The Latin Bass Book

This is a practical, comprehensive approach to learning Afro-Cuban, Brazilian and South American styles of bass playing, featuring 3 CDs of Berklee professor Oscar Stagnaro playing with three different world-class rhythm sections. The book consists mostly of transcriptions of every note Oscar plays on the accompanying CDs. Some amazing music, and logically progressing from simple to complex examples of each style.
Customer Review: What does one say?
This is a MASSIVE book (262 pages!) of latin bass in all it's various styles. We are not talking simple repetive patterns here either, we are talking from moderate to complex lines with excellent notation and a top notch CD set behind it. If you want to learn Latin Bass, you can start here, and stop here, as you won't find more and better probably anywhere else. Although it is not a Real Book, You can think of that kind of setup and variety.
Customer Review: Good intro to latin bass playing
This book is well thought, thorough and enjoyable. Comes with 3 CDs that stand alone on their own, if you don't mind having bass on one side and the rest of the band on the other. This arrangement allows you to pan the track and play along with the band, or focus on the bass line only. I googled some of the guys who play with Oscar in these CDs and they are first rate musicians with impressive resumes (try Rebeca Mauleón). It comes with no tab, but the first bass lines are simple enough so it wouldn't be a bad place to start reading, and once you understand the beats and where the bassline falls, you should be in a good position to read almost anything! The book takes you to a series of concepts that become more complex from track to track in a well thought way, so you build on your understanding of the subject. Probably the hardest part is to keep yourself from dancing while you play along to the CDs! A good purchase.

Here is a news-worthy material that will never find its way into the mainstream media. Is your daughter grinding? First, what is "grinding." According to Mariam's Webster dictionary it is "to rotate the hips in an erotic manner." So, to paraphrase the question, I will ask - is your daughter rotating her hips in an erotic manner? To add to that, is she doing that while a guy is standing behind her?

I don't want to be a party pooper, but the chances are that if your daughter has danced at a party, she has grinded, because it is the most popular way to dance nowadays. It is fascinating to think about the ways that dancing has changed in order to speed things up. It makes me wonder every time I see people dance this way. Are we that primitive, that we actually have to simulate a sexual act on the dance floor in order to show affection? The days of the tango and waltz are gone. Sure, some people still enjoy that kind of dancing, but the most common way to dance at a party nowadays is indeed grinding.

No, I don't need statistics or all kinds of data to back my claim up, if you go to any sort of disco, frat house, party, etc. you will find an awful sight. I am not here to tell you how messed up your kids are, or about modern values - I just find it fascinating that if I were a parent, I would really feel embarrassed to find out that my daughter is grinding.

Why embarrassed? Maybe embarrassed at the path that our society is taking, the awful music videos being promoted on TV and the never-ending sexual ads on billboards and the media. As comedian Steve Byrnes said, it is funny slash depressing at the same time. Where are the romance and the anticipation? They are nowhere to be found.

One should really look at this issue at a different, more global perspective. We are evolving. We want things faster and ready-to-go. Our world is getting smaller and smaller, to the point where we can never leave our room and still get the information we need. We also want instant gratification, instant success, instant downloads and instant fun. So, when you asks your daughter if she has grinded, don't be surprised if she instantly says "yes."

The author has a blog entitled http://www.badgeneration.com It is for observational humor and social commentary on today's insanities. The author does not support grinding. Any affiliations with grinding, or acts of grinding nature ought to be erased and forgotten.

80's dance music