Favourite bass player?

[Progatron]

Soooo.... Not the guy I chose then?

[Galactic Bulldozer]

I was going to agree with you but I forgot his name so I'll have to name someone else... Ramsey Mackay.

[trurl]

Soooo.... Not the guy I chose then?

Definitely that guy. He needs to team up with the "This Drummer Is In The Wrong Band" guy.

[presdoug]

Helmut Koellen and Furio di Castri

[Wisdomview]

Colin Moulding. Maybe not the best all-around bass player, but my favorite. Melodic, unpredictable, and can put a total WTH? part into a perfectly normal song, and not make you pay attention to it (unless you say - "Hey! What's the bass doing on this tune? It's sort of - well - and then - er - WTH?). And Percy Jones. So slippery, you can barely tell if he's sliding into or out of the notes.

For jazz, I'm pretty Blue Note and old-school, so for me it's all about time feel. I love Paul Chambers when he keeps the goddamn bow out of it, but I've got a soft spot for Art Davis. And Jimmy Garrison would be in the conversation, but he's kind of difficult to understand by comparison. But it's mostly about making the time feel nice and wide, like something you want to sit down in and get comfortable. Okay - Paul Chambers.

Nice jazz calls and how could I forget Colin Moulding? Love him!

[markinottawa]

Mick Karn for me too..

who is that skinny guy with the long hair?

[ThomasKDye]

Colin Moulding. Maybe not the best all-around bass player, but my favorite. Melodic, unpredictable, and can put a total WTH? part into a perfectly normal song

Andy Partridge does not write perfectly normal songs.

[Trane]

Jack Casady has been forever my favorite bass player. Starting way back in the 60s he brought a completley new approach to the bass, using octave shifting, chording, and just a whjole lot of notes to the Airplane and Tuna's music.


Modern times it is Phillipe Bussonett of Magma, who makes the incredibly difficult look easy.

I'm shocked it took almost a page to mention Casady...

he, J Bruce and Entwistle rewrote rock bass playing book

[wideopenears]

I know myself better than I know any of those guys, so I guess I'm my own favorite bass player!


But I love so many bass player's work, it would take days to list them all. James Jamerson hasn't been mentioned yet, though-unless I missed it--and he's the single most important electric bassist of the last century.

[Scrotum Scissor]

I'm shocked it took almost a page to mention Casady...

he, J Bruce and Entwistle rewrote rock bass playing book

Add Phil Lesh to that.

[gregory]

John Patitucci

[arabicadabra]

Bryan Beller is awesome.....

There are so many great ones, with such individual styles, how can you pick just one?

McCartney, Bruce, Entwhistle, Squire, Wetton, Levin, Sheehan, Glover, Hughes, Meros, Reingold, Andy West/Jerry Peek/Dave LaRue, etc.

[Lopez]

Soooo.... Not the guy I chose then?

I like the chick playing the marimba.

Now that Ox has gone to that happy thumping ground, my favorite is Bill Kopecky. Just plain amazing with great sound and power.

[No Pride]

My most recent influence is Bill Buddha Dickens

Ha! I was in a band with Billy for a while in the '80s. He certainly has some jaw-dropping techniques, but the guy he replaced in that band was a better all around player: Darryl Jones, who went on to play with Miles Davis, Sting and has been with The Rolling Stones for quite a while now. I wasn't surprised by his success, he was great at everything! Billy has some weaknesses; I saw him playing Stevie Wonder's "Overjoyed" once and he was unsuccessfully fishing around for the melody's right notes; time to spend more work on your ears, Billy; your hands are strong enough! But he's a very nice dude and an amzing player in certain ways... and I'm already feeling guilty for tattling on him.

Zep had a phat, tight rhythm section. Any veteran guitar players here will tell you that can make a giant difference in your playing when you do stuff and dont have to worry about where "One" is. Jimmy Page was a decent enough player ( although hes sort of sloppy on electric, I though he shone on acoustic - great acoustic player!), but having that rhythm section made page sound "less sloppy" than he actually was

I've always felt that the least recognized guy in Led Zeppelin was their MVP: John Paul Jones. Of course, Bonham was a fantastic drummer, but Jones was the true anchor of that band. Another bass player would've let Bonham's occasional tendencies to be a little loose show more.

