Dwayne Dolphin – Bass

Dolphin first picked up the electric bass at age 10, switching from guitar because the sound of it was too high and it hurt his ears. By the age of 15, he was playing locally in Pittsburgh. One Friday during high school, one of his teachers gave him Miles Davis’s album Kind of Blue, telling him to go home and learn it. He came back to school on Monday and played one of Davis’ solos. The teacher asked, “What is that? I wanted you to learn the bass parts.” “No, you told me to learn the record.

His first thought that he might make a life in music came in 10th grade when he visited Guadeloupe with saxophonist Nathan Davis. When pianist Geri Allen moved back to Pittsburgh to teach, she told him that if he wanted to play with her, he had to play “the big bass”, which he had reservations about since he could not play it for a whole gig because his hands would bleed. He had to switch between it and his electric bass so his hands could make it through the gig.

As well as leading his own bands, Dolphin has played with pianists Geri Allen and John Hicks, trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, saxophonists Arthur Blythe, Pee Wee Ellis, Stanley Turrentine, trombonist Fred Wesley and singer Nancy Wilson. It was on the 1997 John Hicks record ‘Something To Live For: A Billy Strayhorn Songbook’ that I first heard Dolphin play and it was this track that made my ears prick up. The swing on this is humungous! The track is called ‘Daydream’ and it is a straight walking line all the way through. Not hard to play but the reading will try to run away with you at this tempo. I recommend you try and play it through slowly (it’s not massively complicated otherwise, just great fun). When you have finished with the bass part, listen to Hicks. Just great, swinging piano.