Nathan East clinic in Waterloo, Ontario

[jeremy c]

More info can be found on this web page

 

I stumbled upon this information while reading TBL (the Bottom Line--another bass forum).

 

Someone here must live close enough to go to this. Please go and give us a report!

 

It's a little too far away for me.

[tucker71]

I will be there.

This will be the first Bass clinic thingie I've ever attended but, I'll let you know how it all goes down.

[Eric VB]

Bleh. Only a four hour drive but I can't get off work before 5pm.

 

Have fun tucker!

[owens hound]

I'm about 2 1/2 hours away but have too many things going on to get there this time around. Does anyone know if he'll be coming back to this area in the near future, likely not during the winter I imagine!

[omegamike]

I'm going too, I only live about 30 minutes away. I haven't been to a clinic in years...the last one was Victor Wooten circa '93 or '94. I'm curious to see what a non-virtuoso type player will bring to the table.

[jeremy c]

I wouldn't exactly call Nathan East a "non-virtuoso type player"...I'm sure he's got plenty up his sleeve that we don't know about...there's some pretty slick stuff hidden away on those Fourplay albums.

 

And I own an instructional vhs tape on which he is jamming with Louis Johnson and doing just fine, thank you.

 

However, as a studio musician and sideman, the guy has credentials second to none and I would love to hear him talk about working with all the people he has played with....what the difference in his approach is depending on who hires him.

[57pbass]

What do you mean by virtuoso anyways?

 

I think he falls into a virtuoso category..

he is extremely talented..

sings and plays great..

long list of hits and as JC mentioned..listen close to the Fourplay bass performances..

 

I would love to sit in on this clinic..

he is one of the great players out there today..

[Bottomgottem]

Originally posted by jeremy c:

I wouldn't exactly call Nathan East a "non-virtuoso type player"...I'm sure he's got plenty up his sleeve that we don't know about...there's some pretty slick stuff hidden away on those Fourplay albums.

Right as rain again, JeremyC. You do not get calls from Clapton and the like if you do not have serious skills.

 

I wish that someplace in my region could manage to put on a clinic with a "top name". Maybe I'm just not paying enough attention, but it seems that Wooten's bass camp is about the closest thing, and that is a good 6 to 8 hour drive from western NC.

[Gab]

I can't recall any album i constantly listen to that Nathan East played on. Except for Toni Braxton: Secrets...one of my all-time favourites with a no-frills bass approach that not many bassists could duplicate in my opinion. Immense tone on that album. (Although bass duties were divided between him and Reggie Hamilton).

And this brings me to what omegamike posted about him being a non-virtuoso type. He is on so many albums where he is strictly supporting the music that virtuosity (Wictor Wooten style) is not the first thing that pops into my head either. OTH i'm sure he has crayz chops up his sleeve, but thats not what he's famous for.

[DWBass]

Originally posted by omegamike:

I'm curious to see what a non-virtuoso type player will bring to the table.

Your kidding.....right??

 

Check this out to see this 'non-virtuoso's' resume!

[Dave Brown]

Nathan East has played on so many albums I'll bet he gets 2 votes on the Grammys.

 

His playing is always spot on. I wish I could be there.

 

I wonder why he picked Ontario for this clinic? Maybe somebody put this thing together.

 

Hmmmm....maybe someone down here could put something like this together.

 

I'm betting Sherwood Music is some serious place.

[owens hound]

I haven't lived in Waterloo since 1996 but I don't remember Sherwood Music being anything special. It's certainly no Steve's Music or Long & McQuade. It was just a small city type music store. They must have some great connections to get a bassist of this caliber. Hopefully he'll comeback in the future so I can catch him then.

Hey fellow Canucks, enjoy and let us know all of the details!!

Jason

[SteveC]

Quit complaining. Try living in Grand Forks, North Dakota and getting to a big name clinic...or concert. I usually have to drive 4 hours - one way - to even get to a place that has people like FourPlay, Yellowjackets, Steely Dan, RUSH, DMB, etc.

 

Sorry for the tangent...

