reggae bassist-who's your favorite?

[bfidel]

some of the best bass lines came out of recording studios in Kingston. what bass player do you love from this genera? what are some your favorite reggae bass albums?

[Basseroni]

Aston "Family Man" Barrett and "any" Bob Marley recording.

[baba]

There can be only one - Family Man.

[jmattis]

Family Man's awesome, but don't forget Robbie Shakespeare-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ty_uy...eature=related

[kesslari]

There can be many. Family man is at the top.
But Robbie is incredible in a very different style.
And "Flabba" Holt of the Roots Radics is another favorite.
I love Richie Daley (Third World) too for his success in fusing Jazz and Funk sensibilities successfully into reggae music.

[DumpsterDave]

Family Man
Ronnie 'Stepper' McQueen
Alvin Ewen

[One Drop]

Fams!

I love and respect so many, and one who never gets the namecheck he deserves is Leroy Sibbles. Many of the lines he created at studio One are still being versioned today, and stand up as all-timers. His lovely muting and note shaping preceded Family Man's great body of work and remind me of him sometimes.

But for the combination of upright like tone, sheer melodic genius, and for his influence on later greats like his protégé Robbie Shakespeare, Aston Barrett is the man for me if i had to choose.

Others I rate very highly are:

Lloyd Brevett
Jackie Jackson
Val Johnson
Errol 'Bagga' Walker
Lloyd Parkes
Boris Gardiner
George 'Fully' Fullwood
Errol 'Flabba' Holt

Each has a distinctive voice, has appeared on countless recordings, and have contributed fully to the wonderful body of music that laid the foundation for today's players. Many of these never received the credit or financial recompense for their monumental efforts, but that's reggae, and bass playing for you.

[bass12]

Jackie Mittoo! Okay, he was an organist, but he contributed some of the most-used bass lines in reggae. A big "+1" for both Flabba Holt and Ronnie McQueen. Those early Steel Pulse records had some wonderful bass playing on them. Robbie Shakespeare stretched things farther than most of the other J.A. guys, in my opinion. I especially love listening to what he did with Black Uhuru and on the Compass Point studio sessions with various artists (Grace Jones' three Compass Point albums still sound remarkably fresh to my ears). Leroy Sibbles is also, as One Drop pointed out, highly underrated.

[Deluge Of Sound]

Originally Posted by One Drop

Fams!

I love and respect so many, and one who never gets the namecheck he deserves is Leroy Sibbles. Many of the lines he created at studio One are still being versioned today, and stand up as all-timers. His lovely muting and note shaping preceded Family Man's great body of work and remind me of him sometimes.

But for the combination of upright like tone, sheer melodic genius, and for his influence on later greats like his protégé Robbie Shakespeare, Aston Barrett is the man for me if i had to choose.

Others I rate very highly are:

Lloyd Brevett
Jackie Jackson
Val Johnson
Errol 'Bagga' Walker
Lloyd Parkes
Boris Gardiner
George 'Fully' Fullwood
Errol 'Flabba' Holt

Each has a distinctive voice, has appeared on countless recordings, and have contributed fully to the wonderful body of music that laid the foundation for today's players. Many of these never received the credit or financial recompense for their monumental efforts, but that's reggae, and bass playing for you.

That's a pretty comprehensive list & post.

[Andy2]

I listen/play a lot of reggae

Aston Family Man -- Of Course

Others (my favorites):

All Early Steel Pulse Recordings
All Early recordings from Black Uhuru (Robbie Shakespare was one of them)
Sly & Robbie (robbie shakespare again) check their Dub Albums
Israel Vibration (whoever play bass for them ,, they got great simple lines)
Midnite - reggae band from the virgin islands - GREAT Simple very solid reggae Riifs
Cultura Profectica - reggae band from puerto Rico - ufffff that guy can Play (and he's also the lead singer - he use a 5 string)

You can check other bands like : Culture, Augustus Pablo, Groundnation, Peter Tosh (of course), Pablo Moses, Matisyahu, los Cafres (from Argentina), Alpha Blondy, Johns brown reggae, Gladiators and many more

[Andy2]

By the way, check out this guy from youtube:

ALIONBASS - lots of videos with close ups,, good reggae player

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=...SS&view=videos

Also Jimbo662 , got covered a lot Bob marley tunes ,, check him out

http://www.youtube.com/user/jimbo662

[Andrew Jones]

Jackie Mitto wrote the lines on his instrmentals?

