Fretless players

[Chickenwheels]

One of my favourite Jeff Berlin “dry humor” interview moments…
“Anyone playing fretless is ripping off Jaco”
(a little later in same interview)
“My favourite players at the moment are Sting and Michael Manring”.

 

[jerry]

One of my favourite Jeff Berlin “dry humor” interview moments…
“Anyone playing fretless is ripping off Jaco”
(a little later in same interview)
“My favourite players at the moment are Sting and Michael Manring”.

Berlin on fretless:

 

[zombywoof5050]

A few more hore honorable mentions:

Patrick O'Hearn
John Giblin
T-Bone Wolk
J. Clifton Mayhugh
Jonas Hellborg

 

[Watchootognbout]

One of my favourite Jeff Berlin “dry humor” interview moments…
“Anyone playing fretless is ripping off Jaco”
(a little later in same interview)
“My favourite players at the moment are Sting and Michael Manring”.

Uhhh.....yeah....not a bad thing though.

 

[Michedelic]

Although I lived through the eighties and was not a fan of most of the things from that decade (King Crimson excepted) - unfortunately my high school days were peak hair band and all other kinds of stupid, so it was kind of lame in that regard. As an older person now, I have been going back and occasionally listening to a lot of the 80's pop/new wave kinda stuff with a more discerning ear and it's really amazing how much great playing was lurking under the hairspray, gated drums and early digital synths. The guy from the Fixx is really cool, plays a Wal, too, so that's bonus points for me. I now realize a lot of the great playing wasn't as obvious due to a lot of the production techniques at the time.

If you were allergic to the 80’s, and haven’t gone down the Mick Karn rabbit hole, that’s an entire realm unto itself not to be missed. While inspired by Percy Jones, his is a unique fretless bass voice. Don’t be put off by the hair/synths of Japan, his initial band(and after all, Japan lead vocalist David Sylvian did an album/tour with Fripp), that band’s work was atmospheric over glossy, very moody and mysterious. Ignore the first two albums, go for Gentlemen.. , Tin Drum, and the live album. Karn solo projects are all over the place stylistically, but exotic. Polytown, from the mid-90’s, is very Crimson-like.

 

[Michedelic]

From 1968, this band was way ahead of the curve, even at the tail end of psychedelia. No guitar, lots of early electronics, electric violin, goth-ish vocals. Randall Forbes was on fretless Ampeg bass, his only recorded output, and little else is known about him…

 

[jerry]

If you were allergic to the 80’s, and haven’t gone down the Mick Karn rabbit hole, that’s an entire realm unto itself not to be missed. While inspired by Percy Jones, his is a unique fretless bass voice. Don’t be put off by the hair/synths of Japan, his initial band(and after all, Japan lead vocalist David Sylvian did an album/tour with Fripp), that band’s work was atmospheric over glossy, very moody and mysterious. Ignore the first two albums, go for Gentlemen.. , Tin Drum, and the live album. Karn solo projects are all over the place stylistically, but exotic. Polytown, from the mid-90’s, is very Crimson-like.

I've always dug how fretless bass meshed with synths & drum machines in new wave pop music of the early 80's, even well done keyboard fretless like the Thompson Twins, warmed the music up to my ears. Japan was a good example of that!

 

[SteveCS]

...
well done keyboard fretless like the Thompson Twins
...

IMHO the Thompson Twins really screwed themselves over when they sacked Matthew Seligman (Matthew Seligman - Wikipedia). Of course he went on to do some outstanding 'real' fretless work with Thomas Dolby which more than waved the middle finger back at them.

 

[lordradish]

If you were allergic to the 80’s, and haven’t gone down the Mick Karn rabbit hole, that’s an entire realm unto itself not to be missed. While inspired by Percy Jones, his is a unique fretless bass voice. Don’t be put off by the hair/synths of Japan, his initial band(and after all, Japan lead vocalist David Sylvian did an album/tour with Fripp), that band’s work was atmospheric over glossy, very moody and mysterious. Ignore the first two albums, go for Gentlemen.. , Tin Drum, and the live album. Karn solo projects are all over the place stylistically, but exotic. Polytown, from the mid-90’s, is very Crimson-like.

Karn and Jones are two of my favorite fellow Wal guys. Polytown was recorded not too far from where I live and my former teacher was there when they recorded it. I probably shoulda emphasized rock, as I didn't even know about fusion and such in the 80's. I like Karn's solo stuff, but I can't deal with Sylvian's voice. But those guys all had mad chops.

