Bassists who are as popular after they went Solo

kiwlm · #1 01-19-2005, 11:20 PM

I could only think of Jaco and Sting.

JPJ - nope
McCartney - nope
Jack Bruce - nope

Seems that after the "popular bassists" went solo, they did more of other instruments, and does that put off the original bassist followers?

Does it re-assert the importance for a bassist to belong to a great band? We have seen lots of guitarist who are as popular or more popular after they went solo, but rarely bassists.

Mark Latimour · #2 01-19-2005, 11:24 PM

Marcus Miller
Victor Wooten (although this is debateable)

Wil Davis · #3 01-20-2005, 12:48 AM

Jet Harris

- Wil

Woodchuck · #4 01-20-2005, 04:10 AM

Larry Graham - also could be debated.

JimK · #5 01-20-2005, 04:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Woodchuck

Larry Graham - also could be debated.

Agree 100%...as Graham was the first I thought of prior to actually opening this thread.
I mean, c'mon, how many people even knew Graham's name when he was in the Family Stone?

I don't believe McCartney's stock dropped after he went solo, either.

Question-
Do you want to limit this only to "Pop" or "popular"(i.e. among fellow bass players) bassists?
"Popular" would probably include the many Jazz bassists that went 'solo', too; I could then cite guys like Mingus, Paul Chambers, etc.
Current guys would be Dave Holland, Ben Allison, William Parker, John Lindberg, etc.
Some electric guys would be Gary Willis, Alain Caron, Brian Bromberg, Gerald Veasley, Jeff Berlin, Mark Egan, etc.

wulf · #6 01-20-2005, 04:41 AM

How do you measure "popular"? More importantly, what does it matter? Fame seems pretty fickle and not entirely related to talent. I'm not saying that any of the bassists mentioned aren't talented but I'm sure there are plenty of amazing players I've never heard of.

Wulf

mike sancho · #7 01-20-2005, 07:34 AM

What about Stanley Clarke and Jeff Berlin???

**Adam Barkley** · #8 01-20-2005, 09:00 AM

Les.

Steve Winwood (or was it Jim Cipaldi) - played everything but the wind instruments on the old Traffic albums.

Lony Levin is still a very popular session player I would imagine.

Never listened to the Dead, but what about Phil Lesh.

Freeloader · #9 01-20-2005, 09:17 AM

among the newer people, MATT GARRISON?

JMX · #10 01-20-2005, 09:19 AM

Peter Cetera?

badgrandad · #11 01-20-2005, 09:32 AM

Yeah, but do they beatbox?

blast_tyrant · #12 01-20-2005, 09:34 AM

Well, Lemmy was originally with Hawkwind. I know he's a member of Motorhead, but that's essentially a solo project. So how about Lemmy?

Woodchuck · #13 01-20-2005, 09:37 AM

As for Graham, I was thinking about his GCS stuff vs. his "One In a Million" (ugh!) period. sorry, I hated that song!

**Bryan R. Tyler** · #14 01-20-2005, 12:57 PM

Bootsy became far more famous after leaving James Brown, but it seems to be more of his personality than his playing that he's known for.

swampash · #15 01-20-2005, 01:11 PM

Les Claypool - he's bigger than he ever was in Primus to say the least! And, Les does his thing so well, but if you want to hear him choke watch the Gov't Mules' 'Deepest End' his performace shows how versatile he is outside his own box, I felt bad for the band trying to keep the groove going on the song he played!

Muzique Fann · #16 01-20-2005, 01:55 PM

How about Mike Gordon? In case you've been living under a rock for the last 20 years, he had one of the biggest gigs of all time. Since then he's toured with his own band and put out a cd of his own (or 3 if you count Outside Out and Bain/Joey Arkenstat). Lately he's been doing a lot of sitting in with different bands and he's been playing with one of the hottest bands out there - The Duo. What will he do next - besides more movies?

Mike Flynn · #17 01-20-2005, 02:01 PM

Solo bass sucks...

JimK · #18 01-20-2005, 03:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Woodchuck

As for Graham, I was thinking about his GCS stuff vs. his "One In a Million" (ugh!) period. sorry, I hated that song!

I knew what you were talking about.
Be careful, though, there is(was?) someone at this site that actually liked "One In A Million You"...I said I thought it was 100% schmaltz & the guy totally flamed me. LMAO.

Peter Cetera post-Chicago? I guess more women liked him during his solo career(I would doubt they knew he even played bass in Chicago). I'm not sure Cetera even played bass during his solo daze.

bos_mindwarp · #19 01-20-2005, 04:10 PM

I for example never heard of Marc Johnson until he released his own albums (Bass Desires was first I heard).

Mind Eroded · #20 01-20-2005, 08:44 PM

Brad Smith of Blind Melon......ok maybe not, but Abandon Jalopy(his solo album) still kicks a**.