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Become a 'Believer' in Oteil and the Peacemakers
Posted by
Zambi on Feb 05, 2006 - 05:43 PM (4522 Reads) |
Thursday, February 02, 2006 - Last Updated: 7:48 AM
BY MARK R. PANTSARI
Special to The Post and Courier
Most any live music fan in the know should be able to rattle off at least a couple of the bands to which bassist Oteil Burbridge has lent his talents.
He was an original member of Col. Bruce Hampton's Aquarium Rescue Unit in the 1990s. That band is thought of as one of the more influential early jam bands. He's toured and recorded with the hard-hitting Gov't Mule.
Burbridge has also released two albums with former Phish keyboardist Page McConnell and Funky Meters drummer Russell Batiste. And for nearly a decade, Burbridge has been a member of the legendary Allman Brothers Band. As a rejuvenating force in the Allman Brothers, Burbridge was part of the band's heralded 2003 album (the band's first studio release in nearly a decade), "Hittin the Note."
With a gracious amount of spare time away from the Allman Brothers, Burbridge has managed to release three solo albums fronting Oteil and the Peacemakers.
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Six strings of funk
Posted by
Zambi on Feb 05, 2006 - 05:43 PM (4028 Reads) |
Allman Brothers Band bassist Oteil Burbridge brings his own groove to Lafayette
Oteil Burbridge is a member of the Allman Brothers Band. He will bring his own jazz fusion jam band, the Peacemakers, to the Lafayette Brewing Company on Feb. 10.
By Tim Brouk
tbrouk@journalandcourier.com
You know the floor and walls will rumble when Oteil Burbridge and Victor Wooten get together for a project.
The men are considered two of the funkiest and best bass players in the business today. Wooten's main gig is with Bela Fleck and the Flecktones. Burbridge is a member of the Allman Brothers Band. Burbridge and Wooten always have a handful of side projects going.
Burbridge, 41, prefers to play a six-string bass while Wooten sticks with a four-stringer.
"A six-string can go higher and lower than a regular bass," explained Burbridge, while on his way to a show in Memphis, Tenn. "It was just me and him and a drummer. There was no clashing. With the range of the six-string bass, I could go underneath or above Vic's four-string."
After the Allman Brothers, Burbridge's pet project is his band Oteil and the
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Allmans bassist likes 'fujospel' on the side
Posted by
Anonymous on Jan 29, 2006 - 04:39 AM (5003 Reads) |
The Huntsville Times
Thursday, January 26, 2006
By CHRIS WELCH
Times Entertainment Writer, chrisw@htimes.com
"Oteil is the best out there. He is the Michael Jordan of bass, but he never loses the groove. I can't even describe how much fun it is to play with him. If you don't enjoy listening to Oteil, you must be listening sideways."
- Allman Brothers guitarist Derek Trucks
The Michael Jordan of bass?
Now that's high praise coming from one of the best young guitar players in rock 'n' roll.
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In My CD Player: Oteil Burbridge
Posted by
Zambi on Dec 23, 2005 - 02:55 PM (4059 Reads) |
Thursday, December 22, 2005
- Ed Bumgardner
relish staff report
Oteil Burbridge is one of the top electric bass players in the world. He has won kudos for his intricate melodicism and finger-tangling technical ability, for his far-reaching versatility and for his innate down-to-earth funkiness. Such traits made him the perfect bassist for Col. Bruce Hampton & The Aquarium Rescue Unit - a delightfully demented band, now defunct, that flitted from get-down gospel to cosmic bluegrass to songs that embraced elements of jazz, classical music and blues.
A musician had to get his swerve on to play in the Rescue Unit, and Burbridge's ability to handle anything tossed his way - and then toss in a little something extra - brought him international attention and a job with the Allman Brothers Band, which he still holds.
Burbridge also leads a solo band, The Peacemakers, but he will be in Winston-Salem at 9 p.m. Wednesday at Ziggy's to play with Solos, one of his fave bands.
