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 Guitar
Player Magazine - April 2002
PERFORMANCE
NOTES Joy Basu
by Matt Blackett
Since
appearing in GP's October 1991 Spotlight column, Joy Basu has been
an in-demand session guitarist, teacher, and sideman. He has also
released a self-titled solo album (available at joybasu.com), and
his music has been used in TV shows such as MTV's Undressed and
60 Minutes. After stints with pop divas Coco Lee and Jennifer Lopez,
Basu is currently gigging with Jessica Simpson. How do you get
these auditions? Word of mouth. I auditioned for the Coco Lee
gig and got it, and that's how Jessica Simpson's people heard about
me. How do you prepare for auditions? Sometimes they'll send
you a CD with songs to learn, but sometimes you go in cold. It can
also be a little of both. You might learn a tune, but the musical
director will change the arrangement when you show up to see how
well you come up with parts on your own and deal with pressure.
You need to be flexible. What gear do you bring? Occasionally,
I'll bring my own amp, but a lot of times they provide one, so I
always bring a pedalboard with a wah, an envelope filter, a chorus,
a delay, and two different distortion pedals. Once you get the
gig, what are the rehearsals like? It depends on what we're
rehearsing for. For a TV date, we'll spend one or two eight-hour
days just running through a couple of songs. For the last Jessica
Simpson tour, the band rehearsed for a month, and then we did a
week of full-production rehearsals with all the singers, dancers,
and lights. Was it hard making the transition from rock gigs to
dance gigs? Surprisingly enough, I have more freedom with Jessica
than I've had on a lot of rock gigs. The musical director really
wanted me to beef up the arrangements with distorted guitar and
solos. I also get to cover a bunch of different styles with funk,
R&B, pop, and some nylon-string work. It's a great gig. I'm having
a blast.
-MATT BLACKETT
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