#Bernhard Hollinger

[giovanni-raabe]

Poster for my tour with ‘Far Behind the Sun’. Thank you Nils Villmann, Julius Krebs & Bernhard Hollinger for the support!

[theothersidereviews]

Bernhard Hollinger – Fly (2020)

Bernhard Hollinger uses the instrumental track ‘Fly’ to take you on an adventure through the subconscious. Find out more in our review!

Part of the upcoming scene of progressive musicians in Berlin, Bernhard Hollinger is combining traditional and modern elements to defy genres. His compositions mirror his diverse interesting in music. He is also able to gather highly talented upcoming musicians to contribute to his unique and dynamic sound. His contrast-full program shines with his single ‘Fly’ from his upcoming album 1987.

Th…

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In the last minute I was invited to substitute a dear friend of mine  for the “Oorsprong Curators Series” in Plantage Dokhuis. I was very happy as I am more an more attracted to improvised music.

The Concept of the series is to bring together Music, Dance, Words, Acting & performing arts. It also includes that the bandmembers have never performed together before (to make sure that its completely instant and no rehearsing involved).

What a great experience it was to explore together with Miriam Overlach (Harp), Yaniv Ginton (Tabla), Miri Lee, Maria Michailidou, Corneliu Ganea & Dorit Weintal (Movement).

Thanks to Eleni Tzialli for capturing this great moment!!!!

oorsprong on fb:

https://www.facebook.com/sonicperspective?fref=ts

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Fräulein Hahnkamper on the dark side of bass!!!!!!!!!!!

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James Singleton and free-improvisation

Talking about New Orleans and just having posted a video of my new free-improvisation-project, one name immidiately came up. The first time I came across free-improvisation was actually in New Orleans in 2012.

I was studiying at Loyola on St. Charles Avenue and from time to time they would have concerts. This one day, one of my favourite bass-players would come out to play. His name is James Singleton. He is especially known for being the bassplayer in one of the most famous band, coming out from NOLA: ASTRAL PROJECT!!! This band consists of no one less than Tony Dagradi on Saxophon (lucky enough, I had some lessons with him), Johnny Vidacovich on drums (very crazy and inpsiring character - in a good way), James Singleton on bass and Steve Masakowski on Guitar (funny side-story: I met his Son a couple of years earlier in Rotterdam, where he was studying, later on he would stay at my place in the Redlight-district in Amsterdam for some time). 

After the concert in the lounge on my campus we started having a nice conversation. unfortunately James had to run off to his next show, which was a free-improv-performance in an old neighbourhood-theatre. He would just take me with him in his car there, which was amazing, talking about music with him and life. Arriving at the Theater I could really feel some kind of voodoo. And then the show started which I did not have any clue what it would be. Basically the 4 musicians set up in this space in the different corners and the audience would sit in the middle. Next to me was a older black lady which was tripping and chanting, completely in her zone to the sound which was around her. (I told you Voodoo - there is a big Voodoo-History in New Orleans btw). The Quartett had James on Upright and another charakter on drums: Simon Lott. Additionally they have Guitar and Keys!!!

https://soundcloud.com/wativ

https://wativ.bandcamp.com/album/syntaxis

Its amazing what they do, using also lots of effects! I was amazed by the athmospheres they created. It would take me some time till I moved to Leipzig in January 2015 till I was very affected by the approach of free improvisation. But now I remember that this evening had a strong effect on me.

To continue the story of this evening, after the show James took me to his 3rd and final gig that night at “Maple Leaf” -Bar, where he would play some funky music (I think with Johnny Vidacovich and Skerik on Saxophon). What an amazing evening this was. Later on I would pass by his house for a lesson/hang.

James would tell me one thing, if you want your music to be played, make it simple. Then you’ll find your guys which you feel comfortable with! Yes its a nice thing, in order to explore, create an easy environment, get the right guys and explore!!!

Another point, what I thought was nice. James was super experimental, trying out anything. Traditional music, free improv, modern Jazz,..... Also he was always using lots of effects in order to bring out different colours of his playing (bowing, slapping, finger, soft, muted,....). I have never seen upright-bass-players who were doing that in this extent. Also he was doing a lots of looping while soloing. He is using a “Boomerang”-Loopstation which are produced in Texas. One function he was making use of a lot and which I am missing with other loopers, as that you could fade in and out Loops (he would have a finger-Solo and then transitioning into a Bowing-part...). James has so much humor, he would loop some soundscape and also play trumpet on top. Awesome!!!!

