Just wrapped up a great interview with Dave Anderson

We’ve got a real treat for bassists in the next couple of weeks on the Contrabass Conversations podcast network. We just completed an interview with Louisiana Philharmonic Principal Bass Dave Anderson earlier this week, which was an absolute delight to do! Dave is a superb bassist and composer, and one of the funniest and nicest guys you’ll ever meet.

The son of former Cleveland Orchestra bass trombonist Ed Anderson, Dave grew up surrounded by first-class music making. He studied with Barry Green and Frank Proto at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, then continued his studies with Warren Benfield and Stuart Sankey.

Studies with Jaco Pastorius

Dave also had the opportunity to study bass with electric bass legend Jaco Pastorius, and he describes his experiences with Jaco in great detail during the interview. Jaco was a huge influence on Dave, and hearing him relate these stories is a real treat!

In addition to his duties with the Louisiana Philharmonic, Dave has performed with the Louisville Orchestra and Atlanta Symphony, and he currently plays Principal Bass with the Britt Festival in Jacksonville, Oregon. He also maintains an active performing career on the electric bass, playing in a wide variety of musical styles in the New Orleans area and beyond.

Dave’s Compositions

Dave is perhaps best known to the greater double bass community as a composer. Spanning the instrumental gamut from solo string bass to full symphony orchestra, Dave’s works have been performed worldwide to great acclaim. His double bass concerto was commissioned and premiered by Hal Robinson and the Philadelphia Orchestra, and his Capriccio No. 2 (excerpted from the aforementioned concerto) was selected as the 1997 International Society of Bassists’ required solo competition piece.

We’ve featured Dave’s compositions previously on Contrabass Conversations on John Grillo’s Recital Showcase episode. On this episode, John performs Dave’s Seven Duets for Double Bass along with Pittsburgh Symphony bassist Peter Guild, and you can listen to any of the seven duets individually from the above link.

You can also check out a recording of yours truly (!) performing Dave’s Capriccio No. 2 in both audio and video form here (MP3 link).

Hurricane Katrina Destroys all of Dave’s Compositions

Unfortunately, the ravages of Hurricane Katrina did not spare Dave and his family, and his house (with his spare bass and five of his wife’s harps) was severely damaged during the subsequent flooding. Katrina wiped out all of Dave’s computers plus back-up discs and paper copies of his entire compositional output. Dave has spent the years following Katrina painstakingly hunting down copies of his music from other sources, recompiling and editing them back together.

Happily, Dave has been able to re-release his compositions after this long and arduous reconstruction process, and they are now available for online purchase. Follow the link below to check out Dave’s newly republished compositions:

http://www.reallygoodmusic.com/rgm.jsp?page=composers2&compid=128028

I’m a Fan

I’m a huge fan of Dave’s writing–it’s engaging, fresh, and extremely appealing, and I’ve enjoyed performing his music since I discovered it years ago. In fact, his Capriccio No. 2 is one of the pieces I perform most frequently, and I’ve taught it to several students in the past with great success. I strongly recommend Dave’s music, not only for one’s own recitals, but also as material for teaching. Students really want to learn Dave’s compositions because they’re so… well, so darn cool! I am a big fan of Dave’s music (as well as simply a big fan of Dave in general), and I’m really pumped to get a chance to put this interview out!

Check Dave out at his MySpace page here.