Dave Bass - Freelance Recordings


JAZZ & SOUL FREELANCE RECORDINGS Please enjoy some of the work I have done for other artists in my Recording Studio I am working to release my Original Material soon * WATCH YOUR VOLUME - Some of these tracks are dynamic * Copyright © Dave Bass; All Rights Reserved
SAXOPHONES Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Baritone Recorded on select horn, mouthpiece and microphone combinations to achieve various effects.
AUDIO	INSTRUMENTS	TEXTURE / COLOR / MOOD	DESCRIPTION
	Alto Sax	Aggressive, punchy, forward	"Next One to Cry" Grant Rosen, 2009 This is the edgy, screaming sound David Sanborn popularized in the 70's - still a staple of Rock & Pop today.
	Alto Sax	Warm, round, sweet	"Autumn in New York" Vernon Duke, 1934 Not a Freelance recording but something I did for myself. I place it here because it is the opposite of the edgy sound, above. This is a warm, round texture that works with jazz, acoustic music, theater and certain kinds of pop.
Sax Orig	Tenor Sax	Driving, Staccatto, Thin	"Who Can it Be Now" Men at Work, 1981 In 2012 I was hired by an 80's tribute band to recreate the riffs and solo from this famous 80's pop song. Their band performed live but used pre-recorded tracks to provide the sounds they couldn't make live (including saxophone). While doing research on the original saxophonist, Greg Ham, I realized I had the same vintage mouthpiece he did - as well as the mic he used on the track! So I strove to make it as close the the original recording as possible - including times he was a bit flat or layed behind the beat. The combination of thin reed and thin tone along with short, staccato phrases is very different from what I usually do. There are two tracks here - the first is solo sax (me), the second is the original. The original is slightly sharper and faster in tempo than the track this band created for me to record over. Enjoy!
	Sax Section: 2 Altos, Tenor & Bari w/ Flute fills, Horn Arrangement	Funky, Syncopathed, Punchy	"Travis Song" TV Broken, 3rd Eye Open I worked with this funky-rock-hippie band for a number of years, first as musical director then as a composer and performer. I love this kind of driving style.
	Sax Section: Soprano, 2 Altos, Tenor & Bari w/ 2 Flutes, Horn Arrangement	Funky, Sophisticated, Layered	"Technocrats" Mexico 68 When I first hit LA around 2008, I helped this Fela Kuti inspired band get started by writing charts and performing with them, mostly on bari. After a few years of copying Fela charts, the bandleader asked me to give him ideas for new directions. He brought over a musical loop by the band "Antibalis." In my studio I layered ideas over it, arranging the horns off the top of my head withno paper, each example getting more complex (please listen all the way to the end). When I was done, I leaned over the sax mic and blew a flute solo for kicks (even though it wasn't the proper way to record a flute). The band loved it - but I suspect my ideas were too "modern" for the bandleader who was a traditionalist. It is ashame the band eventually broke up. Bands are like marriages - and relationships are hard enough - imagine being married to 11 people!!!
	Sax Section: 2 Altos, 2 Tenors & Bari Sax	Thick, Textured, Weighty	"Sugarglass" Soft Targets Sometimes you need horns to simply provide texture and weight. Saxes do it like nothing else; not even an organ or vocal choir. They can pack an articulated punch or flow like water; be gritty like sandpaper or smooth like glass; swell their notes or stay even and level. The bandleader wrote the horn chart on this one.
	Bari Sax & Flute, Horn Arrangement, Guitar Fills	Bouncy, Light, Lyrical	"Kiss Those Chains" Jimmy Golding I loved this artist and his music and poured myself into arranging and recording a whole album of his for a year in my studio. I wrote and played the horn arrangements, played some of the guitar parts and recorded his vocals as well. When we were done recording the album, the mixing engineer called me and said "These tracks were recorded so well, I hardly had to do anything to them! They sat in the mix well." Unfortunately, the artist never released the album, for whatever reason. Chalk this up, along with the track I did for Leonard Cohen that still hasn't seen the light of day. Hollywood is a bitch.
