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Most prolific recording bassist

Tim Skaggs

Tim Skaggs

Sep 28, 2002
5,153
8,250
#1
Watching the Ken Burns documentary on the history of country music, I saw a blip on Bob Moore and a brief rundown of some of the artists he recorded with as well as the total number of recording sessions he played on; over 17,000.

I had actually heard of Bob Moore, but I had no idea of how many sessions he had done, and I think most all on upright. We hear a lot about Carol Kaye & James Jamerson, but I don't know if anyone tops 17,000 recording sessions.

Anyone know of any other bassists that have the raw numbers of recording sessions up in that range?

Bob Moore - Wikipedia
 
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#7
I would imagine that Will Lee could provide an impressive number – probably not anywhere near Bob Moore's, but one that would still knock your socks off. If you consider his TV work (he was with the Letterman franchise from its beginning in 1982 through its end in 2015) and all of his studio work (albums, commercial jingles, etc.), you begin to get a glimpse of just how busy a talented, successful, professional musician can be.
Kriegs said:
For some perspective ... that's 1 session a day, every single day, for 46 years straight :jawdrop:
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There are a handful of nameless, faceless session players in New York, LA & Nashville who pack in multiple sessions per day. Admittedly, they may not be playing on eventual #1 Billboard hits, but they're being recorded nonetheless. I remember being in a late afternoon session in NYC during the early '90s doing music for a television commercial where the bass player told me it was his sixth studio session for the day, and after that, he was headed off to do his nightly shtick in a Broadway pit orchestra.
 
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#8
Tim Skaggs said:
Watching the Ken Burns documentary on the history of country music, I saw a blip on Bob Moore and a brief rundown of some of the artists he recorded with as well as the total number of recording sessions he played on; over 17,000.

I had actually heard of Bob Moore, but I had no idea of how many sessions he had done, and I think most all on upright. We hear a lot about Carol Kaye & James Jamerson, but I don't know if anyone tops 17,000 recording sessions.

Anyone know of any other bassists that have the raw numbers of recording sessions up in that range?

Bob Moore - Wikipedia
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That seems like a lot. Any idea where that number actually comes from? He'd have to be doing nothing but recording daily for over 4 decades, as someone said, to hit that many sessions. I don't see a citation on that claim in the Wikipedia article, which makes it somewhat suspect.
 
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#9
LBS-bass said:
That seems like a lot. Any idea where that number actually comes from? He'd have to be doing nothing but recording daily for over 4 decades, as someone said, to hit that many sessions. I don't see a citation on that claim in the Wikipedia article, which makes it somewhat suspect.
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What I heard on the Ken Burns documentary was that he had 18,000 recording sessions. I went to Wiki just to read a little more and that's where the 17k number came from.

That segment of the KB documentary (all about session musicians) said the "A Team" of which Moore was a member, usually did six sessions a day.

Wiki shows that Mr. Moore is still alive at age 86. I think his first recording session was when he was around 18 - 20, so he's been around long enough to get in 4 decades worth of recording.
 
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#11
Tim Skaggs said:
What I heard on the Ken Burns documentary was that he had 18,000 recording sessions. I went to Wiki just to read a little more and that's where the 17k number came from.

That segment of the KB documentary (all about session musicians) said the "A Team" of which Moore was a member, usually did six sessions a day.

Wiki shows that Mr. Moore is still alive at age 86. I think his first recording session was when he was around 18 - 20, so he's been around long enough to get in 4 decades worth of recording.
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I watched that documentary as well. When I heard the number I was surprised too. My immediate thought was, I didn’t think anyone had done more work than Carol Kaye with her sessions, movies, and tv scores. She was Quincy Jones go to bassist for many years.
 
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#16
Artman said:
If Nathan East isn’t amongst the most recorded bassists, he definitely is amongst the highest paid and wealthiest.
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JMacBass65 said:
I,wonder if he gets writing credits with some of the artists he works with, and as such shares in the publishing.
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Lee Moses said:
His years of touring with Eric Clapton certainly didn't hurt his wallet.
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I read an article several years ago in, I forget, Financial Times or The Wall Street Journal, some publication where you wouldn't expect to read about a high profile session musician, about Nathan East and his "wealth portfolio" [sic]. While he has indeed worked a ton, the gist of the article was that most of East's fortune comes from investments rather than paychecks.
 
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#17
Nashville session musician Charlie McCoy tells a story in the documentary that he was hired to go to New York to play guitar on Desolation Row from Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited session. He says they did the number once to get the sound, and then recorded it in one take. As he was leaving, McCoy overheard the producer (I think it was) say to Dylan, "see? that's how they do it in Nashville".

Not surprising then, when the Blonde on Blonde sessions in New York stalled, they moved it to Nashville where the musicians there got it done. Then of course he recorded his next couple of great albums there too. But anyway my point is that Nashville session men were prolific and probably cut many tracks a day, so I suppose that is possible.
 
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#18
Bob_Ross said:
I read an article several years ago in, I forget, Financial Times or The Wall Street Journal, some publication where you wouldn't expect to read about a high profile session musician, about Nathan East and his "wealth portfolio" [sic]. While he has indeed worked a ton, the gist of the article was that most of East's fortune comes from investments rather than paychecks.
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Very interesting.
 
#19
17,000 is impressive no matter how you slice it, but for the sake of comparisons, it would be nice to understand and standardize what it means to play on "a recording session".

Taken at face value, I would think of "a recording session" as a single identifiable chunk of recording studio time. That could mean showing up for an hour and playing for a single song. That could mean showing up all day (ostensibly with a lunch break) and playing for an entire album.

Would it be more meaningful to track number of songs recorded? Maybe in general, but then you have outliers like Brian Wilson's sessions for "Good Vibrations", on which Carol Kaye (and other bassists) showed up for multiple sessions, recording material -- most of it unused -- for a single song.

Again, no belittling of that 17,000 number intended at all -- and he may indeed be the most recorded bassist. I just think we could probably benefit from more concrete data. (To the extend that it actually matters at all! I don't get the impression that any of these prolific bassists are especially concerned with becoming the "most prolific"...)
 

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