"Bass Master" Dave Anderson Interview
www.DaveAndersonBass.com
Interview by Roger Zee (03/26/21)
Roger Zee: Who inspired you to play bass? Do you sing or play any other instruments?
Dave Anderson: I first picked up a bass around 1977. Once I took it in my hands and started playing it, I began listening to the bassists in my favorite groups. But what inspired me to first pick it up came not from players, but rather circumstance. Going into high school, a friend who owned a bass decided he preferred playing guitar. Since he wanted to put a band together, it fell on me to fill the bass role. I played violin and trombone in the school band and orchestra. And the size and weight of the bass along with the thickness of the strings fascinated me, especially in comparison to the relatively tiny violin. Going into ninth grade, another element of happenstance came into play. The school placed me in an accelerated science program that conflicted with orchestra. That effectively ended my brief tenure as a classical-musician-in-training, leaving a gaping musical hole in my teenage life.
Once I got underway, I fell under the spell of the Hard Rock music that my classically-trained, music-teacher parents did such a good job of shielding me from! I felt electrified, literally and figuratively, by all the heavy guitar-based bands of the era: Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Aerosmith, Black Sabbath, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Jimi Hendrix, Yes, Rush, and others. A few of those bassists became formative influences that I still refer to today when I play -– notably John Paul Jones and Noel Redding. Past those early Rock years, I engrossed myself in all the top studio guys in NY and LA and dreamed of pointing myself in that direction.
I consider several teachers of mine in that period as primary inspiration, as much so as any of the well-known players I listened to. My parents insisted that I take private lessons if I wanted to pursue the bass.
My good luck began as a sophomore in high school with one of the best Jazz bassists in CT, Dave Santoro. He opened my ears to the world of heavy Jazz, beyond what I had already heard from my Dad’s record collection. He taught me the theoretical foundation that enabled me to skip the first tier of Berklee’s curriculum several years later. I still own the manuscript notebooks from Santoro’s lessons. In my first session, he taught me the major scale modes with accompanying chord/scale relationships and gave me a transcribed Oscar Pettiford walking line to play and memorize. Keep in mind that at that point, I played seriously for all of perhaps six months. He threw me in the deep end and I feel forever grateful.
Several years later, Berklee assigned me private instructor Greg Mooter. He gently pushed me in the right direction and made clear the path to mastery. He's a beautiful player with a lovely touch on fretless. I still hear echos of his playing when I pick that instrument up.
Last but not least, I should mention that before the bass came to me, I played violin, trombone, and before that, very briefly the clarinet. I owe my grounding in music and the awareness of what it took to perform as a high level musician to my parents who both performed professionally when I grew up. Music filled the house and I learned to practice, without a doubt, from sitting and listening to my parents do so for hours and hours.
And yes, I also sing. It's something I did in school and as a young adult, but it only made its way into my professional music life recently. And I play guitar as well, albeit with noticeable limitations!
Roger Zee: Talk about some of the musicians and groups you've worked with.
DA: At this point, I played professionally for close to forty years. So as you’d expect, there's a long list, more suited perhaps for a novella or serialized blog! But I’ll offer a few remembrances that, for various reasons, seem poignant or worth retelling -– or just funny!
At twenty-seven, I lived in South Norwalk, CT and took any and every gig to pay the bills. I doggedly practiced, studied music, taught, and recorded with my little primitive 4-track studio -– whatever it took to pursue my dream! One day, a famously foul-mouthed local drummer I knew, whose nickname I can’t repeat here, called and left a message. "Hey [unprintable], I got a gig tonight for you, me, and Joe Beck. We start at nine. See you there." Now Joe Beck's a legendary NY studio and Jazz guitarist. I started to hyperventilate a little, tried to calm myself down, and went to the gig a few hours later. We got through the first set and Beck pulled me aside. In his characteristically dry, dark way, he said, “Forget this clown," referring to the drummer. "I need you to play with me at the Syracuse Jazz Festival in two weeks."
Two weeks later, I’m in a Japanese restaurant in Syracuse with Beck and a great drummer, about to play for the first time, with no rehearsal -- and with some of Beck's studio buddies in attendance including Warren Bernhardt! By the way, I sight-read the whole gig. At the end of the set, Joe pulled up the last chart and gave me the quickest on-stage rehearsal I’ve ever done. Pointing to the three sections of the tune on the page, he explained, "Funk… pretty… metal!" That's his tune "Red Eye" in a nutshell, as he recorded it with Dave Sanborn, and I went on to play it with him many times thereafter. Beck became my first real recording artist gig and the one that lifted me out of the struggling lower echelons of local gigs to a career performing with artists that continues to this day.
