Forum Home Forum Home > Progressive Music Lounges > Top 10s and lists
  New Posts New Posts RSS Feed - Top 5 underrated prog bassists
  FAQ FAQ  Forum Search   Events   Register Register  Login Login

Top 5 underrated prog bassists
 Post Reply Post Reply Page  <1234>
Author
Message Reverse Sort Order
  Topic Search Topic Search  Topic Options Topic Options
moshkito View Drop Down
Forum Senior Member
Forum Senior Member
Avatar

Joined: January 04 2007
Location: Grok City
Status: Offline
Points: 17497 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote moshkito Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 15 2019 at 06:47
Originally posted by Quinino Quinino wrote:

I like Hugh Hopper.
 

He's also in the Richard Sinclair album (Caravan of Dreams) and it makes it spectacular … shame that few folks here will ever listen to it, because they have to have their "prog" fix first!
Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told!
www.pedrosena.com
Back to Top
Mascodagama View Drop Down
Collaborator
Collaborator
Avatar
Honorary Collaborator

Joined: December 30 2006
Location: United Kingdom
Status: Offline
Points: 5111 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Mascodagama Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 15 2019 at 05:46
Originally posted by dwill123 dwill123 wrote:


I'm going to add one more which should have been in my original five, Hadrian Feraud.  I first saw him in John McLaughlin's 4th Dimension and thought John had found another superstar musician.  Then as quick as that Feraud disappeared.  Appearing sporadically here and there.  I have no explanation.  Check out the video.
 

He's been playing with a group Spirit Fingers (founded by keyboardist Greg Spero) who had a s/t album out last year. Great chops-heavy fusion, worth checking out.
Soldato of the Pan Head Mafia. We'll make you an offer you can't listen to.
Bandcamp Profile
Back to Top
Icarium View Drop Down
Forum Senior Member
Forum Senior Member
Avatar
VIP Member

Joined: March 21 2008
Location: Tigerstaden
Status: Offline
Points: 34055 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Icarium Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 15 2019 at 03:36
Originally posted by Quinino Quinino wrote:

I like Hugh Hopper.
hes great
Back to Top
Icarium View Drop Down
Forum Senior Member
Forum Senior Member
Avatar
VIP Member

Joined: March 21 2008
Location: Tigerstaden
Status: Offline
Points: 34055 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Icarium Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 15 2019 at 03:36
Greame Murray of Pallas fame is onebofbmy favourite Rickenbacher wielders, hes toneband creativety does bot get enough priase on PA or other places. I also like the bass player in Journey, but also Dougi Thompson in Supertramp is seriously overlooked bass player
Back to Top
Frenetic Zetetic View Drop Down
Forum Senior Member
Forum Senior Member
Avatar

Joined: December 09 2017
Location: Now
Status: Offline
Points: 9233 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (2) Thanks(2)   Quote Frenetic Zetetic Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 15 2019 at 02:37
Originally posted by moshkito moshkito wrote:

Originally posted by Frenetic Zetetic Frenetic Zetetic wrote:


Serious question(s) - do you play bass guitar and/or any other instrument? 

If so, how much experience do you have with said instrument(s)?

Ohhh, I have a few basses hanging around.

But my playing was never taken to a "professional" level, because the majority of folks I was around with, not only did not know music, they could never LISTEN TO ANY OF IT, and were only interested in a riff and thinking that 5 notes on top of a riff made a song! Gary Green, of GG has said that they never wrote anything ... they just played! And that SHOWS ... what at the time would be considered "anti-music", just like there was stuff around then called "anti-movie" and other artistic endeavors trying hard to get off the track of copycopycopycopydifferentnotecopycopycopy ... thing! It tells you that a lot of the things they did were right out in the open in their early days ... but we're so RIFF oriented and defined, that we can not consider someone free forming their way any more ... and the early history of PROGRESSIVE MUSIC is simply full of that experience and experiment ... but heck, did you check "krautrock" lately? It wasn't only music ... but theater, film, literature ... and other disciplines ... but how would anyone know that if all you look for is just another riff?

