Edward J Shillitoe

04/17/2024

Here's a pair of unaccompanied bass solos by Lorenzo Nigrelli, using one of my bows. He plays the HIF Biber Passacaglia from the Rosary Sonatas (late 1600's) and the Postlude for solo bass by Sam Suggs (2015). Nicely done, Lorenzo!

Recorded April 1, 2024 in Werner Recital Hall at UC-CCMRecording by Yufeng LinLorenzo Nigrelli - Double Bass00:00 H.I.F Biber Passacaglia C.105 (from the Ros...

12/25/2023

I have been making a Violone bow, and had a scrap of bloodwood left over from the frog. Since this is Santa Claus season I used it to carve this little stocking-stuffer reindeer! Happy Christmas one and all!

06/11/2023

We just got back from the ISB convention in Ann Arbor. An amazing meeting with over 500 bass players, makers and enthusiasts from all over the world! We (Edie, Scott and myself) mostly sat at our booth for 4 days - we found new homes for several bows and met a lot of old customers who are now playing with one of my historic bow reproductions. On the Friday afternoon Jim Lambert and I gave a presentation on the history of bass bows and playing technique, and passed around a number of old bows from my collection. Many thanks to Gaelen McCormick, Nicholas Walker and all other ISB officers for making this happen!

06/02/2023

I'm getting ready to leave for the ISB Symposium in Ann Arbor! I'll be taking some new bows and some antiques – 15 altogether plus some half-completed examples. Stop by and see me if you can! I'll be there with Edie, and Scott Kelso will be helping out. We'll have a booth in the Kevreson building from Tuesday to Friday, and my presentation will be on Friday with Jim Lambert at 4:00 in the Towsley Studio. It's been a long time since the last live meeting of this group! Hope to see you all!

03/13/2023

The International Society of Bassists is holding a live convention this year, in Ann Arbor MI from June 5th to 10th!

I am booking a table to show some bows and giving a lecture / presentation along with Jim Lambert. Hope to see everyone there!

The International Society of Bassists was founded by the world-renowned double bass virtuoso Gary Karr in 1967. With double bass player members in over 40 countries, the International Society of Bassists is an organization for those who teach the double bass, study the double bass, play the double b...

12/21/2022

https://youtu.be/YNgxBtyvpc4

New York City bass player Peter Seymour has just put out this charming alphabet book on jazz! He uses every letter to show off 26 people or aspects of jazz, including Q, X and Z. S is for a bass player .. ... Nice work Peter!

08/23/2021

This year, 2021, is the two hundredth anniversary of the ophicleide! This was a low register wind instrument invented in France by Jean Hilaire Aste and became very popular with music directors, mainly because it was loud! The cartoon shows Berlioz, who was also very fond of it. Double Bass players on the other hand were not so happy with the competition and looked for ways to increase their own sound. Their answer was to promote the Dragonetti bow, since Dragonetti bows produced more volume than the standard incurved bows. Nowadays the ophicleide is obsolete and only 5 examples are said to exist – Dragonetti bows on the other hand are still going strong!

04/19/2021

This is a screen capture from a recording session by the Jupiter ensemble. They are playing Vivaldi's Juditha Triumphans, with vocal soloist Lea Desandre. All the players are amazing – the bass player is Douglas Balliet, using a bow that I made for him. Follow the link and scroll to the bottom of the page to see the video. You can click on the 19 Euro Add button in the middle of the page and get their CD. Well worth it!
https://outhere-music.com/en/albums/jupiter-alpha550

03/20/2021

The New Brunswick Chamber Orchestra unfortunately just lost one of their bass players, Bliss Michelson, to Covid 19, two weeks after his wife died from the same condition. In his memory here is bass player Dr. Ray Bohn performing the Stravinsky viola elegy which he arranged for two double basses, using one of my bows.

Today's performance is the stark "Élégie for solo viola" (1944) by Igor Stravinsky, arranged for 2 contrabass and performed by Ray Bohn.We dedicate this week...

02/06/2021

These are my first two bows from 2021 - one for violone and one for bass. The violone bow has black and green cord wrap patterned after an old museum bow, and the bass bow has a silk wrap of a design and colors that were specified by the new owner. I hope they can both be used in performances soon!