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Who Is The Most Wanted Session Bassist

#21
Boof said:
This is outdated by a number of years. Dave is a friend of mine, so this is not a dis. He's on the big Garth Brooks stuff, the big Trisha Yearwood stuff, and many, many other hits and album tracks from the days when those kinds of artists dominated the country charts. That was the early to mid 90s. Dave's a fabulous player, extremely versatile, deep & rock-solid. But while he still does some very cool, select projects (Sweethearts Of The Rodeo's new comeback CD, for example), most of his time these days is taken up serving as president of AFM 257 (Nashville). He was able to run for and assume the heavy duties of that office partly because, like all the session kingpins, work had slowed after the boom. After getting his feet on the ground as union prez, Dave did start taking bass work again and has done some fabulous work. But the seriously busy guys in town these days are Jimmy Lee Sloas, Tim Marks, Dave Roe, Steve Mackey, and the ever-present Mike Brignardello & Michael Rhodes. Marks and Sloas, particularly, are on serious rolls right now. Again, this is taking nothing away from Dave, his legacy, or his current work. Most of us really appreciate that he's subjugated the playing to serving with AFM. He's made some good moves in that role, trying hard to drag the union into the 21st Century. That doesn't allow the kind of session schedule he once kept.
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Nice Boof, thanks! :)
 
#23
Ric5 said:
Tony Levin
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I cannot believe it took 20 posts before Tony's name came up!

He's the only session musician I've ever heard of who has a waiting list...one that many artists and producers are willing to get on and sit patiently as the calendar ticks away before they start their project, rather than simply calling the next bassist on their short list.
 
#24
It's been Nate Easts turn for some time now but I think Willie Weeks is better for Blues and others like Mr. Brown are as good or better. Sessions is difficult to access, because its the artists and/or their producers who favor certain players for specific tasks. Hell everyones good in the studio, take 2!!!!! hahahaha!!!! Ofcourse take 13 is not what thats all about but the point I'm trying to make is that if your solid live you can work in a studio setting. Beats the hell out of road work. Doc
 
#35
I think that you're still going to see a lot of the session work divided up regionally. Sure, there are plenty of top call guys who will get work with those superstar artists who will fly them in to wherever they're recording. Those are guys like Pino, Tony Levin, etc.

But I think in the major music production centers you'll see more instances of guys who get a higher volume of session work because they're local and always working.

NEW YORK: Will Lee and James Genus instantly come to mind. They've both got tv gigs, session work and they're both gigging regularly. And Ron Carter on upright.

LA: Neil Stubenaus, Nathan East, Justin Meldal-Johnsen, Chris Chaney.

And I think you'll see similar things in Nashville, London and elsewhere. Work goes to guys who are readily available.
 

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