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Favourite Jamerson songs

#42
markjazzbassist said:
i've always wondered who the bass player on barry's stuff was. he doesn't list musicians.
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Felder was arranger Gene Page's (Barry White's arranger) first call bass player. On guitarist Jay Graydon's website, the rhythm section on most of White's stuff Ray Parker Jr., David T. Walker, Melvin Ragin, and himself on guitar, Felder on bass, and Ed Greene on drums. That stuff all written out except for guitar fills by Ragin and Walker.
 
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#52
Bassist30 said:
Carol Kay I believe stated she did the bass track... There has been a long battle between this track as to who played bass on it. After hearing it for awhile, I get the feeling it was more structured than I am use to in a JJ Motown tune. What do you think?
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Compare this solo bass track with the bass line on the original Bernadette. Not even close. I have always thought the bass line on Bernadette was simplistic and lacking soul compared to the best of JJ's work...but it kinda sounds like him. This solo track doesn't. Not the tone, not the touch...nothing.
 
#53
Bernadette: The Fo
Bassist30 said:
Carol Kay I believe stated she did the bass track... There has been a long battle between this track as to who played bass on it. After hearing it for awhile, I get the feeling it was more structured than I am use to in a JJ Motown tune. What do you think?
Click to expand...


I was 13 when my sister brought home the silver and red The Four Tops Greatest Hits album. When it got to Bernadette, I played the song over and over. The Bass part is truly showstopping regardless of who's playing it.
 
#55
I have noticed that Jamerson really lets loose on some of those mid 1960s Four Tops songs. Jamerson's deep soul grooves and Levi Stubbs' driven lead vocals are one of the best combinations ever put on magnetic tape. Bernadette, Standing in the Shadows. Nobody ever mentions "It's The Same Old Song" when talking about his Four Tops work, though, but that is a favorite of mine at least. Love that one.

Another song that gets overlooked often is "Nowhere To Run" by Martha and the Vandellas. That is just a master class on how to nail R & B bass by the Hook. Great song. "You Keep Me Hanging On" by the Supremes is another excellent, overlooked bass masterpiece.
 
#57
Bassist30 said:
Carol Kay I believe stated she did the bass track... There has been a long battle between this track as to who played bass on it. After hearing it for awhile, I get the feeling it was more structured than I am use to in a JJ Motown tune. What do you think?
Click to expand...


I just don't believe the original Four Tops track was Carol Kaye. That sounds like a Jamerson line played by Jamerson on his bass, with his super heavy dead strings plugged right into the board in the snakepit.

Carol Kaye may very well have recorded a bass track for a different version of Bernadette---I have heard Berry Gordy used LA musicians to record backing tracks for TV specials or something like that. He did outsource stuff to LA, but those H-D-H Four Tops tracks were cut in Detroit with the Funk Brothers.
 

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