If so....Much Love,,,I know all those and theeyyy'rrrre Great!



Aj

[que-ever]

J Bonner, baby.

[One Drop]

Originally Posted by Andrew Jones

Jackie Mitto wrote the lines on his instrmentals?

If so....Much Love,,,I know all those and theeyyy'rrrre Great!



Aj

He was musical director at Studio One for a year or so (a long time during those heady and prolific days) and he lead a lot of the sessions and arranged the recordings in the period when rock steady was becoming reggae. Leroy Sibbles came up under , and more or less replaced him by '68, when Mittoo was spending more and more time in Canada. Sibbles probably created a lot of the basslines for the sessions under Mittoo's control, but these sessions were all heavily collaborative, and in keeping with JA tradition, it's impossible to sort out who did exactly what as everyone claims to have done it all!

Almost all those instrumentals of the period were lead organ and sometimes lead horn or guitar parts overdubbed on the original riddim tracks recorded for vocal versions. Sometimes the same riddims served for more than one song, with different singers and lyrics.

Version galore!

[Sounbwoy]

A couple others: Courtney Panton, Derrick Barnett, Benjy Myaz to name a few. These guys would not be put in the same category as the bassists listed so far: these guys GREW up listening to them, but their contributions while not well known is just as significant

[One Drop]

Originally Posted by Sounbwoy

A couple others: Courtney Panton, Derrick Barnett, Benjy Myaz to name a few. These guys would not be put in the same category as the bassists listed so far: these guys GREW up listening to them, but their contributions while not well known is just as significant

Where would I hear these guys, Sounbwoy?

My ignorance of the next generation's bassists is pretty comprehensive, shamefully.

[Sounbwoy]

Originally Posted by One Drop

Where would I hear these guys, Sounbwoy?

My ignorance of the next generation's bassists is pretty comprehensive, shamefully.

Courtney Panton does a lot of live stuff with Monty Alexander and his sons are in a band called "New Kingston". I hear they are always in demand in NYC. He's also on MySpace.
Derrick is the founder of Sagittarius band which was one di WICKEDES' bands out of Jamdown..also on MySpace
Benjy Myaz does both reggae and jazz/reggae stuff and is a very accomplished musician and soloist on the bass-sings as well. he's played with many folks including Toots and Jimmy Cliff. Also on MySpace.
One other names to add to the list is Amlak Tafari-current bassie with Steel Pulse.
Shiah Coore- Cat's son (Musicman endorsed)
Glenn Browne- currently with Tarrus Riley and also with Monty Alexander (Goin' Yard album)-live
Fams' son also named Aston -
Rohan Reid-currently bassie for The Original Wailers (Junior and Al)
Larry Silvera - old school - Mikey Dread, Ziggy and others
Chris Meredith- Squiddly Cole/Ziggy and others (if you check some older Ziggy shows, sometimes he would have BOTH Larry AND Chris playing for him. They would trade off on songs...
These guys all have MySpace accounts. We've heard all these guys at some point.

[jerry]

Originally Posted by Andy2

I listen/play a lot of reggae

Israel Vibration (whoever play bass for them ,, they got great simple lines)

They used Roots Radics with Flabba Holt on a lot of their albums, great band, great bassist!

[One Drop]

Originally Posted by jerry

They used Roots Radics with Flabba Holt on a lot of their albums, great band, great bassist!

They still tour with them, Flabba usually on his Hofner. I've seen them a few times, cracking band, of course.

Thanks for the info, Sounbwoy, I'm going to check them out this weekend. I've probably seen a few already in backing bands, but it's near impossible to find out who plays as sidemen these days.

[jerry]

Originally Posted by One Drop

They still tour with them, Flabba usually on his Hofner. I've seen them a few times, cracking band, of course.

I really wish they would reunite with Apple Gabriel, I miss his voice in the blend.