Contrabass Conversations

Sara Neilson will be running an online beginner bass camp for students age 8-12 from July 6th through July 30th.   She'll be doing hourly sessions from 10-11 am Central Time. Sara teaches bass at the Merit School of Music in Chicago, and she has been running a series of warm-up classes each weekday on Facebook .   She also recently wrote an article titled 'Game Changer' for the International Socie...

Susanna Klein has been working on a really cool project the past few years: Practizma .   This is a journal that takes you through 16 weeks of guided practice, with goal setting, reflection prompt, action challenges, and journal pages to track your practice.   In addition to this very cool system, we talk about Susanna's background, what it has been like teaching online these past few months, the...

Tom Walley has certainly been keeping busy during the quarantine, publishing a ton content on his Instagram and YouTube , including his arrangement of the Adagio from Mahler's 9th Symphony with his fellow London Philharmonic Orchestra section members. Tom and I talk about this recording and his other quarantine projects, canceled tours, moving out of London for the time being, long-distance relati...

I've been following along with the musical adventures of Hans Roelofsen and Rudolph Senn for years.   They have toured the world as a bass duo, with 15 trips to the United States alone.   Throughout these trips, they have collected some fantastic stories.   We dig into these stories, how they came to play as a duo, challenges of transcription, the implications of choosing a particular key for an a...

Bill Rinehart has been teaching jazz piano online for the past 13 years, and he has been working with Jaime Slutzky recently to redevelop certain aspects of his online offerings. I've been obsessed with finding new ways to frame the private lesson experience for years, and the current pandemic has made music teachers across the globe rethink the one-on-one traditional private lesson experience. Bi...

Abo Gumroyan truly is a musical chameleon.   In addition to winning Grammys with the Pacific Mambo Orchestra, Abo has played with the San Francisco Symphony, played on countless sessions, worked on Las Vegas shows, and much more. We dig into Abo's musical background, his time studying with Scott Pingel , Steve Tramontozzi , David Allen Moore , and many others, what it has been like adjusting to th...

In addition to being an outstanding bassist, Mary Javian has an inspiring goal in life: to use music to create positive social change in communities. We dig into her role as Chair of Career Studies at the Curtis Institute of Music , what this institution offered in terms of career development when she was a student and how it has evolved over the years, what this work means to her, the importance...

The whole world is adjusting to new ways of interaction, and the world of music advocacy is no exception. Jessica Garand 's Opportunity Music Project has been doing a particularly good job of adapting their El Sistema-style program to these current times, with their Sponsor a Student program and many other initiatives and offerings. In today's episode, we chat with Jessica and OMP bass instructor...

Drew Gress ' biography reads like a who's who of the jazz world, including collaboration with Tim Berne, Ravi Coltrane, Uri Caine, John Hollenbeck, and countless others.   He has appeared on over 140 recordings, 4 of which have received Grammy nominations. In this conversation, which was prompted by Richard Ivy, a former student of Drew's, we discuss many topics, including: Drew's in-depth intervi...

Marcos Machado shows no signs of slowing down even during the pandemic!   He recently joined the Discover Double Bass teaching team and released a course in the fall of 2019 titled I ntegral Technique . photo credit: Discover Double Bass This course is based on the extensive research and experimentation Marcos has done in fingerings through his epic work Tao of Bass .   We spoke with Marcos about...

Miles Perkin is exploring fascinating musical territory with the double bass.   Originally from Canada and now living in Berlin, he recently released a solo bass album called Subtones that mixes voice, bass, and extended techniques in unexpected and compelling ways. In this conversation, recorded in March just before the pandemic fully shut down the globe, we talk about his background the Berlin e...

Susan Cahill has been finding all kinds of ways to keep herself inspired musically during the pandemic.   She had finished filming an episode for the PBS Series Now Hear This prior to the lockdown, and she has been immersing herself in several music at-home projects. We talk about these projects, how practicing other instruments fits into her musicianship, thoughts on small and large group perform...

We're featuring Czech double bass player Jaromír Honzák on the podcast today.   Jaromír recently released an album called Hard To Understand , and like everyone else right now, he's finding new ways to cope with our current pandemic. We talk about the jazz scene in Prague, the value of building a local scene, recording the latest album, and much more.   Enjoy! Listen to Contrabass Conversations wi...