One more tale... After that, we’re drinking and you’re buying! Years later, I went on to work with various artists, record records as a session musician, and play the first of several Broadway shows. My old friend, first-call NYC drummer, Clint DeGanon, mentioned to me that the bass chair might possibly open up on the Art Garfunkel gig, which he'd done for a while. The "in" on this, as often's the case, seemed amusing and improbable. Garfunkel didn’t work with a bass player, and hadn’t for some considerable time. He employed a utility keyboardist who played keyboard bass in addition to regular orchestration sounds. He had just vacated the chair, and the band, sensing an opening, corralled Art and petitioned for a real, live bassist.
Art consented to auditioning the idea, and I got the call. They gave me interesting direction. No bass “book,” that's a collection of parts to play. Instead, they handed me a recording of a recent performance with the caveat that I should not replicate any of the synthesized bass I heard. Additionally, I shouldn't recreate any of the iconic parts from the Simon & Garfunkel records. They asked me to come up with my own parts for everything and present it to Garfunkel for his approval -- or not! So they tasked me with inserting my own creativity into music for an artist who, along with the Beatles, Bob Dylan, and few others, helped define the 60’s Rock era.
So I went in, played it cool, and presented what I came up with. Garfunkel nodded appreciatively, offered a few suggestions, and that's it. I ended up touring with him for four years, stopping and bringing that era of his touring band to an end only because he developed a rare but serious vocal cord infection that sidelined him for several years.
RZ: Tell me more about your Broadway experience.
DA: I played "Hairspray" first as a sub, and then as a temporary replacement for the original bassist, who took a six month leave of absence. After that, I did the musical "Lennon" -- John, not Vladimir Ilyich! I enjoyed it. The band performed on stage behind the actors rather than sequestered in a pit hidden from view. But what an odd premise for a musical about one of the Beatles -- no Beatles music! It received terrible reviews and closed quickly. But we had fun going to San Francisco for the out-of-town run. I bought a wok in Chinatown there that I still use and love.
After that show concluded, I realized I would either stay in the ring and duke it out to get more pit work. And that would eclipse any other musical efforts. Or I’d set out for greener pastures elsewhere. A year later, I began juggling three touring artist gigs -- Art Garfunkel, Blood Sweat & Tears, and Bill Evans. So it all worked out.
RZ: What basses and amplifiers do you currently use?
DA: My beautiful Sadowsky bass serves as my primary instrument since 2003. Looking back over that time, I realize that with everything else I need to pay attention to, I never have to worry that my sound's not right or that it doesn’t fit perfectly into the recording or performing mix. It’s a dream to play and I feel forever grateful to Sadowsky and his great team. I do own a number of other more specialized instruments that I pull out as needed. I endorse NS Design basses and play one of Ned’s gorgeous electric, upright basses. It perfectly fills a niche for me as a primarily-electric player so that I can offer a sound that’s remarkably akin to a beautiful mic'd upright sound. I used it on a number of records.
I owned almost every major brand of amp over the years. They all sound good, really, in their own way. It’s just a matter of finding that special one that carries your voice into the room just as you hope for. My first choice for a long time remains Gallien-Krueger. Besides the sound, always tight and clear, they’re remarkably consistent. I can get one at a gig in Russia or Italy and know it will sound great, period –- exactly what I’m expecting! As for cabinets, my favorite for a while now's a fantastic Hartke HyDrive. It houses one 12" speaker and a horn and weighs only thirty pounds. I can use that cabinet for any gig and it sounds better than anything else I own. I’m so happy I stayed in the game long enough for technology to make it possible to work with a great sounding four pound head and a light speaker! It's surely a different world from when I started years ago.
RZ: What strings do you currently play?
DA: When married many years ago, my step-daughter would ask me a question and immediately follow it with the caveat, "And I need the one minute answer, not your usual half hour dissertation!" So here goes the long version...
I use the D'Addario nickel roundwound XL strings for all my electric basses except the NS upright. My Sadowsky and Music Man five strings use "light top/med bottom" 45/65/85/105/135, the same for my Modulus six string with a 32 for the C. I like using the same consistent gauges and types on all those basses because it minimizes one variable when going from one to the other in tone, feel, and output.
On my Tanglewood acoustic bass, I put the coated bronze strings. But it appears D’Addario's discontinuing that line and creating a new one. So I can't offer a specific designation.
On my fretless Jazz Bass, I use the XL nickels as above but at a medium gauge: 50/70/85/105. Because I’m not bending or vibrato-ing laterally, the action's low. There’s no need for a thinner string and I go for the most solid tone possible.
