Here's a great video of Nathan East playing Stevie Wonder's classic "Sir Duke" at the NAMM TEC Awards last January. Everyone sounds great, check out ArtistWorks teacher Luis Conte on percussion!
Playing with Wayne Shorter is something that John Patitucci holds very close to his heart, along with the other the other members of the Wayne Shorter Quartet (Danilo Pérez and Brian Blade). The trio recently released an album called Children of the Light as an homage to their leader, and as pianist Danilo Pérez says, "is our show of love, care and gratitude for all the lessons." The jazz saxophone legend himself joined them on stage recently for a few shows, which judging from the footage which appeared online, were especially cooking.
We recently asked John about the influence Wayne Shorter has had on him and what it was like getting back on stage as the full quartet. He also talks about some of the other things he's been up to as well as his plans for the new year.
Nathan East was in Thailand recently where he did an interview with Guitar Thai Online. They get into some interesting topics including:
What is the essence of bass playing?
“For me the essence is just trying to find the right notes for whatever song I’m playing. Nothing more, nothing less - just really zeroing in on the best notes for the song that I’m involved with. The role of the bass is to be the foundation from the bottom up, the concrete for the house. It’s not to be too flashy but to be very supportive of what’s going on over top of it.”