A brief history of bass guitar virtuosity...
People enjoyed my guitar virtuoso series where I touched on the 6, and 12 string varieties. Now I thought they might enjoy a series on its 4 string deep voiced cousin.
The bass guitar is regularly the foundation of most music that involve guitars. In some cases it may be the only guitar. It may not even be a bass since it got its start in the Cello, Double Bass (aka contrabass), and the OctoBass. (If you are new to this instrument Bass is not pronounced like the name of a fish it is pronounced Base)
Double Bass/Contrabass
This instrument is also sometimes called the standup bass, upright bass, or even acoustic bass. The modern variants are similar to instruments that go all the way back to the 15th century. Prior to the 20th century there were many cases where the Double Bass only had three strings. As of the 20th century the standard became four strings.
You will commonly see the Double Bass in old big band, and jazz acts. It also would feature as an instrument in a lot of early rock and roll and blues. Don't let this stop you from recalling that it got it's start in Classical music of the 15th century. I will show you a few examples of the Classical style of the Double Bass though the focus of this post is intended to be on the bass guitar.
Guy D. Tuneh
Born 1977 in Tel-Aviv.
Is renowned as a solo bassist for classical, opera, and other such styles.
Gary Karr
Born 1942 in Los Angeles, California.
As with Guy D. Tuneh he also tends to focus in the classical music genre.
ENTER: The Bass Guitar
The electric bass guitar was invented in the 1930s by musician and inventor Paul Tutamarc from Seattle, Washington.
Source: wikipedia.org
The first mass production bass did not appear until 1951 when Leo Fender and George Fullerton introduced the Fender Precision Bass which is still a very popular version of the instrument even to this day.
Source: wikipedia.org
To assist with the up coming musicians performing on these instruments: Unlike a common guitar the strings are much thicker on a bass guitar and they tend to be a little higher off of the neck (known as action) though this can be adjusted. You have to push harder on a bass guitar string than you do a regular guitar and there is also typically more distance between the strings. This makes some things you take for granted on a regular guitar quite a bit more difficult to pull off on a bass guitar.
James Jamerson
Born in 1936 and died in 1983.
James Jamerson is a big name in the Motown scene which produced a lot of music.
John Entwistle
Born in 1944 and dies in 2002.
He is best known as the original bass player in the rock band The Who. Some people claim he did for the bass guitar what Jimi Hendrix did for the electric guitar.
Jaco Pastorius
Born in 1951 and died in 1987.
If you talk to a lot of bass players the name Jaco Pastorius will often be mentioned with reverence. He is best known for playing with the band Weather Report but he did many other things. He did Latin influenced Funk, fretless bass solos that are described by some as lyrical, chords, and new approaches to use of harmonics.
Cliff Burton
Born in 1962 and died in 1986.
Cliff Burton was in a few smaller bands, but he has his shining moments in the band Metallica until he was tragically killed in 1986 when the tour bus slid, he was thrown from a window where he slept in a bunk, and the bus rolled over top of him. He was an amazing performer and played with some styling and passion that no one had ever seen before. To many of us he was the heart of Metallica. He inspired a lot of people to pick up the bass guitar. He also inspired existing bass guitarists to take a second look at what their instrument was capable of. I made an extensive blog post about Cliff Burton a couple of weeks ago in two parts. PART 1 | PART 2
Greg Lake
Born in 1947.
Has been a bass player in King Crimson and also a bassist, guitarist, and singer for Emerson, Lake & Palmer. King Crimson is known for being Progressive Rock and people in Prog bands tend to try really hard to push their instruments to new levels.
Scott Thunes
Born in 1960.
Scott has performed on many albums that were primarily with Frank Zappa's band.
Justin Chancellor
Born in 1971.
Justin has been in the band Peach but he is best known as the bassist for the band Tool which often has some very interesting bass lines.
Tony Levin
Born in 1946.
Tony was a bass player for King Crimson, and Peter Gabriel, but he has performed with an extremely large amount of people. I first encountered him as the bassist for the first Liquid Tension Experiment album. He is well respected in the world of bass and his name comes up a lot. He also has a very unique approach to playing slap bass which I show you in the second video.
Billy Sheehan
Born in 1953.
He is best known for working with Steve Vai, David Lee Roth, Mr. Big, Niacin, and The Winery Dogs. "...he has won the "Best Rock Bass Player" readers' poll from Guitar Player Magazine five times..." - (wikipedia)
Stuart Hamm
Born in 1960.
I first encountered Stu Hamm when he played with Joe Satriani. He is known for doing some pretty wild bass solos that are rather different from the norm. I've seen one of these front row and I can say that can be an understatement. This solo is pretty awesome and is a variation on what I witnessed live myself. He doesn't even need any other band members to back him on this one.
Michael Manring
Born in 1960.
