Your opinions of the top 5 bassists

[skylotron]

Feel free to say what you want about other peoples' choices.
My opinion:
1. Jaco
2. Victor Wooten
3. Les Claypool
4. Geddy Lee
5. Flea

[scottbass]

Right now I know for a fact that I'm the top living bassist within a mile of where I am right now - unless Pino Palladino's car just broke down in front of my house.

[fing3rs]

1. Jaco
2. Percy Jones
3. Gary Willis
4. Geddy Lee

[Billy Low]

Originally Posted by scottbass

Right now I know for a fact that I'm the top living bassist within a mile of where I am right now - unless Pino Palladino's car just broke down in front of my house.

I'm the best bass player in my house! No, wait, I'm homeless.

[fortvideo]

Feel free to say what you want about other peoples' choices.
My opinion:
1. Jaco
2. Victor Wooten
3. Les Claypool
4. Geddy Lee
5. Flea
__________________

+1

[j-raj]

1. anthony jackson
2. vic
3. matthew garrison
4. christian mcbride
5. neal fountain

[yamaha]

Honestly, some of the best bassists, and musicians, that I've seen to date are studio-variety show-corporate event musicians who's names you will never hear about, but man do they do it well.

Recently, beeing in Montreal, I was fortunate to see a Cirque du Soleil rehearsal, with acrobats, gymnasts, and and live musicians, and it blew my mind.

[PrimusNut]

Is this in order of your FAVORITE, or who you think is the BEST?

I will make my list with the favorites.

1. Cliff Burton
2. Geezer Butler
3. Geddy Lee
4. Joey DeMaio
5. Les Claypool

I think Frank Bello would be #6 on my list.

[Sound Chaser]

There are two kinds of bassists to me, those that solo extensively and those that don't. Since it's hard to tell who's better between the two, I'll have a list for each.

No particular order.

Solo:
Billy Sheehan
Adam Nitti
Victor Wooten
Stanley Clarke
Jaco Pastorius

Don't Solo:
Tony Levin
Geddy Lee
Chris Squire
John Paul Jones
John Wetton

[seansbrew]

My top bassists change every day so heres the latest.


1. Damien Erskine
2. Mike Gordon
3. Jesse Murphy (I'm just really into the Uber Jam recording right now)
4. Mike Watt (The man in the van w/the bass in hand)
5. Vic

[Deathblade Eric]

My five:

1: Jack Bruce
1: Colin Hodgkinson
1: John Paul Jones
1: Lemmy
1: Percy Jones

Bubbling under...

Pino Palladino, Entwistle, Greg Lake, Tony Levin & Vincent Crane's left hand.

[JamesM]

Jaco
James Jamerson
Aston Familyman Barret
Stanley Clarke
Mark King

[Alan Vorse]

Danny Bonaduce
Peter Tork
Derek Smalls
The bass player from the White Stripes
Dude playing a wash-tub bass on the sidewalk in Nashville

[hunta]

Jaco isn't on everyone's list? IMO, when someone asks this kind of question it's like the list is already half made for you. Jaco, Wooten, every bass player should know them and if you've heard them you know they're at the top. There are some others who probably should be in that "instant recognition of greatness" category, but they aren't well known enough.

1. Jaco
2. Oteil
3. Wooten
4. Claypool
5. Mike Huckabee



I mean! 5. Squarepusher

It's really not easy to make a list like this, there's so many bassists that are amazing.

[bkbirge]

Favs, no particular order (Jaco is a given in any list like this so he's not listed).

1) Stanley Clarke - the king, check out his youtube solo upright bass video clip, still doing things beyond everyone else
2) Marcus Miller - watching him play is a master class everytime
3) Kev Hopper - check out Stump - A Fierce Pancake for some seriously ahead of the times playing, I've never heard anyone sound like this guy, very unconventional and percussive
4) Bill Laswell - check out Baselines, monster chops and writing
5) Mark Egan - more bass players should know about this guy

[CraigG]

Top 5 in what regard? I can't understand why we keep doing posts like this.

Oh well, I'll throw my favorite player into the list because he always seems to get overlooked in these forums yet he has more credits than any other player mentioned so far (and the following link's information is several years old)...

Abraham Laboriel, Sr.


Craig

[BassIsBoss]

Mingus...Ron Carter...Jamerson....Family Man...Jaco...

[PSPookie]

In no particular order:

Phil Lesh
Mike Gordon
Family Man Barret
James Jamerson
Vic Wooten

Honorable mention to: Rob Derhak, Bob Babbitt, John Entwhistle

[DZIB]

1. Chris Squire - Amazing writer of bass lines. Without Squire there may never have been Geddy!
2. Jaco - His work with Joni is worth the price of admission. If you have not seen his DVD "Jaco Pastorious - Modern Electric Bass" you must. It is absolutely amazing.
3. Tony Levin - The master of restraint.
4. Mike Rutherford - Another amazingly melodic player. Always under the "players" radar.
5. Nick Seymour - Just saw Crowded House last night (still on a high). Nobody ever talks about Seymour. He is the prototype of what a bass player should be. Last night he pulled Neil Finn back into the song "Fall At Your Feet" when he went into the chorus instead of the 2nd verse. He didn't waiver for a second and held everything together. If you want to experience a master in songwriting, get any CH album. Neil Finn is regarded as one of the premier songwriters of our time (up there with Lennon, McCartney, Dylan, etc.). I'm dead serious!

[lefty007]

In no particular order:

1-Jaco
2-Ray Brown
3-James Jamerson
4-Family Man
5-John Patitucci

Others I really like: Bunny Brunnel, Victor Wooten, Victor Bailey, Tony Levin, Kai Eckhardt, Billy Sheehan, Oteil.


I'm still baffled on how Les Claypool is so popular. His tone sounds like farts, his voice and compositions are terribly annoying. Sure, he can do some cool slappity-slap licks here and there, but that's all.

And as much as I used to love Flea and the RHCP, I think he's only popular because he brought funk into rock, but his playing is not all that great. Specially now that he's doing all this "melodic" stuff in the upper registers. Where is the low end, Flea?