In rock, Jack Casady
In jazz fusion, Stan Clark or Jaco
Upright bass, Ron Carter
in prog, Jannick Top (though I am really getting partial on Bubu)
Early on, James Jamerson
In rock, Jack Casady
In jazz fusion, Stan Clark or Jaco
Upright bass, Ron Carter
in prog, Jannick Top (though I am really getting partial on Bubu)
Early on, James Jamerson
I'm not lazy. I just work so fast I'm always done.
I'm going to be as vanilla as can be on this one:
Geddy
Wetton
Squire
Probably my favorite bass playing ever, not based on difficulty but on pure jaw-dropping badassedness, is John Wetton on the concluding section of King Crimson's The Night Watch.
"The Talking Drum," "LTiA II" and "21stCSM"...everybody plays their asses off on those but Wetton just kills me. His bass wants to eat your children.
Runner-up for badassedness is Nic Potter on VdGG's VITAL.
High Vibration Go On - R.I.P. Chris Squire
Lots of greats already mentioned but if I REALLY had to vote for "All-time greatest"....per genre:
Jazz: Tie between Mingus & Ray Brown
Prog: Tie between Squire & Wetton
Rock: Tie between Geddy & Steve Harris
Fusion: Tie between Stanley Clarke & Ralph Armstrong
Misc: M. Manring
Last edited by Supersonic Scientist; 04-02-2013 at 09:55 AM. Reason: not finished writing
I won't pick a single "best", but...
Dan Berglund - Jonas Hellborg - Glen Moore - Eberhard Weber - Anders Jormin - Miroslav Vitous
Prog - Chris Squire
Rock - Jack Bruce
Jazz - Charles Mingus/Jaco Pastorius
Fusion - Stanley Clarke
All Over The Place - Percy Jones
Better than Mick Karn who was an influence on JT?
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“The only truth is music.”
― Jack Kerouac
For me Numero Uno will forever be Jaco
Some other favorites - Jannick Top ,Percy Jones ,Hugh Hopper ,Mick Karn ,
Prog-Helmut Koellen
Fusion-Furio di Castri
Rock-Dickie Peterson
"and what music unites, man should not take apart"-Helmut Koellen
Sid Vicious is totally underrated.
Paul Gilbert would devour John Taylor for breakfast!
Probably the people asked in this poll have never even heard of Squire, Gilbert, Jowett et al ? C'mon..Waters in the top five ???
Nobody here has heard of Gary Willis? I'll admit, if there was no Jaco, there'd be no Gary Willis. But Jaco peaked out at a certain point and died not too long after that; Gary sort of picked up where Jaco left off... but on a five string.
Not that I believe in the concept of "best ____ (anything) of all time;" I'm just listing a personal favorite, like everybody else is.
Actually, for all the ribbing we give him here (and I am certainly guilty of it too) Roger Waters isn't that bad of a bass player. Not in the league of our Prog heroes but Floyd's music never needed that. He really wasn't/isn't that bad.
But he's so much fun to rip on, because ROGER WATERS!
High Vibration Go On - R.I.P. Chris Squire
Neither will I, but....
...some nice names on that list; nice to see, at this board, Moore and Jormin, in particular, get a little love. Just saw Jormin with Sinikka Langeland in Voss a little over a week ago (review coming) and he was, as ever, superb, one of the few bassists who can quite literally make his bass sing (along with Arild Andersen).
I'd have to add a few names to the list people have included here:
Mats Eilertsen
Dennis Irwin (RIP)
Dave Holland
Charlie Haden
Drew Gress
Thomas Morgan (impressing more and more these days)
Palle Danielsson
Chris Laurence
Nick Beggs (also impressing me the more I hear him)
Tony Levin
Best!
John
Oh, is this the place where we list the "best bass players?" Alright then....
Reminds me of a recent column in Bass Player magazine talking about Stan Kenton's bassist,and how he was "Jazz Famous." In other words, no one but the small group of devoted Jazz Fans would ever have heard his name. But the guy was actually a key figure, having used an "amplified peg" in his upright, and a small amp (or two!) on stage.
If you ask a member of the general public who the "best bass player" is, I'm guessing you will hear about Paul McCartney, Sting, and possibly Flea...but more often, you will just get a quizzical look. "Isn't that like a guitar, but only with four strings?" In that sense, I'm a bit surprised about the Taylor win......
From the generally uninformed majority, telescoping down to music lovers, to music geeks, to Prog Fans, to the most ridiculous subsegment of the general populace--that of obsessed Bass Players--you'll find fewer and fewer "famous people" and more and more "jazz famous" people.
I submit John's list as evidence.
Heh heh. Seriously, though, all those names are attached to great, great players. If you dig hearing some unique contributions, check those names out.
I could list many, many more--but I will plug just a couple right now. Skuli Sverrissen is an amazing, unique voice on the instrument, and I generally pick up anything he's recorded on....and in terms of upright/doublebass/violincello or whatever you want to call it, the sadly-departed Stefano Scodanibbio, composer and bassist, had a command of the instrument that I have NEVER seen anyone approach. It's not for everyone, but his music exploited every possible nuance the instrument was capable of producing.
A wedding band leader that I used to work with told me he was haggling with a potential client who was trying to cut the size of the band down to something more affordable. "Why do you need a bass player?" this person asked. The band leader explained that all bands have them... and that The Beatles had one. The potential client countered with, "no they didn't!" I don't know where the conversation went after that, but I think at that point, I would've suggested hiring a DJ for their event, something I'd never do under normal circumstances.
BTW, I like that term, "jazz famous." I think I'm going to start using it, since the majority of my musical heros fall in that category.
Last edited by No Pride; 04-02-2013 at 02:34 PM.
Th only bass solo I ever saw that was worthwhile was by Todd Phillips, the jazz/grass/Dawg music great. What tone, taste, technique!
There is no "greatest of all time" but there are lots of "greats." How many ever followed Aladar Pege?
I'm not lazy. I just work so fast I'm always done.
I think you almost have to see someone play live in order to make that kind of judgement.
For me, it's Percy Jones.
My bass-playing brother, the one with the real talent in the family, used to have a wedding band to finance his Jazz Fusion band. He had a similar situation where the potential client said "Can't the keyboard player just do the bass on the pedals?" My bro told him, "He's already the keyboard player and vocalist, and besides it's MY band and I play bass, so you get me or you don't get us at all!"
He just got a new fretless bass, got to stop by and check it out.
High Vibration Go On - R.I.P. Chris Squire
Roger Waters
Phil Lynott
Geezer Butler
Lemmy
Victor Wooten
Squire
Percy Jones
Yeah, but even in that context, here in 2013, John Taylor topping such a poll seems odd. If this was 1984, when Duran Duran were on top of the world, and John, Andy, Simon, Roger, and Nick were on the cover of every magazine (I'm not sure whether I should be embarrassed I actually know the names of all five original Duran Duran members), it would make sense.
But you'd expect that today, someone who was in a band that's currently popular to top such a list. Then again, aren't a lot of today's bands getting by without a bassist, eg White Stripes, Black Keys, etc?
Oh, and y'all forgot about the funk team. Any list of greatest bassists has to include Larry Graham, Bootsy (baby), and Bernard Edwards.
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