“WHEN I RE-ENTERED THE WORLD OF MUSIC, MY LEGAL CAREER HAD BEEN GOING FOR OVER 20 YEARS AND I WAS A DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL. FOR THE FIRST FEW YEARS THAT I WAS BACK INTO MUSIC, I KEPT IT PRETTY QUIET AROUND THE OFFICE. LITTLE BY LITTLE, I BEGAN TO LET THE CAT OUT OF THE BAG.

ONCE I RECEIVED THE FOLLOWING LETTER FROM MY BOSS, KAMALA HARRIS, ALL BETS WERE OFF…”

Interview with Kabir Sehgal

“Pianist Bass gave up the music business in the mid-1980s due to a bad wrist break and only returned to his first love in recent years after a stint as Assistant Attorney General in the office of the Attorney General of California. From the evidence on No Boundaries, his third CD, he can only be welcomed back into the jazz fold with open arms.

The pianist clearly has a penchant for Latin-flavoured fare, for close to half the tunes fit into that genre with a number of Bass’s own compositions coming from that direction, hence we have a three-man percussion unit who replace the kit drummer on a trio of numbers.

Alongside the leader, reedman Nash, he of the Lincoln Centre Jazz Orchestra, is highly impressive over a well-paced set, his flute playing being of the highly dexterous kind, his alto being seductive one moment and heading into wailing territory the next. When he turns to clarinet on Neither Have I Wings and In The Rain, his elegant stance is a joy to the ears.

The leader takes a bold approach to the keyboard, there being a clarity of purpose about his agenda, not wasting a note but still expansive enough to keep the listener engaged. How fitting that the final selection, Bud Powell’s Hallucinations, should find him in a trio setting, effectively negotiating a tune originally recorded around the time of his birth.

This is a release which at the very least, deserves to be dipped into, for it has some very worthy qualities which grow larger over subsequent listening.

-Peter Gamble from Jazz Journal
November 2019
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DOWNBEAT SAYS:  …TED NASH ALSO CONTRIBUTES MIGHTILY TO DAVE BASS’ NO BOUNDARIES, THE THIRD COLLECTION FROM THE SACRAMENTO PIANIST SINCE HE REVIVED HIS MUSIC CAREER IN 2005.  NOW RETIRED FROM HIS POST AS DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL OF CALIFORNIA, BASS IS AGAIN FOCUSING ON MUSIC FULL TIME.  

A HIGHLY EFFECTIVE BEBOP PLAYER, WHO ALSO HAS A WAY WITH AFRO-CUBAN RHYTHMS, BASS PROVES HIS METTLE IN COLLABORATION WITH NASH, WHO COPRODUCED AND HAS A FIELD DAY, PLAYING NO LESS THAN SEVEN WOODWINDS.  THE ALBUM’S BOOKENDED BY BASS’ ARRANGEMENTS OF LENNIE TRISTANO AND BUD POWELL TUNES, DISPLAYING WIT, ARRANGING CHOPS, AND IMPRESSIVE PIANISM.  EIGHT ORIGINALS ARE WELL-PLAYED, BUT THE SOLOS TEND TO BE MORE MEMORABLE THAN THE TUNES.  THE UNUSUAL MIX OF BEBOP AND AFRO-CUBAN MUSIC — INCLUDING DELIGHTFUL VERSIONS OF CLASSICS “LA MULATA RUMBERA” AND “SIBONEY” — ARE COMPLEMENTED BY THREE EXPERT CUBAN PERCUSSIONISTS, OFTEN MAKING THE ALBUM SURPRISING AND INVIGORATING.

