My bass "greatist list"

[Barkless Dog]

So the under rated list was negative and I thought a better way to approach it is from the other side. This is my personal list and lists are made to be broken or changed, which I am adding players I overlooked or did not know about.

To me The World's greatest electric bass players contributed to "bass playing" in some way, have an unmistakable style & sound. Advancing or simplifying it. Musical gymnastics/virtuoso’s is not a hallmark to me, it not "real" music to me, but gymnastics for other musicians, but that’s for the other thread. Lets keep it positive.

To me, these players you can identify within a few seconds as to who they are. You can't argue any of these player's impact on music - like them or not. They may not all be "the very first" to do what they did, but they popularized what they did to a larger influence scale.

My list- not in any order

James Jamerson - he helped create modern bass playing as it is today, to me

John Entwistle - The first pop bass solo and rock lead bassist

Jack Bruce - his playing with Cream and the song Apostrophe set an unmistakable sound & style. Put the EB-3 on the map

Chris Squire - Put the Ric with a pick on the map.

Larry Graham - Godfather of funk & soul

Sir Paul - wrote some of the simplest but best bass driven songs ever

Mike Watt - He was a founder of the Minutemen and inspired Les Claypool & Flea. He has a really unorthodox avant garde style.

Les Claypool - yes he is a bit sloppy, but his sound is unmistakable and he brought the "primitive" element to bass. Made Carl Thompson. You can thank him & Flea for your next visit to Guitar Center for all the Thwackety twackety bass playing.

Stanley Clarke - Brought "virtuoso jazz & funk" to modern bass. Put the Alembic on the map

Jaco - brought the fretless virtuoso jazz and amazing use of harmonics to light, spawned a million clones between him & Stanley to this day.

Anthony Jackson - Put the 6 string contra bass on the map as well as being an amazing musician

Bootsy - Unmistakable mark he left on funk and his trade mark sound as well as style.

Cliff Burton - Brought metal shredding to the Bass. Again spawned a lot of "bad shredder cheese clones"

Peter Hook - Melodic bass playing that is not the bass part. Simple instantly recognizable sound. He plays bass, but not the "bass" part. The only thing good to come out of new wave?

Mick Karn - took frettless to another planet, unmistakable playing

Percy Jones- I will always remember him for his rapid fluid playing and slide harmonics

Tom Peterson: invented a whole new bass, the 12-string

Tom Jenkinson / Squarepusher- I just discovered him and although I find his bass playing, very good, but also dirivitive of other bassists, I put on on the list for his marriage of bass & electronics, in a new fresh way (for me). It's HIS MUSIC and performance that gets him here.

Micheal Manring - What planet is he from? He is a virtiousa that takes the bass into another galaxy. His wild detuning playing is amazing and bizarre and it's not about chops with him, although he has plenty of them. The looping thing is another cool thing he bring to the table, although Fripp & Eno invented it, Manring, Lawson & other solo bassists made it a new form of expression for solo bass. I'm not sure if Manring was first doing the bass loop thing?

Any other bass player that I can think of after these guys are derivative of one or more styles from these guys in my mind.

[rushfan73]

Nice list, I will assume you just forgot to add Geddy?

[PhR]

To be harsh, Geddy is derivative of Squire and Entwistle.

Larry Graham should be on the list 'though.

[gkbass13]

i think marcus, AJ, Vic and Oteil should probabaly all be on the list as well.

althougb larry graham and stanley clark innovated a lot of percussive playing, guys like amrcus and vic brought it to new places.

AJ is a session legend and oteil's chordal work on 6 strings and scatting while soloing are both relatively innovative.

[tZer]

Bruce Thomas (The Attractions)
Graham Maby (Joe Jackson)
Colin Moulding (XTC)
Chuck Rainey (Steely Dan, Aretha Franklin, and many, many more!)
Nathan Watts (Stevie Wonder)
John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin)
Jack Bruce (Cream)
Tony Levin (King Crimson)
Tracy Wormworth (The Waitresses and more)
Sting (Police)
Victor Wooten (Bela Fleck and the Flecktones)
Geddy Lee (I humbly disagree with PhR's assessment - while similar in tone and "lead-bass-ish-ness", Geddy, Chris and John are all very individually unique and fantastic!)

