Archives: 2007 June

Archive for June 2007

You are browsing the archives of 2007 June.

Federal Support for the Arts - post from Adaptistration

Drew McManus wrote an excellent post recently on his blog Adaptistration detailing how increased governmental funding would alter the outlook of orchestral budgets in the United States. This post has a great deal of relevance to my Road Warrior Without an Expense Account series, particularly Part III (The Rise and Fall of the [...]

Jaco Pastorius plays Portrait of Tracy

OK, so it’s not double bass. Still, I think that few will pass up a chance to check out this video of Jaco Pastorius playing ‘Portrait of Tracy’ live. He’s got crazy hippie hair and makes rock star faces through the whole thing, but he’s a total genius and an inspiration to [...]

Orchestra joke from CSO Bass Blog

Michael Hovnanian just put up a post on his CSO Bass Blog that started with a great joke:

The last chair bassist of a major orchestra fancied himself something of an amateur conductor. One day the Maestro fell ill and with no conductor on call the orchestra manager approached the bassist to fill in. So the [...]

Bass shot of the day

The following photo is from a student of mine of a cake for a fellow bass player’s birthday. How hardcore to have your birthday cake be a double bass!
Related Posts:

Past bass shots of the day 1 2 3 4 5
Double bass is not always a double bass
Flea starts music conservatory in LA
Bassfest 2007 photos [...]

DaXun Zhang leaves Northwestern University for UT-Austin

Northwestern University double bass faculty member DaXun Zhang has accepted a position with the University of Texas-Austin beginning Fall 2007 and will be leaving his Northwestern teaching post. This is sad news for the double bass community in Chicago, but great news for DaXun’s future career.
Northwestern University has a long history of undervaluing their [...]

Special delivery from the cat

Jacque Harper sent me a link this very strange cat video featuring a cat struggling along a curtain rod with a feather duster to get to a shelf.

Nora, the piano-playing cat
more Nora footage
Tortoise on cat patrol
There is no escape from the Jingle Cats
Monkey protects cat from chicken

Michael Hovnanian performs Brahms Sonata on Contrabass Conversations this week

In addition to hearing CSO Bass Blog author and Chicago Symphony bass section member Michael Hovnanian in a Contrabass Conversations interview this weekend, you will get the chance to hear him play the first movement of the Brahms Cello Sonata in E minor. This was a really excellent interview that both bassists and non-bassists [...]

David Cadiou plays bass and flute in looped performance

David Cadiou of Trio bass’in performs here through some looping software on flute and bass. The track starts just with flute, but it builds and builds as he adds pizzicato, arco, voice, and tapped effects to the music.

Trio bass’in tears it up
Time for Three video
l’orchestre de contrabasses video
Rabbath plays Poucha Dass
Catalin Rotaru plays [...]

Virtual Master Class Track - Vanhal Concerto mvt 1 - Candidate 4

Here is the next track in the Virtual Master Class Project. This is a recording of the first movement from the Vanhal Concerto mvt 1. Leave criticism, advice, practice tips, and the like by clicking on the ‘comments’ link below the player.
Sometimes these players take 10-20 seconds to load, so give it a little time [...]