Contrabass Conversations

Contrabass Conversations

double bass podcast

1000: Live in San Francisco with Chuck Israels, Charles Chandler, Amos Yang, and Andres Martin

We celebrate the 1000th episode of Contrabass Conversations live at the 2023 Golden Gate Bass Camp!

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Carnegie Mellon University Double Bass Studio – CMU is dedicated to helping each student achieve their goals as a musician. Every week each student receives private lessons and participates in a solo class with Micah Howard. Peter Guild, another member of the PSO, teaches Orchestral Literature and Repertoire weekly. They encourage students to reach out to the great bassists in their area for lessons and direction. Many of the bassists from all of the city’s ensembles are more than willing to lend a hand. Every year members of the Symphony, the Opera and the Ballet give classes and offer our students individual attention. Click here to visit Micah’s website and to sign up for a free online trial lesson.

Dorico – Unlock Dorico for iPad – For Life! Want to enjoy all of Dorico for iPad’s subscription-only features – including support for unlimited players, freehand annotations in Read mode with Apple Pencil, support for third-party Audio Unit plug-ins, and much more – but don’t want to pay a monthly or annual fee? Dorico for iPad now provides a lifetime unlock option, so you can access all current and future subscription-only features for a single, one-off in-app purchase. Visit the App Store today and unlock Dorico for iPad for life!

969: Chuck Israels on his new bass and upcoming projects

Chuck Israels recently picked up a new Jonathan Li bass from Eastman Strings, the company for whom I work.  I got together with Chuck in Portland over the holidays to talk to him about what he likes about it and to do some play tests.  Enjoy!

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

Check out my Beginner’s Classical Bass course and Intermediate to Advanced Classical Bass course, available exclusively from Discover Double Bass.

Thank you to our sponsor!

Carnegie Mellon University Double Bass Studio – CMU is dedicated to helping each student achieve their goals as a musician. Every week each student receives private lessons and participates in a solo class with Micah Howard. Peter Guild, another member of the PSO, teaches Orchestral Literature and Repertoire weekly. They encourage students to reach out to the great bassists in their area for lessons and direction. Many of the bassists from all of the city’s ensembles are more than willing to lend a hand. Every year members of the Symphony, the Opera and the Ballet give classes and offer our students individual attention. Click here to visit Micah’s website and to sign up for a free online trial lesson.

467: Chuck Israels on Bill Evans and a life in music

I had the opportunity to spend some time with Chuck Israels during my recent trip to Portland, Oregon.  In fact, we even took a trip together to visit Seth Kimmel’s shop in Eugene!

Both Chuck and Seth are past podcast guests, and I thought that a rebroadcast of my conversation with Chuck was in order.  Chuck and I dig into a wide range of topics, including:

  • meeting Charlie Mingus
  • playing with Bill Evans
  • Bill’s use of rhythm
  • the importance of having concrete and specific role models
  • Balinese wood carving
  • not creating your own artistic world without the traditions that preceded you
  • the perils of the “parallel case”
  • commonalities among how great artists approach their craft

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

Contrabass Conversations is sponsored by:

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 Helicore strings, which are are designed, engineered, and crafted at the D’Addario string factory in New York and come in orchestral, hybrid, pizzicato, and solo string sets.

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202: Chuck Israels on rhythm, amplification and jazz education

Jazz bass legend Chuck Israels is our guest on today's episode

Jazz bass legend Chuck Israels is our guest on today’s episode

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.

Chuck has just released a new album on Dot Time Records titled Garden of Delights.  We’ll be featuring a few clips from the first three tracks of this album: The Skipping Tune, Garden of Delights, and Mingus.

I’d also like to welcome back our sponsor Discover Double Bass!  Their beginner’s course is arranged into 43 sequential HD video lessons arranged into eight chapters that cover everything from choosing your first instrument to the essentials of technique. You can check out this course as well as many other offerings at discoverdoublebass.com/store.