The Jazz Foundation of America was created to bring assistance to musicians needing emergency medical, housing and disaster relief. Additionally, the organization creates dignified paid work opportunities for artists to perform with free concerts at schools, hospitals, and nursing homes. Each year they produce almost 1,000 concerts in 17 states and reach more than 80,000 listeners from children in public schools to seniors in elder care facilities. In 2018 JFoA contacted us about commissioning an instrument for a musician to encourage their return to the stage - a fully carved Upton Concord. This Concord double bass build features a flat…
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Another update from bluegrass road warrior Travis Book - a new album with The Infamous Stringdusters drops midnight TONIGHT and another Grammy nomination are nice ways to get through the winter! "On behalf of the Dusters, I'm so excited to be releasing Toward the Fray Friday, Feb 18 on our record label, Americana Vibes - all the while being Grammy nominated for our most recent album, A Tribute to Bill Monroe. Toward the Fray is our first original music to be released by the band since 2019's Rise Sun." We've been building basses for Travis since we've been building basses. He's…
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Archives from the internet... There used to be a great Kay Double Bass Viol resource page created by Roger Stowers, and as we searched for it looking to reference a Kay model, it no longer exists after Rogers's death. Steven Ayres has picked up the torch and now runs kaybass.us and we are sure he'll turn that into THE resource page, but for now, since we know how to access old versions of websites, we are posting the below information to be easily found by all. Enjoy, and if you have a Kay bass, sign up for Steven's registry! COLLECTION…
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John and Sachi Patitucci recorded this tribute in our bass loft last month for NPR's Jazz Night in America. NPR notes: "As we took stock of our losses, we realized that the low end was hit hardest and felt compelled to feature a bassist in this year's visual tribute. John Patitucci and his wife, cellist Sachi Patitucci, graciously agreed to help us honor those memories with a bittersweet ballad called "One More Angel." https://youtu.be/wDUgN8g-Oy8 With rememberance and love, wishing you music and joy in the New Year - UB
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