All in all, music has been my life for all of my 69 years, from my parents collection of classical music (over 2500 LP's), all the way to my collection at one time (3K LP's -- now 1500 LP's and 1500 CD's). I am very well versed in music of 100 to 1000 different kinds, not just 3 styles and sounds that define some "progressive" folks here, which is the least PROGRESSIVE idea of any.

Your question, makes it sound like I don't know what I am saying or feeling. Maybe you ought to listen to some musicians ... like Mani saying he doesn't play rhythm or a bass guy ... he's playing with the lead guitar! Or the best one, in a private conversation ... was Pierre Moerlin in Portland ... I couldn't give a damn about what all the others were doing! He didn't mean to sound bad, but it told you that what he was asked to do was boring and just kid's homework, compared to what he really wanted to do to the music to make it better!

Because no offense, as someone that made a living as a bass player for several years, your posts reek of arm-chair-observation-as fact. The way you attempt to cleverly use vernacular to disguise your lack of genuine experience on topics - whilst simultaneously attempting to come off as an expert - is extremely obvious to me. Then, on top of that, having the gall to tell me to "listen to more music" before even hearing my reply?

I'm very aware that this is outside the scope of this thread but as a frequent poster I'm saying it anyway:

You are undoubtedly, far and away one of the single-most pretentious, haughty, arrogant posters on this forum community on a consistent basis.

You have every single right in the world to your opinion. I will never argue that point. However:

You're attempting to argue a position of authority on bass playing based on the number of "records you've listened to", as if that's any objective standard measure of anything outside of your opinion.

"Listening" to thousands of records isn't the same thing as playing a bass on stage in front of people night after night after night after night, nor being in a recording situation, and adapting to what the big picture needs as a whole. Normally this wouldn't bother me but your attitude on this topic oversteps its bounds as an authority way, way too much when it's obvious that you're comparing apples to oranges, then insisting your resulting fruit salad is the objective standard for quality bass playing. 

I even gave you a chance at gaining some ground by asking if you have experience with other musicians (thus giving your claims a little credibility), and you still proved me right:

So you play(ed)? Cool. Oh, other people couldn't get with it though, right?

Of course it was "other people" who "didn't get" the music that only your incredibly talented brain (which you spend so much time here defending in your wall of text posts...like, every time you post) can comprehend! Plebs! Don't they know diatonic scales are so pre-school level? I bet they like tones that sound good together and create melody, too! Amateurs!

Then, you do the same exact thing insisting other PA users "only like 3 styles of prog" and "thus aren't really progressive" because you like 100's and 1000's more styles than they do! If only they could keep up with your arbitrary standards of eclectic, refined quality! Oh, how the world would be such a magical, perfect place for all!

Were you a college professor at one point? I get serious liberal arts vibes from you every single time you post. Or perhaps a disgruntled ex-Philosophy professor. Either way, your posts read like you write them from a throne composed of "bad" essays written by students who don't agree with you on what constitutes a sound wave.

...And God forbid people like riffs! We can't have that! Prog rock only borrows some of it sound from rock and roll which GASP is riff based! Those heathens! Knowing what they like (in your wardrobe, of all places)! How dare they?!

Everyone sucks because they don't appreciate classical to the degree you do though, right? So the above is only logical from your perspective. It doesn't sound like you know what you're talking about besides reinforcing your own opinion as fact, and poorly so IMHO. In fact, that seems to be your entire posting MO here on PA.

I say this because of how much you endlessly pontificate in the majority of your posts, waxing and waning pretentious rhetoric as fact over several paragraphs of information (like a rejected TIME magazine article from 1973 attempting to remain artsy and relevant through use of language regarding prog rock) instead of condensing it down into two or three for average human beings to read, understand, and feel like debating with you. I've seen several other posters give me a "he does that here" type "look" in several threads with you.

You appear to do that a lot on this forum; haughty derision and pretentious articulation of a concept - a pattern of sound - then insisting "riffs" are sh*t...on a progressive rock website...because not enough classical in the stew you happen to be sipping from...LOL. Get over yourself, ESPECIALLY if you're truly a 69+ year old adult interacting with people most likely half your age on the internet.

