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Friday, February 13, 2009
Top 5 Bass Players of All Time
Posted by Ivan Pena on Fri, Feb 13, 2009 at 11:45 AM
Version 1.1 - WITH MORE BASSISTS! - I've always wanted to write a post like this. I have been a student of the Bass Guitar for around 15 years and have always fought the "apparent unimportance" of bass players in contemporary music. Through this post I hope to once and for all assert the position of bassists everywhere in the highest echelons of cool.
1) John Francis Anthony "Jaco" Pastorius III — Jaco made the electric bass cool again. Not since Paul McCartney had a bass player commanded so much attention. I remember listening to Weather Report out of my parent's tape collection.
2) Michael Peter "Flea" Balzary — He is a bad ass. Funky, tight and accurate. Plus, he is entertaining as hell to watch, a bad ass trumpet player and an accomplished actor. In my opinion, the spiciest of the Chili Peppers.
3) Victor Wooten — The man is a living god. He recently recorded the bible of bass playing with Stanley Clarke and Marcus Miller in 2008.
4) Geddy Lee — Geddy is the centerpiece of the Rush power trio. He serves up complex bass lines that intertwine with his vocal melodies better than most bassist/singers.
5) Steve Harris — Leader and songwriter for Iron Maiden, no one can play triplets better than Steve Harris. Steve is often under-rated among bass players, but I grew up Maiden so, my bias is obvious. :)
Runner ups
Sting — Sting is a cool dude that sings AND plays bass. He has a smooth, serpentine style that you can instantly recognize.
Les Claypool — You can't deny that the dude can play bass. No one has ever sounded like Les Claypool.
Paul McCartney — Paul is the coolest bassist of all time. I am not a "Beatle-thumper", but you can't deny that without Paul, none of the other guys ever stood a chance.
James Jamerson
Mike Gordon
Charles Mingus
Donald "Duck" Dunn
Enjoy. Share.
Ivan
Ivan Pena has an Advertising degree from UF, 8+ years in corporate and consumer marketing, 10+ years in graphic design and promotions. Ivan is also the leader of the group Soulfound and runs his own independent record label, Mohawk Bomb. In 2008, Ivan was named one of the Top 30 Under 30 by the Tampa Bay Business Journal. Check Ivan out on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/ivanpena
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