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John Basile – Penny Lane<\/p><\/div>\n\n
“I\u2019ve done a bunch of things,” Basile admitted in an interview. That includes playing with legends such as John Abercrombie and Jim Hall, backing various singers (Rosemary Clooney among them) and today utilizing technology for his own recordings and providing backing music clips for film and other broadcast media. Plus those aforementioned non-musical forays (more on those shortly).<\/p>\n\n
A proponent of musical education, Basile attended Berklee before graduating from New England Conservatory of Music. He subsequently moved into playing with the bands that were popular at the time in his home base of Boston. “There was a lot of work. If you could play you could work,” he said.<\/p>\n\n
Among those were the eight-to-ten-piece show bands that played the jazz, rock and soul popular in the 70s by bands such as Blood, Sweat and Tears, Tower of Power, the Spinners, Parliament\/Funkadelic and others. Also big in his development were those artists and recordings featuring the mighty Hammond B3. “There were a lot of organ groups, pop-soul things. It\u2019s funny how that stuff stays with you. I always try to have one or two pop tunes from that era.”<\/p>\n\n
That led him into jazz, with favorites including Pat Martino and his “main guy,” Jim Hall. “How he approached the song and improvising \u2013 it was very orchestral and compositional. It was conversational,” he said.<\/p>\n\n
Basile draws from that approach today. “That stuff I go back to year after year.”<\/p>\n\n
It hasn\u2019t always been easy or straightforward. In the 90s, following a series of disappointments in his career, he stepped away from music as he became interested in the field of medical imaging. Basile became an MRI technologist and eventually both an instructor and manager of several imaging centers in New York. Those were eventually bought out by a larger company. “It\u2019s been a weird transition. I was working ten- to 12-hour days for 25 years. Letting go was tough,” he said.<\/p>\n\n
The music and music technology have helped him recover. “I\u2019m writing for films, (film) cues. If (I) can keep learning, that keeps me going.” Today he has embraced the latest in recording technology. The piano, drums, horns and other instruments on his 2015 tribute to the Beatles, Penny Lane, were all triggered by his guitar through MIDI. That\u2019s the approach he uses in his home studio for his film work.<\/p>\n\n
And then there\u2019s boxing, which he says offers parallels to his music. “I\u2019m not a sports fan, but I\u2019ve always wanted to be a boxing judge. What\u2019s in the ring is everything in life: joy, fear, success,” Basile said. “When I\u2019m playing \u2018Body and Soul,\u2019 I\u2019m in the moment. As a judge, you\u2019re in the moment.”<\/p>\n\n
Basile\u2019s instruments: “I play a Telecaster and a jazz guitar. I like Thomastik-Infeld<\/a>, but those strings are so expensive. But they\u2019re great quality.” <\/p>\n\n He\u2019s also begun using Stringjoy<\/a> strings, 11 through 50 gauge. “They\u2019re out of Nashville. They\u2019re good, and half the price. I use an unwound 3rd \u2013 I got that from Jim Hall. It blends better when you\u2019re playing melodies,” he said.<\/p>\n\n
![\"Ross](\"https:\/\/www.stringsbymail.com\/images\/SBM-Ross-100.jpg\")
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