20th century rep

[stan haskins]

Originally Posted by Ken Smith

I'm doing Mahler I at the end of this month and I have the solo..

Cool, Ken - Make sure you link us to the reviews!!

That piece is great, btw - When are you playing it?

[Ken Smith]

Originally Posted by stan haskins

Cool, Ken - Make sure you link us to the reviews!!

That piece is great, btw - When are you playing it?

I am playing it on the 30th. I never see any Reviews unless someone shows them to me that lives in the Area. I am in a different Township than where we we play and not much of a Newspaper guy anyway.

[stan haskins]

Yeah, Ken, the "reviews" comment was sort of an inside oke (way inside, like inside my own head). I've just spoken to other bassists who get to play that solo, and it always seems to be a big point - they're nervous about the reviews.

But really, I do love that piece, and I'm sure you will kill it. Unfortunately, I will be in New England, not PA, otherwise I would be planning to show up.

So, will you be playing it up the g-string? I talked to one guy last year who decided to cross strings for that solo.

[Ken Smith]

Originally Posted by stan haskins

Yeah, Ken, the "reviews" comment was sort of an inside oke (way inside, like inside my own head). I've just spoken to other bassists who get to play that solo, and it always seems to be a big point - they're nervous about the reviews.

But really, I do love that piece, and I'm sure you will kill it. Unfortunately, I will be in New England, not PA, otherwise I would be planning to show up.

So, will you be playing it up the g-string? I talked to one guy last year who decided to cross strings for that solo.

Well, I have played it all ways so far being up, across and a combination of the two. If I use a Bass with a 'D' neck 41-42" S.L., I will play it up the 'G' only as I get more expression and better vibrato that way. If I play it on my Storioni Bass, across might be the better way to go as the Bass is very even sounding but I need a 'taxi' to get back from the lower octave 'A' on the 'G'-string...lol ..(44 1/4" S.L.)..

At the moment I am back to playing my Martini (41 3/4 S.L.) as the Gilkes just went out for sale. I am liking it more now than I did a year ago as it is settling in nicely being here in USA now for almost 3 years. Most of that time it was either getting repaired, modified or being shown for sale. Now I am playing it until my Hart/Fendt is completed and will see then if I stick with it for awhile or put it back up for sale later in the year. The Ebay thing I do with these Basses is mostly promotion for my DB/Bow biz as I don't expect much to come from it directly.

[stan haskins]

At a masterclass yesterday I heard three pieces by Rabbath - one emulates a flamenco guitar, another an Irish fiddle, another and indian raga. These are very cool, I don't know their title off of the top of my head. Does anybody know any more about these pieces, or anything similar?

[stan haskins]

I went home and looked at my notebook last night - the Celtic sounding one was called "Breeze"; the flamenco (pizz and strummed) was called "(something) d'Espagna" (I know, even when I consult my notes I can't get the names straight); another one with a low drone was called " Iberian Peninsula"; the last (the indian raga-style one) was something like "Puchidas" (although I certainly got that title wrong).

Anyone know these pieces? I thoroughly enjoyed all of them, and would like to work on some of this rep . . .

Anyone know of more stuff like this for double bass with or without accompaniment?

[JoeyNaeger]

All of those pieces are the in the Rabbath's Solos for the Double Bass (http://www.liben.com/rabbathsolos.html). Those pieces are a lot of fun, and some are fairly approacheable. Others are pretty difficult, but not impossible.