Dave Bass

Bass grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio, and began studying piano at the age of seven. He was accepted to the Berklee College of Music in Boston, but dropped out after a few months to pursue a less formal and more adventurous musical path which included studying composition with George Russell, who had begun teaching his Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization at the New England Conservatory of Music and piano with Madame Margaret Chaloff.[3]

In 1974 he started touring internationally with singer Brenda Lee. He performed with Lee until 1975, after which he relocated to San Francisco. While in San Francisco, Bass performed with the young Bobby McFerrin and with vocalist Jackie Ryan, drummer/percussionist Babatunde Lea and others in various Bay Area venues, including the Keystone Korner.[3] Ryan joined Bass’ band "Ad Infinitum," which also featured Babatunde Lea who had a steady Wednesday night gig at a Mission District venue, Bajones, with a large, jazzy salsa ensemble with whom Bass played piano and wrote arrangements. Bass also had a steady solo gig at the Trident in Sausalito.

Ultimately, Bass moved to Maui to work with Ryan, remaining there from 1981 through 1984. During that time, Bass also served as the Entertainment Director for the Royal Lahaina Resort, where he performed with his Latin jazz group, his jazz trio, and as a solo pianist. In 1984, Bass relocated to Southern California, where he planned to continue his career as a pianist and composer, but one night, on his way to the Orange County Center for the Performing Arts where he was about to perform, he slipped on a pool of oil and fractured his wrist in an attempt to break his fall. Bass was told that there was no guarantee that, once his wrist had healed, he would be able to play again.[4]

With a family to support, he chose to enroll in college at the University of California at Irvine, earning his B.A. in social ecology and graduating summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa in 1989. He went on to attend the UCLA School of Law, where he was an editor of the UCLA Law Review, clerked in the Sacramento legislative office of the American Civil Liberties Union and, in 1991, served as legal extern to the Honorable David S. Levi, U.S. District Court Judge for the Eastern District of California. Bass earned his J.D. in 1992 from the UCLA School of Law. Immediately out of law school, Bass joined the international law firm, Pillsbury Madison & Sutro where Bass practiced general litigation for four years. In 1996, Bass joined the California Office of the Attorney General. At the Attorney General's office, Bass began in the Employment, Administration and Regulation Section, eventually moving to the Civil Rights Enforcement Section.

In December 2008, after a few years playing casually with friends around Sacramento, Bass returned to the studio to record Gone, his first album as a leader. He recorded ten original compositions with saxophonist Ernie Watts, Babatunde on percussion, bassist Gary Brown, and vocalist Mary Stallings. The album reached No. 2 on the JazzWeek national radio play charts.[5] At All About Jazz, Karl Ackermann wrote, "listening to what Dave Bass has done on Gone exemplifies the capabilities of an artist who can combine a big-picture mindset and diverse talents. It's a great platform for the kind of musical and intellectual aptitude that can bridge varied attributes of an abstract process."[6]

Bass returned to the studio in 2012 to record NYC Sessions (Whaling City Sound). The album includes saxophonist Phil Woods, drummer Ignacio Berroa, trombonist Conrad Herwig, and bassist Harvie S, with guest vocalist Karrin Allyson.[7] NYC Sessions reached No. 5 on the JazzWeek national radio play charts.[8] The album received a four-star review from DownBeat magazine in its May 2015 issue with the comment that the album "proves deeply satisfying in part because it does so may things so well [including] Bass' savvy as an arranger and programmer [...] not to mention his own sparking keyboard work."[9] DownBeat named NYC Sessions one of the Best Albums of 2015.[10] Jazz critic Ken Franckling named Bass' "Baltic Bolero" one of the Top Ten Jazz Songs of 2015.[11] Latin-Jazz Network contributor Raul De Gama wrote that "this album is just plain sensational [...] and the music in all its diversity and passion appears to have an unstoppable momentum." Bass' "piano credentials reflect his quiet virtuosity, his deeply emotional expression and flawless dynamics."[12]

In October 2018, Dave returned to the studio to record his third album, No Boundaries.[2] Multi-instrumentalist and Jazz At Lincoln Center Orchestra stalwart, Ted Nash, co-produced No Boundaries and played on all but one track, featuring Dave in the classic piano trio setting with Bud Powell’s “Hallucinations.” The band includes Carlos Henriquez (also from JALCO) on upright bass, Jerome Jennings on drums and Ted Nash on flute, alto flute, clarinet, bass clarinet, soprano sax, alto sax, and tenor sax. Vocalist Karrin Allyson returns to work with Dave singing one of Dave’s originals, “Time of My Life” and Dave’s arrangement of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s “If I Loved You.” On three Afro-Cuban cuts three native Cubans appear: Carlos Caro (bongo, perc.), Miguelo Valdes (conga, bata) and Mauricio Herrera (timbales, maracas, perc.).

No Boundaries was played nationally and internationally, with a 15-week span on the JazzWeek charts, peaking at #13.[13]

The reviews of No Boundaries were laudatory. All About Jazz wrote “Bass hauls piano ass through the closing ‘Hallucinations’ like a jackrabbit with its tail on fire, tangling and untangling complicated and crackling lines like electric lightning. [On the Latin numbers] Bass “plays two different active lines simultaneously, twinkling and wrinkling the upper register while his left hand stomps out rhythm with flamenco fury – simply great Latin jazz piano.”[14]DownBeat describes Bass as “a highly effective bebop player, who also has a way with Afro-Cuban rhythms [and] proves his mettle in collaboration with Nash.[15]

Latin Jazz Network writes “Dave Bass, his fluid pianism, together with the extraordinary musicianship of Ted Nash and the rest of the ensemble is most affecting, suggesting that – indeed – there is no real boundary between the music of the world, just gloriously stylistically idiosyncratic ways to express the joy of song and dance. . . . Take the opening, “Lennie’s Pennies”, Swing Theory”, “Hallucinations” at the end or, somewhere in the middle of the repertoire, “Siboney” –classics of their period and style of playing. In Mr Bass’ hands they’re magically sinuous affairs – both in terms of his own approach as well as in the arrangements for others to follow. The way in which he colours the melodic lines and reaches into the various parts of the choruses with subtlety is magical. Or sample “Siboney” and his own composition, “Danzón #1” to marvel how the music is simultaneously intimate, yet possessed of an elegant gravity.”[16]

Capital Public Radio in Sacramento wrote, "Dave Bass’ new album is rapidly climbing the national jazz chart. The recording spotlights Bass as an original composer and pianist capable of delivering clean lines at quick tempos. On “Siboney,” a romantic Cuban song from 1929, Bass and company exemplify soulful lyricism at its finest. Ted Nash on soprano saxophone and Bass on piano transport the listener to an imaginary island of warmth, passion, grace, and beauty.”[17]

• "Music Review: Dave Bass Quartet - Gone". seattlepi.com. Retrieved 12 April 2015.
• "CD release show slated for Bass' 'NYC Sessions'". The Herald News, Fall River, MA. Retrieved 12 April 2015.
• "Dave Bass: NYC Sessions". jazzweekly.com. Retrieved 12 April 2015.
• "Listening Post: Dave Bass 'NYC Sessions'". www.buffaloNews.com. Retrieved 12 April 2015.