Who to listen to ?

Robert Trujillo from infectious grooves is nice. though there's no more infectious grooves, he was an amazing bassist too(he's now in metallica if i'm not wrong). the genre is funk metal. try listening to 'Please excuse this funk up' from their album mas borracho. epic basslines.
 
Don't play bass myself but have immense respect for the instrument & it's players. Love the tone and style of the classic double-bass used in jazz especially. And one of the most technical of these musicians I think is Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen


Though not as technical, but still, he is to me the Greatest EVER!!! On the 27th September 1986, god was looking to start a band and none of his angels could play bass like this mortal man! So he had no choice but to steal him from us...


CLIFF 'EM ALL!!! :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:
 
to me there are like the first and second generation of bass player
1 jack bruce -Cream
2 Jaco pastorius- weather report
3 marcus miller
4 stanley clarke
5 James jamerson (the god who influence everybody, motown session player)
6 bootsy collins
7 larry graham
8- flea rhcp
9 tim commerford - ratm
10- vic wooten
11 billy sheehan
12 rocco prestia - tower of power
than there is like the 2nd generation
janek gwidz-something
aram bedrosian
andy saxton
arif mido-something (protest the hero)
alex webster- cannibal corpse
marlowe dk
BOBBY VEGA!!! - pickstyle master- to those finger purist, Vega playing is like telling you to stop using your finger
juan aldarlerte-mars volta

you can even listen to some singapore bass player
bong
wendy phua
diin safari
bani rahman

too many to list
-btw i didnt rank themm in order of anything
just some namethat i think off
 
The late John Entwistle of The Who is one of my favourites, have a listen to The Real Me from the Quodrophenia album to hear him at his best.
Another worth a listen is Jack Bruce of 60's supergroup Cream, White Room is a good track to hear his playing and singing on.
Cliff Burton and Billy Sheehan for soloing.
Finally if you really want to hear something very different but extremely accomplished check out Jaco Pastorius playing for the band Weather Report - he was often described as the Jimi Hendrix of bass players, he plays jazz fusion with Weather Report which is not everyone's taste but there was no denying his incredible talent.
 
For me, well, newer guys I suppose, since I'm not too into older styles of music (I don't disagree with them, just wrong age I guess to appreciate them fully, and I don't really try :p). But, my own inspirations nonetheless :)

Arif Mirabdholbaghi from Protest the Hero
Dan Briggs from Between the Buried and Me
Alex Webster from Cannibal Corpse
Stephan Fimmers from Necrophagist
Jordan Eberhardt from Scale The Summit
Jeroen Paul Thesseling
John Myung from Dream Theater

and some of the other guys that were mentioned in this thread like:
Flea from RHCP
Jaco Pastorius
Mark King from Level 42
Victor Wooten (listened to him quite a fair bit when I was starting out)

Not to slam anyone or something, but quite honestly, I don't really like guys like Sheehan. I don't know why, but when they play their solos, its always a bit too flashy for me to appreciate it. Well, my personal tastes I guess :p
And probably a lot more, just not able to recall at the moment.
 
flea of rhcp
cliff burton of metallica
jason newsted of metallica
robert trujilo of metallica
john myung of dream theater
geezer butler of black sabbath

personally my fav is flea..
 
The bass has been a very important component of funk music. There is Bootsy Collins, who would later on join Parliament / Funkadelic. Here he is, playing for James Brown on "Talking Loud and Saying Nothing":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kR39r6Lxg0

Larry Graham would fall out with Sly Stone later on, but he was one of the most important bassists, not least because he invented slapping. This is "Thank You Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0swpIIy3UwY

Bernard Edwards of Chic was crucial to the disco sound. This bassline from "Everybody Dance" is particularly hard to play:


BTW earlier somebody mentioned that John Deacon came up with the bassline for "Another One Bites the Dust". Another One Bites the Dust is a rip off of Chic's "Good Times".
 
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The bass has been a very important component of funk music. There is Bootsy Collins, who would later on join Parliament / Funkadelic. Here he is, playing for James Brown on "Talking Loud and Saying Nothing":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kR39r6Lxg0

Larry Graham would fall out with Sly Stone later on, but he was one of the most important bassists, not least because he invented slapping. This is "Thank You Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0swpIIy3UwY

Bernard Edwards of Chic was crucial to the disco sound. This bassline from "Everybody Dance" is particularly hard to play:


BTW earlier somebody mentioned that John Deacon came up with the bassline for "Another One Bites the Dust". Another One Bites the Dust is a rip off of Chic's "Good Times".

i wldn't say bernard edwars' stuf is hard to play but to groove and give the same feel as him is really quite hard.
 
i wldn't say bernard edwars' stuf is hard to play but to groove and give the same feel as him is really quite hard.

Well that's what I meant. And anyway other definitions of "hard to play" would be to misunderstand what a bass guitar is for. Seriously, what is a bass guitar for?

A. To impress everybody with your technical mastery
or
B. To give your band's music a groove and feel.
 
Well that's what I meant. And anyway other definitions of "hard to play" would be to misunderstand what a bass guitar is for. Seriously, what is a bass guitar for?

A. To impress everybody with your technical mastery
or
B. To give your band's music a groove and feel.

well, you can still play the riff, keeping time but still don't sound like him :)

for eg, eric clapton dnt really play fanciful stuff but the feel he gives to his notes are amazing. BB king also have very simple licks but he just makes those notes sing out.
 
well, you can still play the riff, keeping time but still don't sound like him :)

for eg, eric clapton dnt really play fanciful stuff but the feel he gives to his notes are amazing. BB king also have very simple licks but he just makes those notes sing out.

Well for guitarists, there is also the question of the two options that I mentioned, although for the guitar, the answer is much less clear. It is more relevant for guitarists to be more about technical mastery. Although the Who is a very strange band - John Entwistle was the one who was playing complicated bass lines and Pete Townsend is the one playing very simple guitar - he almost doesn't know how to solo. Pete Townsend's main functiion in the Who is not guitarist - it is songwriter.

In fact, I usually think they give the bass guitar to the songwriters or band leaders so that they'll have something to do when they're on stage. Think about people like Sting, Paul McCartney or Brian Wilson.

Still a lot of guitarists also play based on "groove and feel". Like Nile Rodgers in the Chic video. There is Keith Richards who also never plays solos, and is one of the very few examples of the rhythm guitarist being more prominent than the lead guitarist (Ron Wood / Brian Jones / Mick Taylor). Keith Richards is the "Rolling Stones sound". People usually think of Jimi Hendrix as being a great virtuoso, but they underplay his other abilities: Hendrix is also a great songwriter, and anyway 80% of what he plays is rhythm guitar.

There's this other bass player that I want to mention because he has changed the way that the bass is used. Peter Hook of Joy Division / New Order. He plays the bass high, and almost in counterpoint. Big influence on Naomi Yang of Galaxie 500 and Interpol.

Otherwise the bass is not always supposed to be a prominent instrument, particularly in certain types of music. In some circumstances, you shouldn't think too much about being a virtuoso, you shouldn't think too much about showing off, you're just there to play the song. Sometimes the song is the real star, not the guy playing the instrument.

 
Rex Brown - Pantera - Far Beyond Driven (Album)
David Ellefson - Megadeth - Rust In Peace (Album)
Billy Sheehan - Mr Big
Frank Bello - Anthrax
Ryan Martinie - Mudvayne - LD 50
 
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