-DownBeat/Allen Morrison
November 2019

ALLABOUTJAZZ SAYS:  DAVE BASS RETIRED FROM THE OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF CALIFORNIA AFTER TWENTY YEARS OF SERVICE AND RETURNED TO HIS FIRST PROFESSIONAL LOVE—PLAYING THE PIANO, A CAREER THAT A WRIST INJURY FORCED HIM TO ABANDON ABOUT THIRTY YEARS AGO. NO BOUNDARIES IS THE THIRD RELEASE, AND SECOND FOR WHALING CITY SOUND, IN BASS’ COMEBACK. “MY FIRST TWO CDS WERE RECORDED WHILE I WAS STILL WORKING AS A LAWYER, DURING WHATEVER VACATION TIME I COULD AMASS,” HE EXPLAINS.

BASS SEEMS INTENT ON PROVING THE TITLE OF NO BOUNDARIES BY OPENING AND CLOSING IT WITH TUNES BY TWO OF MODERN MUSIC’S MOST CHALLENGING PIANISTS. “TO MY MIND, LENNIE TRISTANO AND BUD POWELL ARE CONNECTED, WHICH IS WHY I BEGIN AND END WITH THEIR COMPOSITIONS,” THE PIANIST EXPLAINS. “JUST THE LINEAR APPROACH IN THE HEADS SHOW HOW THEY SPENT A LOT OF TIME PLAYING CLASSICAL REPERTOIRE, THEN WENT THEIR OWN WAY.” THE ODDLY SHAPED MELODY OF “LENNIE’S PENNIES,” WHICH BASS HAS BEEN PLAYING SINCE THE 1970S, ILLUMINATES THE COLORFUL RHYTHMIC AND HARMONIC CONNECTIONS BETWEEN HIS PIANO, CARLOS HENRIQUEZ‘S BASS AND JEROME JENNINGS‘ DRUMS. AND 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.

THREE TRACKS THAT SWAP JENNINGS OUT FOR PERCUSSIONISTS CARLOS CARO, MAURICIO HERRERA AND MIGUEL VALDES PULL NO BOUNDARIES INTO LATIN JAZZ, BUT IT’S NO STRETCH. “ALL THREE ARE FROM CUBA,” BASS SAYS, “AND THEIR RHYTHM IS SO STRONG THAT YOU CAN PLAY ANYTHING ON TOP OF THEM.” IN “SIBONEY” AND ESPECIALLY “LA MULATA RUMBERA,” BASS ILLUSTRATES PRECISELY THAT, DRIVING HIS PIANO THROUGH 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.

BASS JUST KEEPS PUSHING (STYLISTIC) WALLS DOWN: A CINEMATIC MOODY BROODING WITH SAXOPHONIST TED NASH TITLED “SPY MOVIE END CREDITS” BECAUSE IT “JUST SOUNDED THAT WAY”; CHANNELING BOP PIANIST ELMO HOPE THROUGH THE THICK, KNOTTY JAMES JOYCE NOD “AGENBITE OF INWIT”; AND A GORGEOUS “IF I LOVED YOU” THAT SHOWCASES KARRIN ALLYSON‘S SIMPLY BREATHTAKING VOCAL FROM THE RODGERS/HAMMERSTEIN SONGBOOK.

MULTI-INSTRUMENTALIST NASH CONTRIBUTES SAXOPHONES, CLARINETS, AND FLUTES, AND CO-PRODUCED NO BOUNDARIES WITH BASS. “I DON’T GENERALLY PRODUCE OTHER PEOPLE’S RECORDS, BUT I REALLY THINK THAT DAVE IS AN EVOCATIVE COMPOSER AND I BELIEVE IN HIS VISION,” SUGGESTS NASH. “I LOVE HIS PASSION. HE HAS THE ENTHUSIASM OF A COLLEGE STUDENT, PLUS MATURITY, AND HE’S HEARING VERY PERSONAL SOUNDS.”

-Chris M. Slawecki / All About Jazz
11/23/19

“DOWLATIN JAZZ NETWORK SAYS:  THE TITLE – AND MUSIC – SUGGESTS THERE ARE NO BOUNDARIES BETWEEN JAZZ STYLES OF MUSIC AND LATIN ONES. ON THE MUSIC OF NO BOUNDARIES THE EMINENT PIANIST DAVE BASS NAVIGATES THE WORLDS OF MUSICAL STYLES – FROM SWING TO BEBOP AND DANZÓN TO TANGO – MOVING EASILY BETWEEN THEM AND OFTEN BLURRING THE VERY LINES THAT SOME WOULD SUGGEST SEPARATE THEM.

