Cellists! Last night I was passing through Bozeman, Montana, and caught a jazz concert. The bassist was using his thumb back in first position.
As he explained, this extends one’s range wonderfully! I became an instant convert. As amazingly innovative as pedagogues like Richard Aaron and Alan Harris certainly are (and these are people who informed my world for about five years), this was the first time I had been exposed to this idea. Good, good fortune in beautiful Bozeman.
I had driven from Bismarck, North Dakota to make this show, staying awake and stretching the mind by blasting Yin Tsang beats in the car while doing some freestyling in various mangled languages about the need for a more vigorous cultural U.S. approach to North Korea. Once back in the guerrilla base of Tacoma and swimming in the ocean of war/academia, I hope to get some of this stuff uploaded just to stir things up.
But in the meantime, I was glad to study for but an hour under the thumb of a master.
Adam Cathcart 