CBC 137: Todd Coolman interview

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.

CBC 136: Joel Quarrington interview

We’re featuring an interview with and music from Joel Quarrington this week of Contrabass Conversations. Joel is the former Principal Bass of the Toronto Symphony and currently serves as Principal Bass for the National Arts Centre Orchestra of Canada. In addition to his orchestral duties, Joel maintains an active career as a solo and chamber artist, touring internationally in this capacity and performing a wide range of repertoire.

This week’s episode begins with a recording of Joel performing the fourth movement from the Sonata For Solo Contrabass by Weinberg, and the episode concludes after the interview with Joel’s performance of the Bottesini Elegy. Both of these tracks are from his new album Garden Scene. Learn more about this album and Joel’s numerous other projects at www.joelquarrington.com.

CBC 135: Matt Heller interview

We’re featuring a brief (10 minute) interview with Calgary Philharmonic bassist Matt Heller. Matt is an old friend of mine who, in addition to being an excellent bassist, is the author of the always interesting blog hella frisch. Matt also did extensive coverage of the 2009 International Society of Bassists Convention. It was a real pleasure to get a chance to sit down and do an interview for the podcast with Matt, and I hope you enjoy this chat between two bass bloggers!

CBC 134: Colin Corner update

We’re featuring a quick update and some performances from from double bassist Colin Corner, a previous CBC guest. When we first interviewed Colin back in 2007 he was performing in the Minnesota Orchestra, but he now serves as principal bass of the Rochester Philharmonic.

In addition to his orchestral duties, Colin maintains an active career as a composer and jazz bassist, and he currently performs with the modern jazz trio Blood Electric (DeVon Gray, keys; Peter Leggett, drums; Colin Corner, bass). Learn more about Colin at his website colincornermusic.com.

Tracks featured:

Body and Soul (solo overdub)
1794 German Perfection

CBC 133: Scott Best interview

Scott Best.png

We’re chatting with Memphis Symphony Principal Bass Scott Best on this week’s episode of Contrabass Conversations. Scott is a close personal friend of mine and an outstanding double bassist in both solo and ensemble settings. We played together in the IRIS Orchestra of Memphis, Tennessee, and it is a real pleasure to feature him on the show.

Scott was one of the bassists involved in the ISB-coordinated commission of the John Harbison Concerto for Double Bass (complete video from ISB convention of this piece available here), performing the piece with the Memphis Symphony. Scott was also asked (along with Dennis Trembly and Volkan Orhon) to perform a movement of this piece at the 2009 ISB Convention, and we include the audio of Scott playing the third movement at the end of this interview. We hope you enjoy this interview with double bassist Scott Best!

Transition music by Antonin Bastian–his music rocks.