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2001: A Bass Odyssey
World’s First Bass Looping Tour
featuring legendary electric bassist
Michael Manring with Steve Lawson, Rick Walker and Max Valentino
At the forefront of the emerging Live Looping Movement, legendary bassist
Michael Manring, British newcomer bass sensation Steve Lawson and master
percussionist/multi-instrumentalist Rick Walker will be performing as an
improvisational live looping trio in the World’s First Bass Looping Tour. All
three artists will be presenting short solo performances, along with innovative
acoustic/electric bassist Max Valentino, and then the Manring/Walker/Lawson
looping trio will take the stage to perform a long improvisational set drawing
from the incredibly diverse musical backgrounds that these three versatile
musicians bring to the table.
The “tour” begins in Berkeley, Ca. on July 5 and includes dates in
Sacramento, Big Sur, and Santa Cruz with more shows being added. Look for
insights, tidbits, and photos from Michael Manring, Steve Lawson, Rick Walker
and Max Valentino as they share their feelings about this historical outing: The
World’s First Solo Bass/Looping Tour.
Following on the heels of the First Solo Bass Looping Festival held in Santa
Cruz, Ca. earlier this year (which garnered attention in looping circles around
the world, and featured Steve Lawson, Max Valentino and Rick Walker) Lawson, who
is good friends with Michael Manring, suggested that the two of them join up
with Walker to try a bass oriented looping improvisational group. Walker having
promoted several solo looping festivals was impressed by Lawson’s flawless
looping technique and eagerly signed on, and invited Valentino, who recently
completed and interview with Michael Manring for talkbass.com, to join the tour
as a support act. Lawson, whose trip to the U.S. is being sponsored by ASHDOWN
AMPLIFIERS, is also supporting his live solo bass CD, "..and nothing but
the bass" on this tour.
Digital looping involves a musician recording a musical passage and then, in
real time, cloning it and letting it repeat indefinitely, allowing the musician
to take on multiple roles in the ensemble by switching parts while s/he plays to
the previously recorded ‘loops’. The technology of digital looping has
existed for the last eight years, but it has only been recently that this new
musical art form has begun to emerge from its infancy. Evidenced by Live Looping
Festivals occurring world wide in the last year and a half, there are musicians
who do entire solo performances as ‘one-person’ bands. All three featured
artists have been looping for many years and all perform solo looping concerts
regularly. Elements of trance and repetition are major themes in digitally
looped music and the new genre pulls from such diverse musical idioms as
ambient, industrial, jungle, jazz, pop, progressive rock, abstract electronica
and the avante garde.
Manring, Walker and Lawson have all been studio and touring musicians for many
years in more conventional musical genres. Michael Manring is especially famed
for his work with the Windham Hill label but has also played with avante garde
artists, such as Henry Kaiser in his ‘Yo Miles’ tribute concerts. Rick
Walker is one of the founding members of the world beat movement in Northern
California and has been know recently for his forays into the world of abstract
electronica and modern dance composition and has toured and recorded with Bob
Brozman, Martin Simpson, Debhashish Battycharya and Babatunde Olatunji. Steve
Lawson (who you recognize as a contributor here at Talkbass) is an incredibly
talented newcomer to the scene, already turning heads and drawing the praise of
some of the worlds’ most famous bassists. He has also performed with top
artists such as Howard Jones and Johnny Markin. Max Valentino, another new and
rising talent, has a prodigious studio career and has of late been garnering
rave reviews for multi-layered solo bass performances.
the confirmed shows are:
July 5 , 2001 9pm
The First Berkeley Bass Looping Festival
featuring Manring/Walker/Lawson trio, plus Max Valentino
TUVA Gallery, 3192 Adeline Street, Berkeley, CA.
July 6.2001 7pm
The First Ever Sacramento Bass Looping Festival,
featuring Manring/Walker/Lawson trio,with Max Valentino
Borders Books & Music
2339 Fair Oaks Boulevard
Sacramento, CA 95825
July 7, 2001 8pm
Second Annual Big Sur Looping Festival, featuring
Manring/Walker/Lawson trio, with Max Valentino.
Henry Miller Library,
Highway One,
Big Sur, CA 93920
July 8, 2001 San Jose (venue TBC)
July 9, 2001 8pm Rick Walker and the Rio Theater Present:
The 2nd Santa Cruz Bass Looping Festival - featuring Michael
Manring, Steve Lawson, Rick Walker, and Max Valentino.
Rio Theatre
1205 Soquel Ave
Santa Cruz, CA 95062
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