Roy Vogt is a professional electric bass and upright bass player. He has two highly successful albums out: “Simplicity” and “Urban Legend”, both in the jazz idiom and showcasing the unique bass stylings for which he is famous.
He took up the instrument in Texas, his home state, inspired by Jack Bruce, Jack Casidy, Chris Hillman and Noel Redding. His first mentor, Dallas, TX bassist Ed Garcia, turned him on to the playing of Ray Brown and Stanley Clarke and detoured the young bassist into the jazz fusion idiom. Vogt worked in a variety of Rock, Funk and Country bands in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area until he joined the Texas fusion band Aurora.
This led to gigs opening for Larry Coryell and the LA Express and allowed Vogt to meet and learn from Stanley Clarke, Miroslav Vitous, and Max Bennett. The music of the Dixe Dreggs, Mark Egan with Pat Metheny, and Jaco Pastorius led Vogt to the University of Miami Jazz program, where he received the first Masters in Electric Bass Performance awarded in the US in 1980.
In 1980, Vogt moved to Nashville, Tennessee where he has worked with Dickey Betts, former guitarist for the Allman Brothers Band, country guitarist Jerry Reed, and a host of major label Rock, Country, Contemporary Christian, and Pop acts. He was the staff bassist on Channel 4 Magazine (WSMV-NBC) from 1983-1987 and has taught at Belmont University since 1983.
He also published the Bass Extremes book with transcriptions of duets with Victor Wooten and Steve Bailey. He has also taught many Nashville-based bassists such as Justin Smith, Mark Golden, Alan O.W. Barnes (though Barnes has since relocated to Atlanta), Rich Brinsfield, Matthew Hausler, Chris Dunn and many others.
In 2009 Roy released his landmark interactive DVD instructional course Teach Me Bass Guitar. Since then, he has appeared at the yearly Summer NAMM Shows as well as the 2010 Winter NAMM in Anaheim. He recorded and released his second solo album, Urban Legend on his own RVM label. He has notably appeared at the Baked Potato in LA and the Music Garage in Chicago as well as many venues in Nashville leading his own bands.
Currently, he is Senior Lecturer in Electric Bass and String Bass at Belmont University in Nashville’s Wilson School of Music and has appeared as a Clinician/Panelist at The National Guitar Workshops, Victor Wooten’s Bass and Nature Camps, Bass Player Live and his own Roy Vogt’s Fantasy Bass Boot Camps in Nashville, TN. Download his music on Bandcamp.
Roy gives a description of how he uses A Nitewalker Bass Guitar Tube Preamp in his home studio! Look around 5 Min. 40 sec.
