Tour Discussion Panel Live

Thu, 10/19/2017 - 10:05am
Written by ArtistWorks

jazz musician tour discussion panel

Recently we had the pleasure of visiting a few of our teachers backstage during a tour their respective groups were doing together. Eric Marienthal and John Patitucci are original members of the Chick Corea Electric Band, and they were doing a US tour with Bela Fleck & The Flecktones, of which Howard Levy is an original lineup member on harmonica and piano.

The two powerhouse virtuoso bands were performing at the Green Music Center at Sonoma State University, which isn't not too far away from the ArtistWorks headquaters so we brought some cameras out to record some great musical discussion backstage. This is the first time we've had these three amazing musicians in a discussion panel candidly talking about touring together and being a touring musician in general. The cameras rolled for well over an hour and in that time they shared tour stories including highlights, tips for people getting into that world, horror stories and much more. 

Update: All parts of this discussion series are now available. Check it out in the +Music section! 

ArtistWorks Live: Talking Jazz with John Patitucci

Thu, 06/15/2017 - 2:04pm
Written by ArtistWorks

In this month’s episode of ArtistWorks Live, we were talking with our jazz bass teacher John Patitucci. He’s always up to something and it was interesting to learn more about his experiences as a professional musician. We had some great questions coming in, thanks to everyone who participated!

As always, we send out links to these in advance to our 12 month members so can tune in ask whatever questions they have. It's always different, but always fun. Check it out, and see below for links to more episodes of ArtistWorks Live!

John Patitucci Bass Solo: "Giant Steps"

Tue, 03/22/2016 - 11:42am
Written by ArtistWorks

John Patitucci plays a blistering "Giant Steps" bass solo here with Bill Stewart on drums accompanying him. This classic jazz composition was originally recorded in 1959 by John Coltrane for his album Giant Steps. A similar version of this appears on John Patitucci's 1998 album Now which also features Bill Stewart on drums, Michael Brecker and Chris Potter on tenor saxophone, and John Scofield on guitar. "Giant Steps" is known for being one of the most difficult tunes to improvise over in the Jazz Canon because of its harmonic structure, so seeing John play it so effortlessly here makes it that more impressive. 

For tips and insights on how to play this great jazz tune, do a search for "Giant Steps" in Video Exchange Library - or just submit your own version to John here at ArtistWorks and he will be happy to help.  

John Patitucci Talks about Teaching Online at ArtistWorks

Tue, 01/05/2016 - 4:15pm
Written by ArtistWorks

“What’s really amazing to me is to have students all around the world reach out to me with their questions and ideas and exchange with other students from around the world… it provides an opportunity for me to teach students all around the world from my own home or wherever I am." - John Patitucci

In this video John Patitucci talks about what it's been like teaching bass online at ArtistWorks for over three years now.