Minimal Bass

Question: What do pop singers Lou Reed, Dan Hicks, Jennifer Warnes, Bobby McFerrin and Rickie Lee Jones have in common?

Answer: Each one sings with bassist Rob Wasserman on his new LP, “Duets.

The LP--done in bits and pieces, beginning with Hicks waxing “Gone With the Wind� in early 1984 and concluding with Warnes’ “Ballad of the Runaway Horse� in November, 1987--is a follow-up to Wasserman’s 1983 Rounder LP, “Solo.�

“I’ve always been sort of a minimalist,� said the Mill Valley resident on a recent visit to Los Angeles. “My first album was unaccompanied solo bass, without overdubs, and ‘Duets’ is also fairly sparse too.�

The concept album, offshoots of which include planned performances with the various artists on a possible TV special produced by Ken Erlich, could give Wasserman’s career a resounding thrust.

“I’m one of the least known people on my record, at this point,� he says, “and I think it’ll open a lot of doors to make the records down the road keep coming.�

Wasserman will be sitting in Sunday with McFerrin at the Playboy Jazz Festival at the Hollywood Bowl.

The bassist, who has recorded with Van Morrison and David Grisman and played with Hicks, Jones and Oingo Boingo, said the project wasn’t necessarily a breeze. “It was a challenge, both to make a real musical record and for me to be the band, so that no one would say, ‘Oh, bass and voice, where is everything?’ �

He solved that problem with creative ingenuity. “We overdubbed some of the vocals--Aaron Neville’s ‘Stardust’ has 18 vocal tracks--and by using a variety of bowing, strumming and tremolo techniques, I made the bass sound like synthesizer, flutes and mandolins.�

Originally a violinist, the 35-year-old Wasserman, who was reared in the Bay Area, took up bass in 1973 “when I found one in a pawnshop and had an immediate affinity for it. It was meant to be. It’s my voice.