Dave Bass
Pianist, composer and lyricist, Dave Bass, is a great American success story that reads like a riveting bio-pic script. This Cincinnati kid began piano lessons at age seven, and shortly after graduating high school, played in bands that opened for Captain Beefheart and Alice Cooper. He was soon accepted into Boston’s Berklee College of Music, leaving after just a few months to study piano with the legendary Madame Margaret Chaloff. Madame schooled him and other young, immensely talented jazz artists as Keith Jarrett, Leonard Bernstein, Steve Kuhn and Kenny Werner, who understood the importance of developing a signature sound and style. Chaloff taught in the “Russian Technique” – a unique tool for tone production and musical articulation. A typical lesson might not go beyond using a “weightless wrist” to correctly play a single note. While in Boston, he also studied composition with George Russell and Avram David, again formed his own band, worked a variety of commercial gigs, serendipitously landing a great stint as Brenda Lee’s pianist, leaving Boston behind for multiple tours of Japan, Singapore and Malaysia.
During the ’70s and early ’80s, now living in the Bay Area, Dave supported his growing family as a full time musician. Immersed in the vibrant San Francisco jazz and Latin music scene, he led his own group playing often with friends Bobby McFerrin, drummer Babatunde Lea, jazz vocalist Jackie Ryan and others at the legendary Keystone Korner and other well known venues on the scene. In 1981, Jackie Ryan invited Dave to play a jazz gig with her in Maui, which led to his becoming Entertainment Director at the Royal Lahaina Hotel.
In the mid-80s, after a random slip and fall on the way to a gig caused a seriously damaging wrist fracture, doctors did not offer a promising prognosis for him to ever play piano again. With his beloved music career no longer an option, and with a wife and young daughter to support, Dave enrolled at the University of California, Irvine, graduating Phi Beta Kappa and Summa Cum Laude. He moved on to UCLA School of Law becoming an Editor of the UCLA Law Review and began his legal career in 1992 with a prestigious commercial firm, Pillsbury Madison & Sutro, now called Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman. In 1996 Dave accepted a position as a Deputy Attorney General with the California Office of the Attorney General, where he eventually joined the Civil Rights Enforcement, where he was honored with the 2009 Attorney General’s Award for Outstanding Achievement.
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Album Review
- No Boundaries by Rob Rosenblum
- No Boundaries by Chris M. Slawecki
Radio & Podcasts
Album Review
- NYC Sessions by Dan Bilawsky
- Gone by Bruce Lindsay
- Gone by Edward Blanco
April 27, 2022
Dave Bass' New Album, 'The Trio Vol. 2,' Will Be Released On June 17
November 01, 2021
All About Jazz Top 10 Tracks: October 2021
October 01, 2021
All About Jazz Top 10 Tracks: September 2021
May 17, 2021
'The Trio, Vol. 1' Is The Unique And Captivating New Release By...
August 30, 2019
Dave Bass Hits #15 Jazz Week - All-Star Band with Ted Nash, Karrin...
August 07, 2019
Pianist Dave Bass Busy In California - New CD No Boundaries Climbing...
June 19, 2019
Pianist, Composer, Arranger Dave Bass Releases No Boundaries,...
September 22, 2015
Dave Bass Says: Go Inside And Outside
June 21, 2011
Dave Bass TV appearance; NPR interview; Sacramento Bee article; 6/26...
September 02, 2010
Dave Bass Quartet Featuring Ernie Watts, Babatunde Lea, Mary Stallings,...
“Head’s up for a too cool alert. A piano man gives it up to go practice law. Ho hum? Not here, this cat broke his wrist and had a family to support. What happens when the kids grow up and you find your chops are coming back? You head east to tear it up with Phil Woods, Karrin Allyson and other luminaries for a date that just shines with all that light pouring through it. A wonderfully swinging date that feels just like the old school dates that lit up your jazzbo lights in the first place. A killer, unexpected set that comes in from left field with all deliberate speed. Hot stuff." —Chris Spector, Midwest Record
Photos
Album Discography
Baltic Bolero
From: The Trio Vol. 2By Dave Bass
Un Poco Loco
From: The Trio Vol. 1By Dave Bass