	Bari Sax	Driving, Muscular, Angular	"Selam (peace)" Wudasse This Ethiopian jazz/rock/fusion group was formed in Atlanta in 2004; this comes off their album "Salem", recorded at the Five Spot in 2006. The tenor player is probably Jorga Mesfin. We start out weaving lines together before I launch into my bari solo. At this time I was just developing the kind of harmonic vocabulary to play over "free" music. After years of teaching theory and songwriting, my take on this today would probably be quite different. This was played on my old Zephyr bari; it was clunky as hell and rode sharp in the upper register but man, what a sound! But the Mk VI I have now trounces it, I believe.
	Bari Sax	Fluid, Driving, Sophisticated	"Confirmation" Miles Davis / Charlie Parker There is some contention as to whether Miles or Parker wrote this (I say Miles), but I'll leave this to the historians. More germaine to this post is the fact that I had been blessed with a vintage Mk VI bari with a low A just prior to this recording. It's a beast of a horn (I nicknamed her "Animal")! She takes some getting used to as she weighs in at nearly 20 pounds! This is a tune I know well on tenor (in a different key), hence my "creative interpretation" of the melody. Lol.
	Bari Sax	Sweet, Romantic, Warm	"Early Autumn" Ralph Burns, Woody Herman & Johnny Mercer This is the more lyrical, soft side of the baritone sax. I could never achieve this with my old Zephyr - it was balls-to-the-wall or nothing. But this French horn will coo in your ear if you ask it to. Gotta hand it to the French for their understanding of romance. This was combined with a specific ribbon mic to emphasize the warmer sound.
See link >	Bari Sax	Lyrical, Big, Warm	"Mack the Knife" Kurt Weill While we're in Bari land, I should probably throw in a link to a video made around 2006 with the Gainesville Big Band. This was on my old Zephyr, back when my coat was white and my hair was black. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nF-kukfOV6Q
	Soprano Sax	Lyrical, Sinewy, Piquant (C'mon, look it up)	"Aquela Abraco" Composed by Gilberto Gil, band is Rua 6 * WARNING: ADJUST YOUR VOLUME LEVEL * Sometime around 2000 I sat in with a Brazilian Band I really liked named "Rua 6," in honor of the 6th Street restaurant at which they played. I soon began working with them multiple times per week. The music was great, the dancers were beautiful and the food was delicious. I entered the band with a working knowledge of some Braziliam music - Jobim, Caymmi, Baden Powell and a few others. But they expanded my knowledge exponentially. I also got very good at a variety of hand percussion. Roberto, the electric guitarist with the band, and I struck up a friendship and played many gigs together in a separate band. He has an encyclopedic knowledge of Brazilian music. He used to laugh at me because I don't speak a word of Portuguese; to request a song I would hum it. The gigs with him started me on CD-buying rampage, discovering Elis Regina, Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso and many other great Brazilian musicians. I would jump at the chance to work with a good Brazilian outfit again. PS: This was recorded on my first Soprano Sax, a cheap instrument which went sharp upstairs and flat downstairs. But I played the HELL outta that horn. In 2020 I FINALLY got a decent soprano that plays in tune.
	Alto Sax	Sweet, Lyrical, Dreamy, Romantic	"Petals" The Lost Continentals Recorded in 1997. I always loved Amy Pike's voice. Here I evoke the style and sound of the 1930's Swing masters such as Johnny Hodges, Willie Smith and Benny Carter.
	Tenor Sax	Strong, Aggressive, Hard	"Footprints" Wayne Shorter * WATCH YOUR VOLUME LEVEL * This is the kind of "hard" tenor sound made famous by Pharoah Sanders, John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, etc. This was recorded on a (vintage) mouthpiece I had just received. I was amazed at the huge sound coming out and decided to see how much air could I blow through the horn before the mouthpiece "choked up" (i.e. stopped playing altogether)? This was that experiment, recorded on my cell phone.
