Jason Heath’s Double Bass Blog

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A recent article in the Chicago Tribune (May 28, 2008) reignited some long-standing concerns that I’ve had for a longtime about the massive amount of educational debt many musicians accrue during their years of training. This trend is affecting all college students (not only musicians), but since our earnings tend to be rather meager [...]

 

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We’re changing up the podcast format for today’s show and featuring a group of present and former members of the Midwest Young Artists program located on the North Shore of Lake Michigan in metro Chicago. As an educator, I find it very interesting to hear the perspective of younger bassists–what they enjoy about performing, [...]

Check out part 1 and part 2 of this series as well!
A significant chunk of my time these days is spent preparing, recording, editing, distributing, and promoting my podcast Contrabass Conversations, and even though I have always known that I’d have an easier time doing these tasks on a Mac, I’m a creature of habit, [...]

 

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We’re featuring double bassist, composer, and conductor Peter Askim on today’s episode of Contrabass Conversations. A former member of the Honolulu Symphony and an internationally acclaimed composer, Peter currently serves as music director and composer-in-residence for the Idyllwild Arts Academy. His Eight Solitudes for Double Bass won the 2002 International Society of Bassists Composition Competition. [...]

We’ll be releasing a feature with bassist, composer, and conductor Peter Askim tomorrow on Contrabass Conversations, so stay tuned to this for some delightful music and commentary, but in the meantime, check out a few of the fun morsels we’ve uncovered this week:
Here’s a great LOL cat from blogging maven Robert Scoble. These little fur [...]

 

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Here’s episode 5 of Story Time with Contrabass Conversations, based upon a tale about an audition I did for the now-defunct San Jose Symphony.

Here are a few cool items going on around the classical music blogosphere. Stay tuned later this week for some new articles and interesting items from yours truly. We’ve got all kinds of interesting projects percolating in the background…
Because Shut Up, That’s Why!
Drew McManus and I recently did a series of podcast episodes with Lyric [...]

 

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We’re featuring the multi-talented and extremely engaging double bassist and vocalist Kristin Korb on this week’s Contrabass Conversations episode. Kristin and Jason chat about her early years as a bassist and vocalist, life growing up in Montana, her studies on the bass, and how she established herself as a jazz performing artist. We also feature [...]

One of the cool things about doing a weekly interview podcast is watching this body of work grow over the weeks, months, and years. After 1 1/2 years of doing Contrabass Conversations, we’ve got quite a body of content (approaching 100 interview shows, plus numerous video lessons, all-music shows, and special feature episodes), and this [...]

 

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This week’s episode continues the interview with jazz bass legend Steve Rodby that we began on episode 58 of the podcast. Rodby has played bass on every Pat Metheny Group record since 1980, co-produced the group’s last five albums and won 10 Grammy Awards with the group. He has toured with jazz greats Joe [...]