Bryan Beller's Breakthrough to Gratitude
BASSNOTES BRYAN BELLER’S BREAKTHROUGH LEIGH ANN VILLANUEVA TO GRATITUDE BRYAN BELLER ENGAGED IN SOME SONIC How did the music come to you? a song could spring out of my head that pulls soul-searching for his sophomore effort, Thanks I try to write conceptually and themati- randomly from any of the above, and it’s my In Advance, and the welcome result is a bona fide cally, both song-wise and album-wise. As a entry for bass album of the year. Beller’s full- mostly instrumental composer, I only have one CAN BE HEARD ON spectrum fretted and fretless basses play a largely opportunity in language to convey meaning Bryan Beller, Thanks In Advance, [Onion Boy, foundation role, while still engaging and guiding and intention with a song: the title. So I’ll start 2008]; Mike Keneally, Wine and Pickles, four potent pairs of guitarists and drummers a new album by writing down a list of song [Exowax, 2008]; Steve Vai, Sound Theories, Vol. (including Mike Keneally and Joe Travers, Beller’s titles that convey the narrative of the album, I & II [Red Ink, 2007] compatriots in Keneally’s band). But the featured and then I’ll write music appropriate to the CURRENTLY SPINNING stars clearly are Beller’s compositions: newly- emotional content of those titles. As a pro- Nine Inch Nails, The Slip, [Null, 2008]; Marco Min- minted amalgams of vintage rock, blues, and jazz ducer, that methodology helps me keep my nemann, A Mouth of God, [marcominnemann.com, feels fostering fresh harmonies and angular muso eyes on the big picture as well as on the details, 2008]; John Scofield, Bump, [Verve, 2000].
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