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reggae bassist-who's your favorite?

#5
There can be many. Family man is at the top.
But Robbie is incredible in a very different style.
And "Flabba" Holt of the Roots Radics is another favorite.
I love Richie Daley (Third World) too for his success in fusing Jazz and Funk sensibilities successfully into reggae music.
 
#7
Fams!

I love and respect so many, and one who never gets the namecheck he deserves is Leroy Sibbles. Many of the lines he created at studio One are still being versioned today, and stand up as all-timers. His lovely muting and note shaping preceded Family Man's great body of work and remind me of him sometimes.

But for the combination of upright like tone, sheer melodic genius, and for his influence on later greats like his protégé Robbie Shakespeare, Aston Barrett is the man for me if i had to choose.

Others I rate very highly are:

Lloyd Brevett
Jackie Jackson
Val Johnson
Errol 'Bagga' Walker
Lloyd Parkes
Boris Gardiner
George 'Fully' Fullwood
Errol 'Flabba' Holt

Each has a distinctive voice, has appeared on countless recordings, and have contributed fully to the wonderful body of music that laid the foundation for today's players. Many of these never received the credit or financial recompense for their monumental efforts, but that's reggae, and bass playing for you.
 
#8
Jackie Mittoo! Okay, he was an organist, but he contributed some of the most-used bass lines in reggae. A big "+1" for both Flabba Holt and Ronnie McQueen. Those early Steel Pulse records had some wonderful bass playing on them. Robbie Shakespeare stretched things farther than most of the other J.A. guys, in my opinion. I especially love listening to what he did with Black Uhuru and on the Compass Point studio sessions with various artists (Grace Jones' three Compass Point albums still sound remarkably fresh to my ears). Leroy Sibbles is also, as One Drop pointed out, highly underrated.
 
#9
One Drop said:
Fams!

I love and respect so many, and one who never gets the namecheck he deserves is Leroy Sibbles. Many of the lines he created at studio One are still being versioned today, and stand up as all-timers. His lovely muting and note shaping preceded Family Man's great body of work and remind me of him sometimes.

But for the combination of upright like tone, sheer melodic genius, and for his influence on later greats like his protégé Robbie Shakespeare, Aston Barrett is the man for me if i had to choose.

Others I rate very highly are:

Lloyd Brevett
Jackie Jackson
Val Johnson
Errol 'Bagga' Walker
Lloyd Parkes
Boris Gardiner
George 'Fully' Fullwood
Errol 'Flabba' Holt

Each has a distinctive voice, has appeared on countless recordings, and have contributed fully to the wonderful body of music that laid the foundation for today's players. Many of these never received the credit or financial recompense for their monumental efforts, but that's reggae, and bass playing for you.
Click to expand...

That's a pretty comprehensive list & post.
 
#10
I listen/play a lot of reggae

Aston Family Man -- Of Course

Others (my favorites):

All Early Steel Pulse Recordings
All Early recordings from Black Uhuru (Robbie Shakespare was one of them)
Sly & Robbie (robbie shakespare again) check their Dub Albums
Israel Vibration (whoever play bass for them ,, they got great simple lines)
Midnite - reggae band from the virgin islands - GREAT Simple very solid reggae Riifs
Cultura Profectica - reggae band from puerto Rico - ufffff that guy can Play (and he's also the lead singer - he use a 5 string)

You can check other bands like : Culture, Augustus Pablo, Groundnation, Peter Tosh (of course), Pablo Moses, Matisyahu, los Cafres (from Argentina), Alpha Blondy, Johns brown reggae, Gladiators and many more
 
#14
Andrew Jones said:
Jackie Mitto wrote the lines on his instrmentals?

If so....Much Love,,,I know all those and theeyyy'rrrre Great!



Aj
Click to expand...

He was musical director at Studio One for a year or so (a long time during those heady and prolific days) and he lead a lot of the sessions and arranged the recordings in the period when rock steady was becoming reggae. Leroy Sibbles came up under , and more or less replaced him by '68, when Mittoo was spending more and more time in Canada. Sibbles probably created a lot of the basslines for the sessions under Mittoo's control, but these sessions were all heavily collaborative, and in keeping with JA tradition, it's impossible to sort out who did exactly what as everyone claims to have done it all!

Almost all those instrumentals of the period were lead organ and sometimes lead horn or guitar parts overdubbed on the original riddim tracks recorded for vocal versions. Sometimes the same riddims served for more than one song, with different singers and lyrics.

Version galore!
 
#16
Sounbwoy said:
A couple others: Courtney Panton, Derrick Barnett, Benjy Myaz to name a few. These guys would not be put in the same category as the bassists listed so far: these guys GREW up listening to them, but their contributions while not well known is just as significant
Click to expand...

Where would I hear these guys, Sounbwoy?

My ignorance of the next generation's bassists is pretty comprehensive, shamefully.
 
#17
One Drop said:
Where would I hear these guys, Sounbwoy?

My ignorance of the next generation's bassists is pretty comprehensive, shamefully.
Click to expand...

Courtney Panton does a lot of live stuff with Monty Alexander and his sons are in a band called "New Kingston". I hear they are always in demand in NYC. He's also on MySpace.
Derrick is the founder of Sagittarius band which was one di WICKEDES' bands out of Jamdown..also on MySpace
Benjy Myaz does both reggae and jazz/reggae stuff and is a very accomplished musician and soloist on the bass-sings as well. he's played with many folks including Toots and Jimmy Cliff. Also on MySpace.
One other names to add to the list is Amlak Tafari-current bassie with Steel Pulse.
Shiah Coore- Cat's son (Musicman endorsed)
Glenn Browne- currently with Tarrus Riley and also with Monty Alexander (Goin' Yard album)-live
Fams' son also named Aston -
Rohan Reid-currently bassie for The Original Wailers (Junior and Al)
Larry Silvera - old school - Mikey Dread, Ziggy and others
Chris Meredith- Squiddly Cole/Ziggy and others (if you check some older Ziggy shows, sometimes he would have BOTH Larry AND Chris playing for him. They would trade off on songs...
These guys all have MySpace accounts. We've heard all these guys at some point.
 
#19
jerry said:
They used Roots Radics with Flabba Holt on a lot of their albums, great band, great bassist!
Click to expand...

They still tour with them, Flabba usually on his Hofner. I've seen them a few times, cracking band, of course.

Thanks for the info, Sounbwoy, I'm going to check them out this weekend. I've probably seen a few already in backing bands, but it's near impossible to find out who plays as sidemen these days.
 

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