Great bassists who most people don't know

[Leonard Smalls]

'Nother one... Amin Ali, son of drummer Rashid Ali.

Proper groover, here keeping it funky with Calvin Weston while James Blood and George Adams go crazy...

 

 

[Mikey D]

More funk. Lamont Johnson from Detroit. 

 

 

[SteveXFR]

18 minutes ago, Mikey D said:

More funk. Lamont Johnson from Detroit. 

 

 

 

He can certainly play. 

Is that a fretless Gibson Grabber? I didn't realise they existed. 

[neepheid]

17 minutes ago, SteveXFR said:

 

He can certainly play. 

Is that a fretless Gibson Grabber? I didn't realise they existed. 

 

Ripper, not Grabber.  Definitely was available as a factory fretless back in the day.

[BillyHunt]

One guy I think doesn’t get nearly the recognition he deserves is Leon Wilkeson of Lynyrd Skynyrd. Sadly departed at the tender age of 49 due to, ahem…. Chronic liver and lung disease.

 

Heavily influenced by Paul McCartney and it really comes through in his playing. His sound often quite high in the mix on a lot of their material, surprisingly for a band primarily known for their guitar players.
 

I wish I could say he is one of my influences but that would imply that my playing is on the same planet.

[Leonard Smalls]

Trevor Dunn of Mr Bungle is also a great unsung hero... Here's a bit of their latest "new" material, a Van Halen cover with Dave Lomardo on drums:

 

 

[Owen]

On 19/03/2022 at 22:42, Maude said:

Three that immediately spring to mind are Gabe Nelson (Cake), Stuart Morrow (New Model Army) and Billy Gould (Faith No More). 

 

Stuart Morrow is absolutely fantastic. 

 

Gabe Nelson lays it down like a boss. 

[Barking Spiders]

I've gotta give a big heads up to Michael Dempsey, original bass player with The Cure and then with The Associates.

 

[Mudpup]

One of my faves was TM Stevens. A total monster groove player.......there's nothing difficult in this video other than sitting in exactly the right place and injecting energy into a band that's at their peak...

 

 

[Mudpup]

And here's Stevie again with another amazing bass player - he knows where to find them.....check out the solo at 3:00

 

 

[NancyJohnson]

Stuart Hill, Shudder To Think

 

STT rhythm section went through two excellent drummers (Adam Wade/Jawbox and Kevin March/Dambusters) and the clip below features the quite wonderful Nathan Larson on guitar.  This unedited clip from MTV's 120 Minutes is pretty awesome.

 

 

[Count Bassy]

Garry Twigg.

Jerome Rimson.

[Chezz55]

Tiran Porter - Doobie Brothers:  China Grove (From the album "The Captain and Me")

 

China Grove

 

 

 

Mark Clarke - Colosseum:  Valentyne Suite (From Colosseum - Rockpalast (2003) ; starts at 17' 18")

 

Valentyne Suite

[Barking Spiders]

After my clip of The Associates, here's another fine Scottish band from the same era, The Cocteau Twins. Integral to their deep sound beneath Liz Frasier's otherworldly voice is Simon Raymonde's bass playing. Check it out here

 Finally another fave player from the 80s post punk era, David Allen formerly of Gang of Four then Shriekback, one of the most underrated Brit bands of the 80s. It's the tone, which I've still being try to figure out for decades

 

 

[SteveXFR]

Cocteau twins regularly get played on 6music and every time I hear them I think I should check out more of their music and then never get around to it

[P-Belly Evans]

Muzz Skillings. Cracking bass player in a brilliant band......until, bizarrely, Doug Wimbish joined. Didn't like their stuff with him on bass at all. Love Tackhead though

 

 

 

 

[Owen]

Alfonso Carey

 

 

[P-Belly Evans]

Cordell 'Boogie' Mosson.  One of the funkiest of all time.....

 

 

https://youtu.be/e-VxBaWRzSU

 

 

[lowdown]

28 minutes ago, Owen said:

Alfonso Carey

 

 

 Funny enough, I stumbled across a live performance with Alfonso Carey a couple of days ago (The Ritchie Family).

 

 

 

 

I believe this was Alfonso as well.

 

 

Edited March 22, 2022 by lowdown

[Piers_Williamson]

Re Dave Allen and Shriekback, this photo is from exactly the period of 'My Spine is the Bass Line'.  When Dave was in the Gang of Four, he had his basses made by the same luthier in Leeds as me (I was a leftie so had no choice whatsoever at that time).  However, by the time he was in Shriekback, he was playing whatever G&L this on is: 

 

[SteveXFR]

Here's another underrated rock bassist. Lou Barlow from Dinosaur Jr. 

Just being heard over Jay Mascis is quite an achievement and Lou is playing somewhere in between bass and rhythm guitar. Without his bass, Jay's guitar would just sound like random noodling. 

 

 

[Grassie]

William Cashion - Future Islands

Jeremy Toback’s work with Brad.

[acidbass]

John Giblin

Jet Harris