Contrabass Conversations

This "best of" episode features composer, teacher, and bassist Ron Carter. Enjoy, and check out the original episode from 2016 here.

Ron Carter is among the most original, prolific, and influential bassists in jazz. With more than 2,000 albums to his credit, he has recorded with many of music's greats: Tommy Flanagan, Gil Evans, Lena Horne, Bill Evans, B.B. King, the Kronos Quartet, Dexter Gordon, Wes Montgomery, and Bobby Timmons. In the early 1960s he performed throughout the United States in concert halls and nightclubs with Jaki Byard and Eric Dolphy.

He later toured Europe with Cannonball Adderley. From 1963 to 1968, he was a member of the classic and acclaimed Miles Davis Quintet. He was named Outstanding Bassist of the Decade by the Detroit News, Jazz Bassist of the Year by Downbeat magazine, and Most Valuable Player by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. In 1993 Ron Carter earned a Grammy award for Best Jazz Instrumental Group, the Miles Davis Tribute Band and another Grammy in 1998 for Call 'Sheet Blues', an instrumental composition from the film 'Round Midnight.

In addition to scoring and arranging music for many films, including some projects for Public Broadcasting System, Carter has composed music for A Gathering of Old Men, starring Lou Gosset Jr., The Passion of Beatrice directed by Bertrand Tavernier, and Blind Faith starring Courtney B. Vance. Carter shares his expertise in the series of books he authored, among which are Building Jazz Bass Lines and The Music of Ron Carter; the latter contains 130 of his published and recorded compositions.

Carter earned a bachelor of music degree from the Eastman School in Rochester and a master's degree in double bass from the Manhattan School of Music in New York City. He has also received four honorary doctorates, from the New England Conservatory of Music and the Manhattan School of Music, and was the 2002 recipient of the prestigious Hutchinson Award from the Eastman School at the University of Rochester. Most recently he was honored by the French Minister of Culture with France's premier cultural award--the medallion and title of Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters, given to those who have distinguished themselves in the domain of artistic or literary creation and for their contribution to the spread of arts and letters in France and the world.

Carter has lectured, conducted, and performed at clinics and master classes, instructing jazz ensembles and teaching the business of music at numerous universities. He was Artistic Director of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Studies while it was located in Boston and, after 18 years on the faculty of the Music Department of The City College of New York, he is now Distinguished Professor Emeritus although, as a performer, he remains as active as ever.

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.

The Upton Bass String Instrument Company

Upton’s Bostonian was conceived at the 2009 International Society of Double Bassists convention at State College, Pennsylvania, while world-renowned jazz bassist and Professor of Jazz Studies at the University of North Texas, Lynn Seaton and Upton Bass String Instrument Co. President and Founder, Gary Upton Birkhamshaw were playing and discussing the various instruments Upton Bass had created for the convention. They started with a blank sheet of paper, and together began jotting down Lynn’s preferences and suggestion with each model. The result was a rough outline of what would become the UB Bostonian Concert Double Bass.

It was great to chat with Scott Lang for the podcast! Scott is a music education leadership specialist and public speaker with an inspiring mission: enroll one million new music students in our schools each year.

Scott has made the lives of music educators worldwide significantly easier with his Be Part of the Music initiative. We talk about this, his wonderful book Seriously?!, how to get students and parents involved in leadership roles, and much more!

For over a decade Scott Lang has been educating and entertaining audiences of all ages. As a nationally known leadership trainer, Scott conducts over 120 workshops annually and works with some of our countries finest educational groups and performing ensembles.

As a highly decorated veteran teacher of sixteen years Scott's bands have had many notable performances including the Pasadena Tournament of Rose Parade, the Fiesta Bowl National Band Championship, the Music Educators National Biennial Conference and for the President of the United States, William Jefferson Clinton.

Scott is a well know author with over ten publications to his credit including; Seriously?!, Leader of the Band, Leadership Success, Leadership Travel Guide, Leadership Survival Guide and the highly successful Be Part of the Music series.

Mr. Lang currently resides in Chandler, Arizona with his beautiful wife Leah and their sons, Brayden, Evan and their highly irrational Golden Retriever Rexie. He has breathed in and out approximately 264 million times and plans to keep on doing so until he doubles that number.

• Scott's Website
• Be Part of the Music
• Seriously?!: Ruminations, Affirmations, and Observations About Music Education by Scott Lang

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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.

The 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.

Check out this video of David Murray "auditioning" his Upton Bass!

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, which 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!

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In this special episode, we chat with Kurt Morrow about the time he spent with Milt Hinton. Milt's wife Mona asked Kurt if he would live in faculty housing with Milt. Kurt shares some of these life-changing experiences with us today.

Milt “The Judge” Hinton was regarded as the Dean of jazz bass players. He was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi in 1910, and at the age of eleven moved to Chicago with his family. He began his musical education by taking private violin lessons, but while attending Chicago's Wendell Phillips High School and playing in a band sponsored by the Chicago Defender newspaper, he learned to play bass horn, tuba, cello, and eventually the bass violin. Like many aspiring Southside musicians of his generation, he was influenced by the legendary educator, Major N. Clark Smith. During the late 1920s and early 30s, Milt worked as a freelance musician in Chicago and performed with legendary jazz artists including Freddie Keppard, Zutty Singleton, Jabbo Smith, Erskine Tate, and Art Tatum. His first steady job was with a band led by Tiny Parham, followed by a stint with violinist Eddie South’s Orchestra. Milt’s earliest recording come from this era.

