Quote:
Originally Posted by Ken Smith
I have all the basses packed and will be leaving the office soon. I will return on June 10th.
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Ok, I am back, sort of. Not yet in the office but back. I hope to be back in full swing by Wednesday. I will be catching up on work Monday and Tuesday.
I have plenty of stories to tell as time allows.
For one, Leon Bosch gave a great concert/recital. In the audience was Stefano Sciascia, Enrico Fagone and Eugene Levinsion. I had dinner with Leon (and our wifes as well) and discussed his introduction. Usually they just mention the name and then they walk in. In Leon's case, some people don't know him and almost no one knows what he does with the discovery of music that has been hidden from the world or never performed on Double bass. From that discussion, we agreed that I would be the best person to introduce him. The announcer basically just introduced me to introduce him. The applause for my introduction was a bit more then I had expected, much more. When Leon and his Pianist entered, I said, "maybe they are just glad I stopped talking".. lol
Leon used the Bollbach Lion. The following day, I put Leon on the phone with Jeff Bollbach. Jeff was quite pleased as was Leon to meet the maker (by voice) of a bass he truly admires.
A few days before the show I received an email from Chris Brown, long time principal bassist with the Minnesota Chamber Orchestra (and just retired) and also the author of a book on historical bass bows. At the Penn State ISB in 2009, we ended up displaying in the same room with his collection of Bows and 6 of my basses. For this show, we both requested a shared display location as well. In that email, Chis asked me if I would like to play a part in his recital of a bass quartet. One piece by Charles Ives (the Indian) was arranged for 4 double basses, Voice and Piano. During the rehearsal a day before, he showed me another part we can do with 4 basses as well. Then, there was one more with for 2 basses (Vocal and piano). On all 3 pieces, I was the Pizz guy playing the continuo part but some bowing on one piece and more of a jazz part on one of the other three. So, I was playing at the convention as well. That was fun. Chris has a beautiful old Italian bass and two of the other players borrowed basses from my display, the Panormo school and Panormo copy basses. I played on the Hart. I received a great compliment from Stefano Sciascia who had his sound check right after ours the morning of the concert. The Hart cut thru the other three basses and I was not playing hard at all. One other bassist I know, a principal player of an orchestra down south said that the Hart sounded fantastic. So, I think after that, I have to hold on to it.
Also, Sciasica played my Italian Marconcini school bass in the beginning of the week and on the last day came and played it again. He loved the bass and told me "don't sell this bass!". He was quite impressed by the bass but the people watching him play, including me were quite impressed bu his touch and romantic trial of a bass which he seemed not able to stop playing for about 15-20 minutes. I missed his recital because I had to get back to the room right after packing up but having him play for a few of us just a few feet away was something that I considered better than a rehearsed program.
There were many great players there of all ages and just minutes before I started packing the basses to return home, in walks Steve Bailey and Vistor Wooten to play on some of the basses. That was a surprise..
