Music
Korn bassist Fieldy is making an instrumental jazz record
by Richard Howard
October 15, 2016
Nobody asked for this.
Nothing really surprises me anymore when it comes to musicians ‘trying their hand’ at either different genres or completely different disciplines altogether. Gwen Stefani bailing on No Doubt to make pop music? Sounds about right. Snoop Dogg transforming (temporarily) into Snoop Lion? Sure, why not. Luda deciding he prefers to spend time with Vin Diesel and a bunch of souped-up Civics than on the mic? Fair play to you, sir.
Still, I have to say I didn’t see this one coming: Korn bassist/bandana enthusiast Reginald ‘Fieldy’ Arvizu revealed in a recent interview that he’s nearly finished recording, of all things, an instrumental jazz fusion album.
“It’s all instrumental. I play 15-string bass, fretless basses — every kind of bass you can think of, Fender jazz, whatever. I don’t even know if we could name all the basses I played on there. It takes you on a ride. Jazz fusion, punk, Latin, blues, reggae… I don’t even know if I even left any style of music out.”
Okay…see…I want to take this seriously. But pretty much saying “I used every bass in existence to play ever genre that ever was” while naming, like, four or five of each, is a red flag. Then there’s the name. Fieldy. You named your goddamn instrumental bass album Bassically. C’mon man, you’re better than that.
To be fair, though, Fieldy has talked in the past about what huge influences legendary jazz bassist Stanley Clarke and Flea (himself a jazz trained musician) have been on him. So we’ll see how that translates when the album, which the bassist claimed to be putting finishing touches on as far back as 2010 finally drops. Hey, let’s just be thankful it’s not (Fieldy, Munky and David Silveria’s early funk-thrash band) L.A.P.D.
