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We old schoolers should be ashamed.

#101
Brad Johnson said:
I'd have to agree with you. As much as I dug the Brothers Johnson early on, their stuff quickly got dated. George was an okay guitarist... I remember reading the liner notes and seeing the studio guitarists who worked on their projects, Louis had his own take on slap and also did both slap and fingerstyle work on other people's projects. OTOH what Bernard did stylisticly has proven to be much harder for people to grasp or mimic. And Nile doesn't sound like every other guitarist who comes down the block.

I found this thread after seeing a link to a Leon Sylvers III -produced Shalamar song... with Leon on bass. This guy was amazing and came up with so many (at least to me) signature lines it's sick. He was a master of the staccato and space filled bassline. An excellent example is "And the beat goes on" by the Whispers.
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+1,000,0000 Leon and Ricky Sylvers were the masters of muted Rickenbackers! All that stuff that did on Solar was unreal. I ahd the pleasure of seeing Leon Sylvers with his black 4001 live with his group Dynasty. His stuff with Dynasty, Shalamar, and the Whispers, was just ridiculous!:D Like Bernard Edwards, he was master of finger or pickstyle funk at a time when slapping grabbed all the attention. One my all time favorites!:bassist:
 
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#102
Lo end PUNCH said:
Not true. Quincy didn't even produce all their albums. Louis has produced for Earl klugh, Passage, Stanley Clarke and Tom Scott among many. George has done session work and/or produced with Bill Withers, Steve Arrington and Stevie Wonder to name a few. Louis has toured with George Duke as well as Jeff Lorber Fusion. Q was not involved in over half of the Brothers complete career collection. The also both worked with Leon Sylvers who produced a couple of their albums, remember "You keep me comin' Back"
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Brad said it right. The Brothers, IMO, never produced anything memorable on their own. In all fairness, Louis had a very respectable body of work as a session bassist. The man did almost all the bass tracks on "Thriller" and his line on Michael MacDonald's "I Keep Forgettin" was awesome. George did some studio work too. I can't think of anything they actually produced that had the impact of Sister Sledge "We are Family" or later post Chic projects like Power Station, or Madonna's "Like A Virgin."
 
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#106
Listen to Keith Hatchell. You can hear him on some old D.J. Rogers records. Thats real gospel funk with awesome bass.

and not to mention the bass player of legendary funk unit SUN from Dayton.: DON taylor. There is a track called ´jammin in brazil´where the funky bass playing is just crazy

Anybody also remember these guys?
 
#107
throwdown said:
Listen to Keith Hatchell. You can hear him on some old D.J. Rogers records. Thats real gospel funk with awesome bass.

and not to mention the bass player of legendary funk unit SUN from Dayton.: DON taylor. There is a track called ´jammin in brazil´where the funky bass playing is just crazy

Anybody also remember these guys?
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definitely.
 
#109
Lo end PUNCH said:
Ok, how about this, the song "Q" which was their only grammy winner was produced,arranged and written by George and Louis.

Maybe its just "who" remembers instead "if".:)
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You brought up a Quincy produced song as an example of what they did without Q. There is no question "who" remembers on that:smug:


Other than that, I don't even get what "who" vs. "if" is about.


The comment I believe was, "they did NOTHING without quincy as their producer" whether it was memorable or not depends on who the individual is, many of whom damn sure remember.
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My comment, verbatim was:

"Maybe he should've said nothing memorable.
:hiding: "

Generally speaking you have Louis on the Mike McDonald tune and what else?

I was a big fan of LJ's back in the day. That was a long time ago.
 
#110
DWBass said:
Now, you know I had to do some research! :)

Leon Sylvers: Bass, Percussion, Keys
Foster Sylvers: Bass
James Sylvers: Bass, Keys
Ricky Sylvers: Guitar, Keys
Patricia Sylvers: Keys

Leon & Foster did a lot of work for Solar Records.
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Leon and Foster were the ones known for playing bass. Foster was a slapper, a pretty good one at the time. Leon was, IMO, a monster with a signature sound. With all the people we have beating away on this instrument, that's pretty amazing.


Did anyone mention Keni Burke of the Five Stairsteps yet?
:bassist:
 
#111
Let the debate over who did the slap work for the early Cheryl Lynn albums... my money is on David Shields:D. He also did some very nice work with the Emotions, along with Verdine.

