As the world continues to recover from the Coronavirus, we’re all finding ourselves in unfamiliar territory given the subsequent lockdown that is keeping us off of stages and confined to our homes. Luckily, there’s comfort in the fact that we’re all in this together, and that there are still many outlets for us musicians to keep us active and sane throughout this quarantine. We’re checking in with bass players from all over the world to see what they’re doing to stay entertained, healthy, productive, and safe during this trying time.

Bass Player: Leo Traversa

Bands & Artists: Tania Maria, Astrud Gilberto, David Krakauer, Cesar Camargo Mariano, Janis Seigel, Petula Clark, Renaissance,  Bobby Sanabria, New York Voices, Hendrik Muerkens, Eileen Ivers, Fancha, Chris Washburne and the SYOTOS Band, Don Byron, Steve Kimock, Tommy Igoe, and others.

Home: New York City

How have you been passing time during the lockdown?

I’ve been very fortunate during this lockdown to have a place in the country to go to with family, so it’s actually been okay. Of course I miss my gigs, traveling, and teaching but I set up a little studio, taught myself Logic, and for the first time in my career, I’m recording music and working on my first record. That’s something I’ve procrastinated about for many years and may have never accomplished if not for a pandemic! One of my oldest friends, bassist Gary Haase, and another old friend, A.T.N. Stadwijk, have been helping me with production. Right before the lockdown, I joined a group called Bronx Banda, a diverse group of musicians led by Arturo O’Farrill. We were supposed to play concerts in the community but because of the lockdown, we had Zoom meetings, composed, recorded, and made some videos. Being involved in Bronx Banda inspired me to do some writing and record original music. I’ve been doing lots of projects with friends all over the world and some online clinics and teaching and oh yeah, I got married on Zoom to my amazing wife, Kaoru Shimizu, with friends and her family in Japan looking on.

What have you been working on in terms of your bass practice routine?

Most of my practicing is focused on whatever I’m going to record. I started picking up my guitar again and recorded some parts on that. I’m trying to play my Ampeg Baby Bass more often, too. I find it hard to focus on a practice routine when there’s no show to practice for, but I always manage to do a fair amount of playing and try to keep my hands in shape. Yard work in the country is not helping with that!

What music, songs, recordings, artists, bass players have you been listening to as a source of comfort and inspiration that you can recommend?

I’ve been enjoying some of the bass webinars and chats online. George Farmer’s bass chat is always great, and Steve Bailey at Berklee has been putting together some insane groups of bassists for Zoom events. Marcus Miller also has a fairly regular online chat. I love all kinds of world music and I listen to alot of African bassists. Ettiene Mbappe always blows my mind. One of the last shows I saw was Alain Perez from Cuba, with Issac Delgado. There are some amazing young bassist out there, like Henrik Linder, Joe Dart, Mohini Dey, and others. But I never get tired of listening to the old guard: Jamerson, Rainey, Jemmott, and the New York greats who followed on their heels, like Marcus, Anthony Jackson, and Will Lee. I’m also a huge fan of Anthony Tidd from Philadelphia, from his work with Steve Coleman to his album with Quite Sane, Child of Troubled Times.

What bass gear have you been playing and trying out?

I bought a good interface for the first time, an AXE I/O, by IK Media, and bought some good JBL studio monitors. As far as bass gear, my most recent basses are a Sire 5-string and my Ampeg Bass—my second one. My next move is to get another bass from Roger Sadowsky. My 2004 Metro is just an incredible working and recording bass. I love the Olinto Basses that Mas Hino is making out at Labella’s The Guitar Shop NYC, in Brooklyn. I had a chance to play Lee Nadel’s Olinto subbing for him at Waitress on Broadway this year.

What non-music activities, books, shows, movies, or workout recommendations do you have?

I’ve always been kind of active in sports. I play tennis with my wife, I ride my bike, I swim when I can, and my goal is to play basketball again 2021. I just got Chris Washburne’s new book Latin Jazz: The Other Jazz. Chris is one of the foremost authorities on the history of Latin music and Latin Jazz in NYC so it’s an interesting read. As a sci-fi freak, I sprung for the CBS and Disney streaming channels so I could watch Star Trek Discovery, Picard, and The Mandalorian. Marvel was bought by Disney so all the Marvel movies are on there too. I watched Hamilton on Disney, as well, and that was great. I dug Perry Mason on HBO, and I watch a lot of documentaries. Otherwise, I mostly watch sports and the news, which became very difficult in 2020!

What projects do you have coming up when the world gets going again?

