• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Best Jazz/Funk Bassists

#21
The way I see it is calling someone a 'Jazz' bassist is someone who plays 'jazz' exclusively. Nothing to do with the skill-set. There shouldn't really be titles anymore. Hell, I play just about everything. Just did a jazz/blues gig last night. My regular gig is R&B, Funk and Soul music. I consider myself well rounded. I grew up playing it all including Latin and Caribbean music.

Wooten and Caron both can most certainly play pretty much whatever they want and that includes jazz. Jazz is no longer exclusive. It's just music. It's all music. The musicians today are phenomenal and have the skills to play anything. Bottom line, let's stop labeling ourselves! And on the other hand, don't limit yourselves! Listen to it all. Learn it all. Play it all!
 
  • Like
Reactions: Frank Kreber
#22
DWBass said:
The way I see it is calling someone a 'Jazz' bassist is someone who plays 'jazz' exclusively. Nothing to do with the skill-set. There shouldn't really be titles anymore. Hell, I play just about everything. Just did a jazz/blues gig last night. My regular gig is R&B, Funk and Soul music. I consider myself well rounded. I grew up playing it all including Latin and Caribbean music.

Wooten and Caron both can most certainly play pretty much whatever they want and that includes jazz. Jazz is no longer exclusive. It's just music. It's all music. The musicians today are phenomenal and have the skills to play anything. Bottom line, let's stop labeling ourselves! And on the other hand, don't limit yourselves! Listen to it all. Learn it all. Play it all!
Click to expand...

Is this Facebook? Where's the "Like" button?!? :)
 
#23
Roy Vogt said:
So what does it make you if you can play Jazz Standards? What does it make you if you can play a whole night with a Jazz group and not open a Real Book? What if you can negotiate the changes to Stella by Starlight or Body and Soul and play a musical solo and a bass line that makes sense and swings? What's left?
Click to expand...

I agree with you, mostly.
What I would add to this...how you play these tunes or any tune for that matter has a lot more to do with it than the actual choice of tunes you play.
Does one improvise ones solos or pre compose them is another element I find vitally important. Plenty 'fakers' on 'Jazz gigs' no?
How many wedding bands have you heard that play the Real book up and down without plying only a second's worth of jazz all night?

One player who stands out to me as a Jazz musician who plays electric bass is steve swallow.
Stanley Clarke too plays Jazz but I haven't heard him play it on the electric bass yet.

Jaco Pastorius is a difficult one-I have not heard him play jazz. I have heard him play jazz standards but when I hear him I hear licks, not Jazz.

One can't be 'great' at everything.

:)
 
#24
cnltb said:
I agree with you, mostly.
What I would add to this...how you play these tunes or any tune for that matter has a lot more to do with it than the actual choice of tunes you play.
Does one improvise ones solos or pre compose them is another element I find vitally important. Plenty 'fakers' on 'Jazz gigs' no?
How many wedding bands have you heard that play the Real book up and down without plying only a second's worth of jazz all night?

One player who stands out to me as a Jazz musician who plays electric bass is steve swallow.
Stanley Clarke too plays Jazz but I haven't heard him play it on the electric bass yet.

Jaco Pastorius is a difficult one-I have not heard him play jazz. I have heard him play jazz standards.When I hear him I hear licks, not Jazz.

One can't be 'great' at everything.

:)
Click to expand...

