After I woke up the next day after shooting at the Casbah, my neck was sizzling from my sunburn and rubbed raw from the camera strap. I also had a pretty good headache going, three beers and staying up till 3 am. does that to me now.

My buddy John dragged me to O'Brien's so that he could cheer on his Brazilian soccer team. O'Briens has great beer, but a hop bomb before noon was the last thing I needed. We drank the lightest beer on the menu, Alaskan Summer Ale, while he cheered very quietly for his team in the midst of some die-hard USA team fans. Any hangover relief that comes from a couple beers in the early afternoon is very temporary, and only exacerbates the problem later on.

I was toying with the idea of staying home and taking a night off, but how can you miss the chance to see seven bassists performing a once a year concert? Luckily, I don't feel pain while shooting great music.



I shot last year's show too and it was the same group of bassists, only San Diego Symphony principal bassist traded places for last year's Kristin Korb. Last year was a bit more crowded so I could only manage to shoot from the back of the room with my telephoto, but I'm much less shy these days.



After some ensemble pieces, each bassist got a chance to shine. First was Mark Dresser, displaying some avant-garde chops and specially installed pickups in the fingerboard that amplify overtones that are usually almost silent.



Bob Magnusson challenged the notion of what can be done with a "stand-up" bass.



I wonder how many times he's heard that joke.



 Danny Weller, the youngest bassist of the evening, played with a clarinetist friend who flew in just for this gig.





Danny's getting married next weekend in the same place I got married almost exactly two years earlier- the walled garden at the Quail Botanical Gardens. Congratulations Danny!



Jeremy Kurtz is another young guy who has climbed to the top bass chair at the San Diego Symphony and Opera.



Heather had me buy his CD, she likes his focus. He has a different bass sound than the jazz guys, with incredibly articulate arco work. He played in some small groups with the other guys, and even though it's easy to hear the differences in their approaches to the instrument, the common ground is musicianship.





Rob Thorsen played a couple cuts off his new CD, including a time-shifting version of "Giant Steps".



His CD release show at Anthology was a couple days later, those shots will be coming soon.



Marshall Hawkins' bass is unusual because it is blond.





In fact, you can't fully appreciate the variety in basses until you hear and see them in this context, where they're up front.



Bert Turetzky is the most recorded solo bassist in the world. He's got more than 300 solo bass recordings, not including all the other work he's done. He's also been a teacher to most of the other bassists on stage at some point in their careers.





He told a story about being intimidated by Mingus back in the day, then played a jazz poem in honor of him.



There is an untold amount of wisdom and experience in this man, as well as a sly sense of humor. He told a story about his family leaving Poland to escape the Cossacks. My grandfather fled Poland to escape the Nazis.



Finally, some detail shots that didn't quite fit anywhere else in this post:







It's like seeing a herd of elephants.