Al Caldwell is an American R&B musician who mainly plays the

bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...

and

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and in modern forms is usually made of plastic, where early membranes were made of animal skin. ...

with the Travelling Black Hillbillies. He is also a studio engineer and producer.

Career

Born in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an Independent city (United States), independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Miss ...

, Caldwell started out as a

clarinet The clarinet is a Single-reed instrument, single-reed musical instrument in the woodwind family, with a nearly cylindrical bore (wind instruments), bore and a flared bell. Clarinets comprise a Family (musical instruments), family of instrume ...

player and moved on to the

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz musical ensemble, ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest Register (music), register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitche ...

. He attended

Mississippi Valley State Mississippi Valley State University (MVSU, The Valley or Valley) is a public historically black university in Mississippi Valley State, Mississippi, adjacent to Itta Bena, Mississippi.electric bass The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an electric but with a longer neck and scale leng ...

, he usually performs using

Extended-range bass An extended-range bass is an electric bass guitar with a wider frequency range than a standard-tuned four-string bass guitar. Terminology One way that a bass can be considered ''extended-range'' is to use a mechanical detuner, a special machi ...

es, (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 (pick) 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

References

External links

*
9 String Bass

{{DEFAULTSORT:Caldwell, Al American session musicians American banjoists American bass guitarists Living people Musicians from St. Louis Guitarists from Missouri American male bass guitarists Year of birth missing (living people)