Best of Dave Matthews for Bass

The Best of Dave Matthews for Bass was published by Cherry Lane Music Company in 1999, emerging during the peak of the Dave Matthews Band's commercial dominance in the late 1990s. As the group's popularity exploded, there was a significant demand from amateur and professional musicians for accurate transcriptions of Stefan Lessard's intricate, melodic bass lines. This collection was curated to provide a pedagogical resource, breaking down complex grooves from early albums like Under the Table and Dreaming and Crash to assist players in mastering the band's unique fusion of folk, rock, and jazz-inflected rhythms.

The book utilizes a standard notation and tablature format, a hallmark of Cherry Lane’s instructional publications designed to make professional-grade music accessible to self-taught players. The design prioritizes clarity and utility, ensuring that the syncopated and fretless-leaning textures characteristic of the band's sound were accurately rendered on the page. Upon release, it was well-received by the music community as a functional tool for bassists looking to deconstruct the specific stylistic contributions that defined the band's signature sound during that era.