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Who is your most inspirational bassist?

Chris2202

By Chris2202,
in General Discussion

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Alfie Rising Star

Alfie

Posted
Posted

The one who has had the most obvious influence on my style of playing is JPJ. When I first heard Led Zep record my only thought was "I must learn that bass line", I have never had that reaction to any other band.

arsenic Enthusiast

arsenic

Posted
Posted

Early influences wer probably Les Holroyd from Barcley James Harvest, and Lemmy in his Hawkwind days.

A few years later it would be JJ Burnel and Bruce Foxton....

If I had to pick some-one these days, I would have to say Tony Pettitt (Fields of the Nephilim/NFD/The Eden House)....not for being flash, or having any specific sound - but just for laying a solid foundation for the music - doing something that just "fits" - none of this "hey! look what I can do" attitude.

Deep Thought Collaborator

Deep Thought

Posted
Posted

[quote name='Spike Vincent' post='824295' date='Apr 30 2010, 06:36 PM']JJ Burnell,and I'm frankly surprised only 2 other people have said the same.[/quote]

Well I would have, but I think most people on here have heard me say it enough times. Others are Norman Watt-Roy and John Entwistle.

Bassistclem Rising Star

Bassistclem

Posted
Posted (edited)

Glad to see PAUL MACCARTNEY gets a couple of mentions. Doesn't always have to be fast and clever to be right. Great basslines for great songs. Interesting to see how many top pro's of all styles mention macca as an influence too.

Other contenders...
Bruce
Jamerson
Sting
Zender
Entwistle
Rainey
Watt-Roy
Palladino
Stop there...to many to mention

Edited by Bassistclem
lowrider Newbie

lowrider

Posted
Posted

early on - chris squire , andy fraser , mick karn (japan), rik laird (mahavishnu) , , boz burrel , john entwhistle etc

more recently - mark king , pino , stanley clarke , bernard edwards , john taylor

now - steve bailey , michael manring , wooten , claypool , flea , bona , jaco ( I know, discovered him too late) and many others 2m2m.

thisnameistaken Mentor

thisnameistaken

Posted
Posted (edited)

I am pleased by the Norwood appreciation fellowship. He's not just my favourite bass player, he's the world's coolest bass player.

Here is Norwood's instructional video, you may spend a lot of your time fast-forwarding through his demonstrations, he smokes a lot of skunk. Everybody pay attention because you will learn valuable bass skills...




:)

Edited by thisnameistaken
the_skezz Enthusiast

the_skezz

Posted
Posted

JJ Burnel from the Stranglers
Geddy Lee from Rush

Probably the key influence on my playing at the moment is Klaus Flouride from the Dead Kennedys...a lot of following the guitar, but with some very nice bass runs/fills during songs like 'Kill the Poor'.

Bilbo Grand Master

Bilbo

Posted
Posted

First bass players that caught my ears were Steve Harris and Jack Bruce (his sound on Cozy Powell’s Over The Top was my default for years, although I never really liked Cream). After that it was Chris Squire and Geddy Lee, then Percy Jones (Brand X ‘Product’ was the one that hooked me) , Jeff Berlin (the 4 Bruford LPs), Jaco and Jimmy Johnson (with Wayne Johnson’s Trio).

Anthony Jackson was always inspirational for his focus as much as his playing.

When I got into jazz it was Marc Johnson, Dave Holland, Ron Carter, Paul Chambers…. Steve Swallow came later.

What I have found, as I have matured as a musician, is that bass players and bass playing has become less important as the fascination has moved to the arts of composition, arranging and improvisation. So the artist I then moved towards become people like Mingus (the composer and the bass player), Kenny Wheeler, Dave Holland (as composer), Gil Evans, Maria Schneider, Django Bates, John Scofield, Pat Metheny, Duke Ellington, Coltrane, Bill Evans, Joe Lovano…

Interestingly, there are many mentioned here who have never inspired me in the least, despite their formidable (and usually deserved) reputaitons. Marcus Miller – I have never likes his music so never bothered with his bass playing. Wooten – acrobatics not music? Gwizdala – intelligent and developing player but, as yet, I am not engaged. Feraud – not heard anything that moves me at all. All the groove players: Flea, Mark King, Pino, Edwards, Johnson, Jamerson, Collins – I acknowledge that they are very good at what they do I just never really found what they do to be that interesting (I own no material by any of those players – great playing but uninteresting music). I guess that is what makes me a different player to others who love this stuff.

velvetkevorkian Mentor

velvetkevorkian

Posted
Posted

I think the one player who's most influenced me would be Billy Sheehan, although mainly in a technical sense- I know none of his lines/songs but he inspired me to work on my three finger right hand technique.

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