Best all round bass player/musician??!!

[bubinga5]

There are bass players who have awsome talent, speed, knowledge of theory, groove, touch, soul, musical vision above there instrument. but not many have all of those..

I was wondering which bass player could cover most of those attributes..Whats your vote for..This is not just a bass player but an all round musician..

For me its Marcus Miller..He really is the most complete Bassist..for me much better than Victor..Victor for me is flash..Marcus is everything a bassist should be, serious funk, bloody fast, soulfull, creates some beautiful lines,..and is more focused on the fact that the music is more important than the bass he's playing...

Sting- Also a bass player that uses it as a tool to create the
bigger picture

Meshell Ndegeocello -Just awsome..the funkiest player alive
today....IMHO she is funk and feel wise the most talented bassist playing.. 'Make we wanna Holler' is fantastic..off the best album IMHO


Whats your vote?

[xgator4u]

Geddy Lee, nuff said.

[reno88]

bassist and musician? mccartney. singer, songwriter, bassist, pianist, guitarist, occasional drummer, and player of other instruments i'm sure i don't know of. game over.

[20db pad]

Prince

[pedro]

Here's a couple

How about Jack Bruce. Upright, cello, bass guitar, piano, singer extrordinaire and the keenest sense of syncopation I've seen.

Chicago's Larry Gray. Double bass, bass guitar, cello, pianist and electric guitarist plus singer. First call jazz bassist and sub w/ CSO.

Non multi instrumentalist (AFAIK)

James Jamerson. Groove, melody and creativity enough to crank out bass lines so good that many of have become literally bass guitar etudes.

Any discussion of groove has to include Jerry Jemmott. His work at Atlantic with Aretha, King Curtis, Otis Rush, BB King, etc. would inspire a young hot-shot bass player from my old home town of Ft Lauderdale. Jaco often called himself a poor man's Jerry Jemmott.

Willie Weeks. His solo on the Live Donny Hathaway album proved as well as any solo I've heard that it (a solo) doesn't have to be fast and furious. It can be developed slowly and can be about groove.

Duck Dunn anchor of the Stax sound. It doesn't get much more groove oriented than that.

Bob Babbitt. Jamersons co-chair at Motown.

[Ric5]

Originally Posted by reno88

bassist and musician? mccartney. singer, songwriter, bassist, pianist, guitarist, occasional drummer, and player of other instruments i'm sure i don't know of. game over.

Yep.

[PJ all day]

im gona have to go with marcus miller also for everything said in the original post

[zack01]

Mccartney just name that name....say singer/songwriter...who even comes close....to him.

[cowsgomoo]

Originally Posted by bubinga5

talent, speed, knowledge of theory, groove, touch, soul, musical vision

I was wondering which bass player could cover most of those attributes...

he's not talking about bass playing singer songwriters like Sting or Paul McCartney, who despite their countless achievements are not in the top tier from a purely bass playing perspective

he asked which bass player best covered these attributes:

talent
speed
knowledge of theory
groove
touch
soul
musical vision


has to be Jaco Pastorius, for me


strange that the OP missed out 'a great ear' in favor of 'speed' and 'knowledge of theory', but I guess we all have a different idea of what's important

[skulletwhip]

Trevor Dunn, because no matter what situation he is in, he gets the job done. He is VERY unsung.

Also +1 to Prince.

[basschick22]

Pino Palladino

[GrindYourMind]

Richard Bona. His bass playing is remarkable (even if he uses some stock licks) he is Metheny's touring percussionist, his voice is angelic, his guitar playing is superb. Best all around musician to come around in a long while.

[pedro]

Bona is touring as a percussionist?

[Stickk]

Stanley Clarke.

[Bassgrinder77]

Bill Wyman. Never played anything but bass. Never sang. Never wrote a Stones song. Didn't even play bass on every Stones song. Didn't even create many of the Stones best basslines. Never moved on stage. Basically expended as little energy as possibe (and still be considered marginally alive). Retired from the Stones rich. Not bad.

[artistanbul]

these "best" things are shallow but fun.
there are many good composer bassists, my first would be michael manring

if double bass players are also included, there are many more in there IMO.
dave holland, arild andersen pop to my mind first

[pedro]

Mingus.

[excane]

Fieldy.

[shadowmac]

Jim Chrichton of SAGA - HOLY CATS - and this is coming from a John Wetton and Geddy fan. I just started getting into these guys...I thought that SAGA was a one hit wonder, (1981's "On The Loose") but that's true only here in the states. 15+ studio albums people, with excellent musicianship across the board. With a great album in 2006's TRUST.
Jim Chrichton is the main writer, the bassist on some tunes, the guitarist (and a very good one) on others and the keyboardist on still others. The entire band is amazing and the new album sounds awesome with a vocalist that sounds like DC Cooper from Royal Hunt and later from Silent Force.

[capnsandwich]

It's hard to nail it down to one but here's a list of guys I think represent themselves well:

Adam Nitti
Sting
Dave LaRue
Victor Wooten
John Patitucci
Jimmy Johnson
Tom Kennedy