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.

AS WE EXPECT FROM MR BASS, EVERYTHING SOUNDS NATURAL AND INEVITABLE. EGO DOESN’T COME INTO IT: RATHER HE ACTS AS A CONDUIT BETWEEN MUSIC AND LISTENER WITH A PURITY THAT FEW CAN EMULATE (I AM PUT IN MIND OF DANILO PÉREZ). AH YES, ‘INTELLECTUAL’ PIANISTS, I HEAR SOMEONE SAY. BUT TO DESCRIBE THESE FIGURES AS MERELY ‘INTELLECTUAL’ COULD BE TO MISS THE WHOLE HUMANITY OF THEIR PLAYING. 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.

MR BASS’ RESTRAINED ORNAMENTATION COULD FILL A REVIEW ON ITS OWN. BUT AS IN THE CASE OF THIS RECORDING, HE HAS GRACIOUSLY MADE ALL OF THE MUSIC A COMMUNITY AFFAIR. AND WHAT A SPLENDID GROUP OF ARTISTS HAVE COME TOGETHER TO FORM THE GROUP. TED NASH TURNS IN EXTRAORDINARY PERFORMANCES ON A BATTERY OF INSTRUMENTS AND IS MONUMENTAL IN EVERYTHING HE DOES, HELPING TO SHAPE THE OVERALL SOUND AS CO-PRODUCER AS WELL. BUT THE CORE GROUP ALSO FEATURES THE REST OF THE YOUNG RHYTHM SECTION IN THE FORM OF BASSIST CARLOS HENRIQUEZ, WHO PLAYS WITH MESMERISING EFFECT, AND DRUMMER JEROME JENNINGS, WHO IS BRIGHT AND SPRINGY, FULL OF ENERGY WITHOUT FRENETICISM, AND BRINGS A PALPABLE JOY TO EVERY THUMP AND SIZZLE OF DRUM AND CYMBAL. THE SILKEN-VOICED KARRIN ALLYSON GRACES TWO TRACKS. LATIN PERCUSSION COLOURING IS BROUGHT TO THE DATE BY MAURICIO HERRERA, CARLOS CARO AND MIGUEL VALDÉS – MASTERS OF THEIR CRAFT TO A MAN.

BUT MAKE NO MISTAKE; THIS IS DAVE BASS’ DISC. AND HIS MUSICIANSHIP TWINKLES WITH AN EASY PLAYFULNESS, AND – WHEN THE MUSIC DEMANDS – A TINGE OF APPROPRIATE GRAVITY. MELODIC LINES ARE LOFTY AND HARMONIES GRAND AND DOTTED RHYTHMS RENDERED WITH SUCH POETRY THAT EVERYTHING ECHOES WITH A SENSE OF UTTER JOY. I’VE ONLY HAD THIS RECORDING FOR A SHORT TIME. BUT I PREDICT A LONG AND HAPPY FUTURE IN ITS COMPANY.”