Byron Miller of "Dukey Stick" fame. That, Bob Babbitt on Dennis Coffey's "Scorpio", Willie Weeks on Donny Hathaway's "Everything is Everything"... along with Stanley Clarke on that whole debut album and Larry Graham on "The Jam" were the signature solos when I was coming up. Babbitt on "Scorpio" was phenomenal at the time... the spotlight was on him for probably more than half of the record. Stanley had that tone that I got when I wired my bass into my parent's stereo when they weren't home... full range sound never before heard to that degree.



I'm so glad I came up when I did musically.
 
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#113
Speaking of Gary, I dig this picture in this eBay auction:D

28_1.jpg


http://cgi.ebay.com/BIG-SCHACK-MONSTER-CUSTOM-HEADLESS-FRETLESS-BASS_W0QQitemZ170034198320QQihZ007QQcategoryZ4713QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
 
#114
And I will continue to remember George AND Louis' accomplishments with or without Quincy Jones and to each his own. Their music with Q was great, slick and nicely produced, basicly all Quincy, but I liked their music after they parted a lot better, it had more raw quality and had a lot more passion. If "I keep forgetting" is all one chooses or finds worthy to remember, so be it, but there are many more from Patty Austin to Stanley Clarke to Earl Klugh to. Lets not forget Marshall Jones of the Ohio Players fame, he was solid and very tasteful in his approach. Many others too, one of my favorites is Michael Henderson who was more famous for his singing than bass playing. Basil Ferrington of Mtume did'nt apear on many albums but he was a beast. Barry "sonjon" Johnson played on albums with Lenny White's funk outfit "Twennynine" the most memorable song being "Peanut Butter". Anyone remember General Kane?
 
#115
Lo End Punch, it's not a crime to like the Chic crew better than the Brothers Johnson!:) Heck, I like the Brothers Johnson, and have their greatest hits. That said, I'm a bigger fan of Bernard Edwards and Leon Sylvers. That's simply a matter of taste. I'm glad you mentioned Michael Henderson. I am a huge fan of his!:bassist: BTW, are you going to the Chicago GTG this weekend? Barring another domestic disaster (both a car and a drier went on the fritz this week) I'm going to be there.
 
#116
Brad Johnson said:
Did anyone mention Keni Burke of the Five Stairsteps yet?
:bassist:
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Ooh ooh me me! Keni is one of the reasons I play bass today. He's a protege of Larry Graham and spent time with Larry in the early 70's. So of Keni's best work is done on Linda cliffords "don't give it up". I seem to remember him also playing on the Jones girls (linda Cliffords backup singers) "you gonna make me love somebody else.
 
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#118
Woodchuck said:
Speaking of the Jones Girls, who played bass on "Nights Over Egypt"? I asked one the Jones Girls about 6 years ago, and she said that she couldn't remember, she just remembered him being REALLY good.
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Whoever it was had to be... that's some very nice bass work.

I've never looked into it but it sounded like whomever played bass for Change when Luther Vandross was involved.
 
#119
Dr. Cheese said:
Lo End Punch, it's not a crime to like the Chic crew better than the Brothers Johnson!:) Heck, I like the Brothers Johnson, and have their greatest hits. That said, I'm a bigger fan of Bernard Edwards and Leon Sylvers. That's simply a matter of taste. I'm glad you mentioned Michael Henderson. I am a huge fan of his!:bassist: BTW, are you going to the Chicago GTG this weekend? Barring another domestic disaster (both a car and a drier went on the fritz this week) I'm going to be there.
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+1. It's all personal preference. Louis did have some memorable work. I have Patti Austin, Earl Klugh, Herbie Hancock and several other projects he worked on. I bought them when they originally came out, on wax, so I can definitely keep it in context. Do they hold up as well as Bernard's work? Not to me. This is probably blasphemy but I'm not all that impressed with the Quincy's projects, I definitely give him his props but I'm just not blown away.


George...? Oh well.

:D
 
#120
Brad Johnson said:
Whoever it was had to be... that's some very nice bass work.

I've never looked into it but it sounded like whomever played bass for Change when Luther Vandross was involved.
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David Romani was the bassist on the early Change recordings, and I don't think he played for the Jones Girls since he was based in Italy and they were a Philly International act. Remember, the early Change songs were done bi-continentally. the music was recorded in Italy, and vocals were done in New York.
 

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