Colin Moulding. Maybe not the best all-around bass player, but my favorite.

For pop/rock, Colin (from XTC, in case anybody doesn't already know) is my favorite as well. His lines were just so creative and unconventional. He'd often pick notes that shouldn't have worked (in theory), but they did! It can be hard to be creative on bass in the pop/rock realm without getting in the way of the tune, but Colin had it down in spades!

I'm not a huge jazz fan by any stretch, so I don't know how he stacks up against his peers, but watching Jaco Pastorius live with Weather Report was quite an experience - one that I'll never forget.

Words can't convey how important Jaco was to the development of the bass guitar; he was a major innovator in so many ways that I put him in a league with the all-time greats of jazz. For starters, he put the fretless bass on the map. I'm not saying he was the first, but after he came on the scene, practically every bass player I knew bought themselves a fretless, put boat apoxy on the fretboard and leaned how to play the difficult bebop tune "Donna Lee"... because that's what Jaco did. His chops were unprecedented, he was a groovemeister, had a thorough understanding of theory and harmony and could play extremely beautiful melodies when he wanted to (check out his work on Joni Mitchell's "Hejira"). That's not even to mention his writing, arranging and orchestrating skills.

That said, (probably) my favorite electric bass guitar player is undoubtedly a Jaco disciple, but he took the ball and ran with it (as some would argue Stevie Ray Vaughan did with what he learned from Hendrix); Gary Willis from the jazz-fusion band, Tribal Tech. I gave a bass player friend a "blindfold test" once, played him a record and asked him to name the bass player. He said, "Gary Willis; Jaco with a five string." But Gary's more than that, he has his own thing. And it's frickin' superb!



Hell, there's a whole bunch of fantastic electric bass guitar players around and I could compile a lengthy list of them. Willis just hits the spot for me in a way I can't put into words, so I won't try.

[progeezer]

When Yes's s/t debut came out in 1969, the drummer in the band I was in then was raving about them before the rest of us had heard them. I clearly remember him saying, "you know how the Bible talks about the Anti-Christ, well this bass player is the "Anti-Casady".

For the record, I love Jack's playing for completely different reasons than why I love Squire's.

[Dana5140]

I saw Jaco live only once, but it was incredible, and the crowd erupted after his solo, which was similar to this one:



And I saw Stan Clarke a few times, and he was also impressive beyond belief:



And Bubu is currently my favorite bassist today. I jus think he does the impossible by mkaing it look so easy:

[No Pride]

I saw Jaco live only once

I did too, on his "Word of Mouth" tour. Unfortunately, his mental illness was starting to get the best of him by that point. Still, there were enough moments of sheer brilliance. But I really wish I had gotten to see him with Weather Report.

[bill g]

Wow I could never pick just one. Too many great players, especially in jazz. Ray Shulman may not be the best technically, but he as much as anyone would qualify as a personal favorite. Andy Gonzalez of M Coast is also amazing, like a slightly more technical Colin Moulding, who I also like. Jonas Reingold is certainly a fantastic player too. He sure tears it up in Rumble Fish Twist. And yes, a whole lot of great jazz players too numerous to mention, many have been already mentioned. Certainly can't go wrong with Stanley Clarke or Percy Jones.

There hasn't been a bass player mentioned in this thread (barring a couple I'm not familiar with) that I haven't agreed with that they are very good.

[Sputnik]

A somewhat obvious choice, but my favorite remains Squire. To me, his stuff in the 70s is just unbeatable. Ray Schulman is not far behind, though. I also have tons of respect for JPJ and McCartney. I love Jaco's playing and sound, but his music never did much for me.

Bill

[Yves]

The one... the only...

[Rarebird]

Since no-one does it
Pekka Pohjola

[trurl]

The one... the only...

*lol* Derek was only the 3rd best bass player in his own band

[GuitarGeek]

The one... the only...

Oddly enough, This Is Spinal Tap was on TCM last night.

[Yves]

Jazz Odyssey alone guarantees him a Top 3 spot on any list!

[wideopenears]

"So we just put as much bass as we could in this one, hopefully too much."