-Raul Da Gama/Latin Jazz Network
9/13/19

O’S PLACE JAZZ NEWSLETTER SAYS:  PIANIST DAVE BASS WAS A PROMINENT FIGURE IN THE BAY AREA JAZZ SCENE BEFORE FRACTURING HIS WRIST IN THE MID-1980S. HE SHIFTED GEARS AND BECAME A LAWYER AND ULTIMATELY DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR CA! AFTER 20 YEARS BASS RETURNED TO MUSIC AND RELEASED TWO SUCCESSFUL ALBUMS WHILE STILL PRACTICING LAW. NOW HE IS 100% FOCUSED ON MUSIC AND LEADS A STRONG BAND INCLUDING TED NASH (FL, CL, SAX), CARLOS HERNANDEZ (B) AND JEROME JENNINGS (D) FOR NO BOUNDARIES, HIS THIRD ALBUM AS A LEADER. KARIN ALLYSON ADDS SWEET LYRICS ON TWO SELECTIONS NOTABLY “TIME OF MY LIFE”. WE ENJOYED THE TASTY LATIN VIBES ON “LA MULATA RUMBERA” AND “SIBONEY” COURTESY OF CARLOS CARO (PERC), MIGUEL VALDES (CONGA) AND MAURICIO HERRERA (TIMBALES). WE ALSO LIKED “NEITHER HAVE I WINGS” AND “SWING THEORY”. DAVE BASS IS A CLEAR WINNER IN WHATEVER HE SETS HIS MIND TO!  RATING:  87/100

“MIDWEST RECORD SAYS:  IT’S ALWAYS NICE TO SEE A LAWYER TURN HIS BACK ON THE SCALES AND GET BACK TO THE REAL SCALES, ESPECIALLY SINCE THEY WERE ONCE A JAZZBO PIANO MAN IN THE FIRST PLACE. SURROUNDING HIMSELF WITH GRAMMY WINNERS AND NOMINEES, THE SWINGING IMPROV MAN LETS FLY ON A PROGRAM OF MOSTLY ORIGINALS THAT HARKEN BACK TO THE REAL MUSIC DAYS. EASILY THE KIND OF STUFF THAT WOULD MAKE YOU PAY THE BABYSITTER EXTRA TO LET YOU STAY OUT LATER ON A SCHOOL NIGHT, THIS IS A FINE EXAMPLE OF HOW IT’S DONE. HOT STUFF WITH EVERYONE ON BOARD IN TOP FLIGHT.

-Chris Spector/Midwest Record
July 19, 2019

CAPRADIO’S GARY VERCELLI SAYS: “SACRAMENTO’S OWN 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.” 

-CapRadio, NPR, Gary Vercelli

CDR. DEBRA JAN BIBEL WRITES:  DAVE BASS CONTINUES HIS RETURN TO MUSIC WITH AN EXCELLENT ALBUM OF ORIGINAL TUNES AND SEVERAL LESSER KNOWN AMERICAN AND LATIN STANDARDS. IN THE 1970S AND 1980S, THIS PIANIST AND COMPOSER BEGAN AUSPICIOUSLY AS A STUDENT OF THIRD STREAM PIONEER GEORGE RUSSELL AND WORKING WITH BABATUNDE LEA AND BOBBY MCFERRIN. HE HAD LONG-TERM GIGS IN LATIN JAZZ IN SAN FRANCISCO, HAWAI’I, AND SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA UNTIL HE FRACTURED HIS WRIST AND WAS FORCED TO LEAVE MUSICAL PERFORMANCE. LAW WAS HIS NEW CAREER, ONE IN WHICH HE EXCELLED, EVENTUALLY ADVANCING TO DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL OF CALIFORNIA. BY 2008 HIS WRIST MENDED AND BASS DECIDED IT WAS TIME TO RETURN TO MUSIC, SOON ISSUING TWO WELL-REGARDED ALBUMS. HE RETIRED FROM LAW IN 2015 AT AGE 65.

