Jazz is my true love as a bassist and I offer comprehensive lessons on all aspects of jazz performance on double bass or electric bass.

Whether you intend to specialize on jazz performance or another style, learning to play jazz on bass is invaluable skill. Most freelance performers are competent enough with jazz to play a “casual”, a gig where an unrehearsed ensemble (sometimes with musicians who have never even met) can perform for hours by drawing the standard repertoire of jazz artists and improvising over the music. Of all the forms of American popular music, jazz has the most complex and comprehensive system of harmony, and mastering it’s elements will more than prepare you for the harmony of many other styles of music. Jazz also hones the ability to improvise music in the moment and learn to interact with your fellow performers in a immediate and intimate way. It also often requires the ability to read music in in a variety of formats, ranging from intricately arranged lines to broad and open for interpretation chord charts or lead sheets.

Beyond all those pragmatic reasons, learning jazz is a fascinating intellectual and artistic endeavor that many musicians find to be the apex of instrumental performance.

I offer instruction on both basses and focus particularly on helping bassists develop approaches to walking basslines, understanding harmony, cultivating rhythmic feels from various styles associated with jazz such as swing, latin, and fusion, and eventually on developing the ability to “solo” as the featured instrument in ensemble. With the explosion of growth and talent the bass world has seen over the last 40 years, the ability to handle of the these tasks effectively is a requirement for anyone wanting to be taken not only in the jazz world, and also in a variety of other genres and professional playing situations that expect a high level of professional skill.

As a jazz bassist, I’ve had the pleasure of performing with most of Colorado’s most noted jazz artists, such as Ron Miles, Eric Gunnison, Nelson Rangell, Keith Oxman, Art Lande, Jeff Jenkins, Dave Corbus, and Peter Sommer. I’ve also backed national and international performers such as Greg Abate, Pat Bianchi, and Nestor Torres.  As a student at the Henry Mancini Institute, I performed and studied with some of the greatest living musicians in the field, such as Herbie Hancock, Diana Krall, John Clayton, Geoff Hamilton, Diane Reeves, Christian McBride, Peter Erskine, Billy Childs, Johnny Mandel, Abraham Laboriel.

I have a degree in jazz performance for the University of Denver’s Lamont school of music, where I studied with Denver’s most noted bassist, Ken Walker. I have also studied with Christian McBride, Carol Kaye, Dave Carpenter, Art Lande, Drew Morrell, John Clayton, and Bijou Barbosa. I’m currently studying online with John Patittucci.

If you’re serious about your instrument and want to take it to the furthest heights so that you can experience the artistic freedom like the jazz masters of the past and present, I invite you to join more on our journey together through this challenging art form and learn from my decades of training and experience.