Favorite bass albums of prog - Progressive Rock Music Forum

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andu

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Posted: May 08 2007 at 01:32

My favourites:

John Paul Jones - Zooma

Phoenix - Cei ce ne-au dat nume (with Iosif Kappl)

YES - CttE of course

Black Market by Weather Report and Unorthodox Behaviour by Brand X in jazz-rock

The Whistler View Drop Down

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Posted: May 08 2007 at 02:38

Alright! All of mine have yet to be mentioned:

Jethro Tull:

Thick as a Brick, for all the amazing bass trickery one Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond does with his instrument.

Minstrel in the Gallery, the title tune is arguably THE bass tune.

The Who:

Quadrapheania, just...because. The Ox. He was the other best.

Iron Butterfly

Ina Gadda da Vida, because no one else will mention it. Lee Dorman pumps out some pretty cool licks in the title tune.

"There seem to be quite a large percentage of young American boys out there tonight. A long way from home, eh? Well so are we... Gotta stick together." -I. Anderson

Atavachron View Drop Down

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Posted: May 08 2007 at 02:43

'Drama'
'Gateway 2'
'Emerson, Lake&Palmer'
'Electric Savage'
'Danger Money'

fuxi

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Posted: May 08 2007 at 03:53

- Tony Levin is just amazing with "Bruford Levin".
- Or Percy Jones with Brand X on MOROCCAN ROLL
- There's an excellent British band from the 1970s (jazzy/funky/proggy) called Back Door, on which the bass is very much a solo instrument. And incredibly alive!

Man Erg

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Posted: May 08 2007 at 03:56

Chris Squire - Fish Out of Water
Brian Eno - Another Green World / Before and After Science
Soft Machine - Third
Robert Wyatt - Shleep
King Crimson - USA
UK - UK

Edited by Man Erg - May 08 2007 at 03:57

Do 'The Stanley' otherwise I'll thrash you with some rhubarb.

prog4evr

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Posted: May 08 2007 at 04:16

willy wrote:

Fragile by Yes for sure.
Also Jaco Pastorius' self titled album is quite good.

Ditto, ditto on both accounts. For 'emotion,' you also must listen to Stanley Clarke on RTF, Romantic Warrior. His acoustic and electric bass offerings on just about every song is truly remarkable....

dedalus

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Posted: May 08 2007 at 04:29

Tool: Aenima (Justin Chancellor)

King Crimson: Discipline (Tony Levin)

Rush: 2112 (Geddy Lee)

Primus: Antipop (Les Claypool)

Flower Kings: Unfold the Future (Jonas Reingold)

Karmakanic: Wheel of Time (Jonas Reingold)

Camel: Snow Goose (Doug Fergusson)

IQ: Subterranea (Jon Jowitt)

Iron Maiden: Somewhere in Time (Steve Harris)

Liquid Tension Experiment: Liquid Tension Experiment (Tony Levin)

Rocktopus

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Posted: May 08 2007 at 04:48

Eskaton - 4 Visions (+ their next two albums)
Area - Caution Radiation Area (+ next two albums)

Three greats:

Jannik Top, Hugh Hopper, Richard Sinclair,

Over land and under ashes
In the sunlight, see - it flashes
Find a fly and eat his eye
But don't believe in me
Don't believe in me
Don't believe in me

toolis

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Posted: May 08 2007 at 05:02

try some Rage Against The Machine...
i know, sounds weird but the guy is great...

-music is like pornography...

sometimes amateurs turn us on, even more...

-sometimes you are the pigeon and sometimes you are the statue...

Floydoid

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Posted: May 08 2007 at 05:32

I'm surprised no-one has mentioned Jack Bruce... all the Cream albums are worth checking out for great bass playing.

Is it any wonder that the monkey's confused?

Dick Heath View Drop Down

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Posted: May 08 2007 at 05:37

Anything Jonas Hellborg plays on

Chris Squire's Fish Out Of Water has its moments.

A couple albums with Alphonso Johnson: Allan Holdsworth's Velvet Darkness and Flora Purim's Open You Eyes.

Can't go wrong with Jack Bruce - Cream's Wheels of Fire for instance - and not forgetting some of the duo-bass work he did with Steve Swallow on a few Kip Hanrahan albums.

Jaco Pastorius for taking great jazz fusion flavoured folk albums by Joni Mitchell and making them superb - if anybody can come up with a duo as sublime and energising as that of Brecker and Pastorius on The Dry Cleaner From Des Moines (Joni's Shadows & LIght) let me know.

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Rocktopus

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Posted: May 08 2007 at 06:29

Dick Heath wrote:

I can't.