I believe Michael is primarily a solo performer. I heard about him from some bass playing friends that were always trying to find the next crazy person to learn from. Michael's name has come up more than once. His music is written to be just performed by him on his bass. It is definitely unique and cool. In this video he is doing a lot of the stuff like I've seen Adrian Legg do on guitar.
Fernando Petry
Born?
I honestly don't know much about this guy. He seems to be active in the contemporary (current) bass scene, but I know very little about him. I thought I better include him as he may deserve a spot among these other greats. It seems like he is a very active youtuber with his own channel. And yes... he is damn good.
Carol Kaye
Born in 1935.
Wikipedia reports she is known "as one of the most prolific and widely heard bass guitarists, playing on an estimated 10,000 recordings". I'd expect her to be quite skilled with that amount of recording under her belt.
Geddy Lee
Born in 1953.
As the bassist, keyboardist, and vocalist on the Progressive Rock band Rush, Geddy has often taken the bass to some pretty interesting places. The instrumental YYZ for some modern bass players is kind of like their equivalent to learning to play Stairway to Heaven. (Inside Joke: Guitarists often play Stairway to Heaven, or Smoke on the Water)
Victor Wooten
Born in 1964.
The name Victor Wooten comes up A LOT when you speak of bass guitar. He has won many awards, had a solo career, and performed with a number of bands and famous artists. He is quite skilled.
Flea
Born Michael Peter Balzary in 1962.
Flea is the bassist for Red Hot Chili Peppers but he has collaborated with many many other bands. He is a quite energetic, interesting, and skilled bass player. I am certain the Chili Peppers would never have seen the fame they achieved without having Flea as a member.
Martin Mendez
Born in 1978
Martin is the bass player for the Progressive Rock, Progressive Metal, Death Metal, Psychedelia band Opeth. While the band never focuses on a bass solo per say he is all over the place with some interesting bass playing in many songs. He is quite skilled and even though I am a fan it is not me who decided to add him. I found him recommended by others and it just reinforced my opinion of him. I did a choose your own musical adventure on Opeth earlier.
Robert Trujillo
Born in 1964
Robert Trujillo was first known as the bassist for Suicidal Tendencies followed by the Funk Metal spin off Infectious Grooves. He is now the current bassist for Metallica.
John Myung
Born in 1967
John is one of the founding members of the Progressive Rock/Metal power house Dream Threater. He is known for massive practicing and honing of his skills. He has also performed with many other acts. And yes, this is a 6 string bass in the video. :) I did a choose your own adventure blog on Dream Theater earlier.
Les Claypool
Born in 1963
Les Claypool is unique. His quirky personality is infectious in his music. He is the bassist and vocalist for the band Primus and while there are those technically on par or perhaps even better than Les Claypool, if they are better it is subjective and just by a hair. One thing those people don't have is his wild and crazy style. He is truly quite the unique bassist. He tried out for Metallica after Cliff Burton. I would like to visit that alternate universe where he got that gig and see what that ended up sounding like. I am going to close down this post with quite a few videos of Les Claypool and/or Primus as he is just really entertaining and funny to watch.
Closing
If you liked this post please up vote it. I am a music fanatic and interest in these posts is what inspires me to make more of them as I do research and find musicians and bands I knew nothing about. I spend some time trying to give a wide variety of information and styles.
Image Sources: Starting Collage Image Built from (1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 ),
Good choice of Artists! might want to include Jeff Berlin, Chris Squire (recently passed) and John Paul Jones (Bluesy bass doesn't get better than The Lemon Song).
I did a series on bass guitarists too. I don't remember if John Paul Jones was in that one. I didn't focus on Bass in that particular series here. I've heard of both Chris Squire, and Jeff Berlin. My list was by no means definitive... those would be crazy long posts. :)
Ya, it could easily get out of control, but you hit some of my personal favs. Stu Hamm and Victor Wooten, Jamerson and Carol Kaye too.
Yep have I believe all of those in my bass series. :)
This is awesome. Nice job on your post
Holy schmolly !! what a totally awesome post. I could spend all day watching these super cool videos !! That is a great piece of compiling !! Upvoted @dwinblood, you amaze me truly !!
@dwinblood.
You know a lot about bass players.
Great post, thank you.
Who are you for having encountered so many bass players?
A music fanatic. I grew up around it. Parents were hippies, my dad was in a band when I was really young. I became a metal head, but gravitated continually upwards in terms of skill at performance. I happened to be in it when the best guitarists in the world were predominantly (but not completely) in that genre. I was inspired by Cliff Burton and wanted to play bass. I ended up being a guitarist instead. Last year of high school I started composing my own electronic music with no formal training, but it inspired me enough to sneak in one music class my last year of high school. In college I was lied to and they didn't have the computer science major when I got there. So initially I was a dual major in Physics and Music. They would not let me play classical guitar as my chosen instrument so for awhile I played the Cello to satisfy their whims so I could take Music Theory I and II. I also played in the Jazz band on campus for awhile, but the director was heavy brass so I didn't really get to spread my wings much there.