	Tenor Sax	Fat, Warm, Wistful	"Body & Soul" Johnny Green, Edward Heyman, 1930 B&S is one of a handful of tunes so well written it is in its own category, a cut above the rest. From my youth I loved the Billie Holiday recording (I know every note of that Decca 2-album set by heart). I return to it often because it is so deep. As a contrast to the "hard" tenor sound above, this is the sound I aim for more often - warm, balanced and fat. I love the big Tenor sounds of Gene Ammons, Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, Dexter and others. To me, this is how a tenor saxophone should sound - and not like a screaming alto wandering around in the altissimo range. As trends go, I am currently in the minority on this opinion, lol.
	Tenor Sax	Fat, Thick, Creamy	"Take the A Train" Billy Strayhorn (Yes, written by Strayhorn, not Ellington) Another warm, fat tenor sound - this time on a vintage 60's King saxophone.


FLUTES I play both Western Flutes (Silver, transverse), and Native Flutes (bamboo, brass, clay) from around the World (Brazil, Africa, Ireland, Native American), etc.. My initial inspiration for playing flute was an album I used to check out of my little Public Library as a kid - "Buddy Collette and his Swinging Shepherds at the Cinema," with four great jazz flautists; Buddy, Paul Horn, Bud Shank and Harry Klee. From the moment I first heard those sounds I knew I wanted to make them - and I got my chance when I bought my first flute around 13 years old. Playing flute is hell when you're self-taught! I would huff and puff and go dizzy at first. Then I'd read and ask questions and experiment, over and over, until I got the hang of it. Over the years I have expanded my flute playing to include effects like humming and harmonizing as well as effect pedals. Many people come up to me after shows and say I must have learned these things listening to Jethro Tull. Nope. Roland Kirk. My childhood friend and fellow musician Eric South turned me on to Kirk in my late teens / early 20s - that's where I first heard these unusual flute techniques and fell in love with them. I didn't know Tull's music until much later. Unfortunately, it seems many modern "jazz" flautists use a lot of pyrotechnics in their playing. At first it sounds impressive, but when you listen closely, you realize it's just one gimmick after another, strung together. To me, it is more important to craft solid, lyrical, melodic phrases - on any instrument. The tricks come later. That's why I love the old masters; they understood melodic development. And that's why I've gone back to transcribe the solos from that old album; they are classic. DISCLAIMER: All of these recordings were done on my old, student / intermediate flute. I was recently blessed with a top-line, beautiful vintage, professional flute which I can't wait to record for you!
AUDIO	INSTRUMENTS	TEXTURE / COLO / MOOD	DESCRIPTION
	Flute, Hand Percussion	Light, Airy, Dancing	Track Unknown DJ Inaia In the early 2000's I formed a duet with a creative DJ in Atlanta, playing saxes, flutes and percussion. I am very picky about DJ music, but she had great tastes and we had a lot of fun on our gigs. After moving to LA in 2008, I and went searching for another DJ to collaborate with. Inaia was recommended to me. I downloaded one of her tracks, recorded flute and percussion to it, then sent it to her as an introduction. She loved it, but little did I know she had just moved to Miami and we never worked together.
	Flute, Guitar	Warm, Creamy, Mocha-latte (Is this how you spell it? I dunno; I don't drink the stuff)	Improv Dave Bass Sometimes it is nice to have new equipment around; it gives you another focal point which is useful for the artist to avoid the dreaded "looking in a mirror" syndrome which is the death of all true art. Here I am borrowing a mic from a dear friend. It's creamy, delicious voicing is just the thing for flute. It's my secret weapon and no, I won't tell you what it is. Well, for $500 bucks I'll tell you what it is (that way I can get my own). BTW I am also on guitar here and it is an excellent example of the hybrid picking style I modified from my father, who himself modified it from Chet Atkins. Thank you Chet. I wish I had your thumb. But then, I'm sure you wouldn't like that very much.