Over land and under ashes
In the sunlight, see - it flashes
Find a fly and eat his eye
But don't believe in me
Don't believe in me
Don't believe in me

sleeper

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Posted: May 08 2007 at 06:50

Pain Of Salvation- The Perfect Element- Kristoffer Gildenlows bass work is simply stunning here and has to be listeneed to carefully as the bass line sometimes pops up in unusual places.
Dream Theater- Scenes From A Memory- John Myung is hugely talanted in this album had them all playing at their best.
The Tangent- The Music That Died Alone- Johnas Reingold is a brilliant bassist
Weather Report- Heavy Weather
Soft Machine- Third
Marillion- Script For A Jesters Tear
The Mars Volta- De-Loused In The Comatorium
Red Hot Chili Peppers- Blood, Suger, Sex, Magik/ Mothers Milk

As a bass player I can tell you that all these really grabed me for their bass work.

Spending more than I should on Prog since 2005

Certif1ed

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Posted: May 08 2007 at 08:19

Marillion - Pete Trewavas is master of melodic bass lines. "Script..." and "Fugazi" are best, with "Script..." having the edge. Pointer left Trewavas loads of room to articulate his intricate style.

Twelfth Night - Clive Mitten played a 6-string. "Live at the Target" and "Fact and Fiction" both feature some stunningly emotional bass playing, and are both so different, I recommend both.

Camel - Doug Ferguson is underrated primarily because he's a lynchpin rock bassist first and foremost - but he was capable of great melodic writing. "A Live Record" is probably the one to get, but "Mirage" and "Moonmadness" are superb.

Pink Floyd - needs no explanation. Waters was always on the money... but my pick is "Meddle", with "DSOTM" and "Animals" coming close behind.

Yes - Chris Squire's bass playing may be over the top sometimes, but when he got a groove going, it was hard and complicated. My preference is for the very early groovy stuff, so my pick is "Time and a Word". I can't listen to Jon Anderson, so I'm not very familiar with their later stuff.

Hawkwind - Lemmy hardly ever comes up for discussion, and yet his basslines are hard, hypnotic and manic. He did some brilliant stuff with Motorhead in the 1980s too. Go for "Space Ritual" by Hawkwind and "Overkill" by Motorhead. "Doremi..." and "Warrior on the Edge of Time" are other great Hawkwind picks, while "On Parole" and "Ace of Spades" are great Motorheadbangers.

Radiohead - Colin Greenwood is master of the understated bass. That this style is actually very hard is something difficult to get across to people who prefer a million notes a minute. I particularly like his work on "OK Computer".

Couldn't mention bass without mentioning Holgar Czukay - try "Monster Movie" by Can - if that's not quite your thing, then "Ege Bamyasi" or "Tago Mago" should have something for you.

Keith "da Missile" Bass from Here and Now is another with an awesome style, if you want to get a bit of a reggae/rock groove going - "Theatre" is great, but you might find "Give and Take" more interesting. Personally, I'm very keen on the bass lines on "Fantasy Shift" - but that's not an album I'd recommend to everyone, it just means a lot to me.

Stranglers (OK, not Prog...) - J J Burnell's style is unique, powerful and melodic. I couldn't pick a single Stranglers' album, as the bass is stunning on all of them - so go for the 1977-1982 collection.

...there's a pattern here - I like my basslines hard, melodic and inventive - not over-fussy. Bass is a surprisingly delicate and subtle art-form, oft-derided by guitarist for having less strings and hence being the easy option - but give a guitarist a bass, and laugh as they try to play chords or leads!

...and those are almost all of my own main influences as a bass player

Edited by Certif1ed - May 08 2007 at 08:35

The important thing is not to stop questioning.

clarke2001 View Drop Down

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Posted: May 08 2007 at 11:08

Hatfield & The North - Rotter's Club
Anything by The Pentangle
Anything by Weather Report
Pay attention to Ralphe Armstrong, a bass player in Jean-Luc Ponty's band.

from non-prog:

any of 70's Queen's albums - John Deacon is so underrated...
Paul Simon - Graceland. Check out Baghiti Khumalo on bass!

Percussion, sir!

Evolver

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Posted: May 08 2007 at 12:52

Percy Jones wirh Brand X

Trust me. I know what I'm doing.

Equality 7-2521 View Drop Down

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Posted: May 08 2007 at 13:05

^
Also check him out in Tunnels

"One had to be a Newton to notice that the moon is falling, when everyone sees that it doesn't fall. "

dwill123

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Posted: May 08 2007 at 16:19

clarke2001 wrote:

Pay attention to Ralphe Armstrong, a bass player in Jean-Luc Ponty's band.

... and don't forget that "American Idol (judge)" Randy Jackson. He played some damn nice bass for Ponty in the mid-80s.

EinTon

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Posted: May 08 2007 at 17:05

Lacrymosa - Joy of the Wrecked ship (with a nice fretless bass, played by band leader Chihiro Saito)
Henry Cow - Leg End, Unrest

Edited by EinTon - May 08 2007 at 17:10

rileydog22 View Drop Down

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Posted: May 08 2007 at 17:51

Like previous people have mentioned, Zeuhl is a great genre to look for great bass players in. Check out Magma (MDK and Udu Wudu), Eskaton (Four Visions), and Dun (Eros) for some awesome bass playing.