Welcome! This is the personal website of Robbie Link. I am a performing musician, music instructor, and luthier based in the "Triangle" area of North Carolina. I am still rebuilding this site and will be adding more material soon.
Looking for missing audio files? In a late night "clean up the database" frenzy I accidentally deleted the audio section. It'll be back soon!
My sister sent this recently. When my parents split up when we were younger many family memorabilia "disappeared". Lately things have been "reappearing". I thought this was forever lost. This was one of three nights playing at Carnegie with a stellar list of soloists.
As a bassist I spend most of my musical life as an accompanist. It's a special skill and one I quite enjoy - doing everything I can to make other musicians sound good. In a jazz setting I frequently get to "solo" - to improvise melodies while others accompany me - but most of the time it's laying down the harmonic foundation and playing with the right nuance and subtlety to allow the "real" soloists (vocalists, violinists, saxophonists, etc.) to shine through. It has been said that every bassist is a closet cellist - that instrument that imitates the sound and range of the human voice more than any other. And it is true, I have....
I'm always amazed by the violinists who break a string at a rehearsal or concert and they don't have an extra one in their case. What were they thinking? You never broke a string before? Just came across this article which is more geared toward folks playing electric instruments but it's a good starting place for thinking about what you should have handy. Essential Items for the Gigging Bassist: A Gig Survival Checklist.
In addition to his solo performance at Duke on Thursday night next week, bassist Edgar Meyer will be giving a strings masterclass/performance in the Nelson Music Room Wednesday at 5:00 (that event is free!) and will also give a
nlike other modern bowed string players, bassists have to decide between two different bow types (or use both). I grew up hearing them referred to as French or German (also called Butler). I never learned the origin of these names but use them to describe the differences between the natural sounds of the two bows. The French bow...
Durham based Killer Sheep win the prize. Unfortunately they are not the first to use that name but it's a good one. Apparently no website yet but the link is to a Facebook event they posted.
I have been thinking about this very idea for the last month or so. Not that it's an original idea. Classical musicians have taken to the bars (for music making!) all along. Cellist Matt Haimovitz made headlines for taking Bach into bars a few years ago. I heard him in Greensboro playing solo cello under a disco ball in a packed bar. I've been thinking lately about making the rounds (pun alert) with Baroque instruments. I'll keep you posted. Meanwhile, check out this Guardian article about the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment's "Pub Crawl".
PS - Matt Haimovitz's website has a nice streaming music player - you can listen to his recordings non-stop!
My 5th year riding to raise money for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. This year I rode a total of 180 miles in 2 days and 27 donors gave over $1100 to support my effort. Overall there were over 2400 riders in this event raising about 1.6 million dollars (total figures not in yet) to help find a cure for and to directly support the over 5200 people in our part of the state who are living with MS. Some of these people are close friends and many we have come to know from doing these yearly rides.
Some video from a recent house concert - jazz. Mahalo Arts ensemble. Usually Doug Largent plays with this group but he was out of town so Alison asked me to join them. Thanks Alison!
Earlier this year I recorded the Bach Motets with the Bach Sinfonia, a period instrument group based in the DC area. I played the continuo part on the violone along with the organist. Dorian Records is putting out the CD this month (I have my copy!) on the Sono Luminus label and they have recently released some video of the recording session with a very interesting interview with the conductor, Daniel Abraham. The video is on Youtube and I've embedded them here, also (it's in three parts).