Get a copy of the Charlie Parker Omnibook and study it. You'll find that Parker plays licks sometimes too. So do Miles, Wes Montgomery, Keith Jarrett, Bill Evans. The idea that a Jazz Soloist is playing "a divinely inspired solo that's never been played before with a totally new language" is a dangerous myth that has crippled more than one aspiring bassist's appreciation and education with Jazz.
Everyone plays licks. Chick Corea wrote a great column for Contemporary Keyboard back in the 1970s called "The Myth of Improvisation". In my experience the licks (and I can honestly say I've got Pat Martino, Freddie Hubbard, Jaco, Jeff Berlin, Parker, Coltrane, Stanley, Sonny Rollins, Sonny Stitt and Bill Evans lurking in the background when I play) are there when you need them, much like the phrases of German I have are there when I travel to Germany. I don't start saying "ach" and "ich" sounds and trying to make up my own language-that would be gibberish. It's a common mistake a lot of Jazz students make to not learn "licks" and it usually puts them in the weeds as far as playing solos that don't make sense through changes.
A Wedding Band playing a straight read down of "Shiny Stockings" with the bassist doing a solid, unimaginative bass line isn't at the same level of performance as Ron Carter or Richard Davis playing the tunes. That requires a whole other level of dedication and Artistry. It's the level that we all aspire to if we're on this crazy and not too profitable quest in our playing.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Frank Kreber
#25
Roy Vogt said:
Get a copy of the Charlie Parker Omnibook and study it. You'll find that Parker plays licks sometimes too. So do Miles, Wes Montgomery, Keith Jarrett, Bill Evans. The idea that a Jazz Soloist is playing "a divinely inspired solo that's never been played before with a totally new language" is a dangerous myth that has crippled more than one aspiring bassist's appreciation and education with Jazz.
Everyone plays licks. Chick Corea wrote a great column for Contemporary Keyboard back in the 1970s called "The Myth of Improvisation". In my experience the licks (and I can honestly say I've got Pat Martino, Freddie Hubbard, Jaco, Jeff Berlin, Parker, Coltrane, Stanley, Sonny Rollins, Sonny Stitt and Bill Evans lurking in the background when I play) are there when you need them, much like the phrases of German I have are there when I travel to Germany. I don't start saying "ach" and "ich" sounds and trying to make up my own language-that would be gibberish. It's a common mistake a lot of Jazz students make to not learn "licks" and it usually puts them in the weeds as far as playing solos that don't make sense through changes.
A Wedding Band playing a straight read down of "Shiny Stockings" with the bassist doing a solid, unimaginative bass line isn't at the same level of performance as Ron Carter or Richard Davis playing the tunes. That requires a whole other level of dedication and Artistry. It's the level that we all aspire to if we're on this crazy and not too profitable quest in our playing.
Click to expand...

It goes without saying that players use licks. I have no problem with that at all. Everyone does it and with good reason,as you point out too.
It's when I hear the same things all the time I start asking questions. Those solos become boring to listen too."a divinely inspired solo that's never been played before with a totally new language" is not at all what I am talking about.
Using licks once in a while and in an interesting way most of the time is.
I did the omnibook, realbook(s), transcribed and practised plenty solos, just as most other players I know have.
Then analyse those solos and melodies.
The benefits thereof are obvious.
I find practising licks on their ow rather useless however. Good only when you find them used by others and understand the context where and how they are used-as solutions to actual musical questions. It's quite legitimate and useful to then adopt these into ones own tool box.
I find them entirely useless when practised from a 'list of licks' however as I have seen done plenty times as well.
Practicing scales too has proven useful to me.
 
#27
I think most 'inspired & divine' solos are all derivatives of scales. That's not to say there are some musicians out there who can in fact, just drop a solo off the top of their head.

Not all 'jazz' musicians solo all the time. And I don't think it should be a requirement. Having said that, I get to solo every now and then on a 'jazz' gig but I only do so when I'm inspired. Otherwise, please don't call me out! LOL!
 
#28
I forgot... I said...'Good only when you find them used by others'.
They are of course good too when you find things in your own playing and go back and analyse what it is you did , to solve a certain situation. Then it's quite okay to go 'Hey... I quite like what I just did there! ":)
 
#29
I was so busy debating I forgot to post my guys:
Jazz: (Lifted from my profile)
Influences:Jaco, Jeff Berlin, Bill Dickens,Victor Wooten, Alain Caron, Dann Glenn, Richard Bona, Gerald Veasley, Jimmy Haslip, et. al. (electric)
Stanley Clarke (upright/electric), Brian Bromberg (upright/electric), John Pattitucci (upright/electric) Scott LaFaro, Ron Carter, Eddie Gomez, Michel Donato, Ray Brown (upright), Dave Friesen, Eberhard Weber, Rob Wasserman (electric upright)
Funk: Louis Johnson, Chuck Rainey, Willie Weeks, James Jamerson, Bernard Odum (and all the James Brown Bassists),Bootsy, Mark Adams, Verdine White, Paul Jackson, Rocco Prestia, Doug Rauch, Robert "Kool" Bell, Freekbass, Stephen "Thundercat" Bruner, Andrew Gouche, Billy "Bass" Nelson, Steve Forrest, Keith Horne and John Billings with The Wootens, Mark King, Pino Palladino, etc.
Marcus Miller "Mac Miller" would fit in both categories.
 
#30
cnltb said:
I agree with you, mostly.
What I would add to this...how you play these tunes or any tune for that matter has a lot more to do with it than the actual choice of tunes you play.
Does one improvise ones solos or pre compose them is another element I find vitally important. Plenty 'fakers' on 'Jazz gigs' no?
How many wedding bands have you heard that play the Real book up and down without plying only a second's worth of jazz all night?

