Top 5 CDs every bassist should own?

[aidan.thorne]

Front Page - including bassist dominique di piazza - thats a great trio album!
Mike Stern Who Let the cats out - including bassists Victor Wooten, Richard Bona and Anthony Jackson
Chick Corea Elektric band - john patitucci!

[Derek Smalls]

Originally Posted by bkbirge

1) Bill Laswell - Baselines

4) Stump - A Fierce Pancake (or better yet, get the box set of all the recordings just released)

Stump!!!! Proper weird bass playing, and a perfect foil for Bill's Baselines.
If you like these, beg, borrow or steal a copy of Jamaaladeen Tacuma's "Dreamscape" - awesome. If you can't find that, James Carter's "Layin' in the cut" is a decent alternative. And if you want really weird, Jammaldeen's dalliance with Derek Bailey (G. Calvin Weston on drums, of course!), "Mirakle".

3 more bass player's must-haves:
Infectious Grooves - "Groove Family Cyco"
Al McDowell - "Time Peace" (if only for side 2 tr.2/3)
Ron Carter - Blues Farm

And of course, annoyingly deleted, Jonas Hellborg - "Kollektiv".

Finally, Bootsy's "Ah the name is Bootsy baby".

[chroma601]

So many great albums already listed, so I'll just submit

Gentle Giant - The Power And The Glory

My all time favorite bass line is the title track of "Three Friends", so I'd add that album as well.

[Deacon_Blues]

1. Any Motown album with Jamerson (Four Tops, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Supremes...)
2. Tower Of Power - Anthology, the self-titled album or Back To Oakland
3. Steely Dan - Any album
4. U2 - The Joshua Tree
5. Nils Landgren Funk Unit - Funky Abba

Explanations:
1. Jamerson could groove, yet seldom played predictably. His bass lines are very inventive but fits the music perfectly. Not many bassists have succeeded in this.
2. Rocco shows you how to groove as well, but in a totally different way than Jamerson. Less melodic but more percussive. The ultimate fingerstyle funk.
3. Steely Dan is perfection personified. Great bass playing by some of the greatest bassist on all tracks.
4. Adam Clayton personifies simplicity. Good, simple supportive basslines that let the focus be where it should be in U2's music - on the vocals and the guitar.
5. I must add one bassist I've met as well. Lars "Danmark" Danielsson. He can groove. When I listened to this album the first time, I had a wide smile on my face and enjoyed every second. With the risk of sounding like an 80 year old man - I remember that like it was yesterday. Excellent album, very much thanks to excellent bass playing and the not less excellent vocal arrangements.

[cnltb]

Originally Posted by mozarwasagenius

nice list. I like your taste

Thanks!!
...and I missed out sooo much.
show me better bass writing than in most music by bach, for example-any MUSICIAN should know it, as wel as stravinsky, webern, schönberg, mozart ( currently listening to the requiem a lot, and quite bowled over) etc etc etc.
I find the Bad album, or "off the wall" by m. jackson interesting too, when talking pop bass-and solid song writing.
Anything by gary willis is good- at least played well.
Thomas dolby has put down some very useful synth bass.
Drew gress writes very interesting music which I think won't hurt anyone.
William parker is another "must", I think.
And the records by viktor krauss are real nice too.
Also check out john abercrombies trio albums " speak of the devil", "while we're young"and tactics"- no strung bass, but absolutelly incredible dan wall on hammond orgen.
For interplay: listen to the keith jarrett trio records.

...sorry for getting carried away yet again!

Sooo much music!!! ( my "problem" with a question such as that posed in this thread, is first, and obviously that I get carried away easily , but also that I mostly listen to the music as a whole and get just as much out of the guitar or horn or drums , as I do from the bass playing on a specific record or song)

[JTE]

Anohter five must-haves...

1. The live Donny Hathaway album. Get the one with Willie Weeks playing bass, and the song "Everything Is Everything (Voices Inside)".

2. The live Aretha Franklin at the Fillmore- it's got King Curtis' All-Start with Jerry Jemmott on bass (and Cornell Dupree, and Billy Preston, plus a guest appearance by Ray Charles). Also in this should be the King Curtis live album too. I put them together because they were recorded at the same shows. King Curtis opened for Aretha, and then they backed her up.

3. "Wheels of Fire" to cover Jack Bruce's live and studio work in Cream. He once said "Just because the bass has a specific funciton, doesn't mean you have to fulfill that function in the traditional way."

4. Either "Bless Its Pointed Little Head" by Jefferson Airplane or "Hot Tuna" (the first one, the live acoustic recording) by Hot Tuna. Jack Cassady at his best. The real pilot of JA, and his telepathic interplay with Jorma is something most jam bands can't even comprehend.

5. "Hitsville USA" boxed set- Jamerson along with Bob Babbit, Wilton Felder, and Carol Kaye. Jamerson's approach to bass simply changed not only bass players, but how OTHER musicians conceived the bass. He's as earth-shaking as Jaco was.

