Thinking about the Karr-Koussevitzky “Amati” bass

Double bassist, author, and musical humorist Justin Locke (www.justinlocke.com) recently emailed me about checking out my recital on Gary Karr’s former bass from 2006. I haven’t done a recital since then–only little solo performances here and there for various events–but he got me thinking about the experience of playing on that bass all over again. I’ve actually written a mini-article about playing on the Karr-Koussevitzky bass before, after having written a few posts about it during the very early days of the bass blog. I’ve also got a few clips of me playing on it on YouTube (I didn’t have much in the way of video gear back when I played this recital, so this is all I’ve got for video, though I do have the whole thing on audio).

Featuring Gary Karr on Contrabass Conversations earlier in 2008 also got me thinking about playing on this bass, and how much the sound of it (even in my hands!) reminds me of all those wonderful older Gary Karr recordings.

After retiring, Gary Karr gave the International Society of Bassists this historically significant instrument, and several bassists have now had the opportunity to play recitals on it. This is, to me very cool, and I hope that folks out there interested in this bass will either get a chance to check out a recital on this bass in their area or, better yet, get a chance to play on it themselves!

For more info on this cool bass, check out the following article from the ISB’s website:

http://www.isbworldoffice.com/about_us/karr_kouss_bass.html