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- Thundercat. Survey the sounds that have defined the vanguard of hip-hop, jazz, R&B, electronica, and beyond during the past decade-plus — including records made by Kendrick Lamar, Janelle Monáe, Flying Lotus, Kamasi Washington, Erykah Badu, Childish Gambino, and more — and you’ll land on one name again and again: Thundercat.
- Duff McKagan. Prior to joining Guns N’ Roses, Duff McKagan had barely touched a bass. He was an ex-guitarist and ex-drummer who had come up in Seattle’s early-Eighties punk scene, and the combo of his background and his raw approach to playing gave Guns N’ Roses songs like “It’s So Easy” and “You Could Be Mine” a rough edge.
- Kim Deal. Kim Deal was working as a receptionist at a doctor’s office in 1986 when she read a Boston Phoenix newspaper ad saying a band was looking for a “bassist into Hüsker Dü and Peter, Paul, and Mary.”
- Leland Sklar. The singer-songwriter movement of the Seventies called for backup musicians who could anchor ballads and midtempo rockers while never distracting from the singer or the song.
- Brett Milano
- Jaco Pastorius. Jaco Pastorius used every minute of the short time he had to expand the technical and dramatic possibilities of the bass, giving his various clients – Joni Mitchell, Pat Metheny, and even Ian Hunter – more than they bargained for.
- Paul McCartney. Paul McCartney made a trademark out of the supple, lyrical bassline more than any rock player before or since, and that’s on “Paperback Writer” alone.
- Carol Kaye. Putting the bottom end into The Wrecking Crew, Carol Kaye played the indelible parts on “Midnight Confessions,” “River Deep – Mountain High,” The Beach Boys’ “Good Vibrations” and an estimated 10,000 other tracks.
- Stanley Clarke. Stanley Clarke was a bass virtuoso with a canny sense of riffs and grooves, plus a few great tricks like that finger-strum trademark.
- Geddy Lee. The Rush man has inspired thousands to pick up the bass guitar, and many of the other bassists in this rundown cite him as an influence. A leading frontman, songwriter and a remarkable bass talent, it's no surprise he remains perennially popular with you guys.
- Jaco Pastorius. Few would disagree that Weather Report bassist and solo artist Jaco Pastorius was one of the most talented bassists ever to walk the earth.
- John Entwistle. Although The Ox was a picture of stillness amidst the whirlwind of Townshend, Moon and Daltrey's stage antics, in terms of fretboard gymnastics and sheer volume, his contribution to The Who was impossible to ignore.
- Simon Gallup. The man behind some of the finest post-punk basslines ever committed to record, Simon Gallup joined The Cure in 1979 and recorded The Dark Trilogy of albums (Seventeen Seconds, Faith and Pornography) before getting into a fist fight with Robert Smith and leaving the band for two years in 1982.
- Shavo Odadjian
- Guy Pratt
- Tim Commerford
- Robert Trujillo
- Thundercat
- Joe Dart
- Chris Wolstenholme
- Justin Chancellor
- Marcus Miller
- Doug Wimbish
Those golden SOAD hits – ‘Chop Suey!’, ‘Toxicity’ and the rest – may be 20 years and counting in the rear-view mirror, but Shavo’s slinky, heavy bass parts still hit the spot every time. A DJ and guitar player as well as bassist extraordinaire, he remains one of modern metal’s most underrated assets. Now, if only his band would get their act togeth...
As Guy himself told us a while back, he is the only musician ever to play with both Whitesnake and The Smiths. While that contrast is startling enough, you could add a range of artists as wide as Madonna, Pink Floyd and Jimmy Nail to that statement for a real reflection of the sheer breadth of sonic territory that this self-confessed ‘punk kid who ...
If your band has anything to do with heavy rock or funk, you’d definitely benefit from Tim Commerford coming on board as a bass player. His pocket is incredible – listen to the machine-perfect final two minutes of RATM’s classic ‘Bullet In The Head’ if you want evidence – and as for tones, he’s a self-described obsessive, working his way through a ...
We’d expected the great Robert Trujillo to come higher on this list, not just because Metallicaare such a popular brand but because his playing skills are second to none. While his groove and triple-picking abilities are finely honed – as they’d better be, given his day job – what many of us fail to appreciate is that Trujillo is also a slap and fu...
Difficult to pin down and impossible to categorise, the music of Stephen ‘Thundercat’ Bruner is often a blend of electronica and funk, with urban elements and progressive features, but wherever he goes with his songwriting, it’s always accompanied by effortlessly cool bass. He doesn’t talk much, and when he does his meaning is often opaque, but his...
With their modern, switched-on funk and amped-up energy levels, Vulfpeck are the nearest we have to a brand-new Tower Of Power. The analogy definitely applies to wunderkind bassist Joe Dart, a man whose skills are so advanced that a kind of bass cult of adoration has grown up around him. It’s entirely deserved, if you ask us.
English proggers Muse may no longer occupy the rarefied position that they enjoyed in the Noughties, when you couldn’t escape their amazing, symphonic hits, but there’s still a lifetime of bass education to be had if you take a deep dive into the work of their bassist Chris Wolstenholme. A master of tone and technique, Wolstenholme is rather like T...
It’s been noted before, but every time we interview Justin Chancellor we laugh our heads off thanks to his dry humour, but at the same time every time we listen to his band Tool we’re intimidated by their threatening textures and huge artistic vision. Perhaps we shouldn’t take it all so seriously, but then again that’s a big ask when you appreciate...
The name of the fusion specialist Marcus Miller is often mentioned alongside that of the TV series Seinfeld thanks to the taut slap tone of the latter theme tune, but that’s doing the great man a disservice. Dig into his immense solo and collaborative discography and you’ll find more or less everything in there, going back to his early days as a hi...
Like the other ‘rock Douglas’ – Dug Pinnick of King’s X – Mr Wimbish is one of the most accomplished inhabitants of Planet Bass. Look at his sessions list for evidence: not for nothing have Annie Lennox, Mick Jagger, Seal and a host of other artists taken advantage of his skills. His CV goes back to the Sugar Hill hip-hop days, and he missed the po...
Sep 6, 2023 · Over the years, there have been great bassists who dominated the music industry and made a name for themselves. Therefore, this article will explore the 55 famous bassists who made history and created some of the most phenomenal sounds that were well-appreciated by music enthusiasts. 1 Kim Gordon
May 27, 2021 · Today, we're able to reveal the players you considered to be the greatest bassists of the 21st century (so far). The top 10 players in your ranking, below, will next go head-to-head with our winningest pre-80 and 80-99 stars for the battle to determine the one true bass GOAT.
Jan 9, 2020 · With those parameters in place, we got down to making our picks, bringing in BP folks present and past: writers Chris Jisi, E.E. Bradman, Jonathan Herrera, Karl Coryat, and Jon D’Auria; former editors Jim Roberts, Richard Johnston, Bill Leigh, and Brian Fox; and longtime contributors Ed Friedland, John Goldsby, Freddy Villano, and Rick Suchow.
