Mark Adams, me luff you long tynge!

[hands5]

Nah, but Lakeside was/is a great band. Lakesides sound was little more "glossy" than Slave, more of a Slave with Laquer they had a great bass player, two as I can remember, one by the name of Stephan Shockley. Their sound was widely radio friendly whereas Slave wasnt always accepted due to their unorthodox song structures( some songs with extra long intro's and lots of stuff with one verse and being instrumental for 2-3 mins, and odd time signatures like "Stone Jam".) Lakeside and slave still tours. Not sure but I think Lakeside is from California, they were on SOLAR which stands for "S.ound O.f L.os A.ngeles R.ecords". Members of Slave are from Dayton and NewJerzy. As far as Albums go, any one of 'em are worth your money.

Marvin Craig was the 1st bass player with Lakesides 3 lps and they were from ( Oakland ) California,and he was as great as and upright player also.

 

[hands5]

Get a hold of some Mtume while you're at it.

Had a gifted young bass player by the name of Raymond Jackson

 

[BuffaloBass]

My online instructor recommend Slide as a good funk tune ( and what turned him onto bass ), so I finnaly picked up a "best of Slave" CD while on vacash in FLA.

WHOA. I can't beleive he could play like that as a kid, but I've seen one or two like him.

Stone Jam is the song that dances in my head, I beleive, continuously. Mark, you SOB, I can't shut it off!

Great chops, great groove!

BTW, while its not "cool" to ask for a shortcut as a student, but the first few chords in Stone Jam, they aren't maj thirds are they??

THNX.

 

[aurra1]

Lucas you are right on it because Steve Washington was a huge Yes fan.

 

[aurra1]

Yeah, I realized it was someone else on the Aurra song "are you single?"....

That is one awesome bass part! I could tell the difference in that it was a lot cleaner and smoother sounding...good, but different then Mark Adams..It's wierd how that particuular line starts the song out, and you are not sure how it fits into the beat...then the drums start, and it all makes sense!

Mark Adams, on the other hand, has a wonderfully strange tone...sounds like he is playing through a chorus box, while using a pencil as the pick!

Very cool!

BYTW, "weak at the knees" is off Steve Arrington's solo album, and I believe the song is the inspiration for "gansta Gansta" by NWA (but I believe they did not use a sample, just kind of copied the main riff)

All of the Aurra bass parts were recorded direct, most of the Slave stuff was recorded direct and via an amp (Yamaha p-2200) and all Cerwin Vega Speakers.

"Weak in the Knees" was sampled by Jay-Z and Jermaine Dupree for their hit "Money Ain't A Thing"

 

[aurra1]

Had a gifted young bass player by the name of Raymond Jackson

Who also played bass in Aurra.

Rayjack played the bass solo on "Make Up Your Mind" and most of the album cuts.

I love Ray on "Prime Time" by Mtume and he told me that he thought of Steve Washington when he created that bass line.

Being the drummer of Aurra was a treat because I got to record & play live with Steve & Rayjack, and Adams on occasion, so I was like a kid in a candy store !

 

[aurra1]

I love this thread! I was just thinking about Leon and Foster Sylvers the other day. I've got to find CDs of Shalamar and Dynasty. I always loved those Sylvers guys because they sounded unique. I saw Leon live with Dynasty and he was playing a Rick 4001. He used flatwounds with a pick and the mutes turned up on his Rick. That was a cool sound that nobody outside of Solar records used.
I had Rick back in those days and I put on flatwounds and turned up my mutes to mimic him, but I had gotten too used to roundwounds and had to go back.

Mark Adams and Steve Washington are the baddest of the bad, they were super roundwound, maxed out treble funk. That sound killed fingerstyle or slapped. I remember seeing Slave live and Mark Adams was the first bassist I ever remember seeing with a monster rack mounted system.

That Steve Washington put together.

 

[Basseroni]

Be fair warned that Steve Washington "the fearless leader" played on a lot of their tracks and he's just as good a Mark!!! He left to join Aurra to play bass full time seeing as he was the trumpet player and producer for SLAVE. I'm glad there are TB'rs who are starting to bring these guys to attention. Mark Adams put funk bass on a new level and I have had the pleasure of seeing him live on several occasions. You dont know FUNK if you aint got no SLAVE. My faves were:

"sizzlin' Hot"-slap anthem
"watching you"-fingerstyle virtuosity
"stellar fungk"- hendrix meetsbootsy meets peter frampton meets EW&F
"Are you single"-Steve played on this one-BEAST BASS!!!
"Baby sinister"-straight pocket funk
"snapshot"-that tone, that tone!!!!GRRRROOWWWLYYYY
"Slide"-jazz bass grooooove, beautiful and powerful
"wait for me"-played with a pick...........and funky

A lot of this information is correct but two things. If you listen carefully to Slave's tracks you will hear that it's ALL Mark Adams. Steve Washington played trumpet and was the producer along with Jimmy Douglas but he didn't play bass on ANY of Slave's tracks.

As someone else mentioned, Mark had an aggressive fingerstyle tone and this is what you hear on Wait For Me. Not a pick. A pick style player he was NOT!

 

[Basseroni]

My online instructor recommend Slide as a good funk tune ( and what turned him onto bass ), so I finnaly picked up a "best of Slave" CD while on vacash in FLA.

WHOA. I can't beleive he could play like that as a kid, but I've seen one or two like him.

Stone Jam is the song that dances in my head, I beleive, continuously. Mark, you SOB, I can't shut it off!