THIS LATEST ADVENTURE WAS CO-PRODUCED BY REED ARTIST TED NASH, WHO PERFORMS BRILLIANTLY WITH OTHER ESTEEMED MUSICIANS: CARLOS HENRIQUEZ, BASS [WHO WITH NASH IS PART OF THE LINCOLN CENTER JAZZ ORCHESTRA]; JEROME JENNINGS, DRUMS; AND LATIN PERCUSSIONISTS CARLOS CARO, MIGUEL VALDES, AND MAURICIO HERNANDEZ. VOCALIST KARRIN ALLYSON IS HEARD ON TWO WARM AND HAPPY TRACKS. OPENING WITH LENNIE’S PENNIES, BY LENNIE TRISTANO, NASH IMPRESSES WITH HIS LIVELY FLUTE AGAINST THE SPUNKY DRUMWORK OF JENNINGS AND THE HOT KEYS OF BASS. THE LYRICISM OF THE AMUSINGLY TITLED SPY MOVIE END CREDITS DEVELOPS WITH LATIN FLAVORED BONGO AND BASS BOWING. THE PIECE, AGENBITE OF INWIT, IS FROM THE MIDDLE ENGLISH KENT DIALECT MEANING “AGAIN-BITING OF INNER WIT,” USED BY JAMES JOYCE IN ULYSSES. HERE, THE DRIVING GROOVE OF PIANO AND SAXOPHONE LEADS TO THE SWEET TUNE OF RODGERS & HAMMERSTEIN, IF I LOVE YOU, RENDERED SOUTH OF THE BORDER WITH BONGOS. CUBAN HEAT ARRIVES WITH LA MULATA RUMBERA (WITH A QUOTE FROM DE FALLA’S EL AMOR BRUJO), SIBONEY, AND THE SEEMINGLY FAMILIAR BUT ACTUAL BASS ORIGINAL DANZON #1 AND THE RHYTHMS OF CONGA, BATA, TIMBALES, BELL, GUIRO, AND MARACAS. ARGENTINA IS REPRESENTED BY TANGO ADAGIO, A BASS ORIGINAL. SWING THEORY IS ‘BACK IN THE USA’ WITH SPIRITED, COMPLEX WRITING THAT UPDATES THE JAZZ STYLE. THE ALBUM CONCLUDES WITH BUD POWELL’S BOUNCY HALLUCINATIONS.

WITH LOVELY, CONFIDENT ARRANGEMENTS AND GENTLE DANCING BEATS, THE WELL-BALANCED ALBUM PROVIDES 73 GENEROUS MINUTES OF JOY. THE FORMER ATTORNEY HAS MADE A WINNING CASE. NO BOUNDARIES IS BEAUTIFULLY CRAFTED IN PERFORMANCE AND AUDIO ENGINEERING AND IS THOROUGHLY SATISFYING.

JAZZ JOURNAL UK WRITES:

PIANIST BASS GAVE UP THE MUSIC BUSINESS IN THE MID-1980S DUE TO A BAD WRIST BREAK AND ONLY RETURNED TO HIS FIRST LOVE IN RECENT YEARS AFTER A STINT AS ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL IN THE OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF CALIFORNIA. FROM THE EVIDENCE ON NO BOUNDARIES, HIS THIRD CD, HE CAN ONLY BE WELCOMED BACK INTO THE JAZZ FOLD WITH OPEN ARMS.

THE PIANIST CLEARLY HAS A PENCHANT FOR LATIN-FLAVOURED FARE, FOR CLOSE TO HALF THE TUNES FIT INTO THAT GENRE WITH A NUMBER OF BASS’S OWN COMPOSITIONS COMING FROM THAT DIRECTION, HENCE WE HAVE A THREE-MAN PERCUSSION UNIT WHO REPLACE THE KIT DRUMMER ON A TRIO OF NUMBERS.

THE LEADER TAKES A BOLD APPROACH TO THE KEYBOARD, THERE BEING A CLARITY OF PURPOSE ABOUT HIS AGENDA, NOT WASTING A NOTE BUT STILL EXPANSIVE ENOUGH TO KEEP THE LISTENER ENGAGED. HOW FITTING THAT THE FINAL SELECTION, BUD POWELL’S HALLUCINATIONS, SHOULD FIND HIM IN A TRIO SETTING, EFFECTIVELY NEGOTIATING A TUNE ORIGINALLY RECORDED AROUND THE TIME OF HIS BIRTH.

THIS IS A RELEASE WHICH AT THE VERY LEAST, DESERVES TO BE DIPPED INTO, FOR IT HAS SOME VERY WORTHY QUALITIES WHICH GROW LARGER OVER SUBSEQUENT LISTENING.

-Peter Gamble