In l936, Milt joined Cab Calloway and for fifteen years performed with Calloway and renowned sidemen such as Danny Barker, Chu Berry, Doc Cheatham, Cozy Cole, Dizzy Gillespie, Quentin Jackson, Illinois Jacquet, Jonah Jones, Ike Quebec, and Ben Webster. During this period he was also featured on numerous recordings accompanying Benny Carter, Benny Goodman, Lionel Hampton, Coleman Hawkins, Billie Holiday, Ethel Waters, and Teddy Wilson - to name just a few. Most of these sessions have become jazz classics.

After leaving Calloway in the early 50s, Milt began working as a studio freelancer in New York City. For two decades he played on thousands of jazz and popular records. He also played on hundreds of jingles and film soundtracks and numerous radio and television programs. In addition, he made concert and festival appearances around the world and toured extensively with Louis Armstrong, Pearl Bailey, and Bing Crosby.

Milt has played with virtually every jazz and popular artist from Ellington, Coltrane and the Marsalis Brothers to Streisand, Midler and McCartney. In the late 80s Chiaroscuro Records released Old Man Time , a double cd featuring Milt along with many life-long friends from the music world. Laughin' at Life, was released by Columbia Records in 1995 and Chiaroscuro recently released The Judge at His Best, a selection of his recordings on that label over three decades, and the Bassment Tapes, which features Milt performing with groups he assembled.

Milt received honorary doctorates from William Paterson College, Skidmore College, Hamilton College, DePaul University, Trinity College, the Berklee College of Music, Fairfield University, and Baruch College of the City University of New York. He won the Eubie Award from the New York Chapter of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, the Living Treasure Award from the Smithsonian Institution, and he was the first recipient of the Three Keys Award in Bern, Switzerland. In 1993, Milt was awarded the highly prestigious American Jazz Master Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, in 1996 he received a New York State Governor’s Arts Award, in March 1998 he was awarded the Artist Achievement Award by the Governor of Mississippi, and in 2000 his name was installed on ASCAP’s Wall of Fame.

Milt began taking photographs of his friends in the l930s, and he has continued ever since. Over the years his collection has grown to more than 60,000 images. The work depicts an extensive range of jazz artists and popular performers in varied settings - on the road, in recording studios, at parties, and at home - over a period of six decades. In June 1981, he had his first one-person photographic exhibition in Philadelphia and since then he has had exhibits across the country and in Europe. In addition to being published in major periodicals, Milt’s photographs have appeared in documentary films including The Long Night of Lady Day (Billie Holiday), The Brute and the Beautiful (Ben Webster), and Listen Up (Quincy Jones). A Great Day in Harlem

a 1994 documentary about Esquire’s photographic shoot of jazz legends in 1958, features numerous photographs by Milt as well as a home movie shot by his wife, Mona Hinton.

In 1988, Bass Line: The Stories and Photographs of Milt Hinton, by Milt Hinton and David G. Berger was published by Temple University Press. It was selected Book of the Year by JazzTimes. In 1991, OverTime: The Jazz Photographs of Milt Hinton, was published by Pomegranate ArtBooks.

In 1990, Milt's 80th year, WRTI-FM in Philadelphia produced a series of twenty eight short programs in which Milt chronicled his life. These were aired...

As a married guy with no children, the thought of even one kid makes me break into a cold sweat.

For bassist and educator Jennifer Bradbury, it wasn't just one kid coming her way. It was triplets... and they came into this world 25 weeks early.

The story of these three young children (dubbed the EduTriplets by Jennifer and her husband Jeff) is inspiring, heartwarming, and totally compelling. You'll love what we cover in the podcast, and be sure to check out Jeff's TEDx talk for the complete story.

Jennifer finally played her first gig after several years off.

We dig into this and much more!

Our story today is divided into three parts:

• Part I - the story of the triplets - their surprising debut onto the world stage, and what it felt for Jennifer like playing a gig for the first time in years
• Part II - trial by fire in the music teacher trenches
• Part III - the power of an open mind

The 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.

The Bass Violin Shop, which 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!

Susanna Klein has been working on a really cool project the past few years: Practizma. This is a journal that takes you through 16 weeks of guided practice, with goal setting, reflection prompt, action challenges, and journal pages to track your practice.

In addition to this very cool system, we talk about Susanna’s background, what it has been like teaching online these past few months, the evolution of the journal, the concept of deliberate practice, my trusty practice app Modiacty, and much more.

Be sure to check out the Practizma website for more info and to get a free sample, and be sure to follow along with Susanna on Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook!

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

This podcast is brought to you by the International Online Bass Summit and the sponsors who are proudly involved with this event:

• Kolstein Music
• Discover Double Bass
• Nick Lloyd Basses

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
• theme music by Eric Hochberg

Subscribe to the podcast to get these interviews delivered to you automatically!