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James Jamerson today?

J

jannejava

Mar 28, 2004
30
0
Sweden
www.myspace.com
#1
As a big Motown fan I am writing a short school essay about the legendary bassist James Jamerson. Thru books and the Internet (and talkbass as well!) I have got pretty much all necessary information about of his life, bass line transcriptions, equipment and his influences.

But the tricky part is that I need to present a list of songs with a bass work that is clearly influenced by Mr. Jamerson's playing. My conclusions after reading many interviews of successful bass players, almost everyone from Billy Sheehan to John Pattitucci, states themselves to be influenced by Jamerson. It seems like finding a tenor saxophonist that is not influenced by Coltrane :) I don't know where to start!

After some research on the net this is a incomplete list of bass players that are being claimed to be influenced by James Jamerson:

Paul McCartney ("melodic qualities")
Flea
Bob Babitt
John Paul Jones
Billy Shehan
Francis Rocco Prestia
Jaco Pastorius (or was it Jerry Jermott more?)
Antony Jackson
Donald Duck Dunn
Pino Palladino
Marcus Miller
John Pattitucci


If you have a title of a recording with the above mentioned bass players (or someone else I forgot to mention) that you think clearly illustrate Jamerson's playing style, please let me know. I am curious to find out what your opinion are.

Best regards,

Jan Östlund
 
#3
I did a paper like this about 15 years ago, done on a typewriter before the days of digital media. If I still had it, I'd give it to you and you'd be done with this assignment:p

Lemme see:

Bob Babbitt did a lot of Jamerson-style stuff on "Midnight Train to Georgia" by Gladys Knight and the Pips.

I hear JJ influence in John Paul Jones' lines in "Good Times, Bad Times" by Led Zeppelin.

Anthony Jackson is a Jamerson disciple. Almost everything he does has a little JJ in it. I'd point at Chaka Khan's "What 'cha Gonna do for Me" as an example, and Madonna's "Borderline" as well. I know the mention of her name will raise eyebrows, but stylistically it's all there, even if the bass line is mostly synth-doubled. "Glamor Profession" by Steely Dan is good, too.

Nathan East is a name to add to your list. I'd say everything he played on Michael McDonald's last two "Motown" records shows his JJ influence.

Ultimately, I'd regard Jamerson as the guy who set the bar for playing intelligent, creative, and supportive lines in pop music that were integral parts of the tunes. That's tough to do, and he's rarely been equaled and has yet to be surpassed, IMO. He also did all that with an improvisation-based approach that most certainly came from his straight-ahead Jazz background.

If it doesn't cost 47 million USD overseas, I'd recommend getting a copy of "Standing in the Shadows of Motown", which is a biography/study guide of Jamerson's life and musical style. It features a lot of the players on your list playing Motown tunes that you can solo the bass tracks on.

http://www.amazon.com/Standing-Shadows-Motown-Legendary-Jamerson/dp/0881888826


I apologize if I'm in error and Carol Kaye actually played on the songs I've mentioned above. :)
 
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#8
This might not be relevent, but Stevie Wonder often played most of the instruments on his albums, and the basslines on some of them sound JJ-esq for sure. You can also hear a slight JJ vibe in Charlie Hunters 8 string guitar work. Okay strictly not bassists, but if you're discussing JJ influence it might not harm your arguement to broaden your horizons.
 
#9
Thank you all for your suggestions! Appreciate your input! I will check those out. Thanks!

Interesting with Stone Temple Pilots as this is a "contemporary" group, compared to some of the others on the list. More of that!

Some of the tracks Led Zeppelin did is definitely influenced by Motown. Bonham together with JPJ are almost swinging with a triplet-feel on some tracks.

20db pad said:
Ultimately, I'd regard Jamerson as the guy who set the bar for playing intelligent, creative, and supportive lines in pop music that were integral parts of the tunes. That's tough to do, and he's rarely been equaled and has yet to be surpassed, IMO. He also did all that with an improvisation-based approach that most certainly came from his straight-ahead Jazz background.
Click to expand...

I have "Standing in the Shadows of Motown" and also studied some of Jamerson's material. There is a lot of information about him on the net. And many claims to have him as an influence, but in order to actually hear Jamerson immediate influence is much harder. Or is it more like 20db_pad means, that Jamerson's legacy is that he improvised, creative and melodic bass lines where at the time the standard way of playing was something completely else? More a jazz approach to pop music, could that be the essence?

!Rob! said:
You can add Geddy to the list

I also recommend Standing in the Shadows of Motown.
Click to expand...