After all he was a big inspiration for me picking up the sousaphone just like that, or using vocals or other instruments in your perfomance, and so much more........!!!

Thanks James!!!!!

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Some years ago I was lucky enough to have spent some time in NEW ORLEANS!!!! I was in an exchange-program and so I ended up for 5 months on campus of an american college (including life on campus....-which is very different from the european way of studying). I decided to break up the whole time in smaller stories of encounters with different amazing musicians. Funny enough I’ll start with a story about a project I initiated when coming back....

When I came back I got an old helicon and started jamming around with some friends. We ended up playing many concerts and tours and you can even buy merch and our CD now. The Band is called NEUTRAL GROUND BRASS BAND and you can find more info and material right here:

https://www.facebook.com/neutralgroundbrassband

http://www.ngbb.net

https://neutralgroundbrassband.bandcamp.com/releases

I have never played the sousaphone before, but somehow the band just took off, and we have played many tours with concerts all around europe (Germany, Slovenia, Austria, Italy, Poland, Belgium, Netherlands & England)

Also really interesting aspect of this is, that I learned a lot about music and my electric-bass-playing. On the Tuba my playing became much more homogen, As I was much more working with my breath and my body. Also I am experimenting playing the sousaphone now through some effects... Curious what I am coming up with in the near future.

As I am considering myself still as mainly an electric bassplayer (although you will see me hitting a lots of different instruments) I also started another project. Initially I was playing the upright-bass, but just a couple of days ago I tried something, remembering that even in New Orleans there is an electric bassplayer playing the old traditional music (YES ELECTRIC-BASS!!!)

For the concert a couple of days ago I got out my old 77´Fender Jazz-Bass and put Flatwound-strings on it! I was amazed how round and warm and also how close to an acoustic sound I got. The band is called “BERNIE’S BOUNCE” and there are recordings (on the upright though) online:

https://soundcloud.com/bernies_bounce

All of this came up after being really inspired by my travels to this beautiful city of NEW ORLEANS. ....’Do you know what it means, to miss New Orleans’.... YES!!!!! I DO!! Missing it each night and each day! So happy to be sharing this music here, remembering my time there with each note (on my electric Bass)!!!

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Another great bass-player I encountered when I was living in Santiago de Chile a couple of years ago was Marcelo Córdova.

He was studying upright-bass in europe (France). He took lessons with Dominique di Piazzia aswell on electric bass. Now he is one of chile’s most versatile players. Accompaning beautifully on upright and playing really strong fusion-bass on his electric, which is a handmade instrument from the US (I think).

The first time I heard him was in his Drum-&-Bass-Duo “CZ” at the Jazz-Bass-Festival in San Bernardo. I was amazed by the music. very modern and very electronic. He was not only playing the bass but also controlling Abletone and changing parts and loops in realtime. Really modern arrangments and sounds were used and great solos aswell. I was very happy that I could finally meet up with him and talk about his approach and his music. What was really nice to see was his openess towards electronics and effects (which reminded me a bit of Matthew Garrison) ;-)

Besides that Marcelo already released a couple of albums by himself. The latest is called TOC!

You can check his homepage for more information:

http://www.cordobass.com/

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This post will be about Christian Galvez from Santiago de Chile. I was travelling to Chile 2 years ago and people kept telling me his name. Without checking him out I went to meet up with him for a lesson and got quite my ass kicked.

Christian is quite a passionate guy who lives music 24/7. He has a very intense practice routine, no wonder he plays like monster and his musical knowledge is huge.

In my eyes, his strong point is traditional jazz-harmony. He really is able to play like guitar-players (comping on a high-spead, with all those voicings and harmonic inside). He is able to pull this off on his beautiful semi-accoustic 6-String-bass (AYS is the name of the brand, really beautiful handmade basses by a very nice guy) on which he put Flatwounds. Mostly he is playing on an Roland Guitar-Amp.

I found this video in which you can pretty much see what he can do!!!

In the lesson we had he talked a lot about harmony and voicings. For everybody who wants to get more into Chordplaying I made this little resume of my lesson with him.

Its pretty much the start of it all: triads, inversions, 7th-chords....

He encouraged me to put it all on the bass and to check it out and helped me enormously to get also much more into harmony, as you get very aware of what you doing by playing voicings. Also after some time with it, I pretty soon started to compose lots of music on the bass.

