Nathan East’s highly anticipated self-titled solo debut arrives March 25, 2014.

Click HERE to Pre-order now!

Get ready to rock out with UCSD Alumni at the 18th Annual Lytle Memorial Scholarship Concert. This year’s musical benefit features a campus homecoming with world renowned bass guitarist Nathan East, ’78 performing in UC San Diego’s award-winning Prebys Music Hall. Nathan East has played with rock music’s greatest artists for the past 35 years — from Eric Clapton, Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson, to Madonna, Beyoncé and Daft Punk. At this special benefit concert, he’ll return to his San Diego roots to play with UC San Diego Music faculty and alumni, while raising funds for UCSD’s endowed Lytle Scholarship.

Click HERE for TICKETS!

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Tickets are now available for the fourth annual Bob James Jazz Festival.

Separate tickets for each concert of the two-night event may be purchased at The Marshall Democrat-News office, Square Corner and Vox Box, or online at bobjamesjazzfest.org/tickets/2014.

Bob James Jazz Festival will be held Friday and Saturday evenings, May 16-17. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. the first night at Eckilson-Mabee Theatre on the Missouri Valley College campus. Saturday, the concert kicks off at 6 p.m. at Bueker Middle School’s Harold L. Lickey Auditorium, and doors will open at 5:30 p.m.

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Earth, Wind, and Fire never won a Grammy Award for Record of the Year. Neither did Kool and the Gang, or Chic, or the Trammps. Instead, during the height of the disco era, the Academy was busy showering golden gramophones on The Eagles and Captain and Tennille. So for every music that ever laid down a groove in the ’70s, stretched out, and danced under the mirror ball, here’s some extremely belated validation from an industry that has always hesitated to recognize dance music. “Get Lucky,” the funky throwback smash by French electropop act Daft Punk, took the Record prize at tonight’s show.

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During the Grammy Awards ceremony this Sunday, guitarist Nathan East will perform the bass line in a song that was hard to escape in 2013.

Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky” is nominated for best performance by a pop duo. Their album “Random Access Memories” is nominated for album of the year. East is a veteran session musician and plays on a lot of the songs on Daft Punk’s album, including “Get Lucky.”

He says the French duo, pioneers in the electronic music scene, were really fun to work with. They were also very particular about the sound on each song.

“Every groove is meticulously looked at and honed,” East said by phone from Los Angeles.

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Hi Nathan, it’s very nice of you to participate in an interview with me. You are part of the Toto family so many fans would love to hear some more about this great bass-player who is playing for them now on the Toto stage. We’ll be talking about your Toto connection soon but first we all like to learn some more about you so an obvious but important question to start an interview with a musicians is, when did you start playing music, who taught you and which musicians inspired you to start playing music? And do you play more instruments besides the Bass-guitar?

As young children several members of our family took private piano lessons including me.  At about age 10 or 11 I can remember watching one of the Charlie Brown television specials listening to the music and being very drawn into the “cool piano” being played by Vince Guaraldi. This inspired me to inquire at my jr. high school about studying piano at school.  Piano wasn’t available but I was offered any of the stringed orchestra instruments to study, violin, viola, cello or contra bass.  I chose cello primarily because the violin and viola seemed too small and the upright bass was a bit too big. I then played cello in the school orchestra for the next three years.

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With the highly anticipated solo album by Nathan East scheduled for release on March 25, 2014, the legendary Bob James reflects on his deeply connected history with the storied bassist.

In the last 30 years jazz bassist Nathan East has worked with music luminaries like Michael Jackson, Eric Clapton, Beyoncé, Whitney Houston and Stevie Wonder, to name a few. Last year, he hitched himself to the right wagon yet again, with Daft Punk on their mega hit, Get Lucky.

On March 25, he rolls the dice on himself with his first solo album, Nathan East. He enlisted his band Fourplay to give him the support as well as a couple of star friends. Wonder takes a turn on the harmonica while Sara Bareilles lends her vocals. Michael McDonald also makes an appearance. “(A solo album) has been a long time coming,” he says. “If I didn’t do it, I’d be asking myself why for the rest of my life.”

Michael Jackson, Daft Punk and Eric Clapton hit pretty widely on the musical spectrum, but at the base of it all, East stays true to his own style. “I basically go for a real solid, fat, warm bass tone,” he says. “That’s kind of what I’ve been doing on people’s records. As a solo artist, that’s what I do, too.”

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Guitar legend Eric Clapton has once again recruited bass giant Nathan East to his touring band. East, who played with Clapton from 1984 to 2004, will be hitting the road with the former Cream guitarist in 2014, starting in Japan.

The rest of the band includes keyboardists Chris Stainton and Paul Carrack, vocalists Michelle John and Sharon White, and drummer Steve Gadd.

Nathan East’s prolific recording career includes Clapton’s “Tears in Heaven” and “Change the World.” More recently he laid down the low end on the smash hit Daft Punk track “Get Lucky.” (Editor’s note: check out our Stories Behind the Songs with Nathan for more.)

East is currently working on his first ever album as a solo band leader.

Eric Clapton 2014 Tour Dates:

• February 18, 2014: Tokyo, Japan – Nippon Budokan

• February 20, 2014: Tokyo, Japan – Nippon Budokan

• February 21, 2014: Tokyo, Japan – Nippon Budokan

• February 23, 2014: Yokohama, Japan – Yokohama Arena

• February 25, 2014: Nagoya, Japan – Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium

• February 26, 2014: Osaka, Japan – Osaka-Jo Hall

• February 28, 2014: Tokyo, Japan – Nippon Budokan

• March 4, 2014: Singapore – Singapore Indoor Stadium

• March 6, 2014: Dubai, UAE – Dubai Media City Amphitheatre

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