Favourite Prog Bassist?

[tgriley62]

I had the pleasure of spending an evening with Dave earlier this year when I went to see his cover band play at a small club near Destin FL.

Super nice guy who shared some great stories of his days in Kansas. I was wearing my Song For America tour shirt from 1975, and as soon as he saw it after I walked in he came over to our table, introduced himself and sat down. He spent every break sitting at our table discussing everything from his early days with Kansas to his current gear. Very humble guy with a great sense of humor and great conversation. It was an awesome night!

That's so cool. Its great that he still plays out

 

[MCF]

Richard Sinclair, first with early Caravan, then most notably with Hatfield and the North, plus work with Robert Wyatt and Camel. Criminally overlooked. Straight outta Canterbury.

Totally agree.

 

[Charlzm]

I'd love to hear someone opine on this - I have to say that my experience is as follows - had heard of him, seen him in ads, etc, but not being a metal guy for the most part, had not heard him. A friend eventually dragged me to see DT, and what I really looked forward to was seeing what was up with Myung. And then I just wondered, could not hear him, and it seemed he was mostly not doing much of interest. The compositions perhaps are not bass-forward or reliant, but I was boggled. Then i tried some albums, and was likewise boggled. Seems a totally serviceable bassist, and of course billions of times more successful than most, but I still don't see it. Clue me in?

 

[MCF]

Managed to come up with a few more I didn't see mentioned yet.

Mike Wedgewood - Curved Air
Played with Caravan later. First band I ever saw using Synths on stage in 1972. One of the few female-fronted Prog bands.


John Ford - The Strawbs
With Rick Wakeman on organ for extra Prog cred:


Lee Jackson - The Nice
Playing Vox Teardrop Bass thru Marshall Stack with Keith Emerson on keys and cred.


Nic Potter - Van Der Graaf Generator


Steve Gould - Rare Bird
No guitar on their first two albums and David Kaffinetti, aka Viv Savage, plays Hohner Pianet. Same manager as The Nice, Van Der Graaf Generator, and Genesis so you know it's really Prog.


Bruce Hauser - Touch
Perhaps America's first true Prog band recorded in 1968. The keyboard player went from playing on The Kingsmen's "Louie Louie" to Prog pioneer in just a few years.

That, my friend, is an excellent post bringing back memories of a kinder, gentler age. All favorites. Into my vinyl vault I’ll head to reacquaint myself with some long forgotten albums that back in the day gave me hours of pleasure.

 

[blastoff]

has anyone said Greg Lake yet? Greg Lake.

 

[stuntbass77]

Ok, he probably doesn’t belong he but since no one has laid down the “prog requirements”, Ryan from Mudvayne. I’m not into that kind of music anymore but he has a style all his own, no one else like him. I guess he does jazz as well.

 

[brianrost]

Hold on, Sinclair is very much alive(as of the last time I checked, 20 minutes ago); Hatfield drummer Pip Pyle and guitarist Phil Miller, however, are long gone.

Hmm, I was sure I read an obit for him a few years ago. Sorry for any confusion.

Maybe Richard will cover this tune:

 

[Lobster11]

Julie Slick

Her solo work is not my cup of tea but she's amazing on Adrian Belew power trio

Well, there's no accounting for taste, but what she is doing with a VI in her two-bass band EchoTest is ground-breaking and blows my mind:



If you're a fan of classic prog, but don't care for the EchoTest stuff you've heard before, go directly to the fifth track, which is from their forthcoming album Daughter of Ocean:

 

[ihaveaquestion]

Well, there's no accounting for taste, but what she is doing with a VI in her two-bass band EchoTest is ground-breaking and blows my mind:



If you're a fan of classic prog, but don't care for the EchoTest stuff you've heard before, go directly to the fifth track, which is from their forthcoming album Daughter of Ocean:

I didn't listen to echotest yet, thanks for the recommendation, i'll listen when i have a chance.

 

[Charlzm]

Ok, he probably doesn’t belong he but since no one has laid down the “prog requirements”, Ryan from Mudvayne. I’m not into that kind of music anymore but he has a style all his own, no one else like him. I guess he does jazz as well.

His new instrumental project with Bon Lozaga called Soften the Glare is a bit prog. Fusion/Primus kinda thing.

 

[Stewbass1]

Smoking Dave Hope of Kansas...

 

[Axstar]

Mike Wedgewood - Curved Air
Played with Caravan later. First band I ever saw using Synths on stage in 1972. One of the few female-fronted Prog bands.

(...)

Lee Jackson - The Nice
Playing Vox Teardrop Bass thru Marshall Stack with Keith Emerson on keys and cred.

Two great choices. I agree on Nic Potter as well, though his departure from VDGG cemented their sound in a weird sense.

