Familiar with bassist Carol Kaye?

[Rickenbacker]

I'd never heard of her til last night. I was looking at her body of session work & was very impressed. Esp. stuff on Pet Sounds. I always assumed that was all Brian. Apparently, there're claims she's credited for a lot of Motown tracks that Motown claims was Jamerson. Any general insight?

[Karda Estra]

Great video - thanks for posting. One of my favourite bass players. As mentioned in the thread i started the other day, been enjoying her playing recently on the first David Axelrod album.

[scags]

She played on tons of stuff, but Jamerson ( who I played with), did the majority of the Motown stuff. Kaye used to have a lesson coulomb in Guitar Player, back in the 70's.

[Sean]

She's a little hazy on some of the sessions she has been on. Claims to have done a lot more Motown than she apparently did. Though it's pretty easy to tell the difference between her and Jamerson. Carol is a legend regardless and an amazing lady.

[Superfly]

Yeah, she's a legend. Spector, Wilson, Campbell, the list of folks she's played for is nothing short of amazing. I'm currently reading The Wrecking Crew: The Inside Story of Rock and Roll's Best-Kept Secret by Kent Hartman (which Carol is none too fond of). Pretty interesting stuff, especially the part about Phil Spector.

[scags]

she was so busy in LA, that i have a hard time seeing her in Detroit, where they were also doing dozens of tunes a day.

[A. Scherze]

she was so busy in LA, that i have a hard time seeing her in Detroit, where they were also doing dozens of tunes a day.

But, then Motown went to LA and Jamerson move there.

[Baribrotzer]

But, then Motown went to LA and Jamerson moved there.

That's when I'd guess her involvement would have come. And that's also when Jamerson's drug, alcohol, and mental illness issues really started to get the better of him, when he may not have been able to make a number of sessions, and when she might have gotten the gigs instead. A bit like Bruce Babbitt - Bruce got some of the Motown gigs back in Detroit because he could show up sober and on time, and Jamerson often couldn't.

[smoggyd]

it's really amazing how many people still have not heard of carol, when she is such a legend and has contributed to so much popular music and education (she authored "how to play the electric bass," which has been standard fodder for low-enders for years). it always intrigued and impressed me that she just wanted to play jazz guitar (which she does with great facility), but wound up on bass coz it paid the bills and she needed to feed her kids.

she posts quite frequently and at great length on Facebook, so might want to follow her there. pretty sure she's exceeded her 5K friends, but i think you can still subscribe or follow along or whatever. she really has interesting stories to tell--mostly about music, but often simply about life. she's very down-to-earth and likes to engage with others.


http://www.facebook.com/ckaye4


i hope she sticks around a bit. i'd be thrilled if i could get a lesson with her.

[East New York]

Absolutely---long-time fan of hers!

[Garden Dreamer]

it's really amazing how many people still have not heard of carol, when she is such a legend and has contributed to so much popular music and education (she authored "how to play the electric bass," which has been standard fodder for low-enders for years).

That was the book I relied on to get started on bass at age 15!!

[Mr. Grizzly Bear]

Hear her get low down and funky on this Quincy Jones piece, theme for the old Bill Cosby Show

[spknoevl]

I would think any self=respecting bassist, let alone musican, should be aware of her legacy.

[wideopenears]

Carol Kaye is absolutely one of the greats, even if her memory is selective or imaginative at times. Both she, and Jamerson, played on more tracks than we can count, and the record-keeping for session players back then was less-then-stellar. But in terms of sheer inventiveness and groove, she's a killer.

[No Pride]

it always intrigued and impressed me that she just wanted to play jazz guitar (which she does with great facility), but wound up on bass coz it paid the bills and she needed to feed her kids.

I was going to mention that if nobody else did. There's some YouTube videos of her playing jazz guitar and she's quite good at it!

[headcrash]

The Wrecking Crew: The Inside Story of Rock and Roll's Best-Kept Secret by Kent Hartman (which Carol is none too fond of).

I recall reading that Carol blasted the Hartman book and said she was in the process of writing her own memoirs to set the record straight. That'll probably be some interesting reading considering the people she's played with and the records she's played on.

[Superfly]

I recall reading that Carol blasted the Hartman book and said she was in the process of writing her own memoirs to set the record straight.

She wrote a review over at Amazon, really tore it a new one. And she clearly has something against Hal Blaine But I'm really interested in all that Wrecking Crew music and I'm enjoying the book well enough. On Facebook she's been posting some excerpts from the book she's working on. Pretty interesting stuff.

[Mr. Grizzly Bear]

Once heard a story of how Carol wound up on Marvin Hamlisch's "DO NOT CALL" list. She was doing a session for the "The Way We Were" film soundtrack, and on the title song, Hamlisch insisted on doing something like 33 or so takes, Carol was trying to invest the written part with some semblance of feel, and it really struck her that Marvin couldn't write a bass part to save his life. So on the 33rd take, she basically said "screw it" and came up with a far better part, that 33rd take wound up getting used, but Marvin was incensed to the point of putting Carol on his DNC list for life.

[GuitarGeek]

I'd never heard of her til last night. I was looking at her body of session work & was very impressed. Esp. stuff on Pet Sounds. I always assumed that was all Brian. Apparently, there're claims she's credited for a lot of Motown tracks that Motown claims was Jamerson. Any general insight?

For the record, there were a lot of records made over the years by "bands" where the band (or some members of the band) didn't play on some or all of the record. The first thing you hear people say when The Monkees are mentioned is, "They didn't even play on their records". And neither did The Beach Boys during the same time period. I remember an interview with Tommy Tedesco, I forget which record he was talking about, but when he mentioned a particular group, the interviewer says "You played on their records?", and Tommy responds "We were the group!", we being The Wrecking Crew. He said it was only after the record was a hit, that the producer hired a bunch of teenagers, taught them how to play the songs, and sent them out on tour, that the band in question was anything other a bunch of studio rats pretending to be a "hip swinging teenage combo".

Also consider that Jimmy Page played guitar on You Really Got Me, All Day And All Of The Night (though Dave Davies has always denied it), and I Can't Explain. On the first Byrds single, Roger McGuinn is the only band member doing other than than singing. Oh, and let's not forget Ringo didn't get to play on the first Beatles single, either.

[rapidfirerob]

I was going to mention that if nobody else did. There's some YouTube videos of her playing jazz guitar and she's quite good at it!

I didn't know she also played guitar, though not surprising, so talented. I read her posts on FB sometimes. Happy to be her friend, if only on FB.

[rcarlberg]

There's some YouTube videos of her playing jazz guitar and she's quite good at it!

Stare and compare:

This is Carol Kaye from 1971:



Here's Paul Humphrey from 1969:



To be fair, here's the personnel on "Slick Cat":

Bassist Carol Kaye shared this tune, saying “Slick Cat [was] cut 1971 with Joe Pass [on guitar], Paul Humphrey [on] drums ….we were just jamming some in a studio and decided to work together after this!”

[Nijinsky Hind]

My wife purchased her bass lesson packet online quite a few years back... Huge envelope stuffed with things. Here is a pic.... Even signed and autographed. I also have a solo 45 by her somewhere from the early 60s. She has done quite a lot.image.jpg