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Contrabass Conversations

Contrabass Conversations

double bass podcast

553: Musicality vs Technique

Today’s episode features the following past podcast guests on the role of musicality and technique:

  • Mark Dresser – University of San Diego
  • David Murray – Butler University
  • Michael Klinghoffer – Conservatory Orchestra at JAMD
  • Todd Coolman – Indiana University
  • Miles Mosley – jazz artist

Listen to more “best of” episodes at contrabassconversations.com/highlights.

Listen to Contrabass Conversations with our free app for iOS, Android, and Kindle!

Contrabass Conversations is sponsored by:

A440 Violin Shop

An institution in the Roscoe Village neighborhood for over 20 years, A440‘s commitment to fairness and value means that we have many satisfied customers from the local, national, and international string playing communities. Our clients include major symphony orchestras, professional orchestra and chamber music players, aspiring students, amateur adult players, all kinds of fiddlers, jazz and commercial musicians, university music departments, and public schools.

The Bass Violin Shop

The Bass Violin Shop offers the Southeast’s largest inventory of laminate, hybrid and carved double basses. Whether you are in search of the best entry-level laminate, or a fine pedigree instrument, there is always a unique selection ready for you to try. Trade-ins and consignments welcome!

Upton Bass String Instrument Company

Upton’s Karr Model Upton Double Bass represents an evolution of our popular first Karr model, refined and enhanced with further input from Gary Karr. Since its introduction, the Karr Model with its combination of comfort and tone has gained a loyal following with jazz and roots players. The slim, long “Karr neck” has even become a favorite of crossover electric players.

D’Addario Strings

This episode is brought to you by D’Addario Strings! Check out their Zyex strings, which are synthetic core strings that produce an extremely warm, rich sound. Get the sound and feel of gut strings with more evenness, projection and stability than real gut.

Steve Swan String Bass

Steve Swan String Bass features the West Coast’s largest selection of double basses between Los Angeles and Canada.  Located in Burlingame, just south of San Francisco, their large retail showroom holds about 70 basses on display. Their new basses all feature professional setups and come with a cover at no additional cost. Used and consignment instruments receive any needed repairs and upgrades before getting a display position on the sales floor.

Kolstein Music

The Samuel Kolstein Violin Shop was founded by Samuel Kolstein in 1943 as a Violin and Bow making establishment in Brooklyn, New York. Now on Long Island, over 60 years later, Kolstein’s has built a proud reputation for quality, craftsmanship and expertise in both the manufacture and repair of a whole range of stringed instruments, and has expanded to a staff of twelve experts in restoration, marketing and production.

Contrabass Conversations production team:

  • Jason Heath, host
  • Michael Cooper and Steve Hinchey, audio editing
  • Mitch Moehring, audio engineer
  • Trevor Jones, publication and promotion
  • Krista Kopper, archival and cataloging

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/contrabassconversations/Musicality20vs20Technique.mp3

216: Todd Coolman on jazz bass lines, recording projects, and classical foundations

Jazz double bassist Todd Coolman

Jazz double bassist Todd Coolman

Today’s podcast features an interview with Todd Coolman, who has just released his latest album Collectibles.  Todd is actually playing a CD release event tonight at Smoke Jazz Club in New York City to celebrate the release of the album, which also features Bill Cunliffe on piano and Dennis Mackrel on drums.  This is the second time Todd has appeared on the podcast—you can hear his interview with Win Hinkle in our archives.

Todd and I cover all sorts of interesting topics in this interview, including his experiences moving from a full-time faculty position down to part-time and the opportunities that opens up for him.  We talk about his classical foundation on the bass and dig into classical and jazz crossover and how lessons learned in one genre are valuable in the other.  We also talk about skills the modern music student needs to be successful and what colleges can do to help facilitate this, and we get into details about recording this new album.

If you enjoyed this episode, check out our interviews with Carlos Henriquez, Chuck Israels, Larry Gray, Ron Carter, Lynn Seaton, and Rufus Reid!

http://traffic.libsyn.com/contrabassconversations/CBC_216_-_Todd_Coolman_Round_2.mp3

198: Todd Coolman new release

Double bassist Todd Coolman

Double bassist Todd Coolman

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.

We featured Todd as an interview guest on the podcast back on episode 137, and Win Hinkle was our guest host for this interview, so be sure to check it out if you haven’t in the past.    The album will be released May 26th, so this is a sneak preview of what you’ll be hearing from Todd.
Todd is also he author of The Bottom Line: The Ultimate Bass Line Book, and we have a link to this book in the show notes.
We feature three tracks today:
  • New Rhumba
  • Joshua
  • You’re My Everything
Enjoy these new tracks from the great Todd Coolman!
http://traffic.libsyn.com/contrabassconversations/CBC_198__Todd_Coolman_new_release.mp3

CBC 137: Todd Coolman interview

Todd Coolman.png

We’re featuring an interview with jazz bassist Todd Coolman on the podcast. This episode is guest hosted by double bassist Win Hinkle, who interviewed Rufus Reid previously for Contrabass Conversations as well.

After listening to this interview, I went out and downloaded Perfect Strangers, Todd’s newest album, and I highly recommend it to listeners. Truly top-notch and extremely enjoyable playing all around! We’ll begin today’s episode with a brief excerpt from Crescent City Ditty, and well conclude with Todd’s bass solo from Connotation. Both excerpts are from Todd’s new album and you can find it on iTunes here.

http://traffic.libsyn.com/contrabassconversations/CBC_137_-_Todd_Coolman_interview.mp3
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