Fusion veteran opens up about alternate tuning, his current trio and collaborating with Julien Sandiford
Exclusive video interview with FBPO’s Jon Liebman
February 4, 2019
By David Sands
Hansford Rowe has been keeping the rock and jazz fusion worlds on their toes for several decades now. Largely self-taught, the bass guitarist got his start playing NYC jazz spots in the 1970s. During this time in the Big Apple, he met French drummer Pierre Moerlen, and the two of them soon relocated to France where they reformed the progressive jazz-rock group Gong with a lineup that also included Mireille Bauer, Benoît Moerlen and François Causse. His success with Gong established his reputation a bass luminary and led to work with Mike Oldfield, Allan Holdsworth, Bireli Lagrene, David “Fuze” Fiuczynski, Gary Husband, Jordi Torrens and avant-garde composer La Monte Young, among others.
Beyond Gong, Rowe also helped found the band Gongzilla, the trio Bon and the LoLo Records label and serves as a “funkulty” member at Bootsy Collins’ Funk University. He’s also known as a guru of alternate tuning systems and was instrumental in the development Warwick’s “Just Intonation” bass guitar.
FBPO’s Jon Liebman met up with Rowe during this year’s Winter NAMM show in Anaheim California for an intriguing conversation to touched on Just Intonation tuning, current projects and futuristic pedal effects programming.
Watch our interview with Hansford!