Andrew Goins has been hard at work since the pandemic hit.   He recently launched the Texas Double Bass Academy , which is dedicated to the online education of the pre-college double bass student, and he has been putting together a compelling offering with many of Texas' most renowned bass teachers. This new organization will host the Texas Double Bass Academy Online Camp this June 1-4.   This cam...

Ryan Roberts is a freelance bassist in Los Angeles and is the founder of The Bass Shed , which is focused on learning the language of music from legendary bassists and other instrumentalists. We chat about many topics, including the COVID-19 pandemic and how it is affecting his work life, the impetus to start The Bass Shed and how he is incorporating it into his schedule, and much more. Enjoy, and...

We're chatting with past podcast guest Elisa Janson Jones today.   I had the chance to spend some time in person with her during the NAMM Show in January 2020, and I was interested in learning about how she has been handling the current pandemic, with its many challenges and opportunities. Elisa wears many hats: entrepreneur, author, educator, host of the Music Ed Mentor Podcast , and the founder...

It was a real pleasure having Sydney bassist Elsen Price back on the podcast to talk about his recent projects. Elsen was been up to a lot just before the global pandemic hit, including: a world tour throughout Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and the UK his solo album Descent of the Free (ABC Jazz/ Universal) Eishan Ensemble Ephemera Ensemble Masha's Legacy Paul Cutlan String Project Marais Project...

When I saw a couple of recent projects that Hugh Sung had been working on since the pandemic hit,   I knew that I had to have him back on the podcast and talk through what he was doing. Hugh Sung is one of the most creative people I know when it comes to harnessing the power of technology to enhance our music teaching.   As co-founder of the excellent AirTurn foot pedal, Hugh has inspired me for y...

It was an absolute pleasure having Morgan Daly on the podcast!  In addition to a busy performing life, active teaching schedule, and working for the education program for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Morgan has created a really cool product called the ContraCover . We talk about all the features of this cool bass cover, moments when I really wished I'd had one of these, Morgan's many projects...

We're featuring Dmitry Gorodetsky on today's podcast.   Dmitry has been on the road constantly since moving to LA a little over 4 years ago, working with Charlie Puth and many other artists. Recently, his work has shifted more toward studio work, and he has been transforming himself into an artist working on dates for film, commercials, TV, and the like.   He has been splitting his time between th...

Today we're featuring Christian Fabian , the longtime bassist for the Lionel Hampton Big Band .   We spent some time in person together during the 2020 Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival . Born in Sweden and raised in Germany, Christian attended Berklee College of Music on a full scholarship.   Through Brian Bromberg, one of his early mentors, Christian became the bassist for the Lionel Hampton Band. He...

We're chatting with Eleanor Martindale about the third annual RCR Double Bass Camp , which will be coming up August 17-22 in the south of France. We talk about how the camp is organized, Lorraine Campet, Bernard Salles, Alberto Bocini, Giuseppe Ettorre, and all the other teachers that will be there, and much more. Enjoy, and you can learn more about the RCR Double Bass Camp on their website and Fa...

Houston Grand Opera principal bassist and University of Houston bass faculty Dennis Whittaker recently launched a YouTube Channel called Incredibly Useful Exercises . Dennis has 45 of his favorite exercises that he is putting on YouTube and also into a series of 16 volumes plus an appendix.   He rates each exercise on a scale of 1-5 for the following attributes: Control Mindfulness Expression Powe...

After 30 years at the University of Washington , Barry Lieberman is retiring.   I've had Barry on the podcast several times in the past, and we had an engaging chat about the hefty list of bass players that he has brought to the university for his Barry Lieberman and Friends series. We also chatted about a wide variety of videos and artists, including: Barry's orchestral solo videos on his YouTube...

I had a great time having Kieran Hanlon back on the podcast. In this episode, recorded on February 20, we talk about the Fredonia Bass Fest , which had recently wrapped up and which had past podcast guests Danny Ziemann and Lauren Pierce as guest artists. We also dig into Kieran's new trio edition (bass, guitar, cello) of the Eccles Sonata , the interesting self-care topic that came up at the Bass...