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Jodi Durst's Bio

Photo by Dustin Vaughn-Luma
Jodi Durst is an upright & electric bassist in the SF Bay Area. She is an extremely diverse musician who has performed with a variety of groups that range from straight-ahead jazz to indie-rock to R&B to punk rock to avante-garde. She has also performed in pit orchestras for several small local musical productions such as "Grease," "Rent," and "How to Succeed in Business." She holds a Bachelor's Degree of Music in Jazz Studies from the California Jazz Conservatory.

She started playing electric bass when she was 12. By the age of 15 she was performing with her indie rock band in the SF Bay Area. Since then she has recorded, performed and toured with a number of bands including Zelma Stone, Louiza, Adrian West, The Bonafides, Seventeen Evergreen, Tigerbeat, Clevergirl, Distance From Shelter, Compton SF, 187Calm, Time Traveling Assassins with Ralph Spight (Victim's Family and Jello Biafra's Guantanomo School of Medicine) just to name a few. 

Around 2011 she began a journey of formal music study at Laney College in Oakland, CA. There she received AA degrees with highest honors in Music and in Humanities. She was awarded the Peralta Colleges Chancellor's Trophy and Laney College's President's Medallion for her scholastic accomplishments of earning a 4.0 GPA. 

In 2014 she matriculated at the California Jazz Conservatory where she received a Bachelor of Music in Jazz Studies degree. There she has performed in a number of performance ensembles such as Astor Piazzola, Chick Corea, Wayne/Miles and the school's advanced Green Ensemble, directed by Dann Zinn. Privately, she has studied with jazz bassist and vocalist Jeff Denson, Kristin Zoernig (Principal Bassist of Berkeley's Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra) and Glenn Richman (formerly bassist with Bobby Hutcherson's group). She received an Outstanding Musician Award at the 2014 Reno Jazz Festival for her composition, "I Don't Think So."

Although her roots are playing electric bass with a variety of rock and popular music forms, her main focus has been on the double bass playing improvisatory music and jazz since 2014. She plans to continue on that path seeking out various creative channels musically. She currently performs around the SF Bay Area with local jazz combos, R&B groups and whatever else that entices her musically.

 Here are samples of recordings Jodi has done:
Green Ensemble "I Don't Think So" (cool jazz, composed by Jodi Durst, live at CJC Feb 27, 2018)
CJC Astor Piazzola Ensemble "Contrabajissimo" + "Escualo"  (New Tango)
Continental Divide "Happiness" (dark folk/singer-songwriter)
Distance From Shelter "Baby Boy" (post rock)
Distance From Shelter "Tailspin" (post rock)
Compton SF "Walk Backwards" (punk rock) 

Here's a video history of some of the rock bands she has performed with:
187CALM live 1995 at The Edge in Palo Alto, CA
Compton SF live 2010 at Bottom of The Hill in SF, CA

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Jodi Durst Quartet—Live at California Jazz Conservatory

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