Following up Kents embarassing convertsation with a unamed music store person
Who would you say would be YOur picks for bassists who live under the shadow of their guitar player local or otherwise.....
Mine would be
#1 Michael Anthony.... He may be thump thump on the albums but that fat lil whiskey drinker will peel the flesh from your face with his jazz runs. WHY WAS HIS SOLO NEVER PUT ON AN ALBUM!!!! Ed a lil jealous?
If Freedom is not free then I will use my credit card.
Timothy B. Schmidt - Beautiful tone, tasteful player, and you have to give props to anyone who can cop a Pino Palladino line, note for note. (When The Eagles did Henley's In a New York Minute on the Hell Freezes Over tour) His singing isn't too shabby either. He's one of my favorite players.
Ed Friedland - Best known as the editor of Bass Player magazine. My favorite slapper of all time.
Adam Nitti - There are many technical players out there, but not many who are "musical". Adam is both technical and musical. I truly believe that he is going to be the next bass hero. In a few years, his name is going to be mentioned in the same breath as Pastorious, Wooten, Clarke, and Jamerson.
Keith Horne - "A" list session guy in Nashville - also a great Fusion player.
Chuck Rainey - Unfortunatley, sharing the same surname didn't rub off on me. *LOL* His groove, tastefulness, and timing shows what seperates the good bassist from the great ones. Just listen to Steely Dan's Aja album to hear what I mean.
Tommy Shannon - His lines made SRV's music "breath".
Tony Kanal - Even though No Doubt has basically become all about Gwen Stafani, Tony's playing drives the music. He also has great tone.
Stefan Lessard - Before These Crowded Streets was great because Stefan was finally brought up in the mix; now I could hear all of his groovy playing. The intro to Crush still runs chills up my arms.
I also agree about Michael Anthony. A lot of guys think he is just a root player, but if you listen closely, you'll hear all kinds of interesting little fills he does. He also has metronome timing; just listen to Poundcake or Seventh Seal.
"He's the electric horseman, you better back off!" - old sKool making a reference to the culturally relevant 1979 film.
Pat Badger, of Extreme. Don't believe me? Listen to "Cupid's Dead", off Extreme III (3 Sides To Every Story). Anyone who can play a solo with Nuno note-for-note rules.
I know the guy has gotten a lot of attention but I still feel that Flea is very underrated. I think he completely changed the way bass playing was viewed. So many of the new style bass players should give Flea a percentage of their yearly income for raising the bar and creating that new funk, rap, rock, metal style.
You can put kittens in the oven, but that don't make 'em biscuits.
Great suggestions from Paul, but would you expect any less?
Here's another vote for Larry Graham, who laid the foundation for a heck of a lot of modern bass stylings. And check out the Woodstock movie to hear how gargantuan his tone was compared to everybody else on the bill. He must have borrowed a fuzzbox from Hendrix or something. The Sly segment just rocks, period!
Another unsung hero is John Paul Jones. A super musician with any instrument he picks up, and the true author of some of rock's greatest riffs.
Check out Juan Nelson. He plays with Ben Harper and The Innocent Criminals. Very tasty player. Give "Steal My Kisses" a listen and check out the outro.
DD Verni? Great call! Some other WAAAAYYYY under-valued dudes:
1. Robert DiLeo (STP): One of the best rock grooves (and tones) in the biz. Great all-around bassist.
2. Trey Gunn (former King Crimson): Technicall not a bassist (a Warr-Guitarist), but he is the king! Man knows his stuff and plays with both hands!
3. Michael Manring: King of Melodic Solo Bass
4. Tony Levin: Most ubiquitous bassist in the land. He's played with Alice Cooper, Sarah McLachlan, and Peter Gabriel to name just a few. The man can do anything!
5. Duff McKegan: Best hard rock player in my humble opinion. Great grooves and some chops!
6. Justin Chancellor from Tool: Making lots of treble cool for bass guys!
7. Rinus Gerritsen from Golden Earring: This cat played for an extremely cheezy bizarre band, but some of his bass lines just rule. Great tone as well.
8. Geezer Butler: Nuff said.
9. Peter Hook from New Order: Instead of giving up new wave to synth bass, he turned bass guitar into a melodic instrument and created a unique niche.
10. Tom Hamilton from Aerosmith: They suck now, but he was (and is) a kick-ass bass player.
What do you guys think of Sting? He's one of those guys who didn't flash out, but always seemed to play the perfect part for the song. Songwriting bass players always seem to have a great sense of direction - they aren't just playing licks, they ARE the song. Paul McCartney had that same thing.
