Douglas Johnson profile picture

Douglas Johnson

Gobama!

About Me

After a couple of hapless years playing the piano and violin, Douglas Johnson switched to the double bass and went on to earn a bachelors’ degree in music performance from Northwestern University . During his college years, Doug was a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Institute and the Bach Aria Festival . Upon graduation, he became Associate Principal Bass with the Honolulu Symphony and, after one season, returned to Chicago where he continued performing and started composing. He has performed with the symphonies of Chicago , Milwaukee , Elgin , as well as the Lyric Opera of Chicago and Ars Viva , and is active in contemporary chamber music, having recently performed with the C.U.B.E. Ensemble , Fulcrum Point , Accessible Contemporary Music, the Contemporary Chamber Players , the Chicago Chamber Musicians and dal niente . As a composer and improviser, he has written music for the River North Chicago Dance Company and the Dutch National Ballet Project . He is also the bandleader of the infamous three-bass and percussion improvisational group, Gunnelpumpers , and is a core member of the Chicago Bass Ensemble and the Tomorrow Music Orchestra .

Links to current groups:

Gunnelpumpers
Tomorrow Music Orchestra
Chicago Bass Ensemble

Send me a message if you are looking for string arrangements and you like the sound of multitracked basses. Check out my work with Nat Coot for a few examples. Cheers.

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 11/11/2005
Band Website: myspace.com/douglasjohnson
Band Members: Douglas Johnson - 5-string upright acoustic contra double string bass, 6-string Clevinger electric upright bass
Influences:

Many of my teachers going back to the beginning, more often than not, made the making of music the primary focus over the playing of notes. Without my exposure to them or their ideas, my musicianship would have greatly suffered. Sue Gault (first piano teacher), George Black (first bass teacher), Nicholas Bussard (conductor, Whatcom Symphony Orchestra), Vilem Sokol (The Maestro, Seattle Youth Symphony), Ron Simon (bassist, Seattle Symphony), Victor Yampolsky and Jeff Bradetich (Northwestern University), Edwin Barker, Lawrence Wolfe, Oliver Knussen, Julius Levine, Seiji Ozawa and Leonard Bernstein (Tanglewood Music Festival), Timothy Eddy and Daniel Phillips (Bach Aria Festival), Larry Rachliffe (Chicago Philharmonic), Edgar Meyer, even Gary Karr, Dean and Dudley Evenson (Soundings of the Planet), countless folks in the Chicago scene.

My family is also a great influence, not only from their varied talents and interests, but pointing me to new artists and ideas I would not have otherwise come across.

The countless friends and colleagues I have performed with over the years have greatly influenced me as well. Everyone brings something unique to the table.


Sounds Like: Sometimes deep, dark music brimming with light. Or like movie music or a soundtrack. Or like what’d be played at a planetarium. Or like a cello (but usually lower). A forest of strings. Or a collide-o-scope. Or a bicycle.

Type of Label: None

My Blog

New Stereo Mixes uploaded

Hello all,Yesterday I worked with Rob Ruccia at Uptown Recording in Chicago to transfer some of my old four-track cassette recordings into digital format. Doing this myself previously, I had been unab...
Posted by Douglas Johnson on Sat, 29 Dec 2007 08:11:00 PST

Planetary Frequencies and Tempi

Planetary Pitches and TempiUsing the basic math of doubling or halving numbers, one can derive pitches and tempi from the durations of planetary orbits.  While orbits are not sound waves, they ar...
Posted by Douglas Johnson on Fri, 16 Nov 2007 06:49:00 PST

"Into the Agape" to be featured on Bowed Radio Podcast

Hello all, just a heads up that "Into the Agape" will be on the November 19th Bowed Radio podcast. Produced by Mark Allender, the podcast features string music from all over the world. Other featured ...
Posted by Douglas Johnson on Wed, 14 Nov 2007 06:57:00 PST

Harmonic Ratios

Harmonic Ratios OK, so if the pitch of an individual note or tone is measured in vibrations per second, or Hertz (hz), then what are the frequency relationships of two different tones sounding at the...
Posted by Douglas Johnson on Tue, 13 Nov 2007 10:07:00 PST

World Premiere Bass Quartet

Hey, just a heads up that I'll be playing a really cool concert with the Chicago Bass Ensemble on Wednesday, November 7th, 2007, at the Lincoln Park Cultural Center in Chicago. The performance is free...
Posted by Douglas Johnson on Fri, 02 Nov 2007 05:51:00 PST

Pitch to Tempi Relationships

OK, this blog is mostly for musicians and other folks who find "frequencies" and such to be interesting. It contains simple math as well ().Anyway, pitches in music are measured in frequencies, or mor...
Posted by Douglas Johnson on Mon, 17 Sep 2007 06:08:00 PST

Creating Complex Meters

Most Western music is in 4. Probably because we're bipedal, it's easy to dance to, and makes it real easy to have a backbeat. Waltzes and some other types of music are in 3. So we live mostly in a wor...
Posted by Douglas Johnson on Sat, 11 Aug 2007 08:02:00 PST

Falling Behind on the Space

Hello all - I'm about a month behind on my friend requests. I get to it when I can, but try to take the time to listen to the music of fellow musicians and such. Be well, dj
Posted by Douglas Johnson on Mon, 16 Apr 2007 06:41:00 PST

Introduction to Polyrhythm

Introduction to Polyrhythm Polyrhythm consists of simultaneous contrasting rhythms. They form the basis of most African music, as well as a lot of Western "minimalist" music, such as Steve Reich and P...
Posted by Douglas Johnson on Tue, 28 Nov 2006 07:08:00 PST

Turn Your Name into Music

Turn Your Name Into Music In German notation, the following letters of the alphabet correspond to musical pitches. One can create melodies or chord progressions from any word or phrase matching letter...
Posted by Douglas Johnson on Sat, 25 Nov 2006 07:59:00 PST