Jazz Great Wayman Tisdale Dead at 44

The bass community is sadden today by the announcement that jazz great [OK, he played a little basketball to] has lost his battle with bone cancer. The one-time Oklahoma star and NBA player who recorded several jazz albums, died at 44 after a two year battle with cancer. Tisdale, was an Olympic gold medalist and three-time All American for Oklahoma, played for the Indiana Pacers, Sacramento Kings, and Phoenix Suns during a 12 season NBA career.

As a bass player, Tisdale made his jazz recording debut in 1995 with "Power Forward." He released eight albums, all of which were top 10 on Billboard's Contemporary Jazz Albums chart, including three that went to No. 1 -- 2001's "Face to Face," "Way Up!" in 2006 and his most recent album, 2008's "Rebound," which features a cover of Barry White's "Never Gonna Give You Up" with country singer Toby Keith on vocals.

Tisdale was diagnosed with bone cancer in 2007, and his right leg was amputated last August.

Thanks for the music Wayman.....rest in peace man!

Help give Wayman's family some support by buying his music. Here is a link to some of his great music on Amazon.Com



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Marcus Miller - Jaco's Teen Town Slap Bass Style

What am I working on this week? Jacos "Teen Town". This is one of those songs that I have always struggled with. The section right after the opening theme has always given me fits. So I have used it for years as a string skipping exercise for myself as well as students. So I come upon this video [see video below] of Marcus Miller doing it live and he freakin' thumbs the part! He makes it look effortless to boot. So if you give this a try remember to go slow [sick of hearing me say that yet!] and make sure to limit your motion. When most players struggle with this kind of technique they have a tendency to flail their thumb and hand about. Keep it close and tight and you'll get it! Let me know how you do.



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Mark King Level 42 Bass Solo

One of the things I love about the online video sharing websites is the influence it has on young players. What we are exposed to as young players is programmed into us at a very critical time. So you have to think, if we have players like Mark King, Stanley Clarke, Victor Wooten and on and on, that were never influenced by the access to these videos what will the young players of today be like 20 years from now with this kind of learning tool. I brought this up to a friend and he thinks that they will not be any better and maybe even not as good. His theory is that we have become a culture of watchers instead of a culture of creators. Interesting thought, I hope I am around for decades to come to see for myself.

Check out one of my favorite videos of Mark King from Level 42. I noticed it has 914,068 views as of this morning. That's a lot of influence on a lot of players.