I continued my music composition and realized that if I didn't like a style of music I should try to compose something in that style. Usually I'd learn to appreciate that style of music.
So my mind opened to a lot of styles.
I was a guitarist and one of my friends/roommates for 4 years was a bass player that pushed himself hard. I was exposed to a lot of the people in that list from him. Others I've encountered on my own over the years.
Some I only learned of today as I made that post. ;) I do try to research when writing a post like this so it hopefully represents more than just my taste and personal knowledge.
Thanks for the comment.
@dwinblood.
Thanks for your kind answer.
I admire your willingness to learn.
Great fan of Stanley Clark and Larry Graham.
Pretty sure I covered Stanley Clark on one of my Guitar Virtuoso posts :) That was a couple of weeks ago. I think I ended up doing 5 or so posts as there were so many... I did pre-1980s, then the 80s, the 90s, the 2000s, and 2010s (so far).
That yellow bass is beautiful.
Jaco... check.
Wooten... check.
Claypool... check.
Awesome list. I love these posts!
I think you might like Thundercat. :)
Interesting sound. Definitely unique. Yes I like it. I like people that you can't say they sound like someone else. These guys definitely qualify. Good stuff. Thanks for sharing... I actually like it quite a bit.
Billy, Stuart, Victor, and Cliff are my personal favorites! I love"Orion" by Metallica:) Nice post-
It was Cliff that turned me onto bass when I was a teenager. I wanted to be a bass player. Though I only had an acoustic guitar to practice on... I ended up focusing primarily on guitar, though I can play bass as well.
nice work, keep it up
Bought my wife an old 83' Peavey T-20 not long ago when she told me she wanted to learn! Beautiful and well built guitar. Pretty reasonable to boot! She's doing well with it!
Nice... I'm actually watching an interview with John Petrucci that goes over a lot of cool guitar sounds and tech as you wrote that way... not quite done with it as it is like 2 hours long, but it sucked me in...
Not bass... but, I like it all...
Nice thanks for the link! I'll check it out!
Jaco Pastorius I've heard is the best bassist ever, but I did not find the video above that great. I like flea better!!!
There is no best guitarist of best bassist ever. It all depends upon what point in time you pick, and which style/genre of music. Jaco Pastorius and Flea are both pretty bad ass, but there is not best ever. This is due mainly to different people being good and perhaps the best at specific genres of music, and not the best at others. This is also because musicians inspire the next generation of musicians that tend to learn from them and take it further. So you might be able to find a BEST at a specific point in time, and based upon a specific genre, but I seriously doubt we'll find a best ever. There are bassists I like better than Pastorius, but he is indeed bad ass. When I say I like them better they tend to be a very different style from Pastorius.
Interesting. How would you describe Pastorius' style?
It's been awhile since I listened to him and I can't listen at the moment. I'd say it was kind of a Jazz fusion if I remember correctly. Yet really a lot of these instrumental virtuosos don't really have a STYLE you can label as one thing. They have their own style. Yet I have NEVER encountered or heard a excellent player that appears to be a master of all styles of music related to their instrument. They are usually exceptional at one or two, good at maybe a couple more, and there are some that they are typically not so good at.
When I say good it is about MORE than knowing the scales, chords, and techniques. Every style of music seems to have some nebulous FEELING which I tend to call "The groove" that you either have it or you don't.
For example: I know chords, pentatonic scales, modes, bending, sliding, etc and all the techniques required and utilized by Blues guitarists. Yet no matter how much I play it, it always sounds like rock, and is lacking a nebulous FEELING/GROOVE. I've hit it once in my life but couldn't determine how I did it later. So if you want me to shred some blues along the lines of Yardbirds, Cream, Clapton style I can probably pull it off. If you want me to pull of Hendrix, or Vaughn then I can hit the notes and techniques, but something is missing.
Yngwie Malmsteen is a monster when it comes to Neo-Classical and is almost untouchable in that genre. Yet I've heard him try to play blues and he has the same problem I do.
From what I've seen every musician seems to have something like this.
Yet, regardless... BEST EVER is a crock. They may be the BEST OF THEIR TIME because other people watch, listen, and learn from them and then they take it beyond where they found. So there is always someone watching and learning from the greats that takes it further.
Thanks for sharing this useful information!!! Very interesting, I am taking the courses on www.studybass.com have you checked it out?
Nope I haven't checked it out. I started playing before there were web pages, so by the time their were web pages I was off and running. I wish there were web pages back when I was learning it would have made things a lot faster.
The teacher on there basically says the electric bass is very unique and its best to learn it differently. He says that you need to think of yourself firstly as a musician/artist who simply uses an instrument to express himself/herself.
Wise advice. I agree.