Wonder of wonders, my 10 year old boy is playing an upright bass

[Marvel]

Thanks for the recommendation, Bruce! I just ordered it on DVD so I can watch as well as hear.

Oh, Wow... please let me know how you like it. Meyer does a reel on the album, a duet with Yo-Yo Ma. It is hard to believe the bass doing such a high and fast part.

I am not familiar with concertos for double bass. The violin runs away with the string concerto literature, and the cello runs a distant second. (Today, Garymd and I listened to one movement from the single best-known work for viola and orchestra, Harold in Italy by Berlioz.)

I have come to appreciate Berlioz. We purchased his Messe Solennelle, the score of which had been lost for a very long time.

As to specific pieces, there's Franz Schubert's Trout Quintet, in the paragraph "Chamber music with double bass." The work is very nice. It's scored for five solo instruments -- piano, violin, viola, cello, and double (string) bass, a rather dark and heavy distribution. Schubert may be an acquired taste for your son right now.

Schubert - talk about a "big band"! Great stuff Larry.

Several good works are listed under "Orchestral passages and solos." Haydn was an experimenter -- there are solo string bass passages in his symphonies No.6 “Morning”, No.7 “Noon”, No.8 “Evening”, No. 31 “Horn Signal," and No. 45 “Farewell.” The "Farewell" has the famous last movement in which each player gets up and leaves when his part is finished (it ends with only 2 solo violins) to persuade the big guy that they needed a vacation. A solo string bass is one of them.

Beethoven really woke up the orchestral bass section, sometimes with separate bass and cello parts in extremely challenging fast passages, e.g., his symphony no. 6. He also wrote very fast and powerful cello-bass combinations in the third movement of his Fifth symphony and the opening of the last omvement of his transcendental Ninth.

Later orchestral works include the Elephant from Camille Saint-Saens' Carnival of the Animals, and a satirical solo for string bass in the opening of the third movement of Gustav Mahler's symphony no. 1 which quotes the children's song "Frere Jacques" transposed into a minor key. A good classical work that displays the instruments of the orchestra is Benjamin Britten's Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra which contains a prominent passage for the double bass section.

Mahler can be pretty dark... I like him a lot. Actually have come to appreciate a lot of early orchestral music more since my youngest son is studying music composition at Valparaiso U. Then again, good music is really good music.

And... speaking of Meyer again... he is pretty prolific in the studio. He recorded the Bach cello suites on bass. Pretty cool! If you go to his website, you can preview a lot of the tracks from his albums. A LOT of early bass repertoire.

Bruce

[masterxela]

I played cello from first grade through fifth, taking lessons from a phenomenal cellist in the st. louis philharmonic orchaestra.

Played on stage when the pope came to st. louis back about 8 years ago as second cellist in that band, toured for a couple weeks with a mostly college age group.

Very few things I regret more in life than quitting.

Get him to play in talent show at school, obviously something 10 year olds recognize, not mahler......

[Marvel]

I played cello from first grade through fifth, taking lessons from a phenomenal cellist in the st. louis philharmonic orchaestra.

Played on stage when the pope came to st. louis back about 8 years ago as second cellist in that band, toured for a couple weeks with a mostly college age group.

Very few things I regret more in life than quitting.

Then pick it up again! Seriously, I mean that. John Holt didn't start playing until he was in his 50s, and derived a lot of pleasure from it. I have really been tempted to get a cello. There are enough violinist wanna be type out there already. I have been trying to get a cello away from a woman I work with, who played with the Chattanooga Symphony for a number of years. She isn't playing it at all, but hangs on to it...

Bruce

g.kennedy - I sent an email about the Taylor. COOL!

[joshnich]

Here are some to a couple of you tube video clips of Ray Brown. The second one looks to be from some overseas tv show. There are a number of these and it looks to be part of some sort of lesson series, as a couple of the other ones have him explaining what he is doing to what appear to be students. I didnt look at all of them.

Josh

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lue51_pLktQ&feature=related

[Tom Mobley]

Wow, if you like acoustic bass check out this site:

http://www.thebassgang.org/

It's a frames site so I can't post direct links, but go to it, click on the audio-video demo in the index frame on the left. It'll take to samples of their music. The site is Italian, sometimes I find pages that all Italian, but it's cool. Each one of these guys is the principle bassist in an Italian symphony orchestra and hit some pretty hot licks. Haven't yet figured out a way to buy their CDs though. I don't think they were planing on guys from the US showing up with Paypal in hand. There's a couple video links, looks like they like to have fun.

I have bought up a representitive sample of the recommended discs from the other posters. Should start showing up in a few days.

Josh, Thanks for pointing up the Ray brown youtube videso. Turns out there's several of those where it appears he's teaching a class.

[LarryC]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lue51_pLktQ&feature=related

Josh, those are terrific clips. Can you recommend particular DVDs I can watch, or CDs, that are as good as those clips in conveying his art? I have Soular Energy but it didn't do much for me.

Larry

[jheis]

For more Ray Brown (along with John Clayton & Christian McBride) check out "Super Bass" & "Super Bass 2" on Telarc Jazz Their version of "Papa was a Rolling Stone" is killer! Also check out "The Ray Brown Trio (with Gene Harris & Jeff Hamilton) Live at the Loa - Summer Wind." (Concord Jazz, CD & SACD on one disc)

I'd also recommend Brian Bromberg's "Wood." Bromberg plays a 300 year old Matteo Guersam bass. Check out his version of Lennon/McCartney's "Come Together."

James