Finally released my CD Bass Ball 2. This album took years! The lineup is great, just like the previous “historical’ Bass Ball that I released in 2017. It really was the first CD of its kind, featuring some amazing bass players: Billy Sheehan, Victor Wooten, Hadrien Feraud, not to mention killer talent from my hometown Nice, Fr. I question though, was the world ready for an album that featured all bass players. With the talent on that CD, it could have made more of an impact today, actually. Why do I say that? Because bass (and I’m not talking about fish) is more popular an instrument now than it ever has been in history. It’s cool to be a bass player today . . . and I’m not even sure when this happened?
Bunny Brunel & Stanley Clarke Laying tracks for Bass Ball (2017)
I became the Editor at Large of Virtuoso Bass right at the start of the pandemic. And I remember when my team was pitching stories and features. We had Kyle Eastwood, as a feature and I was the first cover, talking about my vision for the magazine. But I remember how difficult it was to find new bass talent at that point. That does not mean that there wasn’t any, it was just really hard to find it. Number 1, there were no performances, except the occasional Facebook Live in our living rooms. Hey, even Chick Corea was serenading the world for free from the comfort of his own home. But all of a sudden at the tail end of the pandemic, bass exploded. There are so many facebook groups, women playing the instrument, youth really taking it and running with it. I’m not sure why, but I am thinking it is because we all had a lot of time on our hands, and YouTube, Instagram, Spotify, etc., were being visited more during that time than any time before that! And the bass emerged as hip for all ages, young and old. I believe if I released the first Bass Ball CD now, it would break records!
Now, back to Bass Ball 2 – this CD features some killer talent: Stanley Clarke, Patrice Rushen, Larry Dunn, Steve Ferrone, Armand Sabal-Lecco, Italian bassist Federico Malaman, Kyle Eastwood, Virgil Donati, the list is endless. If you visit the discography page, you’ll get all the juicy details, even a chance to hear snippets of each track. So if you’re into the bass, check it out! (My store has been down, but my team is working on getting it back up and running. There should be a link to download the digital CD soon! ~Bunny Brunel