That may be the most difficult question. The strangest thing about this pandemic is the uncertainty about the future. I hope my regular gigs with people like Chris Washburne, Bobby Sanabria, Mary Gatchell, KJ Denhert, Renaissance, Ty Stephens, and others will continue; along with my teaching at Columbia, The Collective, and Carnegie Hall, but at this point, who knows? My first production will be out soon, an Afro-Brazilian version of Gil Scot Heron’s Winter in America that I’m going to use to raise money for Stacey Abrams’ and Lebron James’ organizations to fight voter suppression and make sure people get out to vote in November.

What advice can you offer fellow bassists for staying positive and keeping morale high?

It’s not easy. It bothers me when I think about young musicians who are just getting out of music school or who just moved to New York City and are trying to get their careers going. It saddens me that the beginning of their musical careers are suddenly put on hold like this. I’m not sure what I would have or could have done in that position when I was a young man starting out here. The music industry and the restaurant industry are being hit the hardest, with live music pretty much shut down completely. My advice would be something that I wish I had heeded earlier in my career. Stay up on modern technology! I just learned how to record music now, 40 years into my career, and never developed the computer skills of many of my peers. I’m glad I concentrated on playing live music but it would have been nice to have the technological ability to record earlier in my career. Like any other skill in music, whether it be reading ability, knowledge of styles, techniques, teaching skills, or technology; the more you know, the more opportunities you’ll have to work, and in these times, that’s crucial.

To all my friends and all eligible voters in America, please take a moment to watch and listen to my new video of “Winter in America”. I hope this project will inspire everyone to vote, volunteer, donate and do whatever we can to save our country from itself. We know that voter suppression is in full gear so let’s make our votes overwhelming and undeniable. Thank you to my friends Mary Gatchell, Jeffrey Young, Etienne Stadwijk, Philip Woo, Adriano Santos, Rob Pollack and Emily Gallagher for lending their talents and to my sister Maria Traversa for creating the great video.

The past couple of years have continued to be a mixed bag of the unexpected, unusual and new. For anyone who knows me, I tend to thrive under those musical conditions. One thing I don’t do well is update my beautiful website created by my talented sister Maria Traversa but I’ve finally relented to write this update. Self-promotion has never been one of my strong points.

The last few years I’ve been teaching more than ever, adding local and international workshops to my schedule and continuing my work with Carnegie Hall’s Musical Connections at the Resnick Education Wing and at Sing Sing Correctional Facility. A new page on pedagogy will be going up soon but here’s a sampling of the performing I’ve been doing since I last posted.

The latest first – another in a long list of nights at Zinc Bar playing the powerful Rhythms of Brazil I have been playing since my early years touring with Tania Maria and Astrud Gilberto. I’ve had the great pleasure of playing both here and in Brazil with Toniho Horta, Cesar Camargo Mariano, Claudio Roditi, Helio Alves, Duduka da Fonseca and Maucha Adnet and so many others. This night the stellar band was led by Valtinho Anastasio, with Paul Ricci, Hector Martignon and Victor Jones.

2020 sees the continuation of a long history with the Bronx’s own percussionist/drummer and historian ,Bobby Sanabria. I recorded and toured on “West Side Story:Reimagined”, a 2 disc CD and booklet that is not only a powerful musical statement but also a social commentary on the past and present racial inequalities in America and the Puerto Rican’s (and others) struggles and contributions. Recorded live at Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola,

A few years back I teamed up with two more friends from way back in the day, Todd Isler and David Phelps and joined their group “International Orange”. The band is a unique blend of African, Indian, Brazilian and American styles. One review called it “guitar driven sunshine. I’m honored to have been called to fill the late Gaku’s chair.

In the beginning of 2018, I got a call to head out on the road for a month with old friend and world class drummer (and educator) Tommy Igoe and his Birdland All Stars, a ten piece powerhouse of a band featuring musicians from SF, NYC and SF via NYC transplants. We met on the bandstand and within minutes of the first gig and were pretty much family, musically and socially. We played 24 shows in 30 days, leaving a path of destruction in our wake down the east coast and as far west as Chicago.

I’ve had the pleasure of playing with three of Falu Shah‘s bands – her children’s project, “Falu’s Bazar” and the reunion show of her first NYC band, Karyshma, and in her Bollywood Special Orchestra. I’ve always loved Indian music and I’m so appreciative of the opportunity to play and learn from Falu and the amazing musicians she surrounds herself with.

