Dave-Blog 2019/3: breaking out of comfort zones

A week ago the concert series “7 Days – 7 Guests” opened in Schleswig, where saxophonist Richard Wester invited one instrumental guest per night to improvise a concert with .

I was the first guest on the opening night at the sold-out St. John Monastery and opened with a ten-minute bass-solo. I am not very fond of bass-solos myself and so I had to come up with something.

I decided to tell a story, like in a film score, of a day in New York City. I was inspired by my girlfriend, the great photographer Daniela Möllenhoff, who will exhibit her art in Manhattan this spring. I played the sounds of lying in bed and hearing the noise from the cars in the morning, the alarm-clock, going down-town, enjoying a groovy day and night, before we would fall into the hotel-bed again.

Time to make good use of my effect-pedals. I used a Micro POG to transpose my bass up one octave so it would sound rather like a guitar, a BOSS Dynamic Wah, my EBS Multi-Comp compressor, a Demeter Fat Control which outlines the mid-frequencies – which gives my bass more presence and helps to control my low frequencies, my BOSS Reverb with an expression pedal that I used to fade in and out the deep reverb, and finally my DITTO Looper that I used to record chords, then pretend to play something like a horn-section and play it all back to play a melody and a solo on top off. Everything was linked by my beloved Klotz-cables.

After my solo, we improvised for about 45 minutes – with the only preconceived idea of the key: D minor. That was fun and opened up ears and minds.

Really a great concert series – which certainly is not for everyone. I was happy about the sold-out venue and the standing ovations. Thanks for having me!

photo: Joachim Pohl
photo: Lisa Ohm