Track
- Legrand/Lester Left Town
- Heart Above My Head
- Frevo
- Melquíades
- Latin Journey
- Questions
- Trinkle Twinkle
- Fools Rush In
- Dance Of The Infidels
- Journey With Bach
- Lennie’s Pennies
Performers
Dave Bass – piano
Tyler Miles – double bass
Steve Helfand – drums
Record label: Dave Bass Music and Tiger Turn
Release date: May 2, 2025
The pianist, composer, and lyricist from Cincinnati, Dave Bass, began taking piano lessons at the age of seven and, after high school, played in bands that opened for Captain Beefheart and Alice Cooper. He then attended Berklee College of Music in Boston but chose to continue his private studies with Margaret Chaloff. She taught him the Russian technique. Bass later founded his own band and performed as a pianist with Brenda Lee. During the seventies and eighties, he lived in the San Francisco Bay Area, dedicating himself full-time to music. In the mid-80s, he suffered a fall and fractured his wrist. Doctors told him he would probably never play piano again. Bass went to college and later to UCLA Law School. In 1992, he began his legal career at a prestigious law firm and, in 1996, accepted the position of Deputy Attorney General in the California Attorney General’s Office. In 2005, while still Deputy Attorney General, he was invited one night to play an improvised piano solo during a private party while the band was on break, and he found that he had recovered. By 2015, he had acquired enough skill to retire from the legal profession and fully dedicate himself to his musical career.
In 2010, he released his first album “Gone” (Mary Stallings, Ernie Watts); in 2015, “NYC Sessions” (Phil Woods, Karrin Allyson, Harvie S, Ignacio Berroa, Conrad Herwig and others); in 2019, “No Boundaries” (Ted Nash, Karrin Allyson, Carlos Henríquez, Jerome Jennings, Carlos Caro, Mauricio Herrera, Miguel Valdez); in 2021, “The Trio Vol. 1” (Kerry Kashiwagi, Scott Gordon); in 2022, “The Trio Vol. 2” (Kerry Kashiwagi, Scott Gordon); and in 2023, “The Trio Vol. 3” (Kerry Kashiwagi, Scott Gordon).
In his first three recordings, Bass surrounded himself with some of the biggest names in jazz, such as Phil Woods, Conrad Herwig, Ernie Watts, Karrin Allyson, Mary Stallings, and Ted Nash. In the last three, he opted for the trio format, where he was accompanied by Kerry Kashiwagi on double bass and Scott Gordon on drums. The three have played many trio concerts, which has helped them become intimately familiar with one another.
Bass says: “I believe playing in a trio is one of the most challenging situations for a musician. There’s nowhere to hide. You have to play at the highest level. But it’s also very rewarding, because you can really develop a kind of telepathy with the other musicians, especially if you’ve been playing together for a while. Tyler, Steve, and I have shared many concerts over the past year, and our playing has become even tighter. There is now almost a telepathic connection between us.”
“Trio Nuevo, Vol. 2” is Bass’s eighth project as a bandleader and follows his 2023 release, “Trio Nuevo” (see review in La Habitación del Jazz). This time it features no vocalists, tackling styles that range from bebop, Latin music, and classical to Bach, in a series of original pieces and standards. As in “Trio Nuevo,” he is joined by bassist Tyler Miles and drummer Steve Hefland.
The album opens with the nimble “Legrand/Lester Left Town,” a blend of his original piece “Legrand” and Wayne Shorter’s tribute to Lester Young, “Lester Left Town.” Bass had previously recorded “Legrand” on his debut album with Ernie Watts. His desire to record it in trio format is realized on this album.
Next comes the beautiful and relaxing ballad “Heart Above My Head,” whose title comes from the lyrics of the 1940 song by Johnny Mercer and Rube Bloom, “Fools Rush In,” which he covers in track eight of the album, applying a samba rhythm.
The lively “Frevo” is a composition by Brazilian musician Egberto Gismonti.
Bass read “One Hundred Years of Solitude” by Gabriel García Márquez in the 1970s when it was first published. After rereading it recently, Bass was inspired to record his Latin-influenced piece “Melquíades,” named after a character in the book, a mysterious traveling gypsy. A piece clearly inspired by Latin music, a musical style that Bass says is in his DNA—and he certainly proves it in “Latin Journey,” a piece based on fragments from “Asturias” by Spanish composer Isaac Albéniz, “La Comparsa” by fellow Spanish composer Ernesto Lecuona, and his own “Mi Montuno.”
After the overflowing joy of “Latin Journey” comes the relaxed and lovely “Questions.”
Next is “Trinkle Tinkle” by Thelonious Monk, with arrangements based on Monk’s 1954 trio album.
Bass is a great admirer of Bud Powell and has recorded his compositions on other albums. Here he includes “Dance of the Infidels,” a blues with unusual chords, creating unexpected textures.
The connection between Johann Sebastian Bach and jazz is an interesting subject of study. In “Journey With Bach,” Bass fuses fragments of Bach’s “Toccata and Fugue in D Minor” and “Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue,” which give way to improvisation.
The album closes with “Lennie’s Pennies” by Lennie Tristano, a song that Tristano based on “Pennies from Heaven.” Bass first recorded it with flutist Ted Nash, but wanted to approach it in a trio format.
Dave Bass is one of the most interesting pianists on today’s scene. He is a true jazz musician, capable of conveying a wide range of emotions. Bass likes to quote the legendary Spanish cellist, Pablo Casals, who, when asked why he kept practicing at age 90, replied: “Because I think I’m making progress.” Though far from that age, Bass possesses a high level of maturity as a performer, composer, and arranger, but paraphrasing Casals, he “keeps progressing.”
La Habitación del Jazz