Contrabass Conversations

Corcoran Holt is a Washington, D.C.–born bassist, composer, arranger, and educator whose musical roots stretch from the DC Youth Orchestra and Duke Ellington School of the Arts to work with artists including Kenny Garrett and Steve Turre. Now Assistant Professor of Jazz Bass at Arizona State University, Corcoran brings that deep performing experien...

Darija Andzakovic is a freelance bassist and musicologist specializing in historical instruments, the Viennese bass, and the music of Johannes Matthias Sperger.

While researching Sperger's manuscripts for her doctoral dissertation, she discovered through melodic and handwriting analysis that the work long cataloged as Sperger's Fifth Bass Concerto was actually com...

At just 18, London-based double bassist Eduard Marcu became the first bassist to win Junior Guildhall's prestigious Lutine Prize. Born in Romania and raised in London, Eduard began playing bass at age 10, developed his craft at Junior Guildhall, and performed with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain before beginning his studies at the

Chris Johnson is a New York–based bassist, educator, and creative force whose career spans the Sphinx Virtuosi, New York City Ballet, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, and a wide range of chamber, commercial, and recording projects.

He is also the founder of Strauss H...

Jeanette Adams is a bassist, educator, and member of the nationally touring progressive bluegrass trio Stillhouse Junkies. Raised in Michigan's Upper Peninsula and trained at Lawrence University, she now lives in Colorado, where she performs around 150–200 shows a year and helps expand access to string education through the Aspen Music Festival's e...

Daniel Chiva Sanz returns to the podcast to discuss his latest project, Daily Mozart, a new technique book that applies concepts from his School of Patience books to the second movements and minuets of Mozart symphonies.

Daniel shares how his work as a performer, teacher, and creator has led him toward a brass-inspired approach to sound,...

Mark Morton joins Jason to discuss his decades-long project creating practical Urtext editions of Giovanni Bottesini's music.

Drawing on 3,656 photographs of manuscripts from the Biblioteca Palatina in Parma, Mark has completed editions of 11 works so far, with the goal of eventually covering all 84 of Bottesini's compositions. He explains...

Cole Davis is a bassist, composer, educator, and the creator behind Better Bass Lessons, where he brings a playful, practical approach to jazz bass education. In this episode, Cole and Jason Heath trade lessons across the classical/jazz divide, building on their previous New Simandl collaboration and digging into Cole's ideas arou...

New York City jazz bassist Neal Miner joins the podcast to talk about his new book of original bass-feature compositions, an 11-song collection designed for students and professionals to use in ensemble settings. 

Neal shares how longtime collaborator Chris Byars encouraged the project, how the book grew into p...

Kathryn Schulmeister joins the podcast to talk about Imagining Hands, her debut solo album on Protomaterial Records. A bassist, improviser, composer, and University of Wisconsin faculty member, Kathryn brings together contemporary music, storytelling, extended technique, and deeply personal experience in ...

SoJung Kim joins the podcast to share her journey from discovering the double bass in Korea to joining the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra. A graduate student at the Colburn Conservatory studying with Peter Lloyd, SoJung has performed with the One Korea Youth Orchestra and Orchestra Ensemble Seoul, spent summers at the

Orion Miller joins the podcast to talk about his path from growing up in New York Cit...

Dominik Wagner returns to the podcast for a wide-ranging conversation recorded during his visit to San Francisco for the 2026 Golden Gate Bass Camp. A prizewinner for many major solo competitions, Dominik has built an extraordinary career as a soloist, chamber musician, recording artist, and pedagogue, with albums including Giovanni Bottesini - Revolutio...

Don Prell passed away in 2026 at age 97. Born in 1929, Don went on the road with the Frank Ortega Band, played with people like Buddy Rich and Chet Baker, and was in the original Bud Shank Quartet.

He played for the San Francisco Symphony for 30 years and, after retirement, formed his own group called the Sea Bop Ensemble, which played at various San Francisco spo...

Noa Eve (NoaBass) joins the podcast to celebrate the long-awaited release of *Late Bloomer,* a debut album that blends virtuosic arco playing with the rhythmic grit of bluegrass, old-time, and acoustic music-making. We talk about the "10 years in the making" arc from Jason first hearing Noa play in the Bay Area to recording the album over three intense ...

Hal Robinson joins the podcast for a wide-ranging conversation on bass pedagogy, sound, and the practical fundamentals that actually move the needle. Hal reflects on his path from early studies with Paul Ellison to a career that spans major orchestras and shares how working alongside influential musicians like François Rabbath and Edgar Meyer helped shape a flexible, student-fi...

Bassist, composer, and educator Mary Ann McSweeney joins Jason to talk about a career that spans Bay Area roots, L.A. training, and the demanding, ever-shifting world of Broadway and studio work. Mary Ann shares how piano and violin shaped her musicianship, what it took to become a stronger reader, and much more

Enjoy, give...

Caleb Quillen returns to the podcast to talk about the path that took him from growing up in Sugar Land, Texas, to principal bass of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Along the way, he reflects on formative teachers, including Dennis Whittaker and Paul Ellison, the influence of the Boston bass tradition, and much more.

Check out our text/medi...

Photo credit: Oscar Benjamin Berg

Bassist, improviser, and genre-crosser Georgia Wartel Collins joins us today to talk about the winding path that led her to New York, via Gothenburg, Trondheim, and Amsterdam, and how a deeply musical family shaped everything from early street performances to a life that's always moved freely between styles...