Either that or you're genuinely bipolar/schizo, in which case everything makes a lot of sense and I don't hold anything against you.

"I am so prog, I listen to concept albums on shuffle." -KMac2021
Back to Top
jamesbaldwin View Drop Down
Prog Reviewer
Prog Reviewer
Avatar

Joined: September 25 2015
Location: Milano
Status: Offline
Points: 5985 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote jamesbaldwin Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 14 2019 at 17:29
Originally posted by moshkito moshkito wrote:

Originally posted by jamesbaldwin jamesbaldwin wrote:

John Gustafson, Quatermass and Roxy Music.

 really great album, and one that was copied by a more famous person in another band, that took that same song ... and destroyed it!

Who?
Amos Goldberg (professor of Genocide Studies at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem): Yes, it's genocide. It's so difficult and painful to admit it, but we can no longer avoid this conclusion.
Back to Top
Quinino View Drop Down
Forum Senior Member
Forum Senior Member
Avatar

Joined: June 26 2011
Location: Portugal
Status: Offline
Points: 3654 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Quinino Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 14 2019 at 16:11
I like Hugh Hopper.
Back to Top
moshkito View Drop Down
Forum Senior Member
Forum Senior Member
Avatar

Joined: January 04 2007
Location: Grok City
Status: Offline
Points: 17497 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote moshkito Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 14 2019 at 07:42
Originally posted by jamesbaldwin jamesbaldwin wrote:

John Gustafson, Quatermass and Roxy Music.

Loved that Quatermass album ... and I can play that stuff, too, on my bass ... really great album, and one that was copied by a more famous person in another band, that took that same song ... and destroyed it!
Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told!
www.pedrosena.com
Back to Top
moshkito View Drop Down
Forum Senior Member
Forum Senior Member
Avatar

Joined: January 04 2007
Location: Grok City
Status: Offline
Points: 17497 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote moshkito Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 14 2019 at 07:41
Originally posted by Frenetic Zetetic Frenetic Zetetic wrote:


Serious question(s) - do you play bass guitar and/or any other instrument? 

If so, how much experience do you have with said instrument(s)?

Ohhh, I have a few basses hanging around.

But my playing was never taken to a "professional" level, because the majority of folks I was around with, not only did not know music, they could never LISTEN TO ANY OF IT, and were only interested in a riff and thinking that 5 notes on top of a riff made a song! Gary Green, of GG has said that they never wrote anything ... they just played! And that SHOWS ... what at the time would be considered "anti-music", just like there was stuff around then called "anti-movie" and other artistic endeavors trying hard to get off the track of copycopycopycopydifferentnotecopycopycopy ... thing! It tells you that a lot of the things they did were right out in the open in their early days ... but we're so RIFF oriented and defined, that we can not consider someone free forming their way any more ... and the early history of PROGRESSIVE MUSIC is simply full of that experience and experiment ... but heck, did you check "krautrock" lately? It wasn't only music ... but theater, film, literature ... and other disciplines ... but how would anyone know that if all you look for is just another riff?

All in all, music has been my life for all of my 69 years, from my parents collection of classical music (over 2500 LP's), all the way to my collection at one time (3K LP's -- now 1500 LP's and 1500 CD's). I am very well versed in music of 100 to 1000 different kinds, not just 3 styles and sounds that define some "progressive" folks here, which is the least PROGRESSIVE idea of any.

Your question, makes it sound like I don't know what I am saying or feeling. Maybe you ought to listen to some musicians ... like Mani saying he doesn't play rhythm or a bass guy ... he's playing with the lead guitar! Or the best one, in a private conversation ... was Pierre Moerlin in Portland ... I couldn'
t give a damn about what all the others were doing! He didn't mean to sound bad, but it told you that what he was asked to do was boring and just kid's homework, compared to what he really wanted to do to the music to make it better!

If only we stop thinking that "rhythm" ... and "pop musak" is what music is all about ... the lack of respect for classical music and its history here, is ridiculous, and completely out of line!


