Contrabass Conversations

This year’s San Francisco Winter Bass Bash recital guest was Szymon Marciniak, a fabulous bass soloist and educator who appeared on the podcast in 2016. Szymon performed an inspiring program with hi…

Nicole Melrose is an orchestral string clinician for D’Addario and the founder of StringRise, which we covered with Nicole in a 2021 interview.

Today, we dig into the world of double bass strings, ho…

Alexander Verster is a composer and double bassist located in London.  He was born in South Africa, but soon ended up in New Zealand prior to his move to London.

We talk about his deep dive into th…

Kaelan Decman joined the Los Angeles Philharmonic as Associate Principal Bass in spring 2022.  Prior to his appointment, he was a member of the San Diego

Symphony Orchestra bass section.  He is a gra…

Jonathan Colbert recently joined the faculty of the University of Memphis, bringing a wealth of experience gathered from playing with ensembles like the Atlanta Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestr…

Lauren Pierce is a double bassist and educator who has put together a cool guide titled 6 Steps to Learning A New Piece.  In this episode, we dive into each of these steps and why it’s important in…

Sebastiano Dessanay recently released his 377: double CD.  This remarkable project, which we discussed in early 2020, featured Sebastiano visiting the 377 municipalities of Sardinia traveling exclus…

Born and raised in Philadelphia, Dan McCain is a bassist, composer/arranger, and band leader who has recently released his debut album, Moments in Time.  We dig into Dan’s background, the Philly jazz…

Nataly Linares is a bassist and educator originally from Bogotá, Colombia.  Since December 2020, she has been working with young students and teachers through the Festival Internacional de Contrabaj…

In this episode, we go behind the scenes of double bass restoration with Zachary Martin and Scott Pingel.  Zachary is internationally renowned for his repair, restoration and maintenance services, an…

Allan Jay Santos recently launched his podcast Touching Greatness, and it was a pleasure to be his guest for episode 6!  This “turn the tables” episode features Allan interviewing me, and the convers…

This solo show explores my decision-making process about what kind of content warrants a podcast versus a video.  Enjoy!

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Andy Moritz is a double bassist and educator in the Houston area, and he has recently released Scale Skills,  groundbreaking new work covering how Andy approaches major scales with his students.  Thi…

This solo show explores the pros and cons of double bass bridge adjusters and is an accompaniment to a recent YouTube video.  Enjoy!

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Gael McKeon is a double bass luthier who recently moved back to the United States after moving his shop to Toulouse, France.  He was based in the San Francisco Bay Area from 2011 to 2018, and we reco…

This solo show explores six apps that I use for daily double bass practice and is an accompaniment to this week’s YouTube video.  Enjoy!

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Roberto Cassani has recently released a duo album on Sunnyside Records. Titled poet / shuts / clock, it is a collaboration with saxophonist Fraser A. Campbell and is filled with a rich array of textu…

This episode features a guest lecture with Jacob M. Dakon, the Associate Professor and Area Coordinator of Music Education at the University of Kansas, Division of Music Education and Music Therapy, …

Nisse Palm is getting close to a launch of Chain of Sounds, his MusicTech portal for Double Bass.  His advisory board is made up of prominent bassists in a variety of styles as well as bass luthier A…

Kyle Motl recently released a book titled Bells Plucked from the Air - a guide to (mostly) pizzicato harmonic techniques for the double bass.  I put out a YouTube review of the book and demonstrated …