Local Heros / rivals

[slackdaddy]

Hello All,
I absolutely love this forum. It is great to communicate with so many players from around the world. This is what I am interested in finding out from everyone. Who are your favorite LOCAL players (in some cases, RIVALS). In an effort to keep myself up-to-date I would find this very interesting. Please include your location and the band they play with so players who tour can be on the lookout for these guys/gals. Not necessarily interested in famous or semi-famous players but the NEW or unheard of cats
I will start by letting you know I live in Athens, Georgia USA and some local players I really appreciate are:

Neil Fountain - Megaphone Man
Nick Bielli - Hayride, Japancakes, Knight Seeker..etc
Jeff Reiter - Hey Revolution, improv artist

Lots of great players in town but these guys top my list

 

[Funkee1]

Where I grew up, in Albuquerque, NM, there were 3 guys I thought were awesome.

1. John Blackburn- He had the whole Jaco thing down!!!!
2.- John Gagan- got some notariety because he was Ottmar Liebert's bassist for a while.
3. John Griffin- played with Alma, if anyone is from the Burque onthe s board.

Now that I live in the greater San Angeles basin (San- Diego, Orange County, LA, for those who never saw Demolition man)

There's too many great bassists to count.

Here are some you might not have heard of, but you should:

Jara Harris- Leader of Slapbak
Michael Kenedy- Awesome!!

Kim Stone
Baba Elephante (really! That's his name!)
Cecil McBee Jr (not the famous one, but his son. Plays an MTD)
James East- Nathan's brother.
Melvin Lee Davis.

 

[Funkee1]

Where I grew up, in Albuquerque, NM, there were 3 guys I thought were awesome.

1. John Blackburn- He had the whole Jaco thing down!!!!
2.- John Gagan- got some notariety because he was Ottmar Liebert's bassist for a while.
3. John Griffin- played with Alma, if anyone is from the Burque onthe s board.

Now that I live in the greater San Angeles basin (San- Diego, Orange County, LA, for those who never saw Demolition man)

There's too many great bassists to count.

Here are some you might not have heard of, but you should:

Jara Harris- Leader of Slapbak
Michael Kenedy- Awesome!!

Kim Stone
Baba Elephante (really! That's his name!)
Cecil McBee Jr (not the famous one, but his son. Plays an MTD)
James East- Nathan's brother.
Melvin Lee Davis.

and of course.... ME!
Link Removed

Sorry for the shameless plug, but I would like to be a local legend too!

 

[Eric Moesle]

There are two guys in Columbus, OH who are unbelieveable. One is Andy Woodson, I saw him SMOKE playing a fretless Rob Allan when his band opened up for the Tony Levin Band here a few months ago. He is also a killer upright jazz bassist. Link Removed

On the other side of the coin is Karl Gunther, amazing 6 string player right out of the world of Wooten. Taps, slaps, even plays Midi guitar while he plays bass. Amazing dude. He's more of a "freelance" player, comes and goes from Columbus every year or so it seems, always with a different project.

 

[Smokey]

We don't have too many good bass players around here (hardcore metal scene). But we have a guitar player to watch. He is 17 and a good friend, and he'll be touring with Preacher Gone to Texas this summer. Those in the southwest/west coast are watch out! This guy is amazing. You cannot miss them if they are in your area.

 

[slackdaddy]

Didn't mean to bring up old stuff but I thought players might be interested. Again, I apologize if I have repeated a thread

 

[lildrgn]

There's a dude named Mark XXXXX that plays with a band called Upwell out of Seattle. He's the kind of player that, when you see him, you want to play like him. Groovy, melodic, thoughtful, SUPER-tasty, and confident. I love to listen to this guy toy with his bass.

 

[Planet Boulder]

For those in Colorado, be sure and check out the bassist for a band called "Full Belly". We did a multi-band gig with them a couple of weeks ago at a party and he sounded great!

Plays a really nice Conklin 7-string (Not GT). Nice guy and heck of a player to boot.

Good thread, btw!

 

[snapple]

Two of my local favourites are the bassist from Allfather (black war metal) and this duder Rick May, who does session work. They are on different sides of the music spectrum (technicality vs groove) but they both are tasteful and jaw-dropping good

 

[Ryan L.]

There is one bass player in my area that amazes me every time I go and see his band play. He is also the lead singer for the band, and is unbelievable at that as well.

His name is Karl Kruetz from the band Dozer (Link Removed). Whenever I go and see em, I realize how much more I need to practice.

 

[The Golden Boy]

There's always guys like (for me) McCartney and Mike Mesaros that you always look up to, but there's always someone scary good right under your nose.

