Contrabass Conversations double bass life

Jack Unzicker is the Assistant Professor of Double Bass at the University of Texas at Arlington and is a sought-after performer and educator. He has extensive and varied experience in all performance areas, from early music to contemporary, solo, chamber, and orchestral, as well as jazz and electric bass. He maintains an active performing schedule, over 300 performances since his appointment at UT Arlington in 2012.

Brian Perry is the newest member of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra double bass section. Prior to his appointment in 2013, he was a member of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra for nine seasons. He has appeared with the Minnesota Orchestra, National Symphony and Cleveland Orchestra, and often performs with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood.

Former podcast guest Donovan Stokes recommended that I contact Zach Rowden and dig into what his musical journey looks like. I did just that, and the result was a fascinating conversation about careers, traditional music school mindsets, and how wide the possibilities really when you decide to do your own thing.

​Bassist, composer, performer and teacher Miles Brown comes from a musical family, and began playing the bass at an early age. He attended the Eastman School of Music for his undergraduate degree, earning a Bachelor of Music in Music Education and Jazz and Contemporary Media. In 2003, he received a Master of Music in String Bass Performance from Mannes College of Music, and he earned a Doctorate in Jazz Performance from Eastman in 2012.

Cleveland Orchestra principal bassist Max Dimoff and Time for Three bassist Ranaan Meyer are the new teaching team at the University of Michigan!  Both Max and Ranaan have been featured on past podcast episodes as well as in my 2016 book Winning the Audition.

Since 1994, John Goldsby has been a member of the Westdeutscher Rundfunk Big Band (also known as the WDR Big Band or the Cologne Radio Big Band). From 1980 to 1994, Goldsby lived in New York City and was a fixture on the jazz scene there. He continues to contribute to the art form as a bassist, bandleader, composer, teacher, clinician and author.

New York Philharmonic bassist Orin O’Brien was born in Hollywood to parents in the film industry, George O’Brien and Marguerite Churchill, and received her early musical training in Los Angeles, where she studied with Milton Kestenbaum and Herman Reinshagen. She then studied in New York with Frederick Zimmermann and graduated from The Juilliard School, and is an alumna of the Music Academy of the West, now a partner in the New York Philharmonic Global Academy.

Todd Parks is one of the most active bassists in the Nashville scene and has played with people like Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, James Taylor, Alison Krauss, Garth Brooks, and many others. Todd has also served as the house bassist for prominent fixtures such as A Prairie Home Companion and Pelicula Films’ Transatlantic Sessions 3 and 4.

Jason chats with bassist Nick Villalobos of Simply Three about their new release and what the band was going for with this album.  Nick is a past podcast guest.

Jennifer Rosenfeld is a leader in the world of music entrepreneurship and has been helping musicians “level up” their career since 2009. We go “inside baseball” on the whole podcasting thing.  I’ll bet that there are a few people listening to this podcast that actually listen to all of the shows we reference!

Jeff Denson is a professor at the California Jazz Conservatory in Berkeley, California. He’s also an active performer and has worked for many years with saxophonist Lee Konitz.

Gary Peacock has spent the past 60+ years collaborating with artists like Keith Jarrett, Jack DeJohnette, Miles Davis, Bill Evans, and Tony Williams.

Susan Cahill is a Chicago native and a graduate of Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music where she studied with Bruce Bransby and Lawrence Hurst as well as Stuart Sankey and Murray Grodner. She has been a member of the Colorado Symphony since 1997 and teaches at the University of Denver.

Benedict Puglisi is a luthier from the Melbourne, Australia area with a reputation that is spreading across the globe. I was in the audience for Christian McBride’s concert at the 2017 International Society of Bassists Convention, which was played on one of Benedict’s basses. This bass has a “sister” which is owned by Larry Grenadier. The only difference? One is a carved, round back and the other is a flat back.

Caroline Emery is a Professor at the Royal College of Music and Yehudi Menuhin School. She’s the author of Bass is Best!, which I’ve had in my library for decades. And she just came out with a new book called Bow Works.