After this lesson, Christian asked me to play at the first Electric-Bass-Jazz-festival ever in Chile: San Bernardo Jazz!!! What an honour, especially after seeing the poster to the event:

What an amazing experience. I had the honour to play together with Chile’s best electric bassplayers aswell as with Dominique di Piazzia and Gary Wilis (both of them gave some workshops aswell).

For the festival Christian asked me to also perform a solo-piece. I could have played “contiuum” but then I thought its a nice possibility to play original material, so therefore I composed a beautiful little piece called “Vamos a San Bernardo” (recordings will be online soon).

[thedarksideofbass-blog]

I am very happy to have been accepted for a residency in one of Amsterdam’s finest cultural spot: OT301.

Its and old film-academy-building which was squatted and now made into a event/gallery-space. Last weekend they opened all their doors as they celebrated the 16ths birthday of the place.

Exactly in those days a dear singer-friend of mine from vienna was visiting and we decided to participate and join forces for a performance. Fräulein Hahnkamper is her name.

We performed her spoken words together with some experimental bass-improvisation. (Currently I am working on a Electric-bass-audiobook). This picture was taking in my living-room. After our official performance we decided to perform 2 more pieces for friends and visitors.

Fräulein Hahnkamper & the dark side of bass

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Feeling so grateful after coming back from Germany, where I was performing at the Jazzfestival in Ingolstadt. So happy that I sticked around. I met some very inspiring people and saw some great music. This weekend almost became a tradition for me over the last years.

The main-weekend is the weekend of the so called “Jazz-Parties” in a Hotel. This is where also the musicians would stay (and me too). One morning I would catch Jimmy Haslip and Jeff Lorber at the reception. Jimmy was really relaxed and just started talking with me instantly. Was talking about music and life with him, about his project with Jeff Lorber and Allan Holdsworth. Funny enough, this guy even went to another studio-gig right after his show the night before (Thursday night is usually a club-night: 8 Concerts in 8 Clubs in the centre + a welcome-party at the hotel with jamsession). There he got a “goodie-Bag” which he wanted to get rid off, because he was on the way to the airport, taking a plane. BAM! hahahaha unexpected presents are nice! :-) A nice little encounter to start off that day.

This morning I also would get a bigger present, as I won a competition with this blog. The prize was a “meet&greet” with marcus miller and one of his freshly released signature-basses made by Sire. It was so nice to meet him and we instantly started jamming around for 30min on our basses. His playing was so strong (as I could imagine it, after having played so many shows). Really stable groove & Sound. He would explain me, how he is working with the bass and with the Eq. His main message was, that you always should hear, what you play.... focusing on one sound and singing it. “if you only have noice in your head, thats also what will come out”. Another one was: “play with conviction!” Great messages and surly a deep experience to have had jammed with him.

Another special thing at this Festival is, that the session-band came all the way from New Orleans, what made me bit sentimental (as I lived there for 5months in 2013). Was so nice to see them again, and especially listen to them. The first night I was tripping so hard, as they were jamming alla “bitches brew”. Amazing band (John Jones on drums, Roland Guerin on Bass, Ashlin Parker on Trumpet, Olivia Trummer on Keys, Chris Adkins on Guitar).

Niogi came all the way from Israel and played some kind of “oldschool” fusion with Ewi and lots of different sounds. Their bass-player was great too (Per Mathisen from Oslo). He was working with lots of different sounds. He even let me try his fretless bass and was quite stunned. Handmade bass from bulgaria with the name Dika (dikaguitars.com). A very solid fretless-bass with a lots of swell (what I like). This band just released their new album, which was recorded at a studio in Oslo with a guy, who also recorded Pat Metheny back in the days.

Also Steve Gadd Band was there (with Jimmy Johnson on bass) was performing, Marcus Miller with a great young guitarplayer (Adam Agati), Incognito, Dominic Miller (Guitarplayer of Sting), Butterscotch, Vincent Peirani & Emile Parisien, Wolfgang Haffner Trio (With Ulf Wakenius and Ingmar Heller), Robert Batyi.

Last but not least, I was also performing myself there on wednesday in Diagonal (club in the centre). Was an Allstar-formation including Oliver Mochmann (who came all the way from vienna), Martin Kasper, Joey Finger, Matthias Hetzer, Charly Böck. Was very nice to play some own songs aswell as some arrangments of some oldschool classics (Jean Pierre & I Can’t help it) in a full house. BAM!

