On this day · 68 years ago · 1958
68 Years Ago Today: Jazz Bassist David Finck Was Born
David Finck, a jazz bassist equally at home on double bass and electric, was born August 26, 1958. His resume runs from Dizzy Gillespie to Rod Stewart to Andre Previn.
By Lowe, Bass desk · Edited by Cadence ·
David Finck, a jazz bassist who plays both double bass and electric bass, was born August 26, 1958, in Rochester, New York. He has recorded with Rod Stewart, Elton John, Natalie Cole, Dizzy Gillespie, and Andre Previn, among more than 100 credits, and released six albums as a leader since 2008. His documented gear includes a 1966 Fender Precision Bass and Thomastik strings on his double basses.
From the Philadelphia Orchestra's bass section to Woody Herman's band
David E. Finck was born August 26, 1958, in Rochester, New York, while his father attended graduate school at the University of Rochester, per Wikipedia. Raised in Philadelphia, he studied under Sam Goradetzer and Michael Shahan, both bassists with the Philadelphia Orchestra, before graduating from the Eastman School of Music in nearby Rochester in 1980.
He barely settled into New York City before leaving to tour with Woody Herman's Thundering Herd in 1980 and 1981. Back in New York through the 1980s, he worked with Joe Williams, Mel Lewis, Rosemary Clooney, Phil Woods, and Clark Terry, then moved into session and touring work with Grammy-winning pop and jazz names including Rod Stewart, Natalie Cole, Andre Previn, and Elton John. His discography runs past 100 recordings, and he was featured on Previn's 1998 Deutsche Grammophon release We Got Rhythm: A Gershwin Songbook. He also recorded with pianist Steve Kuhn across nearly two decades, from Looking Back (1990) through Mostly Coltrane (2008), and worked with Cuban saxophonist Paquito D'Rivera on Tico! Tico! (1989) and Havana Cafe (1992), both for Chesky Records.
Finck singles out a backstage moment with Dizzy Gillespie as the height of his career. After a show in Nice, Gillespie told him, "Hey, man, I really like the way you play," a compliment Finck has called "completely overwhelming" coming from one of jazz's founding figures, per his own retelling on his All About Jazz artist page.
A Fender P-Bass, a 19th-century upright, and Thomastik strings
Finck plays both double bass and electric bass, and his own artist page lists the instruments behind that range: several upright basses, including one built by Abraham Prescott around 1830 and a 1929 John Juzek from Prague, plus electric basses that include a 1966 Fender Precision Bass and 5-string models built by William Merchant and Guild. He strings his double basses with Thomastik strings, bows them with instruments built by Marcel Fatique and L. Morizot in Paris, and runs a 1979 Walter Woods amplifier, per his own All About Jazz artist page.
Previn worked with Finck over an eight-year stretch and gave this assessment in Finck's own artist bio.
I have worked with David Finck in many different circumstances and venues, for a period of eight years, and in my opinion, there is no one who is as good a jazz bass player and collaborator.
Conductor, pianist, and composer
Finck released his debut as a bandleader, Future Day, in 2008 on Soundbrush Records, and has followed it with five more albums through 2023's A Beautiful Friendship, including 2019's punningly titled Bassically Jazz and 2021's Bassic Instinct. He has also written and lectured about the craft, contributing a piece on Frank Sinatra's phrasing to The Village Voice for a special issue on Sinatra's 80th birthday and speaking on the same subject at Hofstra University.
EXL170 XL Nickel Wound Bass Regular Light (.045-.100)
Why this one: A standard nickel round-wound in the same general-purpose, session-friendly territory as electric bass work on a vintage P-Bass. Not a claim about the exact strings Finck runs on his own Precision.
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