Dave Bass to Release His Latest Trio Album

Cover design for the album being discussed (courtesy of Mouthpiece Music)

This coming Friday jazz pianist Dave Bass will release the third installment in a series of albums entitled simply The Trio. The other members of his trio are Kerry Kashiwagi on bass and Scott Gordon on drums, with guitarist Barry Finnerty making “special guest” appearances on three of the tracks. As of this writing, the album will only be released through digital download; and Amazon.com has already created a Web page to process pre-orders.

I first became aware of Bass in August of 2019, when Whaling City Sound released his No Boundaries recording. This was his third album and the last one before he began his series of The Trio releases. No Boundaries was also basically a trio album but with Carlos Henriquez on bass and Jerome Jennings on drums. However, there were more “guest” appearances than those found on the new album. I had been drawn to it because its opening track was “Lennie’s Pennies,” a composition by Lennie Tristano that definitely deserves “classic” status.

The “jazz hero” on the new release is Thelonious Monk, represented on two tracks by “Criss Cross” and “Played Twice,” respectively. The other “hero” on the album is Astor Piazzolla, whose “Libertango” is given a thoroughly engaging account. Bass himself is represented by three tracks, one of which is “Agenbite of Inwit.” That composition had previously occupied the third track of No Boundaries, and it prompted me to take my own riff on James Joyce’s Ulysses when I discussed that earlier album.

After listening to Bass’ latest release, I decided to browse the track listings of the first two volumes. What struck me was his blend of music from “masters of the past” (such as Tristano) with his own inventions. Given the current length of my queue of albums to be discussed, I may wait a bit before turning my attention to those earlier volumes; but listening to the most recent one has definitely piqued my attention.