Double bass solo improvisation can be called a musical genre. It was started by the American jazz and avant-garde double bassist Barre Phillips (b. 1934), who celebrates his 90th birthday on 27 October this year. He was the first to release a solo improvisation album, '"Journal Violone"', which was the creative impetus for a generation of improvising double bassists. Over the past half century, some 300 double bass players worldwide have committed themselves to improvisational solo.
The evening will also be complemented by live improvisations with solo double bass.
During the Closer to Jazz evening with double bassist Vytis Nivinskas we will listen recordings of double bass solos and we will talk about the most prominent composers of double bass solo programmes.
CLOSER TO MUSIC are evenings of encountering the music in Lithuanian language, hosted by interesting "guides" - musicologists, musicians, music lovers - admirers of a particular genre, composer, instrument, artist or country's musical culture. They talk about the particularities of this music and demonstrate the music live and/or from records which have been pre-selected by the speaker.