Since 1978, Ed Friedland has managed several fulfilling careers in music, often simultaneously. As a performing bassist, his experience ranges from backing jazz giants to country legends, theater work to studio work, catering halls to Carnegie Hall, playing for 10 people in a dive bar to tens of thousands at the Glastonbury Festival. From 2015 through 2023, Ed was bassist for the former chart-topping 90s Country group, The Mavericks. During his 8-year run, Ed recorded 5 albums, and toured worldwide with the group. Ed is currently at home in Tucson, AZ awaiting his next assignment.

As an educator, Ed was a member of the Berklee Bass Department (1984-6), Boston College music faculty, Arizona State University jazz faculty, National Guitar Workshop Bass Summit instructor, a clinician for Carvin guitars (now Keisel), Hal Leonard, and ran his own School Of Bass workshops. Ed has been teaching privately for over 40 years. During his 20+ year tenure at Bass Player magazine, Ed wrote mainly full-length instructional articles, as well as interviews with some of the top bassists in the world. Ed has contributed a considerable catalog of bass instructional books and videos for Hal Leonard Corporation, authored a popular beginners video course for Hudson Music called “Bass ASAP”, as well as a highly-requested Walking Bass Bootcamp for Scott’s Bass Lessons.

As a gear reviewer, Ed has amassed a following of 30K+ subscribers to his YouTube channel. “The Bass Whisperer” has over 10 million views from 100+ videos. He has written reviews for several publications such as Bass Player, Bass Gear, Bass Magazine, Bass Guitar, Guitar World, and Jazz Times.