Al Caldwell

Al Caldwell is an R&B musician who mainly plays the bass guitar and banjo with the Travelling Black Hillbillies. He is also a studio engineer and producer.

Career

Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Caldwell started out as a clarinet player and moved on to the trumpet. He attended Mississippi Valley State on scholarship. [cite web|url=http://www.tbhillbilly.com/main.html|title= Al Caldwell and the Travelling Hillbillies.] He has played for a variety of entertainers including Vanessa Williams, [cite web|url=http://www.bassplayer.com/story.asp?storyCode=8363|title= Al Caldwell Broadens the Bass.] He also works for hire on studio albums as a session musician. He has performed on a number of television shows.

When Caldwell plays electric bass, he usually performs using Extended-range basses, (or "ERBs"), which are electric bass guitars with more range (usually meaning more strings, but sometimes additional frets are added for more range) than the "standard" 4-string bass guitar. The techniques used to play the extended-range bass are closely related to those used for basses, including finger plucking, slapping, popping, and tapping, though a plectrum is very rarely used. The upper strings of an extended-range bass allow bassists to adopt playing styles of the electric guitar. One such style is the practice of "comping", or playing a rhythmic chordal accompaniment to an improvised solo.Al Caldwell was the first MIDI 9 string bassist. Conklin Basses made the first Midi 9 string for Al Caldwell. Al Caldwell had Benavente Basses make the first 11 string MIDI bass.

Discography

*2004 "9 String Human Being" - Baby Al Music
*2004 "Good Livin" - Baby Al Music
*2004 "Hillbilly Soul" - Baby Al Music
*2004 "Hootananny Soul" - Baby Al Music
*2005 "Hell if I know " - Baby Al Music
*2005 "Forbidden" - Baby Al Music
*2005 "Bass for Lovers" - Baby Al Music

External links

*
* [http://www.tbhillbilly.com/main.html Al Caldwell and the Travellin Black Hillbillys]
* [http://www.9stringbass.com/ 9 String Bass]
* [http://www.tbhillbilly.com/main.html Al Caldwell and the Travelling Hillbillies]

References