George
Urbaszek
BMus (Performance) Wiesbaden Conservatory, Germany,
GradDip (Jazz) Australian National University, Cert.IV
in Workplace Training & Assessment, Cert.IV in
Small Business Management.
Studied classical double bass
with Michael Schnitzler (Germany), jazz bass with
Adelhard Roidinger (Austria), jazz ensemble performance
with Lee Harper (USA), bass guitar with Kai Eckhard
(USA), and jazz improvisation with Charlie Banacos
(USA).
George’s main instruments
are the double bass as well as 4, 5, and 6-string
bass guitar. He has been involved in wide-ranging
forms of music, including chamber music and orchestral
work, avant-garde, cabaret, blues, pop, rock, country,
and most jazz styles.
He has participated in numerous
studio, radio, TV and video recordings (including
“Melody Magic”) and has backed many leading
performers in various genres.
He has done pre-production,
co-arranging, co-writing and bass playing on numerous
albums including “Wilf Jones and Friends”
and “Those Were the Days” (Wilf Jones
Trio, light classical & jazz) “After Midnight”
(Kelly Tassone, country rock) “Kookaburra’s
Flute Dream” (Peter Fassbender, meditative funk)
“Sweet Mischief” and “ Can We”
(with multi award-winning band, Sweet Mischief, playing
jazz, soul, groove, salsa and New Orleans style).
He was a member of the Canberra
Symphony Orchestra for 15 years.He is author of “Bass
Guitar for the Complete Musician”, co-author
of the innovative educational CD-ROM “Enable
Bass”, co-producer of the bass and drums play-along
CD “The Feel of the Real Deal” and producer
of the popular ready-made lesson CDs “Groove
Creation for Bass” and “Workin’
it Out – Aural Skills for Bass Players”.
For his Graduate Diploma, George
wrote a treatise (which received a High Distinction)
titled “Fundamental Concepts for Walking Bass
– A Systematic Method”.
He has had both workshop and
clinic experience and lectured in Bass, Jazz Improvisation,
Ensemble Performance and Jazz Theory at the Riverina
Summer School for Strings from 1990 until 2000. From
1987 to 1999 George lectured in the Jazz Dept. of
the Canberra School of Music, ANU, and is currently
teaching bass and ensemble performance at Southern
Cross University.
He worked in various capacities
at the Northern Rivers Conservatorium Arts Centre
in Lismore for three years. George is a highly qualified
ensemble supervisor and an experienced jazz band conductor
with national and international tours to his credit.
He writes the Bass column for
Australian Musician magazine and was Australia correspondent
for the online bass magazine, Global Bass, contributing
a monthly article titled “Creating Bass”.
He also teaches bass worldwide
by audio correspondence and has students as far away
as Greece, Germany and the USA. ProBand, a short course
in music performance skills, is George’s innovation.
He is also innovator of quality
and affordable Weekly Bass Lessons online ($4.00 per
lesson) with subscribers from Australia, Malta, Mexico,
Norway, England, the United Arab Emirates and the
USA.
He has the experience of well
over 3000 performances and 120 recording sessions
to guide himself and his students through most musical
situations.
During the most active part
of his performing career he backed countless well-known
artists from Rolf Harris to ex-Seekers vocalist, Judith
Durham and Motown recording artist, Thelma Housten
as well as Marina Prior and Australian jazz icons,
Bob and Len Barnard and Australian country music multi
award winning artist, Beccy Cole.
Some of his former students
hold top playing positions in the music industry,
both in Australia and abroad. They include Greg Royal
(Lee Kernaghan, Kate Ceberano) Kim Khahn (Mel C, Natalie
Imbruglia, Robbie Williams) Rory Quirk (John Butler
Trio, Quirk) Zoe Hauptmann (Miruslav Bukovsky’s
ARIA award winning group Wanderlust) and Brendan Clarke
(winner of the 2001 National Jazz Award).
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