Edited by moshkito - July 14 2019 at 07:46
Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told!
www.pedrosena.com
Back to Top
jamesbaldwin View Drop Down
Prog Reviewer
Prog Reviewer
Avatar

Joined: September 25 2015
Location: Milano
Status: Offline
Points: 5985 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote jamesbaldwin Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 14 2019 at 04:46
John Gustafson, Quatermass and Roxy Music.
Amos Goldberg (professor of Genocide Studies at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem): Yes, it's genocide. It's so difficult and painful to admit it, but we can no longer avoid this conclusion.
Back to Top
Cristi View Drop Down
Special Collaborator
Special Collaborator
Avatar
Crossover / Prog Metal Teams

Joined: July 27 2006
Location: wonderland
Status: Offline
Points: 43519 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Cristi Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 14 2019 at 04:34
Originally posted by BarryGlibb BarryGlibb wrote:

Originally posted by progmatic progmatic wrote:

A couple of others: Chas Cronk, Tony Levin


Tony Levin is not underrated by anyone!

of course he is not, what's next, people are going to say Chris Squire is underrated?!
Back to Top
BarryGlibb View Drop Down
Forum Senior Member
Forum Senior Member
Avatar

Joined: August 28 2010
Location: Melbourne, Oz
Status: Offline
Points: 1781 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote BarryGlibb Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 14 2019 at 04:27
Originally posted by progmatic progmatic wrote:

A couple of others: Chas Cronk, Tony Levin


Tony Levin is not underrated by anyone!
Back to Top
Frenetic Zetetic View Drop Down
Forum Senior Member
Forum Senior Member
Avatar

Joined: December 09 2017
Location: Now
Status: Offline
Points: 9233 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Frenetic Zetetic Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 14 2019 at 02:43
Originally posted by moshkito moshkito wrote:

Hi,

I look at bass players, not always within the context mentioned here, which is closer to favorite music than it is ... real music ... and there is a difference there. Some folks listed here I would not consider since they were mere time keepers on par with the drummer, and not "musicians" on their own, "independent" track, that added so much to the piece of music ... think of Pastorius and his freedom moving around the music ... no one here goes around saying that he is not a great player. Think of Stanley Clarke and his forays into so much music, and no one here is going to say that he is not valuable and a huge force in RETURN TO FOREVER. Heck, think of BOOTSIE and how he told a riff to go get "fudged" by ripping it with effects!

Too many of these are just riff players, and riffs are not what "music" is all about ... there is a lot more to it, than just a riff ... where does it go? ... nowhere means you simply do not have the musical ability to extend what you are doing, and this is something that Europeans are "better" at mostly because of their history of classical music ... they are comfortable with long pieces of music ... over here in the "western world" (that is USA and UK), it's like these folks never heard classical music, and have no idea what to do with it ... other than talk about a guitarist doing the blues again ... and not showing us anything new.

If I have a personal favorite, it probably would be the late LOTHAR MEID ... whose playing was so different, and almost always "against" the melody and the main flow of the song, giving it a contrast that made the piece of music special ... and some of my favorite moments are in WOLF CITY where the transitions in a couple of places, are just simple, single notes ... that carry your feeling forward ... it's uncanny, and similar to Jaki Leibezeit in FUTURE DAYS and in the transition from CHAIN REACTION to QUANTUUM PHYSICS in the next album, where, it is the silent touch and feel that carries the music ... and there is no drummer I have EVER met, that can discuss SILENCE ... and how to work within it ... except BILL BRUFORD ... but this is about bass players.

There are others ... but not always within the rock context ... DAVID DARLING is just phenomenal. CHARLIE HADEN, specially with EGBERTO GISMONTI is just insane ... totally out of this world ... and, unfortunately, within the rock music context, I still think that JOHN PAUL JONES and JOHN ENTWISTLE are/were probably the most inventive of all, since they were not about the "riff", in two bands that specialized in expanding things and taking it far and away from just a riff ... which is what "progressive music" started being about, but nowadays, we seem enamored with returning to the riff and almost all the players are "riff'ers".

There are a few really special players out there for me ... RICHARD SINCLAIR is one of them. MIKE HOWLETT is the other, perhaps one of the steadiest and cleanest player I have ever seen, and in concert ... he's just clean and strong, and he can play with drummers like PIERRE MOERLIN, who were kinda known to go left and right and away from the "riff" to do something special to make the piece of music stronger. Very few people have the ear, to be able to ADD to a piece of music like that ... sort of like you can add a kazoo and make it sound fabulous!

