Contrabass Conversations

With the Bass in Mind the debut solo album from Jeff Picker , is being released on October 9th.   This album reimagines the contemporary string band, drawing on the harmonic, metric, and improvisational intrigue of his jazz background, while never straying too far from the front porch.   Past podcast guest Michael Thurber connected us to chat about this cool project.   We dig into how the pandemic...

Honesty Pill is the project of Christopher Still, a trumpet player with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Chris creates focused, actionable plans that help musicians and other creatives address the issues standing between them and their goals. Chris has just launched the Honesty Pill podcast , and his first guest was Trevor Jones from The Scholarship Roadmap and also a member of the Contrabass Convers...

Adam Booker and Miles Brown are launching a new 14 and under jazz competition for the 2021 International Society of Bassists Convention in Lincoln, Nebraska . Miles and Adam share details on this short episode, and you can learn more by visiting the ISB website here .

Ian Hallas has had quite a journey on the road to his position as Principal Bass of the Lyric Opera Orchestra.   We first spoke for the podcast in early 2016 after winning a section bass position, and he won three additional auditions for Lyric for title chairs.   We talk about what it's like auditioning for another job in your same orchestra, how his audition process has evolved since our convers...

Musicians for the World is a non-profit incorporated in the spring of 2020 to give free musical education to students in need globally. So far, they have over 150 students in Haiti, Peru, and Mexico. Bassist Adam Rowton reached out to me about doing an interview with him and co-founders Jesus Saenz and Kelley McGarry , and it was great to learn about this new organization and their inspiring missi...

Fumi Tomita just released a new album called Celebrating Bird: A Tribute To Charlie Parker .   This new release from Fumi explores the ideas of Bird in a fresh and creative way.   We dig into all kinds of topics, like what it was like growing up in New York City, Fumi's move into academia, and his current position at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the surprises and opportunities of this...

Chris Lightcap is a bassist and composer with over 80 album credits and six critically acclaimed albums of original music.   Chris is known for his work with Marc Ribot, Regina Carter, Craig Taborn, and many other noted artists, and his 2019 album SuperBigmouth was listed by Rolling Stone in their Best Jazz of 2019 article.   We dig into Chris' early years, his circuitous path through the music wo...

Here's a deep-dive into the process I used to plan for my Beginner's Classical Bass course on Discover Double Bass . Get course for 25% off until Sunday September 27 by following this link: https://bit.ly/JASON25 LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED Rob Knopper - AuditionHacker https://www.robknopper.com/auditionhacker forScore - https://forscore.co/ Notion - https://www.presonus.com/products/notion Dori...

Heidi Kay Begay is the host of the Flute 360 Podcast as well as a flutist, teacher, and non-profit organizer.   She and I connected to talk about all things podcasting, and she cross-posted this conversation on her podcast as well.   We dig into content creation, daily and weekly routines, social media and marketing, email newsletters, and much more.   Heidi also recently featured my friend and co...

I've had the good fortune to work with Alan Lewine on the International Society of Bassists board for several years, and his artistic journey has always seemed fascinating to me.   The recent release of Sephardic Treasures , his latest album with his wife Ana María Ruimonte , was a good excuse to sit down and chat about his multifaceted career and unconventional journey.   We dig into Alan's path...

Tomoya Amori is truly one of the most well-rounded musicians I've ever met.   Not only is he an incredible bass player, but he also subs as a percussionist in the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and has a vibrant career as a multi-genre cellist! Tomoya and his wife Julia Kang form AKDuo , which specialize in playing jazz/classical/pop fusions composed or arranged by Tomoya.   They also run performanc...

It's great to have Katie Thiroux back on the podcast to chat about her new show The Hump .   Katie was on the podcast in 2018 , and it is so inspiring to follow along with her artistic career.   We talk about our respective Discover Double Bass courses, including Katie's "baseball card," which I hold up at the beginning of our chat.   We mostly dig into her new show The Hump , online teaching, and...

On today's episode, we're featuring Mark Dresser and William Parker in a discussion about Deep Tones for Peace 2020 .  Here's a description of the current project, which is a continuation of the Deep Tones for Peace international event in 2009 : Deep Tones for Peace 2020 is a regular streaming of live meditations for peace, healing, and transformation. Musicians transmitting deep tones to counterb...