My big playing time was around 10 years ago, and one of the greatest guys in the Milwaukee scene was Scotty Schoenbeck of Alligator Gun, he went on to play with the Promise Ring and now plays with the Dashboard Confessional. He's fast and fluid with a feel for flawless note choice.

There's also a guy, Damian Strigens, who used to play with a bunch of local bands like Nerve Twins and the FS Camels. Also he got his fair share of semi-national semi-fame with the Frogs. Now he's not really a "rival" since I just picked up the guitar/bass gig with the reformed Nerve Twins so I get to trade off guitar and bass with him!

 

[brianrost]

Here in Boston, if you turn over a rock there's another bass monster underneath. Too many music schools around here

 

[Wrong Robot]

Here in Boston, if you turn over a rock there's another bass monster underneath. Too many music schools around here

What with Berklee and all, best tread with your head down.

There was a Coffee shop called the Local Hero in my old town, I used to play chess there.

 

[TravellinMan]

Scott Pazera...Hell of a player, composer, and teacher!
www.scottpazera.com

Take care
TM

 

[Woodchuck]

Here in Boston, if you turn over a rock there's another bass monster underneath.

I know EXACTLY what you mean. Atlanta is notorious for monster bassists. Marq Jefferson (TLC, Lil John), Preston Crump (Everybody!), Robert Geisler, Za Williams, Aaron Mills (Cameo) Adam Nitti, Avery Johnson, Khari Simmons (India.Arie), geez, I get depressed and excited thinking about it.

 

[AJ Love]

Bruce Alford is one of the sickest slap bass players anywhere, and he's right here in Madison WI.....

theres a cat in Chicago named Chris Clemente who is amazing, he plays with a group called Kick the Cat

 

[corinpills]

I can attest to how many great bass players there are in Boston. It's just depresisng sometimes. I work at a booking agency that handles Baron Browne from Vital Information. The guy is an absolute beast of a bass player. I've seen him on cover gigs and he's playing the bass line, doubling horn lines, singing a vocal harmony and checking his messages on his cell phone. Just a sick, sick musician.

The other guy we work with a lot is Lenny Stallworth who played with Maceo Parker and has recorded with the Wu Tang Clan. Put it this way, I'm a really good rock bass player, I've been doing it for 22 years and I'm pretty confident about my abilities. I have never, ever picked up a bass in front of Lenny and I have no intention of ever doing so. We sometimes pick up GB gigs together and as far as he knows I'm just an OK guitar player who sings the rock tunes.

 

[dirtgroove]

My teacher Nick.
There is no music scene here to speak of. A few local bands but really that's it. Not many people even played the geetar here before let alone bass -18 years ago when he started.
He's almost entirely self taught. His musical theory level phenomenal and his techniques are seriously impressive. He has done stacks of session work/ recording. He started the only bass studio/workshop that I know of in the whole of Taiwan 6 months back and teaches there on weekends for a minimal fee- when not doing his full time job(the working week here is around 55 hours per week ).
He set up the only Mandarin bass related website a year ago- making the information on the instrument/ bass players/ technique and theory accessible to literally millions of people (china/Taiwan) that was previously inaccessible. Bassnet.idv.tw (hardly competition to this website as it's entirely in Mandarin).


He does all of this, and probably loses money on it- just for the love of playing and watching others play. People go on about Entwistle (sp?) Jacko, Wooten, Flea, Wimbish even yer man from Mudvayne- all great players for sure but that's fantasy stuff as far as I'm concerned. People getting lucky breaks desrevedly or not. What thid guy does is totally at a grass roots level and purely for the love of just hanging out with Kids and helping them learn to play.

Respect is just not a strong enough word.

 

[nysbob]

Lots of fine players from here in Cincy (Hey Bootsie is a local) - 2 of my favorites are Michael Scharfe (upright particularly) on the jazz side & CC Thomas who lives in LA now - I think he's on tour with Diana Ross currently. OK, so he moved...he's still a homie.

....and some people think I'm pretty good too ...

 

[sunburstbasser]

I have but one hero in town, that being a guy named Jeremy Prouty. Hell of a good fingerstylist, poor tone, no slapping, but actually does something with the bass. Plays with Tom Downey and Friends, who will never go on tour (thank god, Tom sucks). Also have a forgettable drummer and THE BEST SINGER IN ROCK HISTORY his name is Ryan Holzer and he's also a gifted guitarist.

My main rival is Shane Yarnell. Can't play, boring songs, no stage presence, **** mix, and he's got gigs up to his eyeballs!