One other one, is DON SCHIFF ... from THE ROCKET SCIENTISTS. He has never gotten the credit for the work he has added to this band, and instead other folks got the credit and attention for the playing of the CHAPMAN STICK ... but with all due respect to the other folks and the famous one, DON is not about the pyrotechnics of the playing of the instrument ... he is about adding to the music what it needs to make it better and stronger, a very under rated and ignored concept in music, because we spend so much time rating the "riff'ers" and not the music.

I like JOHN MYUNG, for example, and his playing is very strong ... but in the end, you get the feeling that all he can do is go around and round the scales and notes ... and NEVER get out of that to bring up something special because the guitar is just flying as it is ... and he needs to go fly his own kite for a while! That leaves JOHN underrated and not as strong and interesting as he might be, and seems to have the ability to do and be ... but won't get it, when he has to spend his time supporting the guitar ... and can't have time away from it. The death of a bass player ... within a band that does not know "music" ... only knows something about their own "style" ... and these folks are graduates of a music school? WEIRD!

Serious question(s) - do you play bass guitar and/or any other instrument? 

If so, how much experience do you have with said instrument(s)?

"I am so prog, I listen to concept albums on shuffle." -KMac2021
Back to Top
cstack3 View Drop Down
Forum Senior Member
Forum Senior Member
Avatar
VIP Member

Joined: July 20 2009
Location: Tucson, AZ USA
Status: Offline
Points: 7264 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote cstack3 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 14 2019 at 02:09
Originally posted by progmatic progmatic wrote:

A couple of others: Chas Cronk, Tony Levin

Excellent!  When I was first learning to play bass guitar, I started with Chas Cronk's amazing bass line to the Strawbs tune "Hero and Heroinne!"  Nearly 50 years later, I'm still at it!  Thumbs Up
I am not a Robot, I'm a FREE MAN!!
Back to Top
progmatic View Drop Down
Forum Senior Member
Forum Senior Member
Avatar

Joined: August 22 2009
Location: Ohio
Status: Offline
Points: 1785 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote progmatic Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 13 2019 at 14:46
A couple of others: Chas Cronk, Tony Levin
PROGMATIC
Back to Top
Fischman View Drop Down
Forum Senior Member
Forum Senior Member
Avatar

Joined: July 21 2018
Location: Colorado, USA
Status: Offline
Points: 1612 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Fischman Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 13 2019 at 09:42
Originally posted by moshkito moshkito wrote:

Hi,

I look at bass players, not always within the context mentioned here, which is closer to favorite music than it is ... real music ... and there is a difference there. Some folks listed here I would not consider since they were mere time keepers on par with the drummer, and not "musicians" on their own, "independent" track, that added so much to the piece of music ... think of Pastorius and his freedom moving around the music ... no one here goes around saying that he is not a great player. Think of Stanley Clarke and his forays into so much music, and no one here is going to say that he is not valuable and a huge force in RETURN TO FOREVER. Heck, think of BOOTSIE and how he told a riff to go get "fudged" by ripping it with effects!

Too many of these are just riff players, and riffs are not what "music" is all about ... there is a lot more to it, than just a riff ... where does it go? ... nowhere means you simply do not have the musical ability to extend what you are doing, and this is something that Europeans are "better" at mostly because of their history of classical music ... they are comfortable with long pieces of music ... over here in the "western world" (that is USA and UK), it's like these folks never heard classical music, and have no idea what to do with it ... other than talk about a guitarist doing the blues again ... and not showing us anything new.

If I have a personal favorite, it probably would be the late LOTHAR MEID ... whose playing was so different, and almost always "against" the melody and the main flow of the song, giving it a contrast that made the piece of music special ... and some of my favorite moments are in WOLF CITY where the transitions in a couple of places, are just simple, single notes ... that carry your feeling forward ... it's uncanny, and similar to Jaki Leibezeit in FUTURE DAYS and in the transition from CHAIN REACTION to QUANTUUM PHYSICS in the next album, where, it is the silent touch and feel that carries the music ... and there is no drummer I have EVER met, that can discuss SILENCE ... and how to work within it ... except BILL BRUFORD ... but this is about bass players.