Burbridge took time between tours to chat with relish and try to narrow a list of favorite discs down to five. "My tastes are too diverse," he said, laughing. "I love too much music. I didn't even get to list any bluegrass or classical-music albums." There's always next time, Oteil.
Rev. James Cleveland, I Walk With God: "James Cleveland is probably my favorite singer on the planet. He's so soulful and passionate that it's amazing. The man is ... connected."
Howlin' Wolf, The Real Folk Blues/More Real Folk Blues: "This is the real deal in blues. It's all you need to know. Just listen to 'I'll Be Around' or 'Three-Hundred Pounds Of Joy.' It just doesn't get more real, or better, than that stuff. I want this whole album played at my funeral. It'll be a long funeral, but it will be worth it."
James Brown, In the Jungle Groove: "What do you say about this album? All killer, no filler. 'Hot Pants,' 'Funky Drummer,' 'Talkin' Loud & Sayin' Nothing,' 'Get Up, Get Into It And Get Involved,' 'Soul Power' - all on this disc. This is funk."
Pat Metheny, Bright Size Life: "This is my favorite Pat Metheny album. It's Metheny, drummer Bob Moses and (bassist) Jaco Pastorius. It's his first album as a leader, it's got some of his best writing - and it may have Jaco's best playing."
Bob Marley, Natty Dread: "I love this disc, but I could easily have picked any of five other Bob Marley albums. Marley's amazing, the songs are great - but I also really love 'Family Man' (Barrett, the Wailers' bassist). What an important bass player. People don't realize how perfect in every respect his bass lines are. His tone, the rhythmic grip. And the way Bob's vocals echo the bass lines is terrific."
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Busy bassist likes being boss
Posted by
Zambi on Feb 26, 2005 - 12:05 PM (5410 Reads) |
By: Courtney Devores
For The Charlotte Observer
Published: Friday, February 25, 2005
The United States may not technically have been at war when Oteil Burbridge named his band the Peacemakers in 1998. But as the Allman Brothers' longtime bassist said in an interview last Friday, "The world is always at war."
"There is a call for us to try to make peace all the time throughout the history of humanity and now is no different," said Burbridge, whose Peacemakers perform at the Neighborhood Theatre Saturday.
Burbridge is proud that his band's name makes a political statement, but he doesn't consider himself a political activist. "Before I came to believe in God I did a lot of research about politics and history. It was so depressing, I eventually reached a point I just felt like everything was hopeless," said Burbridge while through the mountains of Vermont on the way to a gig. "Now I'm like, you never know what God is going to pull."
Since Burbridge began playing bass professionally, he's been pulled in every kind of
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This week in local music: Oteil and the Peacemakers
Posted by
Zambi on Feb 26, 2005 - 12:01 PM (4349 Reads) |
By: Katherine Houstoun
For Richmond.com
Wednesday, February 23, 2005
Oteil Burbridge's first band was a Top 40 cover band from Virginia Beach called The Squares, a group the ace bassist nostalgically remembers as "kick-ass." And yet to think of Burbridge playing Top 40 songs now is almost, well, laughable.
Burbridge is known in musical circles as a "musician's musician," a virtuoso who flits through genres effortlessly and refuses to be pigeonholed to one sound. Nothing Top 40 about that.
After his stint at the beach, Burbridge migrated to Atlanta, where he eventually hooked up with Georgia music icon Colonel Bruce Hampton and the groundbreaking jam band Aquarium Rescue Unit. His collaboration with innovative musicians has continued over the years through groups such as Vida Blue, an electronic jam band formed by former Phish keyboardist Page McConnell, and Bass Extremes, an experimental bass ensemble created by Victor Wooten, a founding member of Bela Fleck & the Flecktones and a pal from the Virginia Beach days.
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Oteil and the Peacemakers, Bach Porch Stage, House of Blues, Chicago, IL- 11/12
Posted by
Zambi on Dec 20, 2004 - 04:13 AM (5322 Reads) |
Marley Seaman
Published: 2004-11-22
http://www.jambands.com/ShowReviews/content_2004_11_22.00.phtml
Before Oteil and the Peacemakers started their set on Friday at Chicago's House of Blues, the bassist/bandleader announced that the show was being recorded for release as part of a live album. With the tape rolling – or the DAT burning, or whatever the correct term is – the band delivered an energetic set than lasted more than 2 ˝ hours, showcasing its funk, gospel and rock influences.
