Less is More Masters

[J-Bassomatic]

I have bassist that come to mind as Masters of the less is more style of playing bass. They have perfected the use of creating and leaving space between the notes in such a way that it actually highlights the song. They groove so hard on such few notes.

Paul S Denman of Sade
Tina Weymouth ( Talking Heads, Tom Tom Club)
Joseph Lucky Scott ( Curtis Mayfield)
Bootsy
Sting

Can you think of any others?

Nothing to do with the thread but once I worked for a guy named Les Moore. He was an idiot.

 

[LadyLoveStingRay5]

Nothing to do with the thread but once I worked for a guy named Les Moore. He was an idiot.

 

[Wood and Wire]

Sounds like you're jealous. You probably don't think much of Ron Blair, either. Billy Talbot, or Bill Wyman for that matter? When was shredding(or as I call it, wanking)bass any yardstick for anything? That just smacks of the all the haughty fusion muso bores I've encountered in my life. An impressive bassist holds back, does their job, and when they throw in something flash on occasion, that carries more weight than non-stop diddley-diddley, otherwise, it just gets as tiresome as riding the root might be.
I'm not that much of a fan, but U2's entire oeuvre was minimalism; would Jaco, or worse yet, Jeff Berlin, have fit that situation? As far as Burrell is concened, while even though he had played guitar before, got off to a shakey start in King Crimson, and learned on the job, his BC lines always caught my ear, even after they jumped the shark for me on the second album. Then I find out years later that he was playing fretless before fretless was cool. What would Claypool or Entwistle have added to that band? Or any of the bands that feature bassist that always get taken to task for being dull?
As far as I can tell, Michael Anthony hasn't been mentioned yet, that's surprising. As for Waters, how did PF suffer from his playing? What else would have worked on "Careful With That Axe, Eugene"?

Clayton's work on "Stay (far away, so close)" is a masterpiece in holding back.

Another great, and more varied example is "The Fly", where he vamps his way through the verse, lays down the essential framework for the chorus, and then winds it up with an absolutely killer riff on the post-chorus bridge.

 

[12BitSlab]

1) Ray Brown - heard him live one time. Truly a master and knew how to keep things simple and tasteful.

2) @Lynn Seaton - I heard him live several times with the Blue Wisp Big Band.

3) Jim Fielder of Blood, Sweat, and Tears fame. Never had the chance to hear him live.

 

[5StringBlues]

Nothing to do with the thread but once I worked for a guy named Les Moore. He was an idiot.

My brother Les used to run around with a guy named Les Moore in the 70's. Les Moore was 6ft 2 and about 350 lbs and my bro was 6ft 6 and around 270. In a town of less than 3,000.




They became known as Les Moore and Less Les.

 

[zubrycky]

Any bluegrass bass player, starting with the great and late Bob Moore.

 

[mwbassace]

Playing at the edge of your ability is not synonymous with mastery

In several cases "best they can do" is being interpreted as "intentionally good at crafting things in a minimalist way".

Can't be a master of less is more, unless you can feasibly do the more part.

All these statements are wrong. You most certainly can be a master of part of a skill, and this is a fact IMO. Case in point would be Ian Hill & Cliff Williams. They are most definitely masters of what they play & quite frankly this would be almost impossible to say otherwise. They have that aspect of bass playing down pat! So whether they can slap is irrelevent to the level of the aforementioned skill.

 

[Dasgre0g]

Clayton's work on "Stay (far away, so close)" is a masterpiece in holding back.

Another great, and more varied example is "The Fly", where he vamps his way through the verse, lays down the essential framework for the chorus, and then winds it up with an absolutely killer riff on the post-chorus bridge.

Absolutely.

 

[tbz]

All these statements are wrong. You most certainly can be a master of part of a skill, and this is a fact IMO. Case in point would be Ian Hill & Cliff Williams. They are most definitely masters of what they play & quite frankly this would be almost impossible to say otherwise. They have that aspect of bass playing down pat! So whether they can slap is irrelevent to the level of the aforementioned skill.

Thats not equivalent to being "master of more is less".

That statement implies that one intentionally underplays. Despite an extreme level of playing ability.

Like Pino, or Anthony Jackson.

Yes. Cliff Williams is quite good at pedaling 8ths. But it would be odd to imply he is a master at a less is more approach to bass. He's a good rock bassist. Anything beyond that is hyperbole.

 

[evil dewars]

Nothing to do with the thread but once I worked for a guy named Les Moore. He was an idiot.

Wait til you meet Les Moore Sr.

 

[cnltb]

Watch it right through

Ok, I got through the whole thing.
Not sparse ('less is more') but loads of bass playing .

 

[PJ Muzikmansky]

Ok, I got through the whole thing.
Not sparse ('less is more') but loads of bass playing .

Precisely. You asked Les Fret to outline some of Pino's best '80's stuff, so I thought I'd beat him to the punch and offer this as an example

 

[wysiwyg248]

I don't know if Less is More applies, but the work of Joe Osborn falls in this category IMHO.

 

[cnltb]

Precisely. You asked Les Fret to outline some of Pino's best '80's stuff, so I thought I'd beat him to the punch and offer this as an example

I get it , but I was thinking of his best'less is more' moments as per the thread's premise

Fair enough.

 

[tvbop]

Dont understand the point. You play as many notes as the song needs. Frees Mr Big, hardly any notes...beautiful bass playing then, The Jacksons Darling Dear, notes galore...but again beautiful playing and both patterns are so perfect for their respective songs.

 

[P. Aaron]

(what's the deal with the Eagles poaching Poco's Bassists?)

Perhaps Poco breeds bassists which are a food staple of the mighty Eagles?

 

[Les Fret]

I get it , but I was thinking of his best'less is more' moments as per the thread's premise

Fair enough.

The 80s was (luckily) not a less is more period for bass. It was the pinnacle for bass playing in popular music. So I am glad Pino did not yet discover a less is more approach back then.

 

[cnltb]

The 80s was (luckily) not a less is more period for bass. It was the pinnacle for bass playing in popular music. So I am glad Pino did not yet discover a less is more approach back then.

I see it quite differently - I strongly dislike a lot of the 80s stuff , as goes for the busier stuff Pino did back then(the Paul young video linked above is a good example...I find it hard to get through), but who wants to argue about taste...

I do agree that some interesting things came out of the 80s in terms of bass in popular music, but would not say that they were any more or less interesting than what came before or after. I just tend to like them less.

 

[ACRock]

Hard to top players like Family Man Barrett or Robbie Shakespeare

 

[PJ Muzikmansky]

My brother Les used to run around with a guy named Les Moore in the 70's. Les Moore was 6ft 2 and about 350 lbs and my bro was 6ft 6 and around 270. In a town of less than 3,000.




They became known as Les Moore and Less Les.

LOL

Reminds me of two Italian boys at my school back in the 1970s. Good kids. Both were in my younger sister's class, and while unrelated, had the same name i.e. Vincenzo Pedulla. One was thin like a whip, while the other was quite plump (quite unusual to see a plump kid in Australia back then). To avoid confusion, we called them fat Vince and skinny Vince.

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