There are others ... but not always within the rock context ... DAVID DARLING is just phenomenal. CHARLIE HADEN, specially with EGBERTO GISMONTI is just insane ... totally out of this world ... and, unfortunately, within the rock music context, I still think that JOHN PAUL JONES and JOHN ENTWISTLE are/were probably the most inventive of all, since they were not about the "riff", in two bands that specialized in expanding things and taking it far and away from just a riff ... which is what "progressive music" started being about, but nowadays, we seem enamored with returning to the riff and almost all the players are "riff'ers".

There are a few really special players out there for me ... RICHARD SINCLAIR is one of them. MIKE HOWLETT is the other, perhaps one of the steadiest and cleanest player I have ever seen, and in concert ... he's just clean and strong, and he can play with drummers like PIERRE MOERLIN, who were kinda known to go left and right and away from the "riff" to do something special to make the piece of music stronger. Very few people have the ear, to be able to ADD to a piece of music like that ... sort of like you can add a kazoo and make it sound fabulous!

One other one, is DON SCHIFF ... from THE ROCKET SCIENTISTS. He has never gotten the credit for the work he has added to this band, and instead other folks got the credit and attention for the playing of the CHAPMAN STICK ... but with all due respect to the other folks and the famous one, DON is not about the pyrotechnics of the playing of the instrument ... he is about adding to the music what it needs to make it better and stronger, a very under rated and ignored concept in music, because we spend so much time rating the "riff'ers" and not the music.

I like JOHN MYUNG, for example, and his playing is very strong ... but in the end, you get the feeling that all he can do is go around and round the scales and notes ... and NEVER get out of that to bring up something special because the guitar is just flying as it is ... and he needs to go fly his own kite for a while! That leaves JOHN underrated and not as strong and interesting as he might be, and seems to have the ability to do and be ... but won't get it, when he has to spend his time supporting the guitar ... and can't have time away from it. The death of a bass player ... within a band that does not know "music" ... only knows something about their own "style" ... and these folks are graduates of a music school? WEIRD!

Yes, Myung is fantastic, but seems rather hamstrung by his place in the group. I always thought he should be allowed to cut loose more often.  Geddy Lee gets equal musical billing with Alex Lifeson--Petrucci should to the same for Myung--it's probably the only possible way DT could actually get better than they already are.  
Back to Top
Fischman View Drop Down
Forum Senior Member
Forum Senior Member
Avatar

Joined: July 21 2018
Location: Colorado, USA
Status: Offline
Points: 1612 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Fischman Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 13 2019 at 09:39
Originally posted by moshkito moshkito wrote:

Originally posted by Fischman Fischman wrote:

John Glascock (Jethro Tull)

He was far better and more interesting in CARMEN. Shame that he gets mentioned for JT, where he was a minor player and not a main driving force.

Good Point!
Back to Top
moshkito View Drop Down
Forum Senior Member
Forum Senior Member
Avatar

Joined: January 04 2007
Location: Grok City
Status: Offline
Points: 17497 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote moshkito Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 13 2019 at 08:32
Hi,

I look at bass players, not always within the context mentioned here, which is closer to favorite music than it is ... real music ... and there is a difference there. Some folks listed here I would not consider since they were mere time keepers on par with the drummer, and not "musicians" on their own, "independent" track, that added so much to the piece of music ... think of Pastorius and his freedom moving around the music ... no one here goes around saying that he is not a great player. Think of Stanley Clarke and his forays into so much music, and no one here is going to say that he is not valuable and a huge force in RETURN TO FOREVER. Heck, think of BOOTSIE and how he told a riff to go get "fudged" by ripping it with effects!

