Contrabass Conversations

Brent Edmondson has made one of the most remarkable pandemic pivots of any musician I know.   After spending the last several years subbing regularly with the Philadelphia Orchestra and performing with many other ensembles, Brent found himself, like so many other musicians, with a blank calendar in front of him. Brent saw the writing on the wall and reached out to several contacts in other areas o...

Paul Thompson has spent the pandemic focusing on his YouTube Channel , and the results have been tremendous.   has been playing bass professionally for over 25 years, including recording and touring stints with trumpeter Maynard Ferguson and saxophonist Stanley Turrentine. He is currently an adjunct professor of Jazz Bass at Duquesne University and West Virginia University. He has been an Instrume...

Jon McCullough-Benner recently released a great new book called An Auditioning Double Bassist's Tool Kit: Bowings, Fingerings, and Useful Tips for Standard Audition Repertoire .   In this book, he shares his wealth of knowledge learned over his years in a detailed and compelling fashion.   Jon joined the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra as its Principal Bass in 2017 after serving as Principal Bass for...

Zach VanderGraaff is an elementary school general music teacher who has been adapting his teaching during the global pandemic in interesting ways.   He launched his website Dynamic Music Room prior to the pandemic, and he has been offering resources like his 9 weeks of online lessons survival pack to teachers looking for guidance in the unfamiliar new format of teaching.   We talk about Zach's bac...

In addition to a thriving career as a composer and podcast host , Garrett Hope has been using Steinberg's new music notation software Dorico for several years.   After having Daniel Spreadbury , Product Marketing Manager for Dorico, on the podcast , I decided to sit down with Garrett to talk through my experiences with the software as a novice and his as a seasoned professional. We also talk about...

Susan Cahill has been rethinking the entire senior recital experience for her students at the University of Denver's Lamont School of Music .    In addition to playing a traditional senior recital, she has reconfigured the senior recital concept into a variety of new options: Composition for bassists Multi Instrumental Techniques for bassists Chamber Techniques for bassists Orchestral Auditioning...

We're talking today with Trevor Jones of The Scholarship Roadmap about the value of a college education and the critical importance of finding a school that fits a student's needs and a scholarship that makes it possible. Trevor is doing great work connecting students to colleges.   Learn more about his work on his website , and follow The Scholarship Roadmap on Facebook , Instagram , and YouTube...

We're joined today by past podcast guest David White , who has played for many Broadway and National Touring shows, including Charlie & The Chocolate Factory, The Bridges Of Madison County, Motown: The Musical, The Producers, HAIR!, Guys & Dolls and The Illusionists: Turn Of The Century.   We talk about a wide array of topics, including the pandemic's effect on musical theatre and how various comp...

Brandi Disterheft 's latest album Surfboard , featuring tenor sax legend George Coleman and Brazilian drummer Portinho, has been turning a lot of heads since its release.   The project gestated in Disterheft's decade-long musical relationship with Portinho, whom she met through Mueller soon after she moved to New York from Canada in 2010 to study with Ron Carter.   We talk about this new album, wh...

Originally from Australia, Jeremy Watt spent 16 years freelancing through the UK and Europe, including stints as guest principal in Spanish, Norwegian and UK orchestras. Jeremy worked extensively with the UK's finest ensembles, including the Philharmonia and London Symphony Orchestras.   In 2018, Jeremy obtained a permanent position with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra . During the pande...

Born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, Kris Funn is part of the jazz faculty at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins.   Kris released his first debut album, Cornerstore , in 2017, and he is an active performer internationally and in the Baltimore/Washington D.C. area.   We dig into all kinds of topics, like what Baltimore is like (and if HBO's show The Wire captured the city's essence!), Kris'...

Bobby Scharmann has been making cool YouTube videos since the pandemic broke out, and a recent one titled Specialization vs. Diversification prompted me to get in touch with him about doing an interview.   We talk about how he is putting together his videos, finding topics to cover, leveling up in terms of skill with each video, life as a gigging musician in Omaha, and also about specialization an...

This is an off-the-cuff and laid-back conversation with my friend and fellow podcaster James Newcomb all about what goes on behind the scenes of a podcast.   We get into the business of podcasting, nuts and bolts of approaching content, mindset, and much more. Enjoy, and be sure to check out James' podcast Musicpreneur ! Listen to Contrabass Conversations with our free app for iOS, Android, and Ki...

