It may seem an unusual pairing of instruments both in size and sound - Gunnar Biggs' resounding Dutch flat back 3/4 size double bass, and Bill Bradbury's lilting Paul Schneider-designed Summit mandolin. But like many contrasting pairings the duo goes as well together as sweet and sour, coffee and cream, steak and eggs.

Performing as MandoBasso, Biggs and Bradbury maintain that it is the extremes of registers of each of the instruments that make them a natural sonic pairing.

Another natural pairing is the musicians themselves. They have known each other for about 18 years. Both have come from musically enriched families, and both have taught music at the college level. Biggs, who has a background in classical and jazz, is a well-known studio musician and teaches bass at several colleges around San Diego. His father has taught music at SDSU since 1957. Bradbury, who received his PhD from Cornell University, has a background in composition and computer music. He is currently a faculty member at Cal State San Marcos.

"We have compatible senses of humor and students often mistake us for one another," said Biggs.

"I loved the idea of the two of us, who look very similar on stage with two string instruments that are so different," Bradbury added. "Gunnar is an amazing jazz bass player and I had been playing a lot of Irish music at the time, so we thought it would be fun to combine the two styles and see what developed," Bradbury said.

"We found [that] we both loved traditional Irish and American music," said Biggs. "So [we] decided to start messing around with it. That resulted in our CD and continued live performances," Biggs added. "We're close to half-way done composing pieces for a second CD," said Biggs.

Their self-titled, debut album, MandoBasso was released earlier this year.

Catching them live is a treat, but it's also rare. "Since Gunnar is a very busy studio and performing musician and I teach full time at Cal State San Marcos, we don't have time for as many MandoBasso gigs as we might like," Bradbury said.

But they are scheduled to play through the rest of the year. "We will play at Palomar College and the Encinitas Library in the fall and the Museum of Making Music in January. We also play regularly at Carlsbad's It's a Grind coffee house," he explained.

"We are working on other gigs as well, including playing at a gallery space in Santa Monica," Bradbury added.

Flashback to last July, during the first real heat of the summer, the duo gave a limited seating house concert in a Cardiff-by-the-Sea neighborhood.

"It's a great vibe here," said Biggs, as he and Bradbury took to the raised living room stage.

Biggs stood at the ready as Bradbury plucked at each of the mandolin strings, turning the tuning pegs. "In this weather it's hard to stay in tune," he said. Biggs heaved a heavy, mocking sigh of impatience.

The concert was a mix of material from their first CD, some impromptu improvisations, and new material from their upcoming album.

The heat and humidity of the day was weighty and the cool coastal breeze seemed to lag in its relief. At some point, the musicians realized it must be influencing the evening's playlist, as they played a mellower, meditative set, prompting Biggs to joke that the tunes must have been from their "Prozac years."

"Ballads and ‘mellow' tunes are probably the hardest to write and play effectively," Biggs later explained. "Every note is ‘naked' and must be treated individually and specifically for maximum effect and meaning. The next CD will have a variety of tempos and material," he said.

One of the more up-tempo pieces the duo introduced was a new song titled "Mr. Hanford." Bradbury wrote the piece while on vacation last summer.

"My father-in-law is an actor in community theatre in Hanford, California, as well as a successful businessman," he said. "Several years ago he was asked by the city council to portray James Madison Hanford, for whom the city was named, at a community event.

"Since then he has continued to portray Mr. Hanford on a regular basis, now with a long beard and hair and an outfit to match... he projects quite a sight when he is in character, a wonderful eccentric," he said.

The sound is jaunty and confident, he explained. "As soon as it was finished, I knew it had to be named Mr. Hanford," said Bradbury.

"You ought to meet Mr. Hanford," Bradbury said, after they had finished the song.

"I feel like I already know him," said Biggs.

And that is the quintessential feeling you have after listening to their music. The songs seem to be personal narratives, allowing the listener to sightsee through the two musicians' worlds.

But Biggs wouldn't necessarily describe the music as impressionistic. "I would hope the music leaves an impression with the listener, but the style would be more Nouveau Americana, for lack of a better term," said Biggs.

"Certainly, a great goal to aspire to is to create images and feelings within the mind and ear of the listener but to musicians, Impressionist music is that of Debussy and Ravel, which may have had some bearing on my musical education but not something I'm striving for in writing for and playing in this group," Biggs added.

There is humor in the music; there is gentleness in the music; and there is tradition in the music. Each of the musicians has written songs for their wives, their mothers and their fathers, and meaningful locales; Biggs has even written songs for his dog and guinea pig.

"My life is rich with family, travel, my life partner, and canine cohorts - lots of material in that much happiness," said Biggs. "The harmonies and melodies suggest to me the feel and/or the character of a person, place, or thing," he added.

The band also covers traditional music that keeps with the romantic, narrative quality of their original music, exemplified by their rendition of the Irish folk song "Captain O'Kane."

 "I do hope people will tap their feet, smile a bit, and maybe be touched by some of the sweeter tunes," said Bradbury.

Bradbury first took up playing the mandolin when he was about 15-years-old, he explained. He learned on his grandfather's bowl-back mandolin and eventually began playing folk music in amateur string and bluegrass bands.

"I then left the instrument for nearly 25 years and picked it up again in my mid-40s. I've been focusing on mandolin seriously for the past four or five years," he said.

"I studied composition for many years and my influences were composers in the European concert, orchestral tradition," Bradbury said.

"As a mandolinist, my biggest influences are probably David Grisman, Sam Bush, Mike Marshall, and Andy Statman. I'm more drawn to players who really ‘push the envelope' in their music, exploring new territory and combining various music genres. It's at the intersections of different music styles that lots of the interesting stuff happens!" Bradbury said.

"I think the fun of MandoBasso is in weaving together the disparate sounds of the mandolin and bass in new and interesting ways. As a duo, we try to make ourselves sounds a full as possible given the challenge of ‘filling the gap' in the ranges of the instruments.

"So far I think we've done well and have had a great time doing it. I certainly wouldn't rule out adding other instruments in the future, but for now the duo is working fine. We have experimented with looping ourselves and layering textures and we'll probably explore more of that soon.

Some have compared their sound to Edgar Meyer's and Yo-Yo Ma's string ensemble album Heartland: An Appalachian Anthology minus the orchestrations.

"My background in composition does influence how I write for MandoBasso, but I don't think I would consider any orchestral textures at this time, our sound is fine as is," he added.

The pairing doesn't seem to have a drought of material, or see a limitation to their unique sound.

"Only if we place a limitation on what we imagine is possible," said Biggs. The musicians and their instruments have an infinite amount of possibility for new expansions, Biggs explained.

Here's to infinity, then.

More information on the musicians and links to MandoBasso's concert schedules can be found at williambradburymusic.com or, gunnarbiggs.com. Their self-titled CD, MandoBasso (reviewed in the August issue of the San Diego Troubadour) is available at cdbaby.com/cd/biggsbradbury, or on iTunes and Amazon.com.

Written by Tony Cagala