Too many of these are just riff players, and riffs are not what "music" is all about ... there is a lot more to it, than just a riff ... where does it go? ... nowhere means you simply do not have the musical ability to extend what you are doing, and this is something that Europeans are "better" at mostly because of their history of classical music ... they are comfortable with long pieces of music ... over here in the "western world" (that is USA and UK), it's like these folks never heard classical music, and have no idea what to do with it ... other than talk about a guitarist doing the blues again ... and not showing us anything new.

If I have a personal favorite, it probably would be the late LOTHAR MEID ... whose playing was so different, and almost always "against" the melody and the main flow of the song, giving it a contrast that made the piece of music special ... and some of my favorite moments are in WOLF CITY where the transitions in a couple of places, are just simple, single notes ... that carry your feeling forward ... it's uncanny, and similar to Jaki Leibezeit in FUTURE DAYS and in the transition from CHAIN REACTION to QUANTUUM PHYSICS in the next album, where, it is the silent touch and feel that carries the music ... and there is no drummer I have EVER met, that can discuss SILENCE ... and how to work within it ... except BILL BRUFORD ... but this is about bass players.

There are others ... but not always within the rock context ... DAVID DARLING is just phenomenal. CHARLIE HADEN, specially with EGBERTO GISMONTI is just insane ... totally out of this world ... and, unfortunately, within the rock music context, I still think that JOHN PAUL JONES and JOHN ENTWISTLE are/were probably the most inventive of all, since they were not about the "riff", in two bands that specialized in expanding things and taking it far and away from just a riff ... which is what "progressive music" started being about, but nowadays, we seem enamored with returning to the riff and almost all the players are "riff'ers".

There are a few really special players out there for me ... RICHARD SINCLAIR is one of them. MIKE HOWLETT is the other, perhaps one of the steadiest and cleanest player I have ever seen, and in concert ... he's just clean and strong, and he can play with drummers like PIERRE MOERLIN, who were kinda known to go left and right and away from the "riff" to do something special to make the piece of music stronger. Very few people have the ear, to be able to ADD to a piece of music like that ... sort of like you can add a kazoo and make it sound fabulous!

One other one, is DON SCHIFF ... from THE ROCKET SCIENTISTS. He has never gotten the credit for the work he has added to this band, and instead other folks got the credit and attention for the playing of the CHAPMAN STICK ... but with all due respect to the other folks and the famous one, DON is not about the pyrotechnics of the playing of the instrument ... he is about adding to the music what it needs to make it better and stronger, a very under rated and ignored concept in music, because we spend so much time rating the "riff'ers" and not the music.

I like JOHN MYUNG, for example, and his playing is very strong ... but in the end, you get the feeling that all he can do is go around and round the scales and notes ... and NEVER get out of that to bring up something special because the guitar is just flying as it is ... and he needs to go fly his own kite for a while! That leaves JOHN underrated and not as strong and interesting as he might be, and seems to have the ability to do and be ... but won't get it, when he has to spend his time supporting the guitar ... and can't have time away from it. The death of a bass player ... within a band that does not know "music" ... only knows something about their own "style" ... and these folks are graduates of a music school? WEIRD!


Edited by moshkito - July 13 2019 at 08:43
Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told!
www.pedrosena.com
Back to Top
moshkito View Drop Down
Forum Senior Member
Forum Senior Member
Avatar

Joined: January 04 2007
Location: Grok City
Status: Offline
Points: 17497 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote moshkito Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 13 2019 at 08:13
Originally posted by Fischman Fischman wrote:

John Glascock (Jethro Tull)

He was far better and more interesting in CARMEN. Shame that he gets mentioned for JT, where he was a minor player and not a main driving force.
Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told!
www.pedrosena.com
Back to Top
Frenetic Zetetic View Drop Down
Forum Senior Member
Forum Senior Member
Avatar

Joined: December 09 2017
Location: Now
Status: Offline
Points: 9233 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Frenetic Zetetic Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 13 2019 at 02:22
Anyone else think Rick Laird isn't overrated, isn't underrated, but rather "just there"?

"I am so prog, I listen to concept albums on shuffle." -KMac2021
Back to Top
 Post Reply Post Reply Page  <1234>

Forum Jump Forum Permissions View Drop Down



This page was generated in 0.164 seconds.
Donate monthly and keep PA fast-loading and ad-free forever.