Short Stories , Alison Rayner 's latest album with her quintet, has been getting critical acclaim in the UK and worldwide.   In this interview, we dig into Alison's journey through the music world, how the pandemic has affected the quintet's plans, what it has been like to play gigs again after so any months, what the British jazz scene is like and how it has changed over the years, her London par...

San Francisco Symphony principal bassist and San Francisco Conservatory bass faculty member Scott Pingel had a unique opportunity in 2019 to play a Cliff Burton tribute solo in front of two packed houses with Metallica and the San Francisco Symphony.   Scott and I sat down in the fall of 2019 to talk about this project, the cool backstory behind it, going to play for Metallica and the band's staff...

Mike Bullock is a composer, improviser, visual artist, and writer based in Western Massachusetts.   Mike has been performing since the mid 90s at venues across the US and in Europe, including Fylkingen in Stockholm, Sweden; Instants Chavirés in Paris; Café OTO in London; Experimental Intermedia and ISSUE Project Room in New York City; The Philadelphia Museum of Art; and EMPAC in Troy, NY. In June...

Luke Stewart is a DC/NYC-based musician and organizer of important musical presentations and has a strong presence in the national and international Improvised Music community. He was profiled in the Washington Post in early 2017 as "holding down the jazz scene," selected as "Best Musical Omnivore" in the Washington City Paper's 2017 "Best of DC," chosen as "Jazz Artist of the Year" for 2017 in th...

Daniel Spreadbury is the Product Marketing Manager for Steinberg's professional scoring application Dorico . Before joining Steinberg, Daniel and many members of the Dorico team worked for many years on the Sibelius music notation software. We discuss the innovative approach Dorico takes to user interface, how Adobe Lightroom influenced the initial development of Dorico, lessons learned from legac...

Nicholas Walker faced a vastly different school environment upon returning from his sabbatical from Ithaca College this fall, and he has found several innovative ways to use online teaching to enhance the way he is working with his students.   We chat about the four pedagogical components of his approach (fundamentals, performance, deliberate practice, and lessons), how his weekly program runs, ho...

When Gary Karr reached out to me asking about a piece of software named JackTrip , I was determined to learn more about it and share my findings with the bass community.   I soon found myself on the Networked Music Performance Resources page of UV Irvine professor Michael Dessen ,   and soon thereafter I found myself on a call with Michael and his longtime collaborator Mark Dresser .   I also foun...

When Gary Karr reached out to me asking about a piece of software named JackTrip , I was determined to learn more about it and share my findings with the bass community.   I soon found myself on the Networked Music Performance Resources page of UV Irvine professor Michael Dessen ,   and soon thereafter I found myself on a call with Michael and his longtime collaborator Mark Dresser .   I also foun...

Jason Haaheim , principal timpanist of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, joins us again on this episode to dig into one specific topic: What's the value of music school? Instead of going to music school, Jason got a PhD and worked for 10 years as an engineer and researcher for a Chicago-based nanotechnology startup.   During this time, he used principles of deliberate practice to continue improvin...

Zach Finkelstein and Dana Lynne Varga turned a lot of heads earlier this year with their co-authored article An Impossible Choice: Music Majors, COVID-19, and an Uncertain Future . We dig into this complicated topic, plus the unique challenges vocalists face in their career, the concept of a correlating career , the pitfalls of Young Artist Programs , and much more. Enjoy, and be sure to check out...

Derrick Hodge 's latest Blue Note solo album Color of Noize is incredible and is the latest chapter in his multifaceted artistic life.   Since releasing the album, which was co-produced by Don Was , it's his first album to feature a live band throughout. We cover a wide range of topics, including his creative approach to his Color of Noize Instagram Live Sunday Sessions , the thoughtful interview...

Linda May Han Oh 's 2019 album Aventurine on Biophilia Records recently received the award "Best New Work - Jazz" from Art Music Awards , and it's the latest in a series of wide-ranging projects from this innovative artist.   Linda recently relocated to her hometown of Perth, Australia, and she is teaching full-time for the Berklee College of Music .   We talk about the pandemic, travels to Austra...