Jason Heath’s Double Bass Blog

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While digging through my old e-mail recently, I came upon this snippy exchange between management and musicians regarding compensation for cartage. This is the sort of thing that really makes my blood boil–cartage is compensation paid to musicians who must load a lot of gear in and out of a venue. The philosophy behind [...]

Adaptistration blogger and Inside the Arts mastermind Drew McManus recently put out a post about summer music festivals that really caught my eye. In this post (dated 6/27/08), Drew writes:
Unlike regular season positions, music festivals have an added bonus by offering their exclusive location as an added incentive to performance and travel pay. Add [...]

Justin Locke has gracefully made the move from the hardscrabble world of freelance music into his current occupation as corporate speaker and author, and he’s got enough tales from his time in this often wacky business to keep you entertained for days. We interviewed Justin on the Contrabass Conversations podcast, which was extremely fun–check it out [...]

It’s been a great year of blogging for me personally, and I’m really excited to have reached the phase of development for both Contrabass Conversations and doublebassblog.org that I’m at currently. We’ve got a large daily readership (we were pushing 2000 daily page views for these sites plus Arts Addict during the spring) and a [...]

Though this post’s title could easily be tied to a post about slow practice or something like that (which would make a good future blog post!), I’m actually referring here to the deliciously laid-back summer schedules that I’ve managed to get away with for much of my freelance career. While I have certainly had my [...]

I’ve got story for you, and I promise it’s true!
When I was getting started as a freelance musician at the tail end of my masters degree, I was quaking in my boots about my future prospects. After all, I was regularly buying CDs at Borders and Barnes and Noble from former Northwestern doctoral music students. [...]

Over time, professional freelancers develop a set of skills quite peculiar to the profession, alternately taking on the role of long-haul trucker, delivery man, cabbie, and crisis control expert. Though they share the same basic musical skills as their more stably employed colleagues, freelancers are constantly faced with foreign environments and unfamiliar faces, and are [...]

Double bassist Vito Liuzzi recently let me know about a new composition from Italian bassist and composer Leonardo Presicci. Vito writes:

LEONARDO PRESICCI from ITALY and his new composition : CROSS OVER BASS (HR) for db. and orchestra
Dear Jason,
I’m happy to present you the new composition by maestro LEONARDO PRESICCI
“CROSS OVER BASS” [...]

The cycle repeats itself, the faces on the gigs and the music on the stand changing in a never ending cycle of concert halls, Styrofoam cups of coffee in underground orchestra lounges, hauling basses, stools, and stands out of parking garages.

Kennedy Expressway - 7 a.m. - jammed up on the freeway, riding the brake pedal, [...]

At long last, my book Road Warrior Without an Expense Account is completed and ready for purchase. It’s priced at $14.95 and is available now from Lulu.com (click below to purchase), and will be available through Amazon.com, Borders, and Barnes & Noble in the next 6 weeks or so.
Putting this book together has really been [...]