[Dixielandjazz] Matt Weiner & Del Ray

[Allan Brown]

Dear Listmates,

I stumbled across a very interesting sounding album recorded by double bassist Matt Weiner and guitarist/ uke player Del Ray. I've only heard a handful of tracks but it seems it's made up of a mixture of original songs and some covers. They feature a lot of bowed double bass and lots of ukulele and apparently, in the little info I've gleaned, Matt transcribed and reworked some Kid Ory trombone lines/ Duke Ellington bass sax  parts and the uke arrangements were built up around them. As an aspiring uke and double bass player this was a real eye-opener, to me at least, about how these two instruments can work together. They're both fantastic players.

You can hear a couple of tracks on Matt Weiner's Myspace page. The album is called "At the Ukeshack".

http://www.myspace.com/matthewweiner/music

(A bit more info on the project...)

http://hobemianrecords.com/ukeshack1notes.html

http://hobemianrecords.com/ukeshack.html

All the best,

Allan Brown