In what way do you think Geddy Lee? I am curious. Geddy is a great player and I have listen to Rush a lot. Don't get me wrong. Geddy is playing on one of the tracks of "Standing in the Shadows of Motown"-book, but to me (IMHO :)) it sounds a bit "aggressive" from the general busy-but-yet-laid-back vibe that Jamerson had. Do you have any Rush tracks you think can show Jamerson influence?

Alan Vorse said:
I would do some digging in the catalog of Pino Palladino. Also Anthony Jackson's work with Chaka Kahn.
Click to expand...

Are you refering to Pino's playing with Paul Young or? Anthony Jackson is on my list. Even the synth bass parts of some the Chaka Kahn-stuff could maybe be deduced from Jamerson (are Anthony Jackson responsible for those?). I am thinking of varied busy bass line built around the root, fifth and octaves with occasional scale tones. What do you think? I am wrong here?

I am curious if anyone have any example of Paul McCartny's bass lines that could be influenced by Jamerson? Paul says in interviews that he used listen a lot to the "Motown guy".

Thanks again for your input!

Best regards,

Jan
 
#10
Personally I wouldn't say Jamerson was an influence on Geddy Lee. I certainly don't hear it in his playing.

More to the point, I read in an interview with Lee (sorry I can't cite the source) that he was not influenced by Jamerson, at least not directly. He plays on the SITSOM because the author wanted contemporary bassists, and Lee is one, with big name recognition and popularity.

Now, indirectly, maybe he was influenced, because I believe he says he started off in the style off Zeppelin, and JPJ was certainly influenced by Jamerson, so maybe a "second generation" type thing.

In that sense nearly EVERYONE is influnced by Jamerson one way or another.
 
#11
jannejava said:
Are you refering to Pino's playing with Paul Young or? Anthony Jackson is on my list. Even the synth bass parts of some the Chaka Kahn-stuff could maybe be deduced from Jamerson (are Anthony Jackson responsible for those?). I am thinking of varied busy bass line built around the root, fifth and octaves with occasional scale tones. What do you think? I am wrong here?
Click to expand...

For Pino, I think his over all melodic approach comes from Jamerson (isolate the bass line, you can still recognize the song). I'm not sure if he does as much rhythmic synchopation as JJ.

As for the Root-5th-octave trait, I know Chuck Rainey has discussed it when anylizing JJ (the two were friends and peers). You might hear some of that on Aretha Franklin's "Until You Come Back to Me."
 
#16
jannejava said:
Bob Babitt

Francis Rocco Prestia

Donald Duck Dunn
Click to expand...

Babbit? Add "Tears Of A Clown" to the already-mentioned "Midnight Train To Geoergia".

Maybe it's me-
I don't hear/think of Jamerson when I listen to either Dunn or Rocco(maybe some of Rocco's ballad-type of TOP tuneage qualifies...just drawing a blank on that right now).

How about Wilton Felder & the J5's "I Want You Back"?
 
#18
JimK said:
Babbit? Add "Tears Of A Clown" to the already-mentioned "Midnight Train To Geoergia".

Maybe it's me-
I don't hear/think of Jamerson when I listen to either Dunn or Rocco(maybe some of Rocco's ballad-type of TOP tuneage qualifies...just drawing a blank on that right now).

How about Wilton Felder & the J5's "I Want You Back"?
Click to expand...

Rocco says in the book "Standing in the shadows..." that didn't realize how much influenced by JJ he was until had to record a track exactly as Jamerson did. I think Bernadette is a bit towards Rocco's style, with busy 16ths pumping root, octaves and a lot of syncopations. IMHO.

Bob Babbit was the second call for Motown, when JJ was the first. So Bob is given on my list.

I don't know much about Dunn's work, I just read it some where.
 
#19
Dharmabum said:
I'd throw in Robert DeLeo from Stone Temple Pilots. He's admittedly a Jamerson rip-off and it's very evident in his playing.

I was in a cover band that played "Interstate Love Song" and I was blown away by how closely he taps into the Jamerson style. It might be worth taking a look at.
Click to expand...

I have listen to a big chunk of STP-tracks now and I must admit the DeLeo is not far from Jamerson in terms of approach. Cool. Thanks for the tip!
 
#20
jannejava said:
I don't know much about Dunn's work, I just read it some where.
Click to expand...

Dunn is great(especially live)...most of the recorded stuff I'm familiar with is fairly 'repetitive'/riff-based (something Jamerson was usually not).

Another guy to check out-
Chuck Rainey...e.g. "Kid Charlemagne".

I also hear Motown-ish bass in some 3 Dog Night tune-age(Joe Schermie on bass).
 

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