Jun 21 2009
The Five Funkiest Bass Players Ever
It seems natural to follow two lists of funky drummers with a list of funky bass players. After all, what’s the point of having a funky drummer if you don’t have a funky bass player, and vice versa?
1. James Jamerson
The man who played on virtually everything Motown released during it’s golden era, and reinvented bass playing along the way. Jamerson’s playing on early motown is fairly straightforward, but his rhythmic drive kicks every track he’s on. By the time we get to his syncopated sixteenth-note grooves in the latter part of the 60’s, it’s a whole other style completely. The rhythmic drive has gotten stronger, the rhythms themselves more complex, and the melodic ideas ridiculously imaginative and outrageous. Every bass player in the world owes Jamerson. Too many tracks to pick out, but to start get some Motown compilations and check out his playing on ‘What’s Goin On’, ‘I Was Made To Love Her’, ‘Home Cookin’, ‘Ain’t Too Proud To Beg’, ‘Bernadette’, ‘For Once In My Life’, ‘Uptight and ‘I Heard It Through The Grapevine’ to name but a few briliant performances.
2. Bootsy Collins
When Bootsy was 18, he was playing with the JB’s, James Brown’s backing band. After he left the band, Bootsy spent most of the seventies working with George Clinton, playing with Parliament-Funkadelic and his own group ‘Bootsy’s Rubber Band’. Since then, Bootsy has been busy as a frontman and guest artist (remember ‘Groove Is In The Heart’?). For me, Bootsy’s greatest works are his early recordings with James Brown - ’Sex Machine’, ‘Super Bad’, the simulated live version of ‘Give It Up (Turn It Loose)’, ‘Talkin Loud and Sayin Nothin’, ‘Soul Power’, ‘Get Up, Get Into It, Get Involved’, the live album ‘Love Power Peace’. The bass playing on these tracks is unbelievably funky and very very confident for a kid of 18 or 19. I have played along with those tracks a lot over the last ten years and they still kick my behind!
3. Larry Graham
Well, all we really need to say about Larry Graham is that he invented slap bass! The bassist with Sly and the Family Stone until after ’There’s A Riot Goin’ On’. Larry’s work with drummer Greg Errico drove the band, check out his playing on ‘Dance To The Music’, ‘Thank You (Falletinme Be Mice Elf Agin)’, ‘I Want To Take You Higher’ - in fact, anything from the first five Family Stone albums. The early Graham Central Station records are probably the best overall from his solo career. Also worth getting a copy of the first, self-titled album by Betty Davis, produced by Greg Errico and featuring him and Larry as the rhythm section. So funky it’s scary!
4. Willie Weeks
Willie Weeks makes the list for his playing on the ‘Donny Hathaway Live’ album, which features one of the greatest bass solos ever recorded, on the track ‘(Voices Inside) Everything Is Everything’. Over the course of five minutes, Willie constructs and paces his solo brilliantly, bringing in a new idea or variation every eight bars and steadily building in intensity. A work of art! His playing on the rest of the album is amazing too, the bass part on ’What’s Goin On’ is heavily inspired by James Jamerson’s original, but taken to the next level. Everyone should own a copy of the album.
5. Bernard Odum
Bernard Odum played with James Brown’s band in the 60’s, recordings include ‘Cold Sweat’, ‘Think’, ‘I Got The Feelin’, ‘Get It Together’ and the second ‘Live At The Apollo’ album. Bernard is a master of the less-is-more style of funk bass, and is the kind of bassist who will play exactly the same thing over and over forever and never lose the feel. Worth checking out too is the album called ‘Doin Their Own Thing’, by Maceo and All The King’s Men. Bernard plays some great bass on this one as well.
Hope you enjoy listening to these bass players!
Nick
