Bass Player Appreciation Thread

I made years before realizing how the style of Muzz Skillings (bassist for Living Colour from 1986 to 1992) influenced my own style.
The bass parts of Bill Laswell on Massacre's 'Killing Time' also did impress me.
And since I heard a few tracks by Ronald Shannon Jackson Decoding Society, I'm curious of Melvin Gibbs. I know he played with Rollins, but I know close to nothing of its career.

And, of course, STEVE HARRIS.

p0mt3 wrote: The Pessimist wrote: p0mt3 wrote: The Pessimist wrote: That guy out of spastic Ink is out of this world. My personal favourite player though is Steve DiGiorgio. Gee, I'm shocked. No, I think a lot of the metal guys tend to get overlooked (or overshadowed) by their Guitar players, which is too bad, because when a metal bass player really cares about his instrument, he can outplay just about any bass player in any other genre from a technical standpoint. (My opinion) Shocked? Oh... right, the Death thing... Well, a fanboys gotta do what a fanboys gotta do, that's all I'm saying Well I can name about five metal bassists who are jazz trained just like the rest of em So I support your point wholeheartedly Micah. No, trust me, if I wasn't such a Tool nut, I probably wouldn't have cited Chancellor like I did earlier. Glad we can agree on yet another aspect of music, my friend. I think Metal Bassists (and metal musicians in general) are very underrated by the masses.

Exactly, just like you bring up Danny Carey in every drum thread, I MUST bring up either Hoglan or Reinert. It's the done thing these days

And there is a fundamental reason why we always agree. Because we are both right. All the time There is much more to metal than growling, putting as much distortion on your guitar as possible, having a million bass drums and smoking the sweet Mary Jane.

Sasaki Hisashi http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cykdVBbhvEA

Justin Chancellor, because I take a LOT of influence from him

Edited by brainerd - July 26 2009 at 19:21

^ just highlighting one of those
Ray Shulman: criminally underappreciated bassist.

If I did bassist top tens any more, and I don't, and there'd be motown players and I'd be driven off the site by pointéd sticks, he'd be in there.

Tony Reeves of Colosseum and later Greenslade is similarly overlooked. Coincidentally, anyone else rate Gordon Haskell's bass-work (leaving the vocals aside for a moment) on Lizard as much as I do?

Patrice Congas, the bass player on the two solo albums of Christian Boulé (guitar player of Clearlight), is really excellent.
And, since no German bass players have been mentioned so far except for Hattler, here a few more:

Peter Kühmstedt of Guru Guru.
Uli Trepte of Guru Guru and Spacebox.
Dave Schmidt alias Sula Bassana of Psychedelic Monsterjam.
Matz Steinke of Aera.
Gerald Luciano Hartwig of Embryo and Guru Guru.
Holger Czukay of Can.

To name just a few.

About less known british bands, I?m surprised noone mentioned these two:

Edited by Luca Pacchiarini - July 27 2009 at 04:33

I would have been all about posting to this thread, but all thunder has been stolen (so to speak - in a stupid phrase).  Glad to see there are some of the more subtle players name too (like Czukay).  Nice thread - bass is great! 

BaldFriede wrote: There are a few cool videos of Tal Wilkenfeld playing with Jeff Beck around at YouTube. I especially love this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbhngojbrzQLook what sneaky Tal does around 4:00, like a kid putting a finger into the dough of the cake Mum is about to bake.

Tal is amazing - And only 17 years old I think?

In any case, thanks for the post!
-Joel

I recently bought that Jeff Beck DVD, and it's fun to see they're all having the time of their life! Wilkenfeld is an amazing player (Beck compares her to Jaco Pastorius) but it must be an incredible experience for her to be touring the world with some of the greatest musicians at such a young age!

Interesting to see how some 1960s musicians are rejuvenating their careers by collaborating with gifted young women: Beck with Wilkenfeld and also with Imogen Heap; Robert Plant with that singer -- sorry, forgot the name! Some may suspect these aging chaps of undignified randiness backstage, but they certainly give their young collaborators all the space they require, and the artistic result is impeccable.

Marcello Reddovide of Semiramis is an excellent player as well ...shame he just sort of dropped off the map after Dedicato a Frazz