One player who stands out to me as a Jazz musician who plays electric bass is steve swallow.
Stanley Clarke too plays Jazz but I haven't heard him play it on the electric bass yet.

Jaco Pastorius is a difficult one-I have not heard him play jazz. I have heard him play jazz standards.When I hear him I hear licks, not Jazz.

:)
Click to expand...

I don't know. To say Stanley never play jazz on electric or Jaco played licks, not jazz.... I sometimes wonder how people can be so harsh.

I have found lot of Jaco accompaniments are very spontaneous. And to say these players uses licks , maybe they have some vocabs they use very often, but it also involve the ability to phrase on the spot. The dynamics, phrasing, articulation are all spontaneous and they are all well executed.

And they both got such an original voice on their instrument.

The label of jazz is just too heavy.

My favorite jazz bassist; Ron carter, Jeff Berlin, Dario deidda, Jaco, ray brown.

Funk: james Jamerson, pino, sharay Reed, meshell.
 
#31
bass_study said:
I don't know. To say Stanley never play jazz on electric or Jaco played licks, not jazz.... I sometimes wonder how people can be so harsh.

I have found lot of Jaco accompaniments are very spontaneous. And to say these players uses licks , maybe they have some vocabs they use very often, but it also involve the ability to phrase on the spot. The dynamics, phrasing, articulation are all spontaneous and they are all well executed.

And they both got such an original voice on their instrument.

The label of jazz is just too heavy.

My favorite jazz bassist; Ron carter, Jeff Berlin, Dario deidda, Jaco, ray brown.

Funk: james Jamerson, pino, sharay Reed, meshell.
Click to expand...

Where did I say that Stanley never played Jazz on the electric?
Please read posts properly if you are going to critically comment on them. If you re-read mine you'll see I never said such thing. :)

The lick thing has been dealt with I'd say.
Same goes for labels( The consensus seems to be that most players are way to big for any one box.)
I do very much agree that both, Jaco Pastorius and Stanley Clarke do speak with distinctive voices on their instrument.:)
 
#32
Roy Vogt said:
I was so busy debating I forgot to post my guys:
Jazz: (Lifted from my profile)
Influences:Jaco, Jeff Berlin, Bill Dickens,Victor Wooten, Alain Caron, Dann Glenn, Richard Bona, Gerald Veasley, Jimmy Haslip, et. al. (electric)
Stanley Clarke (upright/electric), Brian Bromberg (upright/electric), John Pattitucci (upright/electric) Scott LaFaro, Ron Carter, Eddie Gomez, Michel Donato, Ray Brown (upright), Dave Friesen, Eberhard Weber, Rob Wasserman (electric upright)
Funk: Louis Johnson, Chuck Rainey, Willie Weeks, James Jamerson, Bernard Odum (and all the James Brown Bassists),Bootsy, Mark Adams, Verdine White, Paul Jackson, Rocco Prestia, Doug Rauch, Robert "Kool" Bell, Freekbass, Stephen "Thundercat" Bruner, Andrew Gouche, Billy "Bass" Nelson, Steve Forrest, Keith Horne and John Billings with The Wootens, Mark King, Pino Palladino, etc.
Marcus Miller "Mac Miller" would fit in both categories.
Click to expand...

Marcus Miller is 'Mac Miller'?
I never heard that before.:)
Like his playing/his music or not...he sure is one fantastic player!:hyper:
 
#36
bass12 said:
I'm wondering why you would classify Jamerson as a funk player.
Click to expand...

He uses lots of 16notes and syncopation. and the style of Motown music sounds little bit like those south eastern funk like memphis funk to me.

Sometimes I don't know how to categorize... Maybe he is a jazz bassist as he also play jazz in bars at Detroit. Or he plays so many hits he is a pop bassists? He should not be rock bassist...
 
#37
bass_study said:
He uses lots of 16notes and syncopation. and the style of Motown music sounds little bit like those south eastern funk like memphis funk to me.

Sometimes I don't know how to categorize... Maybe he is a jazz bassist as he also play jazz in bars at Detroit. Or he plays so many hits he is a pop bassists? He should not be rock bassist...
Click to expand...

I can't think of a single Jamerson track that I would describe as "funk". I don't even think of Jamerson as being terribly funky. In fact, I think the Funk Brothers moniker is totally unwarranted. :hiding:
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back