your favorite fretless bass albums!

[MGB]

Grace and Danger from John Martyn. John Giblin plays so tasteful and so beautiful on that album.

 

Edited July 12, 2018 by MGB

[ezbass]

No Parlez - Paul Young

Oil on Canvas - Japan

[Barking Spiders]

Don't wanna sound repetitive but No Parlez and Tin Drum for me. But a much less known little gem is Singing Sands, a collaboration between celtic acoustic guitar virtuoso Tony McManus and French fretless maestro Alain Gentry. I bought this album cos of TM, who is an outstanding acoustic guitarist but was more than pleasantly surprised by Alain Genty's tasteful basswork

[FinnDave]

My fav fretless playing is Francis Moze's work on Gong's Flying Teapot album (1973).

I don't think I have anything else with fretless on it, other than the obligatory first Jaco album, of course.

[Hellzero]

Francis Moze also played bass in Magma and was terrific.

[Hellzero]

Bestial Cluster itself with Steve Jansen, Richard Barbieri, Mick Karn & Steve Wilson (3/5 of Japan) :

 

 

[Hellzero]

And here, my favourite Japan track, the single : I second that Emotion (one of the best cover of this Motown hit ever)

 

[Hellzero]

And yes the first two albums are the best ones : Adolescent Sex and Obscure Alternatives, still lots of rebellion in the music.

[Chris2112]

'Equilibré' by Michael Manring and David Cullen. A fantastic blend of Cullen's delightful nylon string guitar and Manring's wonderful fretless playing - and none of the party trick tuning changes and other frippery.  Just try finding a copy though! 

[visog]

Jaco holy trinity for me:

• WR -  'Heavy Weather'
• Joni - 'Hejra'
• JP - 'Jaco Pastorius'

I'd add Kate Bush - 'Hounds of Love'.

And Hadrien Feruad played quite a bit of tasty fretless on  'The Vigil' with Chick too.

[Hellzero]

And probably with my former Leduc 6 strings fretless that he still owns and I always told him when he still was on some forums that he was playing too many notes, seems like I was right as this what has upset at least 2 band leaders...

[Chris2112]

He is an absolutely furious player but I still don't 'feel' his voice as a player. I had thought that, when he exploded into the scene a decade ago, that this was something that would develop in time. I'm no stranger to fast bebop lines and fusion playing but Hadrien's playing still misses the mark with me, a lot of the time. 

Perhaps part of the problem is that, unlike the fusion greats who established themselves a few years ago, he hasn't really been in an amazing band with other bandmates to bring him up. His tenure with McLaughlin was pretty short and he hasn't had the launchpad of a UZEB, Bruford or Weather Report type outfit in which to really develop as a band player. 

[Frank Blank]

Despite being one of the bands I have seen the most times I still have to remind myself that David J of Bauhaus played fretless. One of the pleasures of old age this not remembering lark...

 

Edited July 12, 2018 by Frank Blank
Quantum entanglement

[steve-bbb]

 

[steve-bbb]

 

[steve-bbb]

 

[songofthewind]

Blimey, I'd forgotten about Landscape. Saw them a coupla times back in the day. They were great live.

[visog]

3 hours ago, Hellzero said:

And probably with my former Leduc 6 strings fretless that he still owns and I always told him when he still was on some forums that he was playing too many notes, seems like I was right as this what has upset at least 2 band leaders...

Erm no it wasn't. I seem to remember it being his Godin. (At the Ronnie Scott's performance) anyway.

Here at 1:50...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tbG5AbbnI8

 

[Hellzero]

That's indeed a Godin, you are right. Maybe he burned my bass after what I told him. 

[Graham]

 

Here's a full set from Cynic with some brilliant fretless bass from Sean Malone

 

[NancyJohnson]

7 hours ago, Hellzero said:

And here, my favourite Japan track, the single : I second that Emotion (one of the best cover of this Motown hit ever)

Mick Karn hated that track.

[Dad3353]

8 minutes ago, NancyJohnson said:

Mick Karn hated that track.

He's not alone. 

(Well, maybe not 'hated', that's a bit strong, but I sure ain't gonna play it again ...) 

[visog]

4 hours ago, steve-bbb said:

 

God that's good. This album is a masterpiece and they did whilst still very young.

[visog]

1 hour ago, Hellzero said:

That's indeed a Godin, you are right. Maybe he burned my bass after what I told him. 

And he has a rather nifty F-bass fretless five... See the TC Electronics vids of his signature soundprint.

 

[BrunoBass]

Jack Bruce. One of my favourite bass players and one of my biggest influences as a bass player. I don’t know which songs or albums he played fretless on with Cream but it’s probably a significant amount.