Wow- that's tough to do. I've left out too many critical recordings I think bassitst no matter their genre should listen to. I got no Marcus Miller, Victor Wooten, Emory Gordy, Paul McCartney, Leland Skar, Duck Dunn, Chuck Rainey, Berry Oakley, Chris Hillman, Bee Spears, Freebo, Stephen Stills, David Hood, nor Larry Graham in there!!

jte

[cnltb]

Originally Posted by aidan.thorne

Front Page - including bassist dominique di piazza - thats a great trio album!
Mike Stern Who Let the cats out - including bassists Victor Wooten, Richard Bona and Anthony Jackson

Meshell ndegeocello also plays on "who let the cats out", no?
"getting even" by Dennis Chambers has some nice playing- Anythony jackson and gary grainger are on bass if I'm not mistaken .
Basically two ensembles. The one with Anthony jackson has john scofield too( with a great scofield solo on the last track "Until we return).From a bassplaying point of view I got a lot out of anthony jacksons' playing on this record. Very well played and tasteful too.

[Kirkowitz]

Willie Dixon is missing from this list. Chess records- check it out

[AlstottMVP2]

thank you. i've been on youtube listening nonstop.

[CerealKiller]

Just stumbled across this thread....

This months Bass Player mag gives a good list from the past 20 years and reasons why they think so. Selections are amongst all genre.

[mobax]

Originally Posted by iamthebassman

Elton John: 11/17/70

Great pick.

[KPAX]

Beatles - Abbey Road
Led Zeppelin - II
Led Zeppelin - III
Rush - Permanent Waves
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Blood Sugar Sex Magick

[RobJ]

Haven't seen this one suggested; Hitsville USA: The Motown Singles Collection 1959-1971. It's a box set and if you dig Jamerson and Babbit, and the Motown sound you'll find it here.

[Willy2911]

1. Weather report (Jaco)
2. Sly and the family stone/ Graham centeral station - (Larry Graham)
3. Stanley Clark, Marcus Miller, Victor Wooten- (SMV)
4. Iron Maiden
5. Primus (sailing throught the seas of cheese)
6. Tool
7. RHCP Blood Sugar Sex Magick

[markkoelsch]

Rush- Moving Pictures
Return To Forever- Romantic Warrior
Iron Maiden- Piece of Mind
Stu Hamm- Kings of Sleep
Yes- Fragile

[KPAX]

Ray Schulman - HELL YEAH!!!!
A prog pick player that was ... funky!
There's your p-bass tone.

Originally Posted by chroma601

So many great albums already listed, so I'll just submit

Gentle Giant - The Power And The Glory

My all time favorite bass line is the title track of "Three Friends", so I'd add that album as well.

[Kindofblue]

Originally Posted by cnltb

Chaka kahn- naughty and/or what'cha gonna do for me
peter gabriel - so
miles davis-we want miles and/or/miles miles miles and of course all the stuff from the 50s and 60s
weather report- heavy weather
steve swallow- real book and damaged in transit
nhop- uncharted land
dave holland- critical mass
donald fagen - the nightfly ( and just for the tone and quality of the recording-morph the cat)
john scofield -still warm
steve khan- the suitcase
dave douglas- charms of the nightsky ( very nicely understated)
ron carter and jim hall-alone together.
flecktones - bela fleck and the flecktones,or flight of the cosmic hippo, or maybe even left of cool,and life at the quick.
herbie hancock-headhunters
mingus - blues and roots, tichuana moods etc
...and sooo many more

wins for only true post in this thread

[burk48237]

Heavy Weather: Weather Report/Jaco Pastorius
Everything a bass can be, ecspecially the solo in Havana

Dogman-Kings X/ Dug Pinnock
What a bass should sound like in hard driving rock

Chicago V- Chicago/Peter Cetera
A clinic on tasteful playing in and advanced pop setting

The Nightfly-The Nightfly/Anthony Jackson, Will Lee, Marcus Miller, Chuck Rainey, Hot damn, I was going to list Aja, but the nightfly is a primer on tasteful sideman playing.

A Turn of the Century-Stevie Wonder/ James Jamerson/ Nathan Watts. In between Jamersons motown playing, Stevies Keyboard taste, and Natan watts groves, this anthology works!

FIVE IS NOT ENOUGH

Honorable mention: Aja (Steely Dan), What's Going On (Marvin Gaye), M2 (Marcus Miller), Fragile (Yes), Regatta de Blanc(The Police), Hitsville USA (Motown singles), Blue Matter (John Scofield), Soul Vaccination Live (TOP)

[cnltb]

Originally Posted by waynobass

Thanks, I'm going to buy these "five" CDs immediately.

Well, if you only wanted 5 you shouldn't have started a thread about it...-just think of mine as a few posts in one.

By the way...has anyone mentioned john scofield's shinola and out like a light?
Or-the roots "come alive" , or ...