Contrabass Conversations double bass life

Today's episode features soloist, chamber musician, and recording artist Guy Tuneh.  Guy was on the podcast way back in 2007, and a lot has changed for him in the intervening years.  His previous interview was one of our most popular episodes of all time, and in this talk we go even deeper, digging into why Guy makes music, how he approaches every single note he plays, and what motivates him to search out new repertoire and bring it to the double bass.

Today we’re featuring Claus Freudenstein, who is pushing the boundaries of the double bass in some really interesting ways.  Claus is innovative on a number of fronts.  He joined the world of the bass later in life than many people, and he came to it through heavy metal and the electric bass.  This resonates greatly with me because this is the exact same way that I arrived at the bass.

Trevor Jones and I have done joint clinics in the past, but this is the first one since restarting the podcast, and I figured that it would make sense to put it out this week since we just released our conversation a few days ago.

Today's episode features double bassist Trevor Jones. It actually amazes me that this is the first time that Trevor has been on the podcast. Trevor kind of does it all: he studied classical bass with Rob Kassinger at DePaul University but got a music education degree as well He has played for years in the rock band Molehill but also maintains a full-time performing schedule as a theater musician, and he has a salaried double bass teaching job at Illinois Wesleyan University as well.

Today's podcast featuring a conversation with Peter Tambroni, who was an early guest on the podcast back in 2007 on episode 32.  Pete is the author of An Introduction to Bass Playing, which is now in its seventh edition, and is an active bass performer, teacher, and author.  You can learn more about Pete on his website petertambroni.com.

Today we are featuring Adam Ben Ezra, who has exploded onto the double bass scene in recent years with his unique musical voice. Adam combines elements of Arabic music, Latin drumming, American pop, looping, and many other styles to form his own craft. He has become quite popular on YouTube, and his videos are fun and visually compelling.

Today’s guest is jazz bass legend Chuck Israels.  We start by covering more familiar topics like meeting Charlie Mingus, playing with Bill Evans, Bill’s use of rhythm, the importance of having concrete and specific role models, and then go deep into topics like Balinese wood carving (the time it takes to get good) - not creating your own artistic world without the traditions that preceded you, the perils of the “parallel case”, and commonalities among how great artists approach their craft.

We’re featuring National Symphony bassist and Peabody Institute faculty member Ira Gold on today’s episode.  Ira was one of the very first interview guests for the podcast, and we spread it out over three episodes: 15, 18, and 43.  This “round two” interview was conducted almost a decade after the first conversation, and Ira has been incredibly active with all sorts of new projects.

I'm turning 40 today, the podcast just passed a million downloads, I wrote a chunky blog post that resonated with a lot of people, and I just got back from Cuba.  This is a different kind of episode where I share details on where I've been and where I'm headed in many areas of life.

This is an all-music episode of Contrabass Conversations featuring Italian bassist Federico Marchesano and tracks from his recent release on the Solitunes label titled The Inner Bass.

This is an all-music  of Contrabass Conversations featuring jazz bass legend Todd Coolman with some tracks from his  new album Collectibles.  The Coolman Trifecta is made up of Todd on bass, Bill Cunliffe on piano, and Dennis Mackrel on drums.

Today’s episode features an interview with the great Bert Turetzky. With nearly 60 years spent championing new works for the contrabass, Bert truly is the father of modern bass playing.  Bert has recently released a memoir titled A Different View which chronicles his life spent in music.

Today’s episode features composer, teacher, and bassist Andrés Martín.  Andrés has written works recently that have become quite popular in the bass community these past few years, and I’ve been looking forward to talking with him ever since hearing his music.  Andrés is also the composer of Anna’s Gift and is currently writing the music for Anna’s Promise, the project spearheaded by Barry Green (a former Contrabass Conversations guest) that we featured on episode 189 of the podcast.

We are featuring double bassist Gaelen McCormick on today’s episode. Gaelen is a member of the Rochester Philharmonic, teaches at Nazareth College and the Eastman Community Music School and is the author of Mastering the Bow, a two-part series for bass. Part one is based on the violin studies of Franz Wohlfahrt, and part two features off-the-strings strokes.

Inez Wyrick has been a huge name in bass pedagogy for decades. She really is one of those teachers that I think we all aspire to be like—she can take a student at any level and develop their technique while also instilling in them a passion for making music of all sorts.