[RalphM]

I really wish I could go. If nothing else to meet him thank him for the Nathan East Yamaha bass he helped develop. I have one and it could be the last bass I'll ever need. Schweeet.

 

Does anyone know if there more of these N.E. bass clinics planned?

[omegamike]

Whoa people...let me clarify that I meant no disrespect by calling Nathan East a 'non-virtuoso' player. I am going to the clinic after all - I'm not the type to slag a guy and pay $10 bucks to see him! I am expecting him to have mad chops and tricks aplenty up his sleeve. I agree with everyone that his resume speaks for itself.

 

If anything I'm expecting this clinic to be better than the Victor Wooten one because unless you play Victor's way it's hard to take a lot away from his clinic as far as technique is concerned.

 

Victor Wooten is known more as a soloist and Nathan East is known more as a sideman/studio guy. I guess you can substitute the word 'virtuoso' with 'soloist' in my first post.

 

I lurk here quite often and fellas - I never thought I'd be able to stir up the coals with an innocent comment! On the whole this is a top-notch forum, but in the future I guess I'll choose my words a little more carefully.

[omegamike]

I'll also confirm that Sherwood Music isn't that killer of a place, it is decent though. Why is Nathan East doing the clinic? Not sure...is he on tour? I notice there's a new book he's promoting, maybe he'll be out your way soon?

 

On a side note Jeff Berlin was in Toronto a few weeks back doing a clinic sponsored by Mark Bass at a place called Club Bass (bass only store). I didn't attend that clinic though so I have nothing further to report.

[ZZ Thorn]

I got turned on to the surprisingly good Eurythmics album "Be Yourself Tonight," and the bass on their hit "Would I Lie To You" was jamming... it's Nathan East.

[Eric VB]

So, uh, I know it's a tad early to ask this, but how was the clinic?

[tucker71]

Last minute..something came up and I had the chance to MAKE money rather than SPEND it.

 

I reeeally wanted to check out the Nathan Clinic but...maybe next time.

[omegamike]

The clinic was okay. It started with 20 minutes of a Yamaha sales rep talking about their products and demonstrating their new amp the BBT. I was a little annoyed at having to sit through that since I figure that's less time that we have to see Nathan East. The amp was interesting, but I found it slightly 'cheesey' that they had the amp running through a P.A. system. Lets hear the sucker on it's own!

 

Most of the clinic was Nathan answering questions - most of which were quite mundane, others were questions about people like Phil Colins and Eric Clapton that Nathan had played with.

 

Nathan played along to and sang with some songs that he played on. I was pretty impressed with the amount of chording he was doing on his five string signature Yamaha. Overall I felt a tad bit disappointed. I attended the clinic with a budding bassist and I feel like there was very little for him to leave with....that and the Yamaha propaganda left a bad taste in my mouth.

 

But Nathan East was gracious and a consummate professional through and through. I even approached him at the end and told him about the mini flame war I started when I labelled him as a non-virtuoso on this thread. He got a good laugh at that and asked where the forum was.

 

The highlight of the evening though was the fact that Sherwood gave away a free BBT amp (they claimed it's worth approx $1200 retail CDN) to a random person in the audience. They also gave away a signature direct box that Nathan uses.

[Dave Brown]

It'd be nice to meet Mr. East here on this board.

 

You lurkin', kind sir?

 

On the other hand, I'd be he's so assaulted by bass questions he probably hangs out at the Pogo games site.

 

Thanks for the report.

[omegamike]

One of the things that Nathan said is that he's been playing bass for a living virutally everyday of his life since the early 80's. I'm pretty sure that when he's not working...he's doing other things totally not bass related at all just to get away from it for a change.

 

I highly doubt Nathan would hang around in forums unless he was bored between flights or on the road somewhere....so you never know!

[SteveC]

You might be surprised. Jimmy Haslip visits the forum on his site frequently - like once a week or more.

 

He has responded to a number of posts from myself. One even resulted in the Yellowjackets playing a request for me at a concert I went to. Pretty damn cool!