan has been a musician of sublime stature with Gil Evans, a key member of the first Pat Metheny Group (together with his mate in Elements band, the drummer Danny Gottlieb), we can find Mark on the best jazz, fusion and pop recordings in a space of 30 years at least of great music, by playing with Michael Franks, Steve Grossman, Jackie McLean, David Matthews, Lew Soloff, Arcadia and a thousand others. 
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THAT'S WHEN PROG AND JAZZ COEXIST IN A SPIRIT OF GROOVE AND ELEGANCE:
INTERVIEW WITH
LORENZO FELICIATI
«Sometimes you can express the great possibilities of the bass when you stop playing it: and when the bass suddenly starts again to play, it all makes sense, even if you only play two single notes!!»
His own powerful sound, his ability to interact in ensamble and to develop the groove of its bass in the most complex ravines of the sound in addition to his fine (even "pop" when it serves) sensibility, those are all things that make Lorenzo Feliciati a really appreciated musician as well as an ideal partner.
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FINE CUT TOBACCO, A BLEND RICH OF SOUNDS WITH A STRONG TASTE:
​INTERVIEW WITH
​ANTHONY LÉTÉVÉ 
«Fine Cut Tobacco is a really personal project to me because each song tells a story of my life, or talks about my world’s vision. It took me a lot of time and a lot of energy to make this project concrete but I feel that I’ve accomplished something important for me, as an artist, not just as a bass player»
The most impressive thing is the perfect interplay between the musicians, an affinity in sound which has its roots in a community of artistic visions as well as of a shared emotional background, an aspect that according to the trio's leader Létévé should be the cornerstone for the creation of the group’s sound, especially for its eclecticism.
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#SIDE TWO
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INTERVIEW WITH RICHIE RANNO ​

​«Peter Scance was an exceptional player in the Billy Sheehan style and it shows on the first Hellcats album. George (DiAna, ndr) is great – we have been playing together for over 15 years. It’s always a pleasure to get on stage with him.... »
​Starz are a legendary band not just for hard rock enthusiasts. ​The guitarist Richie Ranno is the commander of this authentic institution. ​​
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INTERVIEW WITH JOHAN NIEMANN
(​EVERGREY)
«You know, the bass just followed the guitars. 
But through guys like Billy Sheehan, Justin Chancellor and Rex Brown the bass is allowed to take up more space, sonically and musically»
Johan Niemann joined Evergrey in 2010 by taking over for the outgoing Jari Kanulainen. Niemann is a really solid musician coming from many years of militancy in glorious Therion as well as in the very interesting Mind’s Eye; he finally represents a remarkable cornerstone for the great Swedish band mentioned above. 
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REVIEW AND ALBUM CONTEXT
​INTERVIEW WITH
MATS KARLSSON
(220 VOLT, THE SUMMIT)
​
THE TIME OPTIMIST
GerMusica Promotion 2019​
«I will definitely do more solo stuff, I have actually already started putting some stuff down...»
This is the first solo album for Mats Karlsson, who has already been the guitarist from legendary 220 Volt. We can say without hesitation that The time optimist opens with a fabulous track of pure classic hard rock called “Bumping along” on which power as well as the clear sound dominate. For this work Mats asked the collaboration of his brother Ulf on keyboards, the first 220 Volt’s singer Christer “Frille” Åsell, the drummers Peter Hermansson (220 Volt), Björn Höglund (already with Easy Action) and Mike Ajax, while on bass there are alternately Nalle Påhlsson (Therion, Treat, Easy Action) and Lars Ericsson (playing on Walking in starlight of the native band 220 Volt).
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