Jason Heath’s Double Bass Blog

You are browsing the archives of articles.

I spent the past two weeks performing with the Grant Park Symphony. This has been a real treat for me, both musically and personally. The GPSO is a great ensemble, and we played a lot of excellent repertoire, including Beethoven 2, Mahler 5, and the Firebird Suite. Bass blog readers will [...]

Matt Wengerd (104 Weeks blog) pointed out to me yesterday that AllAboutJazz.com was using the Contrabass Conversations logo on their site for a series on jazz bass players. Jacque Harper (Chicago Bass Ensemble) sent me the following screen shot to demonstrate the context in which it was being used:
Now, speaking as someone who [...]

No matter how many years I’ve done it, I still get a thrill after coming home from a concert, my body temperature elevated from the music and the excitement of the moment. The sound of an audience clapping and cheering is always a great way to end a night, and this feedback keeps me [...]

If you are looking for ‘flagship content’ (the meatier, longer writing on this blog), clicking the Articles link just below the Contrabass Conversations banner will take you to a page listing the fifty or so long-form works on this blog that I have written, with a short summary of the article/essay/story.
I am in the process [...]

This week featured the second part of This Crazy Business, my new series about life as a working musician. Unlike Road Warrior Without an Expense Account (which is about being a freelance musician), this series is about life as a musician in general.
If you’d like to read the 50 or so more substantial articles [...]

I spent the majority of this week playing up around Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. While the concerts were fun and in a beautiful setting, these long drives are slowly killing me, and I see less and less of them in my future.
I played the same festival last year right around the time that I started [...]

I have been working on several new gig stories and music-related articles this summer, and I will be putting out the next part in my series Basses, Planes, Trains, and Automobiles tomorrow. I will basically be putting out a new article or story each week, and I’ll probably alternate each week, with a ‘heavier’ [...]

Here’s a quick wrap-up of this week’s bass scene news, blog posts, and other activity:
I released the first part of my new series called ‘This Crazy Business’. This first installment lays the groundwork for what follows in future installments. I wanted to make sure that I had established my position on the general [...]

This is a guest post by double bassist Jean-Yves Bénichou. Benjy is bi-national, being a citizen of both the United States and France. He has lived in France for the past 30 years and has been a member of the Strasbourg Philharmonic since 1985. He studied double bass at Temple University with Edward Arian and [...]

I am wrapping up my portion of the Midsummer’s Music Festival in Door County, Wisconsin this week with some fabulous performances. This is my third summer with this ensemble, and it is a great way to decompress after getting up at 4 a.m. and working until 11 p.m. for the past six months. [...]