Kent got me thinking about that, cuz that's his style too. His bass parts are always a song unto themselves. Great melodies there!
On the subject of tone, who was the African guy who played with Paul Simon in the 80s? Holy crap, was he good. He sounded like a human voice.
Jimi, that would be Bakithi Khumalo. He's responsible for me buying a fretless bass. (as I'm sure he's responsible for a lot of the fretless cats who were too young to experience Jaco) I have a VHS concert of Graceland; during Boy in the Bubble he plays this smoking solo.
I also agree about Paul McCartney; he's one of my favorite players. I love to hear guys like Gary Willis or Stu Hamm tear things up, but when it comes down to it, Sir Paul is simply one of the best. Silly Love Songs, is IMO, the perfect bassline. It's busy but tasteful, memorable, and has one of the most beautiful Rickenbacker tones ever recorded. Along with James Jamerson, Carol Kaye, and Donald "Duck" Dunn, McCartney defined early bassplaying. He's to electric bass, what Charles Mingus is to double bass.
There's a lot of great metal bassists such as Steve Digiorgio, Tony Choy, Sean Malone, and Pete Perez, but I think that Greg Christian from Testament is an underrated player. He's tighter than a stingy CPA working for a fledgling company. They do this instrument called Urotsukidoji, in which Greg just proceeds to rip things up.
"He's the electric horseman, you better back off!" - old sKool making a reference to the culturally relevant 1979 film.
Great calls all around....if we're talking fretless cats, don't forget....
1. Mick Karn...anybody here listen to Polytown? Damn, the man conjures some creepy gutteral sounds out of that piece of wood (his bass, I mean;)).
2. Percy Jones: Probably THE godfather of fretless bass in prog rock....he is a melodic animal. Just got the 20 year Brand X retrospective...truly amazing stuff.
And another Renaisannce guy or two...
1. Doug Wimbish (Living Color): I saw this guy at HammerJacks (Baltimore, not Bellwood, l0l) in the early 90s. His hands are the size of Voltzwagens! Saw him again in 2000 on LC's reunion tour.
2. Muzz Skillings: His bass solo on LC's "Time's Up" is awesome.
3. Chris Squire: "The Fish" is on e of the best bass solos of all time.
Slothkill....good call on Mike Anthony...totally solid bass, perfect for VH...Ian Hill from Judas Priest is right there with him. Also, couldn't agree more about songwriting bassists (and thanks for the props, Jimi...it's nice to be noticed by your peers). Sting was so awesome with the Police. It's a shame that he has succumed to lameness in the past few years.
Glad to see that the bass dudes (and appreciaters of bass) on this board are well-versed!
Depends on what you call underated... but.. I'll say this.. my fave local bassists from the area would be Adam (RIP WUS), Mr. Chad-ittude (Deviance), Jae-fro (ESY), and my long haired hippy Matt from Acid Rflx. The bass beater from Flap Jack n'Jill cracks me up too.
Famous bass peeps that I think aren't given enough credit would have to be Geddy Lee (RUSH), Peanut (311), Flea (RHCPeppers).
~*~Esa~*~
I'll be the one left standing behind you, looking the other way as you glance back at what you've lost.
Good call on P-nut from 311. He makes those SWRs sound great. I was listening to Down the other day, and while he isn't playing any spectacular runs, the groove and timing he does in that song is insane. 311 is one of my favorite bands though, so maybe I'm biased.
"He's the electric horseman, you better back off!" - old sKool making a reference to the culturally relevant 1979 film.
A couple more greats are Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond from Jethro Tull and whoever played for early Crack The Sky. I've been holding off and I can't believe nobody has mentioned Steve Harris. What 'da fuck?
Myung is so dreamy. If you haven't noticed, I have a bit of a man-crush on him!
Stu was mentioned. Hooray for Stuuuu.
Billy Sheehan wasnt mentioned, but he isnt exactly 'underrated'. He does a lot of little solo runs and flashy stage stuff, but I love what he does.
Dave LaRue
As much as I hate to admit it, the bassist from Mudvayne (sp) is pretty crazy.
Bassist from Queensryche- not overly flashy, but, man I love the growly tone he has.
The bassist from Boston. As far as Im concerned, He is the band! He just bounces around on simple scales, but man does it sound good.
I have a question- Who is that Asian Narucho bassist that plays 4,5,8,and 10 string Tune basses? He is all over their website, and I wanna hear him play.