[CraigG]

Don't forget Abe Laboriel, Sr. With several thousand sessions to his credit (and that doesn't include live appearances), he was clearly defining the role of bass guitar. Abe wasn't in demand because he could do what other bass players did. He was in demand because he was (and still is) a true master innovator of the instrument.

http://www.angelfire.com/music/world..._contents.html

[GlennW]

I'll add Jerry Jemmott to the list.

[PhR]

Originally Posted by tZer

Geddy Lee (I humbly disagree with PhR's assessment - while similar in tone and "lead-bass-ish-ness", Geddy, Chris and John are all very individually unique and fantastic!)

Of course I love Geddy's playing too, but in this way we end up including every bass player.

But if that's not the problem I'll add:

Doug Rauch (double thumb pioneer)
Colin Hodgkinson (chord work)
Tom Petersson (12-string bass)

[Chili]

what about Larry Graham, Louis Johnson and Burnard Edwards

[Eric Grossman]

I'll add Willie Weeks, and Paul Chambers.

[TeeMartin]

John Myung (flawless bass chops rivaled only by impossibly perfect hair)

[Pete C]

Fieldy
(jk)

The guys that have influenced me most during my short time on the instrument are Steve Harris, Cliff Burton, Geddy Lee, Entwistle, Jamerson and Bootsy.

[brainhii]

just to add some bassists you forgot
GEDDY LEE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
FLEA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
PAUL MCCARTNEY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
john paul jones
victor wooten
o god i cant think past that haha but nice of you to post this thread

[MonetBass]

Anthony Jackson is glaringly left off.

[jonly]

Willie Dixon

[sammcl1608]

John Paul Jones (great arranger and great bass player)
Timmy C (Sound, Style)

[Snarf]

Niels Pedersen
John Patitucci
Gary Karr

[Otso]

Ralphe Armstrong

Apparently he got into Mahavishnu Orchestra instead of Jaco because Ralphe played fretless before Jaco.
Ralphe's phrasing in his solos is one of the things that I like about him and his grooviness too. He could make playing up and down scales sound groovy and great.

[MAGUS®]

Originally Posted by Barkless Dog

To me The World's greatest electric bass players contributed to "bass playing" in some way, have an unmistakable style & sound. Advancing or simplifying it. Musical gymnastics/virtuoso’s is not a hallmark to me, it not "real" music to me, but gymnastics for other musicians, but that’s for the other thread. Lets keep it positive.

Absolutely agree with you there Dog.



My list- not in any order

James Jamerson

John Entwistle

Sir Paul - wrote some of the simplest but best bass driven songs ever

Stanley Clarke

Jaco

The guys above are in my book, especially PAul Mac. Not usually considered by many, but that bass line on PaperBack Writer is just the bizness - under headphones its a killer

I'll add

Percy Jones - mainly for his innovative stuff with Brand X
Mick Karn - the Japan era, also incredibly unique like Percy
Mike Howlett - some fab stuff with Gong
John Wetton - stonking bassman, the track that really stands out for me is "Burlesque " when he was with Family

[Barkless Dog]

I am updating the list for the basses player I forgot, but some I dissagree with. All are brilliant, but I feel many are derivitive of the others. Yes, all players take from others, but, to me they have to have their own sound/style or advanced the bass in a large way.

If you list a person how did he advance bass playing other than being a really good bass player?

How is his sound unique to him?

Fretboard gymnastics mean little here, go to My Space and listen to 1000 musically gifted clone players who all sound the same/play without soul or creativity. There are so many amazing players today, but to further bass playing it's self, thats a tall order today.

Peter Hook is always my perfect example of a guy who just plays melodically, not a chops meister, but changed bass playing. To me, he makes music and plays real "songs", not fretboard gymnastics

But that's just my opinion.