A recent comment from Carol on my Advice for Aspiring Music Performance Majors post sparked my interest in creating a similar list for top-tier schools for jazz bass study. Commenting on Karl Olsen’s Orchestra Audition Winners List, Carol writes:

Jason, congratulations on your wedding (what a handsome couple!). I love your advice to bass performance majors. My son, a h.s. senior, is searching colleges now. He prefers jazz, actually, so I wonder if your Big 4 universities (Rice, Boston, e.g.) are best for jazz too. More so, my young bassist wants to produce new jazz cds — he’d rather go live in Milan to study the industry with Nicola Conte than go to college at all. If he weren’t so busy with homework I’d make him read every one of your posts, Jason. You’re amazing.
~Carol, mother of a bassist

While “success” in jazz may be harder to quantify than in the orchestral bass world (not that winning a job is the only determining factor in classical instrumental success–if that’s so, I’m a total failure!), it would be interesting and educational to survey double bassists and come up with a list of schools with an established track record of turning out jazz double bassists that go on to have successful performing careers.

Readers–let me know your recommendations, and give a reason or two why you recommend this school. Here are a few top-tier jazz schools to get the list going. Please leave a comment with your own suggestions!

Best Schools for Jazz Bass

Please help to fill out this list (along with any reasons for your choices), and we’ll get a survey going!

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