Jon Liebman has led a varied and prolific career through the music world, and a lot has changed about his website For Bass Players Only since we last chatted for the podcast .   We talk about how Jon has consolidated his offerings into a single site, how he has restructured his interviews for the site, his online teaching offerings, and upcoming book projects.   We also dig into a ton of great tal...

Ian Allison has been going all-in on Instagram these past few years, and he has been inspiring countless people in the process.   As the bassist for Eric Hutchinson and a seasoned veteran in the industry, Ian has been working to connect and educate through Instagram, and the results have been incredible.   We talk about growing up in Montana, the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival and its early influenc...

Alyssa Peterson has had quite the freshman year.   She hails from La Crosse, Wisconsin and has spent the past year at New England Conservatory, where she launched a podcast called Something to Consider: College Edition .   We talk about how crazy her first year of school has been with the pandemic, her goals for starting the podcast, the importance of self-care for musicians, and much more.   Enjo...

Jason Haaheim 's path to his current position as principal timpanist of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra is unconventional and inspiring.   He didn't go to music school, instead of getting a PhD and working for 10 years as an engineer and researcher for a Chicago-based nanotechnology startup.   Through the principles of deliberate practice , Jason set out on a long journey of continual improvement...

Brooklyn native Richard Myron has spent his professional life in Europe working in the early music world.   Currently residing in Paris, Richard is professor of contrabass and chamber music in the early music department of the CRR de Paris and the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Music de Paris.    He is also a founding member of the Freiburger Barockorchester and Consort, the Atlantis Ensemble...

I had a wonderful conversation with Jonathan Haskell a few years ago, and a lot has changed in his life since then.   He recently retired from L'Orchestre De La Suisse Romande in Switzerland, and he has been diving deep into the world of contemporary music.   He also wrote a thoughtful article for the Chicago Tribune about the conflicting emotions surrounding retiring after 40 years on the job.  ...

T. Alan Stewart wears many musical hats in the Baltimore/Washington DC area.   In addition to serving as principal bass with the Williamsburg Symphony and Roanoke Symphony, Alan has performed with the Baltimore Opera, National Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Spoleto Festival, Alexander Schnieder String Orchestra; and many other ensembles in the area. We cover a lot of ground in this conversation, di...

Andrea Beyer is a bassist, teacher, and advocate for social growth.   Having recently finished up three years with the New World Symphony , Andrea has relocated to Austin, Texas.    She recently started blogging for AuditionCafe.com , where she has been focusing on how all kinds of musicians are handling the pandemic and lockdown.   Andrea also recently asked me to write a piece for the blog , whi...

It was great to connect with Gahlord Dewald about his latest album Coherent Light Enclosed Without .   This album was recorded at The Tank Center for Sonic Arts on a hill above the town of Rangely, Colorado.   We talk about this fascinating performance venue, how Gahlord found himself heading to The Tank for this project, what it's like preparing to record in such a unique acoustic space, and much...

It was great to connect with Giovanni Sanguineti for the podcast.  We start off talking about an online workshop that past podcast guest Danny Ziemann has been doing online.  Giovanni is obsessed with learning and growing as a player, and we dig into a number of resources, including Dennis Whittaker's new series Incredibly Useful Exercises for Double Bass . We also talk about the time we spent tog...

It is a pleasure to have Olivier Babaz back on the podcast!   Olivier recently released a course with Discover Double Bass titled The Creative Improvisor . In this episode, we talk about our shared experiences filming for Discover Double Bass , using iPads creatively for music, Olivier's live streams, creative flow, and much more. Enjoy, and be sure to follow Olivier on YouTube , Facebook , and In...

Today we're featuring Christian Dillingham , a Grammy Award-winning bassist who happens to be one of my longtime friends.   Christian recently joined the faculty at Indiana University to teach jazz bass.   We chat about that and much more!   Check out my in-person conversation with Christian from the 2019 International Society of Bassists Convention , and be sure to follow him on Instagram !   Lis...