From India to Italy with Venetian Singer Giada Valenti – featuring Arco and upright. The evenings were always fun and I especially enjoyed getting to play with old friends ATN Stadwijk, JC Mallard and Daniel Sadownick .            

My ongoing association with Mary Gatchell continues to produce some great music, thanks to Mary’s formidable skills as performer, vocalist, pianist, producer, composer and conductor. Mary is a super versatile and creative composer with several wonderful records to her credit. One of the smartest things I’ve done was to introduce her music to ATN Stadjwick as their collaboration led to the production of Mary’s latest 2017 recording “Camino Reál,” a great album of Mary’s original compositions, superbly produced by ATN.

As musicians, we identify strongly with this sentiment, but for the incarcerated, some facing a daunting number of years behind bars, it is a matter of reconnecting with their humanity. This is one of the many reasons that  my continued association with Carnegie Hall’s Musical Connections and Chris Washburne and SYOTOS remains one of the most meaningful and rewarding of not only my career, but my lifetime. In 2015 we spent 9 months at Sing Sing participating in songwriting workshops and performing the music of the inmates in three concerts for their fellow inmates and administration. Prior to that we worked all over the five boroughs with teens in juvenile detention facilities, adults on probation, teenagers born HIV positive, a men’s shelter, senior citizens and high school students. A senior at a homeless shelter songwriting workshop may have crystallized what so many feel when he said,  “Even though I’ve been homeless and I’ve been through a lot, I can stand on the square with anyone now because I’ve become human again.” Musical Connections continues to reaffirm in me the power of music to make a better world. Organizations like Musical Connections are vital to society and deserve our gratitude and support.

Learn more about them here:
EDUCATION & COMMUNIITY

HIGHLIGHTS – GIGS, TOURS AND RECORDINGS

Last year I took somewhat of a musical left turn for me by joining 70s progressive rock legend Annie Haslam’s band Renaissance, reuniting with old friends Mark Lambert, Rave Tesar and Frank Pagano. The band is acclaimed for their unique blending of progressive rock with classical and symphonic influences. We performed in the U.S. and Europe in 2015 and toured the UK in 2016. In our NY area performances, we were joined by former Yes keyboard wizard, Patrick Moraz. In the photo below, we’re performing and recording our DVD at Union Chapel in London.

Here’s their blog with some tour videos: RENAISSANCE

For the last couple of years, I’ve really enjoyed working with the Requinte Trio – Nanny Asis, John Martino and the wonderful Janis Siegel – in their exploration of the Brazilian Song Book.The gigs led to recording our first CD Honey and Air. Here’s the promotional video for that recording which was released in 2015

It’s always a pleasure to play with the great NYC pianist out of Philadelphia, John DiMartino. Thanks to John, I was able to tour India in 2015 with his Quartet of the Americas featuring Vince Cherico and Peter Brainin. We performed in Pune, Bangalore and Mumbai. I finally had Indian food at the source and it was incredible and of course, any time you play with John Di Martino the music is stellar

These incredible fresh flower designs were created each morning on the patio floor by the wife of the venue owner.

On the heels of Bobby Sanabria’s Grammy nominated CD Multiverse, we performed to a week of sold out audiences at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola with the big band. My association with Bobby goes back a long way to the Nuyorican Poets Café and our Multiverse recording is a great representation of the band and Bobby’s history of spreading the gospel of jazz through the musical melting pot of New York City.

KJ Denhert – Fierce and funky  – a great songwriter and friend.  It’s my honor to sub for Mamadou Ba when he can’t make the gig. Two 2 week stints in St. Barth’s (where she’s been performing for fifteen years) were great and it’s always fun playing Saturdays at the 55 Bar in NYC with her stellar band featuring my old friends Aaron Heick, ATN and Ray Levier

This year I performed and recorded with John Pizzarelli and Jessica Molaskey on Jessica’s beautiful Joni Mitchell project, performing Joni’s music with Brazilian and jazz arrangements. We performed it at the Rose Theater at Lincoln Center in 2015 along with  jazz greats Larry Goldings and Duduka da Fonseca. I’m looking forward to the CD release and more performances in the future.

In the past few years I’ve been fortunate to meet and perform with David Krakauer, a powerful and creative Klezmer/ Jazz clarinetist, composer and arranger. Subbing in his band for an old friend (and early inspiration of mine) Jerome Harris, I always love to get the call to play his music. It’s expanded my knowledge of Klezmer music as I’ve learned so much from David about the interesting history of the music. I even found out that some of it involves my current neighborhood in NYC, the Lower East Side.