Big Thanks to Jan Rottau, Gunther Matejka, Marcus Miller, Musikhaus Thomann, Huffington Post, The Jazzoffice team (for making everybody feel good), Eleni Tzialli and all the guys I met there.

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Another artist I’ll focus on my research will be Thundercat!!! First time I listened to his album was on the way to my meet-up with Mike Bendy in NY. I was instantly hooked by its depth and completely different approach to music. Most of the tracks would be based on the bass, playing melodies, grooves & Chords.

Also what really made it special is, when I saw him live, playing that music in a TRIO!!! This is something what I am also foccusing on in my research, playing in small settings.

I found some help with this track by Jodie Bremaneson, bassplayer from the UK, who also transcribed this song. The whole album is a mix of almost minimalistic electronic beats, progressive harmonies and sung melodies on top - and also sick solos!!!

This song is based on a A and B-Melody. The form in the beginning is AABAA. The groove is not based on a single-note pattern, but on a more chordal approach. So it makes those jumps in the bass-line really easy (also knowing that he is playing a 6-string-bass). The harmony is pretty hip, only using Maj-Chords (parallel harmony - what makes it also quite challenging to solo nicely on). What makes this one really hip is, that the bass is playing the melody with a filter-effect, doubling the synth & and the synth/bass is playing the arpeggios in the background, all driven by this really pushy drum-beat. 

Thanks to J Bremaneson for doing that work!!

Can’t wait to perform this one!!!!

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This post is very special. When I was in NYC I saw Felix Pastorius’ Band in 55Bar. But there were 2 Bassplayers.... bit irritated at first I got used to it and started loving it. The other guy was killing too and later on after the show I went up and started talking to him. His name is MIKE BENDY. In the background of the club you could listen to him playing Havona at a really young age.

Couple of days later, we would have arranged that I come out to his place 45min north of NYC to hang and jam. He would show me some of JACO’s original strings and gears..... (as he is a really close friend to Felix, he grew up in the house, Jaco lived... He ended up shedding the bass together with Felix). We ended up playing the whole afternoon.

His playing is, just like Felix’ quite unique, as they are both self-taught. Its full of energy and nice unique ideas. Back home in Amsterdam I would do some research on him. Couldnt find anything on the net, but those youtube-links. I found this one and was hooked.

Its a very modern way of playing groove. A more chordal approach, this is why he can do all those dead-notes so easily (using 4 fingers in the right hand). Later on, he would break out of the harmony even more, using all kind of voicings (knowing that he is playing a 6 string - its easier).

I transcribed it and also transposed it to the 4string-Bass (changing the key) - Song is divided in 3 sections. A = groove-part with different alternatives, B = chordal-part starting from the 4th, ending with this really nice Emaj7, C = 2nd-groove-part, finishing it all up with a crazy line in the end.

In case you wanna check it out on the 4string, let me know and I can send it to you!!! Otherwise, just transpose this one!!!

Hope you get as much inspired as I do!!!!

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Today I had the honour to perform an open rehearsal with the “Frank Zappa”-Ensemble, led by two of his former musicians: Bobby Martin & Tom Fowler.

(They also gave a little Q&A-Interview earlier that day!)

Was so nice to have been “coached” by them in probably the most un-intellectual way there is. They really digged our playing and the only thing they were missing is the actual BALLS, which they showed us.. so we ended up playing together! I was even ending up trading a Solo with Tom, which came out epic!!!!

Frank Zappa’s Music is so special, as it is a mix of Rock, Classical, Jazz, indian Music......

I havn’t been listening to him at all (shame on me) but just checking out the songs for this ensemble, make me feel, that his music is an endless inspiration. Funny enough.... I am hearing thouse kind of songs also in my head!!! I hope I can get close enough and somehow bring it out on paper / into a band!!!!

[thedarksideofbass-blog]

7 years ago I was lucky to be chosen for the Jazz-Award of JazzTage Ingolstadt. Have been going there ever since and have met amazing people and magical musicians. Also Ill be performing with “Söhne & Töchter Ingolstadts” on Wednesday 4th November. This festival always reminds me, how amazing it can feel to make music. So many people truly appreciating and taking care of you.

I’m always irritated, when you are left alone as the artist at a place you are supposed to perform and share your magic. If you want to make the people feel good, you gotta feel good and in the mood to share that love.

Encountering more & more events, where its much more important how it looks to the outside observer.... rather than how it feels, esp. how those people feel who are the core of the event: the artist/performer/team!!!!