Just released is Keith Jarrett's new duo album with Charlie Haden. I must say, I love what I have heard so far.

Here's the tease and two tracks from YouTube:

And here's the ECM info page:

http://player.ecmrecords.com/jarrett-haden-jasmine

I normally find the vocalizations that Keith Jarrett does while he plays very off-putting, but there doesn't seem to be much of that on this recording.

And Charlie Haden is a true master - he plays so simply, but says so much, straight from the heart.

Andy

I love Tim Minchin's work, and this latest is pure genius.

Warning: might be a teeny bit NSFW :-0

Virtuoso is a label much over used, but with Renaud Garcia-Fons it's certainly appropriate. He plays a 5-string double bass, with a high 'C' (rather than the more common low 'B'). He plays, with an eclectic mixture of musicians, music that I can best describe as World-Jazz, 

I was checking YouTube for versions of the great tune "Wild is the Wind," as I'm working up a Bass/Voice duo version (with Rachel Sorsa Khoury ( @RachelsKhoury ). If you're not familiar with this beautiful and haunting song, info is on Wikipedia here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Is_the_Wind_%28song%29 .

The first version to check out was, of course, Nina Simone - pretty much the definitive version. Seven minutes of captivating music, and if this doesn't move you at least halfway to tears you're beyond hope.

And as so often happens, I stumbled upon another, unexpected, gem of a version in my search - Esperanza Spalding Live in San Sebastian. Esperanza is a young double bass player and singer who is getting a lot of press and publicity right now. And all that hype is richly deserved, as this clip illustrates:

OK, blogging procrastination over, I'm going to go work on that duo version now.

I've been posting clips of some of my favorite bass influences and today, on Twitter, Bass Musician Magazine ( @BassMusicianMag ) reminded me of Avishai Cohen. I first came across his work with Chick Corea's New Trio [ http://www.emusic.com/album/The-New-Chick-Corea-Trio-Past-Present-Futures-MP3-Download/11435895.html ], and not only is he a great bass player, he is a unique and interesting composer too. He manages to make odd timings sound so natural and musical  - beautiful and haunting are adjectives that come to mind.

So the answer to yesterdays trivia question - Danny Thompson. Probably my first DB influence with John Martyn and later with Richard Thompson. So here's a clip from each:

Sadly John Martyn passed away recently, but Danny is still alive and kicking, and there's lots of new clips on YouTube added recently. Since I wrote the first draft of this I found out (via Twitter Yay! thanks @girlimperfectly) that Danny is taking a much needed vacation here in Los Angeles right now. Pity he's not performing so I can go see him while he's here, but I'm sure he's enjoying some much deserved rest. I saw Danny and Richard Thompson as a duo in L.A. a couple of years ago - wonderful, memorable night.

An Englishman and a Double Bass - what's not to like :-) Amazing Playing.

Dave Holland was one of my early DB influences, and still is. (If I can find something appropriate I'll post something from my other main DB influence, also British.)

(Hat tip to http://www.notreble.com/)

Every time I write a post on Posterous it should get autoposted to Twitter. Let's try that out. If it gets annoying I can always turn it off.

Andy

Sent from my iPhone

Well, let's see if this is as easy as they say. First post up with a simple email.

Andy