At the heart of the Peacemakers is the interaction between Burbridge and drummer Chris Fryar. They are the Sun that the rest of the band – Mark Kimbrell on guitar, Matt Slocum on keyboards (which were tasteful, if rarely heard) and Paul Henson on vocals – rotates around, adding layers and texture to a strong rhythmic core.
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Father of invention
Posted by
Zambi on Oct 16, 2004 - 07:59 AM (4967 Reads) |
Father of invention
Aquarium Rescue Unit reunites with its daddy after a decade apart
by Stuart Gaines
Mountain Xpress
Arts & Entertainment
Oct 13, 2004 / vol 11 iss 11
Col. Bruce Hampton.
Never has one name simultaneously meant so much to some, and absolutely nothing to almost everyone else.
Even the enigmatic singer/guitarist himself – an underrated artistic visionary equal in appallingly beautiful purpose to the likes of Salvador Dali, Frank Zappa or any Black Mountain College alumnus – is reluctant to pinpoint his genius.
"I don't know what I do, exactly – I'm pretty sure I do nothing," he recently told Xpress.
The Colonel went on to concede: "But I'm damn good at it."
Long before Bonnaroo – before that kind of three-day, jam-band-fueled festival madness was even thought of – there was Bruce. The man is both the literal and figurative daddy of the modern jam scene, a greasy guitar Buddha who's fathered groundbreaking groups for the better part of four decades.
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Bassist Finds Blue Skies with Allmans
Posted by
Zambi on Oct 07, 2004 - 08:13 PM (5011 Reads) |
By Wayne Bledsoe, bledsoe@knews.com
1 October 2004
The Knoxville News-Sentinel
Ace bassist Oteil Burbridge was prepared when he joined the Allman Brothers seven years ago. He had been tutored by Georgia music icon Col. Bruce Hampton.
In the early 1980s, Burbridge had been gigging around Atlanta when he encountered Hampton - a musician who was legendary for his guitar work, odd sense of humor and good-natured philosophy.
Burbridge said he "fell on hard times, playing music I really didn't want to play, just doing it for the money and, really, not even making any money." Jeff Sipe, who was playing drums with Hampton in the band the Aquarium Rescue Unit, introduced the unhappy bassist to Hampton.
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Bass Extremes at the Iridium Jazz Club
Posted by
Zambi on Sep 11, 2004 - 04:41 PM (5028 Reads) |
Bass Extremes at the Iridium Jazz Club Sept. 14 - 19
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news.php?id=4110
IRIDIUM JAZZ CLUB
1650 BROADWAY (Corner of 51st)
NEW YORK, NY 10019
RESERVATIONS: 212-582-2121, www.iridiumjazzclub.com
Set Times at 8, 10 and 11:30 (third set Fri. & Sat.)
Sept. 14-19 BASS EXTREMES
VICTOR WOOTEN, OTEIL BURBRIDGE, STEVE BAILEY
DERICO WATSON ON DRUMS
SPECIAL GUEST ANTHONY JACKSON (FRI ONLY)
Oteil Burbridge joins forces with Victor Wooten and Steve Bailey, collectively known as Bass Extremes, to push the envelope of creative musical exploration. Three of the most dynamic and innovative bassists alive come together to create a totally unique concept in Rhythm, Melody, and Harmony. Utilizing their respective cutting edge bass techniques, they transcend the stereotype of “multiple basses” and create a group sound that completely covers the tonal spectrum, from the lowest of lows to the highest of highs. From the compositions of Miles Davis and Thelonius Monk, to their fresh original collaborations, Bass Extremes covers a wide musical spectrum. Drummer Deriko Watson will be propelling Bass Extremes as they Swing and they Funk.... and just about everything else in between!
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