Archive for January, 2008

Workshop with Ben Wolfe at David Gage

Published on January 31, 2008 in Event. 0 Comments
February 6, 2008
7:15 pmto11:00 pm

This season kicks off with a workshop from renowned bassist Ben Wolfe, professor of jazz double-bass at Julliard Conservatory. In the upcoming workshop, Ben will be concentrating on intonation.
Bassist-composer-educator Ben Wolfe was born in Baltimore, Maryland, but grew up in Portland, Oregon. By his early twenties, he was freelancing in the Portland area and also backing Woody Shaw and other national acts when they came through town. At age 23, he moved to New York, where he worked with musical luminaries such as Junior Cook, Jimmy Cobb, Dakota Staton, and the Mel Lewis Orchestra. By 1988, Ben landed a gig with Harry Connick Jr. and went on to record over a dozen albums and soundtracks, to perform on numerous world tours as musical director and a key performing member of the Harry Connick Jr. Orchestra. During his five years with Connick, Ben appeared on many television, radio, and other media performances. Ben then went on to the Wynton Marsalis Septet, where he stayed until the group disbanded.

Ben is currently teaching at Juilliard School of Music: Jazz Division Ben Wolfe was recently awarded a grant from Chamber Music America’s New Works: Creation and Presentation Program, funded through the generosity of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.

If you want to learn more about Ben, please visit www.myspace.com/benwolfemusic

David Gage String Instruments and Ben Wolfe will present this Workshop with Ben Wolfe one night only at David Gage String Instruments, 36 Walker Street, New York, NY.

NAMM 2008

Published on January 15, 2008 in Event. 0 Comments
January 17, 2008toJanuary 20, 2008

“The NAMM show is the largest music products trade show in United States. Held every January in Anaheim, California, USA the show brings together all facets of the music products industry to reveal new musical instruments/products and ideas to help music products retailers and manufacturers become more successful. More than 80,000 NAMM Members and guests attended the January 2007 show. The NAMM Show is not open to the general public.”

Spanish double bass forum

Published on January 15, 2008 in Link Tip and News. 1 Comment

“Es un placer informarle de que hemos inaugurado dos nuevas secciones en los últimos días. Un sub-foro dedicado a las nuevas tecnologías musicales (Finale, Sibelius, mp3, etc) y una galería de fotos curiosas relacionadas con el tema del contrabajo.
Además de esto, hemos asociado recientemente el dominio www.contrabajo.es con el foro, lo que nos permitirá en un futuro ampliar las posibilidades de nuestra página.
Esperamos que estas novedades sean de su agrado y le invitamos una vez más a que participe en nuestro proyecto.”
www.forumcontrabajo.foroactivo.com
www.contrabajo.es

Musikmesse Frankfurt (Music Trade Show)

Published on January 12, 2008 in Event and News. 0 Comments
March 12, 2008toMarch 15, 2008

In March, the Musikmesse Frankfurt will take place again. At this yearly international trade fair, musical instruments, music software and computer hardware, sheet music and accessories will be exhibited. Most intersting for double bassists: hall 1.2, featuring string instruments. (I’ll be at booth B40, just in case you want to say hello …)

Bass 2008 at Paris

Published on January 12, 2008 in Event and News. 1 Comment
October 30, 2008toNovember 3, 2008

“A very big convention for bass players from all over the world will be held for the first time in Paris at the CONSERVATOIRE NATIONAL SUPERIEUR de MUSIQUE et de DANSE de PARIS from the 30th of October to the 3rd of November 2008.
This meeting will include renowned artists representing all styles: classical, contemporary classical, avant-garde and jazz – publishers and producers, instrument makers and all you can imagine that exists for and about the bass and the double bass.
Players will do master-classes, show-cases, clinics and recital performances.
A competition of composition for double bass is organized, a player’s competition with four categories recital, orchestra, Jazz, contemporary music, and a mini-bass competition (7 to 18 years old) will be held.
Master classes and competitions will be held in the morning, performances will take place in the afternoon. Each evening a big concert-panorama will have place with players from different styles following each other on the same stage.
Our wish is to produce encounters and discoveries, to improve learning methodologies and teaching methods, to emphasize technical and expressive progress, to decompartmentalize and to create exchanges and new links.

Classicals :
Božo Paradžik, Dan Styffe, Niek de Groot, Giuseppe Ettorre, Alberto Bocini, Roman Patkolo, Boguslaw Furtok, Jeff Bradetish, Yoshio Nagashima, Teppo Hauta Aho, Ekkehard Beringer, Daniel Marillier, Thierry Barbé, Bernard Cazauran, Lasse Lagerkranz, Rinat Ibraghimov, trio Bass’in, Joel Quarrington, Gottfried Engels, Antonio Garcia Araque, Diana Gannett, Miloslav Gelinek, Hans Sturm, François Rabbath, Paul Ellison, Thom Knific, Marc Morton, Catalin Rotaru, George Vance, Luis Cojal…..

Jazz:
Rufus Reid, John Patiticci, Benoit Dunoyer, Bruno Chevillon, Claude Tchamitchian, Riccardo del Fra, Frederick Monino, Renaud Garcia Fons, Hein van de Geyn …

Contemporary music: Barre Philips, Stefano Scodanibbio, Jean-Paul Celea, Jean-Pierre Robert, Michel Thouseau…

Baroque: Tobias Gloecker, David Sinclair, Rob Nairn, Joe Carver, Michael Greenberg, Richard Myron …

The 2008 team: Thierry Barbe, Riccardo Del Fra, Didier Goury, Gregoire Blin, Jean Damien Lagarde, Claudine Petiot, Sylvain Lamotte.”

Bass Encounters 2008 (at Vienna, Austria)

Published on January 10, 2008 in Event and News. 0 Comments
April 17, 2008toApril 19, 2008

From April, 17. to 19., the Double Bass Festival Bass Encounters 2008 will take place at the Porgy & Bass Bess club at Vienna/Austria, featuring concerts with both classical and jazz double bassists: Wayne Darling, Georg Breinschmid, Bass Instinct, Franco Petracchi, Eddie Gomez, Duncan McTier, Renau Garcia-Fons, Avishai Cohen, Janne Scala and Joel Quarrington.

Latest (and last) issue of Double Bassist

Published on January 10, 2008 in Bass Making, New Release and News. 3 Comments

Today, I’ve found the new issue of the Double Bassist magazine in my post box. This “winter 2007″ issue (don’t we already have 2008?) features articles about bassist Henry Grimes, a Gagliano bass, music by Gustav Mahler and Paquito de Rivera, video conferencing in teaching, a history of gut strings, the future of pernambuco bows, luthier Daniel Hachez and many other topics.

But there are also bad news: editor Chloe Cutts has announced that the Double Bassist magazine will no longer be published. It will be re-incorperated into The Strad magazine from the April 2008 issue onwards. Double Bassist was launched 11 years ago, and since then, 43 issues has been published.

Podcast list

Published on January 6, 2008 in Link Tip. 0 Comments

I’ve just added a list of interesting, mostly double bass related podcasts to my Link page. Check them out, they’re for free!

Mad about Strads

Published on January 5, 2008 in Bass Making. 1 Comment

Spiegel Online, the leading German news magazine, has published an English version of an article about the market of antique violins. As even double bassists know, Stradivarius’ instruments might be a lucrative investment: Since 1960, the Dow Jones Index and the price of gold have risen by a factor of 20. According to Fushi’s Stradivari Society, the price of a Stradivarius has soared by a factor of 200, and it rises, says Fushi, by 7 to 10 percent annually. This article gives some intersting insights into this market.