Jason Heath’s Double Bass Blog

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This week’s episode features an interview with jazz bass legend Steve Rodby. 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 Henderson and Tony Bennett, and also [...]

While strolling around campus recently, I couldn’t help noticing the sorry state of the exterior of the Music Administration Building on Northwestern University’s Evanston campus.  Being a graduate of this institution (B.M. 1998, M.M. 2000), it saddens me to see how shabby things are at present on campus.  My uncle attended the Northwestern music [...]

Rautavaara Bass Concerto
This is likely to be the first time most people have ever hear Angel of Dusk, Einojuhani Rautavaara’
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Adaptistration: Breaking News: JAX Government Weighs In On Lockout
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The Radiohead pay-what-you-want deal, part 786
Yet more Radiohead album giveaway news.
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This is likely to be the first time most people have ever hear Angel of Dusk, Einojuhani Rautavaara’s double bass concerto. Special thanks to double bassist Phillip Serna for securing the distribution rights to this piece.
This piece is approximately 26 minutes long. Two technical issues are worth noting:

The video footage [...]

We’ve got a real treat for folks today. Phillip Serna had to acquire special permission from the publisher of the Tubin Concerto for Double Bass in order for us to release it, and it is likely that many readers out there haven’t heard this piece before. I certainly haven’t found it on YouTube [...]

Here’s a clip of the outstanding DaXun Zhang performing a song called Galloping Horses with Yang Wei.  You can learn more about DaXun Zhang at www.daxunzhang.com, or listen to him perform on Contrabass Conversations #20.

Related Posts:

DaXun performs The Swan by Saint-Saens
DaXun leaves Northwestern University for UT-Austin
DaXun tames the double bass - Washington Post article

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Matt Heller has put out a bunch of really excellent posts on his hellafrisch blog lately.  For those new to the bass blog here, Matt is a bassist in the Calgary Philharmonic.  He was previously a member of the New World Symphony (where he was featured in a New York Times piece), and he also [...]

Over the summer we blogged about JazzDoubleBass.com, a new project started by Tyrone Bishop. This site features forums, interviews, and other resources for the jazz bassist. The Contrabass Conversations podcasts has a dedicated forum at this site as well, so check it out if you get a chance and chat with other jazz [...]

Double bassist David Ballam sent me this great photo of his extension (made by Chris Thelkreld-Wiegend) dominating the Chicago skyline. David is a Masters degree students studying with Peter Lloyd at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. I really like this photo!

Related Posts:

Bass shot of the day - Tim Cobb
Scott Rosenthal and [...]

Double bass virtuoso and University of Texas-Austin bass professor (and Contrabass Conversations musical guest) plays The Swan from The Carnival of the Animals by Saint-Saens in this excellent video:

What a fabulous player!
Related Posts:

Contrabass Conversations #20: Lawrence Hurst interview and DaXun Zhang music
DaXun leaves Northwestern University for UT-Austin
DaXun tames the double bass - Washington [...]