Mike was great with Curved Air, but his predecessor Ian Eyre (who is also in that video) deserves some credit as well. Ian played on their second album and had a hand in composing their only big hit as well. I like Curved Air, but I feel that they never delivered fully on what they promised. A few bands like that floated around back then. They had "clasically trained" members, weird eclectic electronic equipment and genre-bending compositional ideas, yet it doesn't always land. A lot of Curved Air's stuff sounds a bit dated, even for the era, and unleashing harsh electronics once in a while doesn't really improve the balance.

Lee Jackson is a pet favorite of mine. My Dad had 'Five Bridges Suite' on vinyl, and that rubbery bass tone was quite unusual and interesting to listen to. Interesting that Lee used finger picks, and used a sort-of banjo roll on the track 'Rondo' to give it a galloping rhythm. When ELP played the same tune Greg Lake went for a simple 'up-down' pick approach that removed the trotting gallop from the tune. I also like Lee Jackson's hoarse, tuneless vocals, which puts me in an extreme minority.

A bit like Curved Air, I think there was a promise and bombast about The Nice that wasn't there in ELP. Some of what The Nice came up with was pure garbage, but I feel that they dug away at the 'power trio' concept a bit harder than ELP. There is a bloated, harsh, coked-up un-groove to ELP's music that puts me off it, though I like Tarkus and their debut album.


My suggestions that might be overlooked are:

Pekka Pohjola. Finnish bassist who played in the band Wigwam, had his own band, and also had a brief but symbiotic working relationship with Mike Oldfield. I really only know the album 'Fairyport' by Wigwam, but Pekka's playing is brilliantly inventive and musical, and he clearly had an advanced ear for picking out sympathetic counter melodies; sometimes at impressive speed.

Mike Howlett. Played in the pan-genre space/Cantebury/prog/pothead pixie band Gong. He features on the classic run of albums Angel's Egg, You and Shamal (and the track Ooby-Scooby Doomsday or The D-day DJ's Got the D.D.T. Blues, which is peak Gong weirdness). He had a light-fingered and funky approach and an impressive feel for the groove. This sets him apart from other heavy handed pick-favouring prog players who put harmonic complexity and raw speed ahead of rhythmic sensibilities. He also played with the three guys out the Police in a proto-Police band called Strontium 90, which feeds my theory that the best musicians of that era didn't consider punk to be a threat (just as the best punk musicians of the era didn't write off prog rock).

Francis Moze: An early French fretless player who played on Gong's 'Flying Teapot' album having previously been a member of 'Zeuhl' band Magma. Being in two weird, cult French bands makes you cool in my book.

 

[jamro217]

Bert Ruiter (Focus) is no slouch, either.

 

[txdahaley]

Richard Sinclair, first with early Caravan, then most notably with Hatfield and the North, plus work with Robert Wyatt and Camel. Criminally overlooked. Straight outta Canterbury.

Yeeeaaaaaahhhhhhhhh! We got to open for him at The Hop in Fort Worth back in... umm... 1993?

 

[txdahaley]

Francis Moze: An early French fretless player who played on Gong's 'Flying Teapot' album having previously been a member of 'Zeuhl' band Magma. Being in two weird, cult French bands makes you cool in my book.

Yeah. Those Magma bassists are all really great. Was lucky enough to see them in NYC a few years ago. Philippe Bussonnet is one of the scariest bass players I've ever seen.

 

[txdahaley]

Mick Karn
Colin Moulding
Gary Weinrib
Doug Keyser

Keyser isn’t a household name by any means, but when I was 15 and I heard this album, I was amazed!! Hell, I still am.

Used to see WatchTower a lot in the late 80s and early 90s. Saw them a few times in the early 2000s during their reunion period. Doug Keyser is a freak of nature. The way he digs in with his right hand in inhuman.

 

[ThumpsAlot]

Sean Malone

 

[symbolic_acts]

Yeah. Those Magma bassists are all really great. Was lucky enough to see them in NYC a few years ago. Philippe Bussonnet is one of the scariest bass players I've ever seen.

I was also there. I think it was at le poisson rougue.

all of them owned, yep.

 

[Deleted member 165050]

Yeah. Those Magma bassists are all really great. Was lucky enough to see them in NYC a few years ago. Philippe Bussonnet is one of the scariest bass players I've ever seen.

I saw them in the mid-70s in my teens... probably Jannick Top on bass, but anyway it was a quite literally jaw-dropping experience. Surrey University around '75/'76 I think, the same era I saw Curved Air in there.

 

[Deleted member 165050]

I like Curved Air, but I feel that they never delivered fully on what they promised. A few bands like that floated around back then. They had "clasically trained" members, weird eclectic electronic equipment and genre-bending compositional ideas, yet it doesn't always land. A lot of Curved Air's stuff sounds a bit dated, even for the era, and unleashing harsh electronics once in a while doesn't really improve the balance.

I feel the same about Curved Air, they were a great live act and Backstreet Luv was a phenomenal single but really was their apex - a lot of the other material was schmaltzy to say the least and I guess they suffered from record companies trying to turn Sonja into a star rather than letting the band as a whole develop. Still touring though...