Frank Zappa was a cat guy. Nothing wrong with that–so am I. Just dig through my bass blog cat archives if you don’t believe me. Photo found via The Catalyst, which it a truly righteous blog. Frank is my musical hero in may ways, so it’s good to see...
Here’s a cool event happening at Northwestern University (just around the corner from me). Peter Lloyd student and Civic Orchestra of Chicago bassist Josh Fink just sent me the following information. Josh informs me that there will be several cool bass solos:...
It’s been quite a while since I’ve had the opportunity to sit down and write a solid multi-part series. I used to to this a lot on the blog–in fact, my book Road Warrior Without an Expense Account is based on a series of posts I did in 2006 and 2007...
I’m getting sick and tired of the punishing winter weather of Illinois–not a rare thing for me in mid-January. Why on Earth would I want to live here? I have no idea. My wife is applying all over the country for medical school. She’s applying to a...
What makes a jazz solo great? Can it be quantified by fundamental musical building blocks (rhythm, contour, note choices, phrasing, etc.), or is it some magical and indescribable combination of characteristics. How can we teach students how to create a truly great...
