Hal Robinson

[Ken Smith]

Originally Posted by Abe Gumroyan

Ken (or anyone else),

Do you know what Hal is playing on currently ?.... I saw him at a master class recently with a gamba cornered bass and then what seemed to be a very LARGE, and very English looking double bass in a picture. Thanks in advance

There are 4 Basses that I know of.

One is a Gamba French Bass like a Jacquet style but don't know the maker. Only seen it in pics. I don't know if he still has that bass.

One is a French Solo Bass that belonged to his father Keith Robinson in Texas. My old teacher Lew Norton from the '70s studied with Keith as did Hal.

One is a Bass left to the Orchestra by Torello I believe. It's huge but not everyone likes playing it from what I've heard. I have not seen that Bass personally.

and one is his Lions head or Gargoil headed bass that seems to be Italian but the head was from another Bass I think. No one I know has any idea who made the Bass including Hal when I asked him.

There could be others but this is all that I know about. I have met him a couple of times around the stage but thats it. The first time was in my area at a Chamber Concert. He let me see his Bass and I plucked a note or two on it. The Bow (Vitale) was under the E and A strings so I just worked around it while he grabbed the cover to pack it up a minute later.

Another time I saw a student of his perform a Bottesini solo (don't recall which one) using his Solo French Bass with the Philly Orch.. That's when he told me about that bass before they left the stage at the end of the concert.

On the English looking Bass remember that the English were mainly copyists or the Italians and Germans so maybe it was and maybe it wasn't.