Garth Stevenson

Garth Stevenson, a virtuoso double bass player, and a key figure in New York’s experimental and improvisational music scene, has a pronounced nada yoga (the yoga of sound) approach to his playing, and has specialized in a cinematic style that both represents and interacts with the natural world. Born and raised in the Canadian Rockies, the natural world has run like a thread through Stevenson's life and work from the very beginning. Earning a full scholarship to Berklee College of Music, he played several high-profile engagements in Boston with Bob Moses, Joe Lovano, George Garzone, John Lockwood, and others and founded TAQ, a trio with pianist Marcin Masecki and drummer Ziv Ravitz, before graduating in 2004. Stevenson relocated to New York, quickly becoming a fixture in the improvisational and experimental music scene there, playing and recording with a wide range of ensembles, including projects with Sonya Kitchell, John Shannon, Mat Maneri, Ryan Ferreira, Petr Cancura and others, and he appeared as a bassist on some 50 recordings. He also developed his solo bass skills, working with loops and boxes to create a lush and cinematic style. Stevenson connects playing music strongly with the natural world, and regularly carts his 150-year old bass to the desert, up mountains, and down to shorelines, musically immersing himself in the natural landscape, and he has even played for — and with — penguins and whales in Antarctica while working on a film project there. A regular on the U.S. and European festival circuits, Stevenson also appeared frequently on the television shows of David Letterman and Craig Fergusson, among others, and released a debut solo album, Alpine (which included a bonus DVD featuring seven improvisations filmed and recorded in natural locations) in 2007. Starting in 2010, Stevenson began working with Elena Brower, providing improvisations for Brower's hour-long meditation classes, turning them into atmospheric events all on their own, including sets at the Museum of Modern Art and for some 10,000 people in Central Park.