Albums that make you rethink bass

[ugly_bassplayer]

Originally Posted by AllFourths

Well technically all the bass parts on it are from other pieces (mostly 70's funk and jazz), but all the bass samples on MF Doom's "Mmm... Food" album are unbelievable. Usually I think his recontextualizations suit the parts even better, much like Tribe's sampling of Red Clay.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxh4NQ8Fb3g - great high register slippery stuff

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZwQSbpOU_k - it's all just roots and fifth, but dang I love that rhythm, and that progression is classy as hell

DOOM , all caps when you spell the name!!!

[tomnomnom91]

Funny that you should mention Streetlight. Their version of the Keasbey Nights is the one for me. I never fully appreciated Streetlight basslines until the first time I saw them live though, then it really hit home. That said, Point/Counterpoint from Everything Goes Numb is one of my all time favourite basslines.

The other main albums that have shaped my playing are RHCP - By The Way, Green Day's Dookie and Absolution by Muse.

[backup]

james jamerson on
my cherie amour - stevie wonder
(also made me rethink what i like about drums, benny's killing it)

[Rockin Mike]

Primus, Talas, Jayme Lewis Band

[jdelemus]

Groundation-Each One Teach One
Wailers-To catch a fire
Iron Maiden-Number of the Beast
Primus-Frizzle Fry
Beatles-Abbey road.

I like music where the bass is more than a backing instrument. Makes me sad there is so little love for Reggae on TB.

[beggar98]

Any of Ornette's early records with Charlie Haden. Harmolodics FTW.

Earlier, it was Jaco's solo record, Stanley's first few records, and VW's "A Show of Hands".

[vlado]

Michael Hedges - Breakfast In A Field - Not much bass on that one, but where used it sure made an impact. Of course, it was the first time I've ever herd Michael Manring.

Like Swimming - Morphine - only because that was how I got introduced to their music, but otherwise I choose Cure For Pain as my favorite Morphine album.

[backup]

Originally Posted by jdelemus

Makes me sad there is so little love for Reggae on TB.

i think there is enough love just not enough talk.
speaking about reggae, i add to my list:

survival- wailers, family man in dub - aston barrett, visions - dennis brown, mama africa -peter tosh

[Roscoe East]

Originally Posted by beggar98

Any of Ornette's early records with Charlie Haden. Harmolodics FTW.

Was Ornette even talking about harmolodics when he recorded those quartet albums with Haden? I thought he didn't fully reveal (sic) the concept of harmolodics until the 1970s.

[retroheadau]

Animals by Pink Floyd. The bass work in Pigs (Three Different Ones) really opened my eyes. It's till one of my favourite albums.

[HeavyJazz77]

Great question.

Bozzio Levin Stevens - "Black Light Syndrome"
Michael Manring - "Thonk"
Esbjorn Svensson Trio - "Somewhere Else Before"

[gary19702]

Too late the hero by John entwistle, his playing on that album is some of his finest and his tone was what made me really start wanting to play bass (heard it when it came out in '81 and even at age eleven I knew, I just knew.)

[Tituscrow]

Having grown up on Geddy and Steve Harris, and thinking that was as good as it got, I was completely floored the first time I played Frizzle Fry. I realised at that point that there was no going back to galloping triplets

Oh...and then I heard Meshuggah.

[sequel91]

Joni Mitchell's "Shadows and Light" (great work by Jaco as part of a band).
An Evening with Windham Hill (it's only a few tunes, but it's the first time I ever heard a bass sound like Manring's does on that one).

[peledog]

Rio - Duran Duran (Lonely In Your Nightmare UK version https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QMwIxiHq7o)
Anything with Pino Palladino and Paul Young https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BkGCkwJCWE
Jaco Pastorius - Word of Mouth (this version he's on the piano, but man - the emotion is spot on! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBhoDaS5SKQ)
Minutemen - Doube Nickels on the Dime https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nEvYBQmxb0
Anything by Japan with Mick Karn https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGLpurOG0yU
Headhunters - Herbie Hancock and Paul Jackson https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jb6qs2fjqVE
or Man-Child https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1W1eOfhB28I
Level 42 - The Early Tapes, Mark King https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPR7mq9YWZA

[chuck3]

it was different music at different times.

sounds like a cliche now, but Paul McArtney's playing on "All My Loving" was radical at the time. I had grown up listening to walking bass on my father's jazz records, and here was someone doing it on a rock tune. Then his playing on "Revolver" and "Rubber Soul" broke away from convention even more consistently.

after that, Phil Lesh and Jack Casady.

after that, Stanley Clarke's first solo records and Jaco playing with Joni Mitchell.

after that, Chuck Rainey on "Aja."

after that, really listening to Red Mitchell for the first time and understanding he was tuned in fifths.

still hasn't stopped ...

[Jazz Ad]

There are many albums that were bass cornerstones for me and severely altered the way I practice my instrument. Amongst others:
Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells
Jan Garbarek's Legend of the Seven Dreams
Iron Maiden's Killers
Magma's Attahk
The Flecktones' Outbound
Charles Mingus's Money Jungle
Miles Davis's the Man with the Horn
Pascal Mulot's Purple Eyes
Jean Michel Jarre's Zoolook
RHCP's BSS&M (like millions of other bass players)

Each and every one of these albums should be an eye opener for the distinctive bass player.

Jaco's first album didn't do this to me. I listened to it years after I started playing and his ideas had already been diluted here and there. I was amazed but his playing didn't seem so knew.

[RBrownBass]

These are albums that I was singing the basslines to back when I was a middle school and high school timpanist- I would not pick up a bass for another ten years, but they spoke to me.

Extension of A Man- Donny Hathaway
Breakfast In America- Supertramp

[ThudThudThud]

One that turned my head was "Whatever and Ever Amen" by Ben Folds Five. It was the snaking bass lines, the use of effects, and the sonic space filling that really made me rethink how bass fits in.

Other than that, Uriah Heep's "Wonderworld" with Gary Thain. Showed me how melodic bass can work in rock.

[mpace]

Miles Davis- '68-'75
Holland and Henderson - live or studio. The way they approach each song, sometimes very dense, grooving and aggressive / other times very spare and funky. Also, they incorporate different tones from wah to distortion.