Jason Heath’s Double Bass Blog

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I had the opportunity to addend a master class featuring Tim Cobb this past Wednesday (5/28/08), which washosted by Northwestern University’s Peter Lloyd. In addition to serving as principal double bassist with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, Tim serves as principal double bassist for the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center. Prior [...]

As I spend more of my time focusing on local activities (playing, teaching, etc.) and less on driving all over the country, I’ve gotten a chance to really take in this remarkable city that I live in. What a fascinating and multifaceted place metro Chicago is! I’m currently sitting on the Midway Pleasance, gazing [...]

We’ve had all sorts of interesting things going on behind the scenes at Bass Blog HQ (which currently happens to be a coffee shop in north Evanston), starting with an interview with the fabulous Kristin Korb. I’ll be recording and editing this episode today and will be launching it tomorrow morning, so stay tuned! In [...]

My article/post/whatever you call it The Real Cost of Driving to Gigs for the Freelance Musician is featured inthe May 2008 edition of Overture, the paper for Local 47 (Los Angeles) of the American Federation of Musicians. This article prompted a lot of interesting discussion when it launched in April, and Drew McManus from Adaptistration [...]

The class glances uneasily at the clock as it slowly ticks:
1:13…..1:14…..1:15….
Suddenly, the professor bursts in, shirt rumpled and tie caught within the jumbled stack of file folders, books, and binders he clasps in his arms.
“Hi class, sorry sorry sorry…um, how’s everybody this Tuesday..er, Wednesday. Sorry, sorry, let me just get things…. set up… uh…. what [...]

 

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Here’s the latest episode of Story Time with Contrabass Conversations. These stories recount some of the funny, sad, poignant, and painful moments in the life of a freelance road warrior. Find the text version of this story here, and check out Contrabass Conversations for more weekly double bass content.

Building upon last week’s post about how driving expenses eat into one’s gig income, Drew McManus from Adaptistration put together an extremely cool online utility for Inside The Arts.  Type in a set of parameters (distance to gig, cost of gas, mileage of car), and you get an estimate of the profit (or loss!) [...]

 Check out the gig commuting cost calculator by Drew McManus here and determine if you should really be taking that gig.

A recent feature in the Chicago Tribune (Sunday, April 13, 2008 by Jim Mateja) about the actual operating costs per mile for a variety of different vehicles caught my eye–not surprising considering how much [...]

 

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I’m pleased to be able to share this interview with Robert Meyer, one of our most experienced and interesting members of the double bass community. Robert has had a long and illustrious career on the double bass, working for over 50 years in most of the major orchestras in London (including the London [...]

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Listen to a very tired Jason prattle on about the pros and cons of the freelance lifestyle in this video. Though I’m trying to keep the tone light, you can tell that the last few days have been nothing but driving, playing, driving, playing…