Jason Heath’s Double Bass Blog

Double bassist Andy Anderson (member of the Lyric Opera of Chicago orchestra and Grant Park Symphony, and a frequent Contrabass Conversations guest) mentioned to me recently the usefulness of conducting a survey of double bass airline travel experiences. I think that this is a fantastic idea (and one the ties in quite well [...]

Adaptistration blog author Drew McManus recently brought up the subject (previously explored on a November 2006 post) of free concerts and whether these events have the potential to turn people into ticket buyers. Although one might think that the exposure an organization gains from performing at a free event would help to drive [...]

I’d like to let readers now that Contrabass Conversations will be a part of Bass Musician Magazine, a bi-monthly virtual publication (free to subscribe) debuting this August. This online magazine has a huge amount of potential, and I am excited to see how it develops. Even though it hasn’t launched yet, you can [...]

In a sublime example of everything that is wrong with the Recording Industry Association of America, Universal Music has demanded that a mother take down a 29-second video of her toddler dancing while Prince’s Let’s Go Crazy plays in the background. Apparently, the use of this song (playing on a radio in the kitchen) [...]

Philanthropic organizations in Chicago have been organizing themselves in a very interesting way when it comes to providing support for jazz, creating the Chicago Jazz Partnership in an effort to draw in new audiences for this music and find innovative ways to support the art form. Chicago Tribune arts critic Howard Reich reports:
Two years [...]

I just wrote a post on Automated Musical Instruments for Dark Roasted Blend, one of my favorite blogs. I’ve blogged frequently about this great photo blog in the past, and it is a real honor to get a chance to put something together for them! I’d encourage readers to check out this post [...]

I just read an interesting post on Joshua Nemith’s Cincinnati Pianist Blog about the benefits of scheduling shorter and more informal concerts, like concerts at a patron’s home or other such intimate venue. Josh mentions having participated in these sort of events for different organizations in the past, and he highlights some of the [...]

Contrabass Conversations regular collaborator John Grillo recently sent me a link to this story about Nancy Donaruma, a 59 year old New York Philharmonic cellist who is quitting the orchestra to become a full-time paramedic:

After 31 years in the top-tier orchestra, playing with conductors including Leonard Bernstein, Zubin Mehta and Lorin Maazel, the 59-year-old cellist [...]

I heard this track a few months ago on the Project Studio Network podcast (a great show for people involved in recording or producing audio content).Some perceptive guy took a couple of Nickelback songs–How You Remind Me from 2001 and and Someday from 2003–and put one track in each stereo channel. The results? [...]

Directing readers to examples of progressive thinking in the orchestra world is one of the goals I have for this blog, including examples of repertoire selection, hiring practices, ideas for audience building, distribution methods (iTunes, podcasting), or any other effective ideas for thinking outside of the box. The San Francisco Symphony held what is [...]