When my husband came home from a trip to London last February, he packed his keys in his suitcase–but that’s a different story–and he brought back some CD’s recorded by people he knew. It took a while before we listened to any of them. They sat in a stack behind the speaker on the computer desk gathering dust. One day while cleaning, I happened across them. Bee for Bass stood out to me because of the silly cover art. I mentioned it to my husband and we decided to listen to it. When the CD started, I was surprised. I don’t know what I was expecting exactly but it wasn’t this. The CD spans genres from folk to pop to jazz. It features bass and vocals with some percussion and additional instrumentation here and there. Every track has an excellent guest performer. The sparseness of the tracks is refreshing. After listening to the first three tracks on the CD, I told my husband that I liked it quite a lot. “So do I,” he said as he sat down at the computer to email Andy and let him know. Later that afternoon I took the CD to my car with me. That’s where all the CD’s I like end up. My favorite tracks are Getting On, Camel’s Back and Dear Love. Besides being the nicest guy in the world, Andy Hamill is a darn good double bass player.

It sneaks into the bloodstream and it goes without saying that double bass afficionados should purchase forthwith.

Hamill is London's most in demand double bassist on the jazzy/breakbeat interface. Here he provides funky, spartan, melodic backing for big-name guests. Smartly produced and bright as a button.

It's a delightful record that pitches the bassist into sparse chordless duos and trios with a genre-defying, cross-Atlantic range of singers, percussionists and instrumentalists. Hamill's duets work brilliantly.