(Translated from my original Italian text by ChatGPT and Piero Scaruffi)

The double bass of Rob Wasserman is one of the warmest and most passionate instruments of progressive country.

Wasserman grew up in San Francisco and in the 1970s began playing bass in Danny Elfman’s Mystic Knights Of The Oingo Boingo, the group that would evolve into the band Oingo Boingo. For six years he was then David Grisman’s right-hand man, in whose combo he had the chance to develop a more jazz-oriented style.

The “songs” (strictly instrumental) on Solo (Rounder, 1983) are harmonic miniatures in which melodic and rhythmic fragments blend together naturally and achieve a touching and delightful emotional cohesion. The pieces average under two minutes, and rarely exhibit the sonic harshness typical of the avantgarde. Generally, they are conventional themes, from twist (Lima) to swing (Bass Space), from ballad (Sara’s Rainbow) to Indian raga (Ode To Casals), from bluegrass to the folklore of the Andes, performed in a free, airy, charming, and sentimental manner. Wasserman is also a virtuoso, but his technical ability is entirely at the service of communication—an approach he shares only with Fahey and a few others.

Duets (MCA, 1986), a collection of covers performed by voice and double bass, and Trios (MCA, 1994) complete what is one of the most evocative trilogies of acoustic music balanced between country and jazz. The trios on the third album include Brian Wilson, Elvis Costello, Willie Dixon, Jerry Garcia, Neil Young, Les Claypool, Branford Marsalis, and so on. Together with Garcia and Edie Brickell in 1989 were held the first sessions—those of Zillionaire and American Popsicle—which are perhaps also the most crystalline. A Bass Trilogy for double basses alone and Dustin’ Off The Bass with Willie Dixon and Al Duncan (Chuck Berry’s drummer in his golden years) give a measure of how far the bassist’s style had come.

In the meantime (from 1988 to 1994) Wasserman played alongside Lou Reed. Wasserman has also performed live alongside Les Claypool and Jay Lane in a group called Bammies.