Jason Heath’s Double Bass Blog

You are browsing the archives of 2006 December.

Here is some great news from WGBH in Boston:
The staff at iTunes has honored WGBH 89.7 FM’s weekly classical music podcast, “WGBH Classical Performances”, as one of their “Best of 2006″. Available through iTunes and wgbh.org/classical, the free weekly podcast features live performances by world-class classical musicians and ensembles that have been recorded in [...]

WGBH 89.7 FM’s Classics in the Morning’s Cathy Fuller will host NPR’s nationwide broadcast of the Vienna Philharmonic’s beloved traditional New Year’s Day Concert. The concert, broadcast direct from the Golden Hall of the Musikverein in Vienna, Austria, will air locally on WGBH 89.7 FM on Monday, January 1, 2007 from 11am to 1pm, [...]

Here is a great video of jazz bassist Marco Panascia soloing over rhythm changes. Notice how Marco uses a positional approach to his soloing. He tends to cross stings and do pivots to stay in a position for a length of time rather than shifting up and down the string. This is [...]

I realized yesterday that I had not added the excellent blog Adaptistration by Drew McManus to my music blogroll. I just did so, and you can find it in my sidebar on the left. Drew’s blog is about the changing face of the symphony orchestra, and it is a really excellent classical music [...]

Having recently resigned from two adjunct university positions, I feel the urge to share some of my concerns about how such positions are administrated at many universities in the United States. These concerns are based on my own experiences as an adjunct double bass instructor and upon many conversations with colleagues at other universities. [...]

Muso is a magazine from the U.K. that is aimed at younger fans of classical music. I recently checked out their site, and it looks like a good read. Click the photo to visit the site–they have a survey on the front page that you may want to take.
I haven’t read the magazine, [...]

Darren Rowse from ProBlogger recently posted a list of Google’s top searches for 2006:
1. bebo2. myspace3. world cup4. metacafe5. radioblog6. wikipedia7. video8. rebelde9. mininova10. wiki
Check out the complete post from ProBlogger here.

I deeply apologize for posting this video, but it simply must be put out there. Ladies and gentlemen, I present…. Jingle Cats!

A new article from the journal Nature suggests that the specific chemicals used in treating Stradivarius (and other 17th century violin makers) instruments is what gives them their superior tone. National Geographic reports on the new article:

Chemical tricks were the key to creating the unparalelled tones of famed 17th- and 18th-century Italian violins, [...]

Greg Sarchet recently sent me a link to an NPR story about the difficulties Gary Karr recalls facing while flying with a double bass. Gary quit touring in 2001, just before security measures at airports started tightening. I haven’t flown since 2001 myself, and I remember flight with a bass being highly annoying [...]