	Flute Composition	Sophisticated, Lyrical, Smooth	"Just Another Gig" Dave Bass I wrote this song during the 6th year of hammering out nearly 250 gigs a year with the Dave Bass Quartet. It was an exhilerating but exhausting schedule. On the way back from one particularly frustrating gig, inspiration struck (hence the title). It's a bit dark and has a bit of New Orleans in it. If you've ever been to N.O., you know the dark Gothic South is present everywhere, from the Spanish Moss to the old alleyway graveyards. We filmed this version for a cable show called "Jazz and Blues," created and filmed by Tom Carpenter. He did fabulous job on that show, filming all of it LIVE, no overdubs, three cameras in the room. Quite challenging. Dan Baraszu on guitar, Tim Delaney on bass, Keith Runfolla on drums, conjuring up subtle shades of New Orleans. While you're at it, check out Dan's fabulous solo work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixLbrAjMFik


ARRANGING (FULL BAND) I love crafting arrangements and the ability to play whatever need - guitar, piano, bass, drums, percussion, horns & vocals. I almost never rely on pre-made "in-the-box" tracks - I would much rather sit at a real instrument and let inspiration occur.
AUDIO	INSTRUMENTS	TEXTURE / COLO / MOOD	DESCRIPTION
Orig My Arr.	Guitar, Electric Bass, Drums, Arrangment, Songwriting	Sophisitcated, Groovy, Minor (dark)	"Soul Food" Artist unknown In the process of doing consultations and procuring equipment for studios, I sometimes run across clients who want me to track for them as well. One such client sent me this song. But it wasn't really a song yet - no chords, no background, just a voice and handclaps - in odd phrases that don't fit in standard 8's, no less. It inspired me so I took the first portion of the song and completed it, writing the chords then laying down guitar, bass and drums. I think it transformed it into something quite different. I guess he didn't like it because he said he wasn't going to use it and that's the last I heard from him. Unless he tries that LA trick of re-recording it and not giving credit in which case he'll be getting a terse letter from an attorney, lol.
	Bass, Drums, Saxes, Flutes, Percussion	Funky, Quirky, Hip-Hoppy	"Monday" Rau Rau (aka David Alexandrou) David is one of the quirkiest artists I have ever known. Believe it or not, that voice can sound spot on like Johnny Cash. His range is big, his creativity is enormous. Just don't invite him for dinner; he won't show. Until three days later. For a while there, he was writing songs for an alter-ego named "Rau Rau." Rau Rau was a hit with all the girls. He was an innovator. He was too cool for his own shoes. He even wrote a song called "Monday" to counter Rebecca Black's then-hit "Friday." But Rau Rau's "Monday" was a lot hipper. If memory serves correct, he laid down vocals while I played drums, then I went back and added bass, saxes, flutes & percussion. David Alexandrou - er, I mean Rau Rau - on vocals. And telephone.


VOICE Tenor; Lead and Background Jazz, Theater, Soul, Pop
AUDIO	INSTRUMENTS	TEXTURE / COLO / MOOD	DESCRIPTION
	Voice	Warm, loose, swinging	"Made for Each Other" - Robert Bass My dad composed this song when he was about 18. He wrote a number of other beautiful, lyrical songs in the "Tin Pan Alley" tradition, from which many of our most loved Popular and Jazz songs originated. I recorded this live to video (a difficult feat!) and am proud to say I nailed every instrument on nearly the first take! I started with guitar, then bass, then drums, then voice and finally the sax. The only overdub is last few notes of the sax ending. One small note, I apparently did not pronounce the word "parting" fully because one friend thought I sang "party". My bad. Perhaps I'll get around to fixing it one day; for now I'll let it live as a one-take wonder.
			Coming soon: some Pop and R&B vocals.