Great chops, great groove!

BTW, while its not "cool" to ask for a shortcut as a student, but the first few chords in Stone Jam, they aren't maj thirds are they??

THNX.

After 3 years, I'm sure you've found the answer by now but those are minor third double stops.

 

[Basseroni]

and odd time signatures like "Stone Jam".)

I know this is an old thread but there's nothing odd about the time signature in Stone Jam. It's all in 4.

As far as radio play, Wait For Mr, Snap Shot, and Watching You got as much airplay as Lakeside tunes where I live.

 

[Dr. Cheese]

That Steve Washington put together.

Aurra1, do you have a connection to Aurra/Slave? Ii sounds like you have a bunch of inside info. Don't worry about getting swamped if you come out. TB'ers are pretty cool with celebrity posters.

 

[iconic]

Found this thread by mistake as one of THE best basslines ever (for me) is from Aurra Nasty Disposition.....



from what I hear it could be:

Steve Washington

Mark Adams

Wayne "Buddy" Hankerson

and now some others, there sure were some real talented bass players kicking around back then

 

[Dr. Cheese]

off topic, but was there a band called "Lakeside", that was in a similar style as Slave? I am guessing by the name that they were also a chicago based band.

If so, can anyone recommend an album?

I can't believe I didn't mention this back in 2005, Lakeside, Slave, Aurra, Sun, Zap, Booty's Rubber Band, and others I cannot remember, were all from Southern Ohio. They were all from Dayton or Cincinnati. Ohio was the capital of funk, for what it's worth the Dazz Band (orginally Kinsmen Dazz for Kinsmen Ave. in Cleveland) were from Northern Ohio.

These are the bands I can remember offhand, Ohio produced several more bands that released CDs.

 

[Brad Johnson]

I got all of Leon's stuff with Dynasty!! One hell of a bass player and one of the most sampled producers in the bussiness, the Whispers "And the beat goes on" has one of the tightest funk bass lines there is, played by Leon. I got Leon's AND Fosters solo stuff also(very hard to get). Foster had a band called hi-tek and IMO was way funkier than his mentor Leon, of coarse this might have to do with him taking private lessons from Stanley Clarke!!! heres two more forgotten ones for ya

Nathaniel Phillips-Peasure, Kool'R,Jeff Lorber,Dazz Band,Ronnie Laws,Teena Marie

Cedric Martin-ConFunkShun

I havent met ANYONE who can play "GLIDE" correctly by Pleasure,out of nowhere Nate killed all slappers on that one.

The real trick is finding a drummer who can play it correctly with you.

 

[Clark Dark]

I don't know the name of the bassist for Full Force other than he's referred to as Shy Shy

 

[Sounbwoy]

Be fair warned that Steve Washington "the fearless leader" played on a lot of their tracks and he's just as good a Mark!!! He left to join Aurra to play bass full time seeing as he was the trumpet player and producer for SLAVE. I'm glad there are TB'rs who are starting to bring these guys to attention. Mark Adams put funk bass on a new level and I have had the pleasure of seeing him live on several occasions. You dont know FUNK if you aint got no SLAVE. My faves were:

"sizzlin' Hot"-slap anthem
"watching you"-fingerstyle virtuosity
"stellar fungk"- hendrix meetsbootsy meets peter frampton meets EW&F
"Are you single"-Steve played on this one-BEAST BASS!!!
"Baby sinister"-straight pocket funk
"snapshot"-that tone, that tone!!!!GRRRROOWWWLYYYY
"Slide"-jazz bass grooooove, beautiful and powerful
"wait for me"-played with a pick...........and funky

GOT to have some "Stone Jam"...

 

[Sounbwoy]

+1
Raymond Jackson the bassist for Mtume, Check out there 4th album entitled You, Me And He. silky smooth fingerstyle playing on every cut.

He played a Sunburst Fender Jazz, I'll tell ya, nothing beats a good ole Fender J, it's a must have.

Prime Time....

 

[Lo end PUNCH]

A lot of this information is correct but two things. If you listen carefully to Slave's tracks you will hear that it's ALL Mark Adams. Steve Washington played trumpet and was the producer along with Jimmy Douglas but he didn't play bass on ANY of Slave's tracks.

As someone else mentioned, Mark had an aggressive fingerstyle tone and this is what you hear on Wait For Me. Not a pick. A pick style player he was NOT!

Steve played on "Are you single" as the album credits list and it was Aurra.

Mark did play pickstyle ALSO as a couple of album credits list as "percussion pick bass".

 

[DWBass]

The real trick is finding a drummer who can play it correctly with you.

This is true. I can play this bassline pretty true to the original. I have a video of me playing it somewhere. It's really not a hard bassline to play. It's more a rhythm thing. If you have no rhythm or funk chops, it ain't gonna happen for you!

 

[Bobbo 77"]

Mark Adams was one of my main influences during Slave's heyday! I copped many grooves and licks from Mark. I consider him an indirect teacher as I do many other Funk bass players from that era!

You need to check out all the stuff Leon Sylvers and Foster Sylvers did for the Solar label. Classic bass work on all the Shalamar, Dynasty and Whispers hits! If you can play any of those licks, then you got funk fo' sho'!!

"And The Beat Goes On" = Classic!
"It's A Love Thang" = Classic!

Feliz Navidad Y'all!
+1 FunkFather on those Solar groove's with Leon Funkin' on hit's like "Do me Right" and "Here I am", along with the rest of the Solar library!
AND...The Whispers "I can make it better", what a funky bassline!