Albums that make you rethink bass

[mark beem]

Mick Karn's The Tooth Mother

[JoeWPgh]

Several over the years. Verdine White of Earth Wind & Fire showed how how to stretch time to a tight rope. Kenny Gradney of Little Feat showed just how funky a Bo Diddly beat could get. Jaco showed how a bass could sing. But you could go old school to the upright, where Paul Chambers showed us how hard a bass could swing.
The question sort of becomes, where did you get on the bus, and what advancements did you assume where always there in the first place?

[mr.mow]

Originally Posted by mc_muench

See my post...Om or any Doom in general. Come to the slow side, the DOOM side.



Rev DOOM

electric wizard and boris!

[8liter]

Hard to pick just a few, there are so many!

Recently, though...It's been anything that Sean Malone has recorded on.

The new Cynic EP - Carbon Based Anatomy has some of the best fretless work I've ever heard. I've also been getting back into Aghora, which is also has Sean Malone playing on it. Some seriously amazing work.

I've always loved hard hitting tone and that traditional "clank", but Sean's work has made me sit back and think...

[bootsox]

Midori - Aratamemashite, hajimemashite, Midori desu.


The music is incredibly chaotic and has no apparent rhyme or reason. Then the bass kicks in and it all starts to make sense.

Out of all the tracks on the album, I think Yukiko-san is the best example of this.

[Lackey]

Front Page - Dominique DiPiazza tears it up. Also Que Alegria with John McLaughlin

Thonk - Michael Manring. Also the Attention Deficit albums.

Bent - Gary Willis. Showcasing sublime grooving, thumpy muting, and amazing solos that are not just about chops. Great tunes, great players.

A Show Of Hands - Victor Wooten. Gotta have it.

Hard Normal Daddy - Squarepusher. Nothing like spastic fretless chops over early days IDM electronica. Also Ultravisitor for something on the opposite side of the spectrum, clanky double thumped fretted bass.

Aenima - Tool. One of the first albums I heard where the bass and guitars were playing different yet complementary pieces. Still love it. Also Lateralus.

Brown Album - Primus. Hehe, this one is fun. Maybe their most interesting album too.


All of these records hit me hard at some point and made me double think what bass is. Roughly in order looking back in time top to bottom.

[pgolliher]

Graceland. Bakithi Kulmalo's fretless phrasing is really cool and unique. I listened to those fills of "diamonds on the soles of her shoes" about a hundred times on headphones.

[Troph]

I've been hooked on Marcus Miller's outstanding new album Renaissance a lot lately. It's a master lesson on how bass can demand a central role in great music without sacrificing melody and groove, and without showboating too much. (Of course it helps when the songs are heavily funk-influenced...)

The bass dynamics in particular are eye-opening. Marcus is able to switch between laying down the foundation in the background and hammering out blazing licks and solos very seamlessly.

Try listening to "Mr. Clean" off that album (especially the "B" section following the saxophone solo) and then try not picking up your bass to jam a little afterwards... No disrespect to the 1970 Freddie Hubbard version (featuring Ron Carter on bass), but this one just smokes.

"CEE-TEE-EYE" is another favorite track, an obvious nod to the CTI jazz label from the 1970s.

Anyway, there are many others from the past. But in my mind, this one wins 2012 by a considerable margin.

I only wish I would wake up one morning and suddenly this stuff would get more attention and some radio play aside from the AM smooth jazz station...

[lowphatbass]

The records that always get me thinking tend to feature bass playing that's solid and supportive, yet tasty and melodic.
Some of those Anita Baker records with Nathan East, Police, Zep, Beatles, and of course a lot of Motown really gets me stirred-up.

[Buster Brown]

Several albums had an effect on me, to the point that I was completely rethinking the bass. They inspired me to STOP the thinking that bass players were nearly an afterthought in Rock.

