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Mark Adams, me luff you long tynge!

L

lucas vigor

Inactive
Sep 2, 2004
2,209
22
Orange County, Ca,
#1
I absolutely dig Mark Adams from Slave. I think the guy is funky, with a unique tone...to me, he is like the Chris Squire of 70's funk! I have all thier records, and on each track..the bass just comes out of the speakers and slaps you in the face!

"wait for me".....awesome!
"stone jam"...dig those double stops!!!
 
#2
Be fair warned that Steve Washington "the fearless leader" played on a lot of their tracks and he's just as good a Mark!!! He left to join Aurra to play bass full time seeing as he was the trumpet player and producer for SLAVE. I'm glad there are TB'rs who are starting to bring these guys to attention. Mark Adams put funk bass on a new level and I have had the pleasure of seeing him live on several occasions. You dont know FUNK if you aint got no SLAVE. My faves were:

"sizzlin' Hot"-slap anthem
"watching you"-fingerstyle virtuosity
"stellar fungk"- hendrix meetsbootsy meets peter frampton meets EW&F
"Are you single"-Steve played on this one-BEAST BASS!!!
"Baby sinister"-straight pocket funk
"snapshot"-that tone, that tone!!!!GRRRROOWWWLYYYY
"Slide"-jazz bass grooooove, beautiful and powerful
"wait for me"-played with a pick...........and funky
 
#4
Yeah, I realized it was someone else on the Aurra song "are you single?"....

That is one awesome bass part! I could tell the difference in that it was a lot cleaner and smoother sounding...good, but different then Mark Adams..It's wierd how that particuular line starts the song out, and you are not sure how it fits into the beat...then the drums start, and it all makes sense!

Mark Adams, on the other hand, has a wonderfully strange tone...sounds like he is playing through a chorus box, while using a pencil as the pick!

Very cool!

BYTW, "weak at the knees" is off Steve Arrington's solo album, and I believe the song is the inspiration for "gansta Gansta" by NWA (but I believe they did not use a sample, just kind of copied the main riff)
 
#5
Mark Adams was one of my main influences during Slave's heyday! I copped many grooves and licks from Mark. I consider him an indirect teacher as I do many other Funk bass players from that era!

You need to check out all the stuff Leon Sylvers and Foster Sylvers did for the Solar label. Classic bass work on all the Shalamar, Dynasty and Whispers hits! If you can play any of those licks, then you got funk fo' sho'!!

"And The Beat Goes On" = Classic!
"It's A Love Thang" = Classic!
 
#6
I got all of Leon's stuff with Dynasty!! One hell of a bass player and one of the most sampled producers in the bussiness, the Whispers "And the beat goes on" has one of the tightest funk bass lines there is, played by Leon. I got Leon's AND Fosters solo stuff also(very hard to get). Foster had a band called hi-tek and IMO was way funkier than his mentor Leon, of coarse this might have to do with him taking private lessons from Stanley Clarke!!! heres two more forgotten ones for ya

Nathaniel Phillips-Peasure, Kool'R,Jeff Lorber,Dazz Band,Ronnie Laws,Teena Marie

Cedric Martin-ConFunkShun

I havent met ANYONE who can play "GLIDE" correctly by Pleasure,out of nowhere Nate killed all slappers on that one.
 
#8
Nah, but Lakeside was/is a great band. Lakesides sound was little more "glossy" than Slave, more of a Slave with Laquer :) they had a great bass player, two as I can remember, one by the name of Stephan Shockley. Their sound was widely radio friendly whereas Slave wasnt always accepted due to their unorthodox song structures( some songs with extra long intro's and lots of stuff with one verse and being instrumental for 2-3 mins, and odd time signatures like "Stone Jam".) Lakeside and slave still tours. Not sure but I think Lakeside is from California, they were on SOLAR which stands for "S.ound O.f L.os A.ngeles R.ecords". Members of Slave are from Dayton and NewJerzy. As far as Albums go, any one of 'em are worth your money. :)
 
#9
I know this is becoming a redundant thread but you can't not mention Brainstorm when talking about funk bands with killer bassists (Deon Estus)!

Getting back to Slave, I dug Mark Adams style of using effects, slides and double stops!! Snapshot had one of the simplest basslines but when he threw in that doublestop, I was like 'Oh s**t, no he didn't just do that'!! That's the true meaning of funk! Not so much how skilled you are in the slapping dept. or regular playing but in where you lay down those inflections! You either got the funk or you don't!
 
#10
:eek: Man oh man how did I forget CAMEO with the outstanding Aaron Mills!!!! Currently the bassist for Outkast!!! Cameo was militaristic in their approach to funk,VERY tight thundering grooves and VERY intricate vocal arrangements, who can forget Larry Blackmon's W C Fields type vocals over those driving tracks?
 
#11
Aaron Mills from Cameo is my all time favorite bassist, Aaron laid down some of the most aggresive bass lines in funk, with a very sick vibrato, check out "Your love takes me out".

I remember back in the day's in order the join the neiborhood funk group, you had to know how to play "Slide" from Slave, that was like all you had to know, nothing else. :) The "Sir Hansolor" left his mark in the world of music.

Marvin Craig was/is the bassist for Lakeside, check out "Fantastic Voyage", "Raid". Stephan Shockley plays Lead&Rhythm Guitar, although they did have a Bass sythc player who doubled Mavin's bass lines.

Foster Slyver Produced a track for Evelyn "Champane" King back in the mid 80's, I cant remember the name of the song, but it has a wicked slap line that's "O" so funky.
 
#13
I love this thread! I was just thinking about Leon and Foster Sylvers the other day. I've got to find CDs of Shalamar and Dynasty. I always loved those Sylvers guys because they sounded unique. I saw Leon live with Dynasty and he was playing a Rick 4001. He used flatwounds with a pick and the mutes turned up on his Rick. That was a cool sound that nobody outside of Solar records used.
I had Rick back in those days and I put on flatwounds and turned up my mutes to mimic him, but I had gotten too used to roundwounds and had to go back.

Mark Adams and Steve Washington are the baddest of the bad, they were super roundwound, maxed out treble funk. That sound killed fingerstyle or slapped. I remember seeing Slave live and Mark Adams was the first bassist I ever remember seeing with a monster rack mounted system.
 
#16
Yeah, Mark Adams also was the first guy I saw LIVE with a three pickup jazz bass!!!! and I'm sure it was active because no solo with passive pups sounds like that, it's sounded like cannons being fired in syncopated rythm. yeah the guy who designed Louis Johnsons rack, designed Marks too. Mark also used Alembics on the album "The Hardness of the World".
 
#17
Phil Smith said:
Get a hold of some Mtume while you're at it.
Click to expand...


+1
Raymond Jackson the bassist for Mtume, Check out there 4th album entitled You, Me And He. silky smooth fingerstyle playing on every cut.

He played a Sunburst Fender Jazz, I'll tell ya, nothing beats a good ole Fender J, it's a must have.
 
#18
When I hear alot of this music I grew up on, I have to ask myself, "why do I need a five string?" Of course, music moves on and contemporary Black Gospel demands the five or six, but it is good to remember just how complete and funky the basic four strings can be.
 
#19
lucas vigor said:
off topic, but was there a band called "Lakeside", that was in a similar style as Slave? I am guessing by the name that they were also a chicago based band.

If so, can anyone recommend an album?
Click to expand...

yea the band formed in Chicago, but relocated to Dayton, OH

they were awesome
 

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