 

[lordradish]

I've always dug how fretless bass meshed with synths & drum machines in new wave pop music of the early 80's, even well done keyboard fretless like the Thompson Twins, warmed the music up to my ears. Japan was a good example of that!

I remember being a crappy 13 year old guitarist and I saw the vid for "Hold Me Now". I then realized a bass had 4 strings and figured it would be easier. Here I am (and it's funny, cuz I play 6'ers and they aint always so easy).

 

[roccobass]

Playing bass isn’t about being a dynamo, it’s about playing what works with the song

Ironically, Boz was my first real fretless bass influence. My older brother constantly played the early Bad Company albums. I was always curious how he got that “sound” of his until I realized it was a fretless. He fits so well and he’s not as simple as some folks might believe, IMO. I still dig him a lot.

 

[ectoflanger]

Ohm my, that one Hertz.

Watttt!?

 

[ectoflanger]

He (Gilmour, thanks autocorrect) played a bit on some Kate Bush…maybe? He certainly championed it. Here’s another thing.

Also the haunting intro to "Hey You" from The Wall.

Everhard Weber, upright electric player was responsible for the lovely work on Kate Bush's "Mother Stands for Comfort" on the Hounds of Love album.

 

[ectoflanger]

Although I lived through the eighties and was not a fan of most of the things from that decade (King Crimson excepted) - unfortunately my high school days were peak hair band and all other kinds of stupid, so it was kind of lame in that regard. As an older person now, I have been going back and occasionally listening to a lot of the 80's pop/new wave kinda stuff with a more discerning ear and it's really amazing how much great playing was lurking under the hairspray, gated drums and early digital synths. The guy from the Fixx is really cool, plays a Wal, too, so that's bonus points for me. I now realize a lot of the great playing wasn't as obvious due to a lot of the production techniques at the time.

Yep, I have Gentleman Take Polaroids- love the title track, Swing, and My New Career. But Karn did not pique my desire to play fretless. I do tend to agree with you on the 80's but there were two groups who I did like - Icehouse and The Fixx.

However, I loved Thomas Dolby's One of Our Submarines though I hated She Blinded Me with Science. Discovered only much later (2004) The Wreck of the Fairchild/Airwaves, the latter of whose coda features one of the most hauntingly beautiful melodic bass runs I've ever heard. Mark Heyward-Chaplin gets the credit for that.

 

[ectoflanger]

Mark Egan, Pat Metheny alumnus-

Later did some cool work for Simon Le Bon and Nick Rhodes' project Arcadia-



And while we're in 80's territory, how about Pino Palladino who got on my radar screen with his work on Pete Townshend's Give Blood from the White City album? That song also featured guest guitarist David Gilmour.

 

[Lo-E]

I think the video puts together a pretty good list. Naturally, there are a few I would have liked to see on there; Andy Metcalfe, John Giblin, Alphonso Johnson, Matthew Seligman, Patrick O’Hearn, Ralphe Armstrong, Fernando Saunders, Paul Denman, but you can’t please everybody, right? I don’t think a video like that could ever be a comprehensive list but if it exposes new players to the possibilities of losing the speed bumps I don’t see it as a bad thing at all.

 

[Bob_Ross]

One of my favourite Jeff Berlin “dry humor” interview moments…
“Anyone playing fretless is ripping off Jaco”
(a little later in same interview)
“My favourite players at the moment are Sting and Michael Manring”.

I know I've told this story before on TB:

[I was] at a clinic Jeff did in '79 or '80 where he said "every single one of you guys who's picked up fretless bass, you're doing it because you wanted to sound like Jaco. Every one of you."

From the back of the room someone yells "Bullsh!t!"

It's Victor Bailey

...who then goes on to say "I picked up fretless bass because I wanted to sound like Alphonso."

 

[Les Fret]

Is Sean Malone in LTE now? Last I knew Tony Levin had the gig.

Yes that was Tony Levin, not Sean Malone. He is dead unfortunately.

 

[Les Fret]

Pretty predictable list I think. But John Giblin and Alphonso Johnson are greatly missed in that list. They deserve to be there in much more than Bill Wyman and Jeff Ament, especially Bill. Jeff is nice and might have influenced some rock players but he can't compete with most others that are in that list in my opinion.

 

[TN WOODMAN]

Yes that was Tony Levin, not Sean Malone. He is dead unfortunately.

I hesitate to hit like when a person is deceased but thanks for replying.

I may have misinterpreted the poster who mentioned LTE & Sean in the same sentence. My understanding is that Tony has been on bass for all the LTE recordings.