On my Chapman Stick®, I put Emmett’s Stick Enterprises regular heavy gauge strings made for the SB8 stick bass model I use. In fact, D’Addario makes them for him!
On my NS Design electric upright, I play the stock, light gauge steel flatwounds for the instrument. Also made for NS by D’Addario.
I used every good brand of string over the years on my many instruments. I also experimented with a wide range of gauges and set-ups to try and find the best results for each particular bass and my playing approach. I went through a period of putting very light Rotosounds, 35’s, on the Sadowsky with the relief set high to give the strings room to move without clanking on the frets. Will Lee took a look at my bass during that period and to paraphrase, said "What the *%#$ are you doing?!" I've gone back to a conventional set-up for many years since then. I also made a sea change some years ago from stainless roundwounds to nickel. I had convinced myself at some point early on that nickel sounded terrible and refused to use them. But I had to grab a last-minute set for a session once years ago and got stuck getting nickel. I felt certain I would sound terrible, possibly catastrophic. Much to my complete amazement, they sounded wonderful and solved some long-running sonic issues I grappled with for years. So I became a nickel guy that day and never looked back.
RZ: Hey, I use the same D'Addario strings you do on my electric basses! On another note, do you teach?
DA: I taught sporadically in the past. I worked as adjunct faculty at the University of Bridgeport many years ago and taught at my studio for years. It never became a primary source of income or big pie slice, as we would say. I enjoy it but think to really do it well, and correctly, it requires a commitment in priority that I could never offer what with my busy travel and session schedule.
RZ: How has the Pandemic affected you? What's on the horizon?
DA: To say that it’s the biggest upheaval in my career would make an understatement. I’m fortunate that I’ve done well enough along the way that I can batten down the hatches and maneuver this past year in survival mode without considering any drastic escape plans. I do recording session work here at my studio, "Flying Squirrel" -- a real lifesaver. I think I’ve played on six or so records this past year. The return to anything resembling a normal schedule of work will take place gradually. I hope that by the latter half of 2021, it will start to feel like it’s more behind us rather than in front, at least in that regard. Needless to say, the loss for all of us, personally, economically, and otherwise, we'll feel for a long time.
RZ: Where do you see the future of the music business?
DA: If I owned a crystal ball, I would survive in better shape than almost everyone else in the business! Wish I did. But I focus my perspective more narrowly on my own timeline. I started playing professionally almost forty years ago and came up in a business that only vaguely resembles today's. I managed to survive by staying flexible, adaptable, and turning my attention to wherever the next opportunities lie. The central issue for me remains how to stay in the game as long as I’d like to, before they put me out to pasture due to old age. In my line of work, the sober reality says that there's really no demand for seventy year-old hired gun musicians, no matter how good they still sound. And I’m twelve years away from that! You "pivot," to use the oft-heard Pandemic expression, and look for other ways to leverage your skill set. I grew accustomed to thinking on my feet my whole career and trusting my ability to land like a cat. So I don't feel overly worried.
RZ: What advice do you give up-and-coming musicians?
DA: I wrestle with this issue from time to time. Honestly, my most sober-minded advice would suggest they train and get a degree in finance or technology. Start a career there, and then enjoy playing on the side. That's unless during your college-aged years, they've already recognized you as a major new, musical force! I just don’t see how it’s possible for young people now to do what I did. I didn't play the best -– not even close. But the opportunities still existed for me to forge ahead and actually make a living at it without doing anything else. I don’t like to seem pessimistic, but I’m not sure how that can happen for someone just starting out now, circa 2021 and beyond.
I will add a more general, positive observation regarding the younger generation of players. Most
heartening to see that the very male-dominated field when I started out now looks far more equitably distributed. Young women now come up in a world where there’s nothing unusual or suspect about them staking their claim in all genres of music. As a kid at Berklee forty years ago, the only women I saw sang or played the flute. It makes me happy to observe young ladies blazing in the rhythm and horn sections, not just up front with a mic. Certainly a few trailblazers all along. But they sure fought a bigger, uphill battle.
RZ: Do you live with any animals?
DA: I sure do! My kitties, Boo-Boo and Twinkles, belong to an exotic breed called Snow Bobs. They’re part-feral -- a hybrid of bobcat and domestic Snowshoe and Siamese breeds. My pals live with me up here in the woods for almost ten years. In a stroke of luck, I got them after the divorce because my ex-wife’s new boyfriend suffered a deathly allergy to cats. I wouldn’t have known unless the girl I then dated, a vet tech where we took the animals, told me my ex looked to "re-home" them. So they ended up coming back to me. Pretty funny how life works sometimes.
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