YES - Roundabout - Fragile 1971- Chris Squire

Return To Forever - Goodbye Mickey Mouse - Stanley Clarke

And one bass player in particular, when I heard his work and, in particular "Your Wildest Dreams"

John Lodge - Moody Blues

and the God Father of them all - John Entwistle - The Who


These guys made me understand that "root notes" were for sissies!!!

[bill reed]

all the albums of Cream. Jack Bruce playing all over the fretboard back in the 60s and early 70s is so diffrent to any other player of that time.

Free with Andy Fraser, "all right now and Mr. Big" was another guy who had me trying to copy his style of playing.

Lemmy when playing with Hawkwind. really like his driving beat.
think the three of them had the most influence in my playing up to the late 70s.
later in the 80s i found out how good a bass player McCartney was and really started to listen to his bass lines.

[Shakin-Slim]

Originally Posted by pgolliher

Graceland. Bakithi Kulmalo's fretless phrasing is really cool and unique. I listened to those fills of "diamonds on the soles of her shoes" about a hundred times on headphones.

+1!

[thebrain]

In my early days, JPJ was really inspiring with his balance of supporting the band and his melodic riffs. And when i got more into jazz in college, Stanley Clarke and Ron Carter were both heavy influences for me. But I'd say above everything else, the bassist (and album) that really made me want to focus on bass was Flea on Blood Sugar Sex Magic. Still one of the best rock albums ever recorded IMO.

[Tonyisnt]

For me, these may be for either bass or just inspiring my writing in general or both but a few albums come to mind at least for the most recent:
Esperanza Spalding- Radio Music Society and Chamber Music Society
Larry Graham and Graham Central Station- Raise Up
Mini Mansions- Mini Mansions
Bobby Womack- The Bravest Man In The Universe
Little Dragon- Little Dragon and Ritual Reunion
Morcheeba- The Antidote
Big Sir- Before Gardens After Gardens
PJ Harvey- Is This Desire? and Let England Shake
Boris- Attention Please and Heavy Rocks

All of these are available on Spotify if you have it (I highly recommend it if you don't)

[IronLung1986]

Live at Leeds for sure. That was a big one. Tony Levin's work on the Peter Gabriel albums was huge as well.

[bobm2112]

For me just like so many was Jaco's first album.

[chief redcok]

Wow surprised no one mentioned any of the Herbie albums with Paul Jackson like Head Hunters, Thrust, Man-Child, Flood... that guy made me rethink about what a bass could do..

[bearhart74]

Originally Posted by hibachiduck

...Streetlight Manifesto ...

If you like those guys you should check out Gogol Bordello
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQ_XX52-Xdw

[Jools4001]

Originally Posted by Jeff Scott

For me it was Foxtrot, but I bought the album after seeing Genesis on their first US tour as an opening act for It's A Beautiful Day in April 1972. Hearing Watcher Of The Skies (and seeing Peter's silhouetted bat-winged and caped figure bathed in black light) for the first time was a religious experience! Mike Rutherford's RM1999 and playing was a turning point in my musical life.

+1

I had exactly the same experience on 16 June 1972 at Bedford Corn Exhange, Bedford, UK. I had never seen, and only vaguely heard of Genesis until that day but they blew me away. Rutherford's bass playing on the earlier albums often harmonises or plays counterpoint lines to the melody rather than stick to roots, fifths and chord tones and there are quite often notes and licks in there that are just 'wrong'. They just shouldn't work, but they do, and add immensely to the band's idiosyncratic and quiky style. Rutherford's bass also cemented my determination to get a Ric one day and it took me until 1976 to save up for a secondhand one (which is still my main player).

Another big +1 to Graceland, also Pino's lines on Paul Youngs earlier stuff, Jeff Berlin for his stuff with Bruford, John Wetton, Greg Lake, Tony Levin, Jaco, Manring...the list goes on and on

[Marley's Ghost]

Originally Posted by skibass94

The Who's Quadrophenia

+1 The real me just blew my socks off...

Also, Fragile by Yes. Chris Squire took bass to the forefront like I had never experienced it before.