Influences & favorites

[mint_bass]

I am listening to Mudvayne just now the bass player is pretty damn good i listen to  a lot of Stanley Clarke, Charles Mingus, Les Claypool, Sikth, jaco and Vivtor Wooten. I am really keen on Micheal Manring plays his dynamics are amazing.
 
i really like the way the guy from Faith no more Jason plays as well he is cool.
 
andrew

[andrewknight]

A response from a guitar player:
 
Favorite musicians are Jerry Garcia, Bruce Cockburn, Ani DiFranco and Bob Marley.
 
Favorite guitarists are: Jerry Garcia, Bruce Cockburn, Mark Knopfler, Jeff Beck, Muddy Waters, Kelly Joe Phelps, Ani Difranco and Rupert Bent
 
I play: Acoustic folk/rock/jam/jazz/blues and electric all of the above with reggae and funk mixed in.
 
AndrewK

[richbass939]

I like any bands and bassists who play good songs and are interesting to listen to.  Occasionally, a band has the whole package.  A couple that have done it for me are ELP and the early Allman Bros.  Brain Salad Surgery is definitely my favorite from ELP although I like just about everything they have done.  Fillmore East is my favorite from AB.  Berry Oakley really inspires me to be creative and explore and also play what the song needs from the bass.  
Joey, do you have the CD of BSS from just a few years ago?  It has a new twist on the cover as well as lots of narrative about the making of the album and the story behind the cover.
Rich

[jagerphan84]

BSS has been playing in my car for the last 2 solid days... good stuff!

[richbass939]

I play BSS whenever I get the chance, mainly when my wife is not at home.  She's very tolerant of my musical tastes, but she has her limits.  I try not to overload her.  My kids (10 and 7) love ELP though.  One of these days I'm going to buy Pictures At An Exhibition and Tarkus.
I end up playing bass a lot, along with the stereo, when noone is around.  Am I the only one who gets onto a CD or two and plays it for 2 weeks straight?
Rich

[beelee]

My influences:
John Paul Jones, John Entwistle, Geezer Butler, Geddy Lee, Chris Squire, Boz Burrel, Ross Valory, Jaco, Billy Sheehan, Stu Hamm,  the list could go on and on.
 
as for Favorites.......its hard to say there are so many great bassists, many I haven't  even mentioned above anyone that plays unique, inventive, distinct, interesting parts no matter if they are simple or technically over the top like what Michael Manring does.
ELP is great Karnevil #9, and the ABB In Memory of Elizabeth Reed
 
I'm in more than one band so I mainly listen to what I have to play, new material and go over some older material in between that if some thing catches my ear I'll learn it, and read every bass mag on the planet, play bass along with the stereo as well ;o)
B.

[bigredbass]

939:
 
No, I've not heard this repackage BSS, but I'd like to.  Back in my mis-spent youth, BSS and the live album that followed it were a favorite tag team of mine.  I always liked how songs morphed once they were played live on the road for a while.
 
I've often thought the way to REALLY record a new album were to play the tunes on the road, and just at that spot where you're really nailing 'em and haven't got bored with them yet, go in the studio and just mow 'em down.  That kind of steam is never devloped any other way.
 
J o e y

[bigredbass]

PS
 
Maybe not so much a bass influence, but a REAL influence as to what a rock and roll band was supposed to be:
 
The pre-video J.Geils Band.  Peter Wolf fronting, J, Magic Dick, and Seth Justman, and the hammer-like rhythm section of Danny Klein and Steven Jo Bladd.  I followed them across 4 dates in Texas in 1972, and they were without a doubt the best live band I ever saw.  On Atlantic, naturally, Full House is the most smokin' live album I ever heard, and the double disc Blow Your Face Out is a close second.
Highly recommended for you old-schoolers into what we used to call blues rock.  As bracing as warm Thunderbird on a cold night.
 
Of course, when MTV changed the game, we get into Centerfold, etc., and the wheels came off shortly thereafter.
 
J o e y

[kungfusheriff]

I have little time to enjoy music at home these days--almost strictly a car activity--so I end up listening to way too much radio; it's like eating lunch at McD's.
You're all going to hate me for this, but an all-acoustic band from Austin, TX called the Asylum Street Spankers is the greatest band in the world right now. They disavowed electricity until last year, when the larger venues they were playing forced their hand to microphones.
Wanna hear NIN's Closer as 30s hot jazz? It's on the list. Country meets hip-hop? Yep. The Hokey Pokey? Are you kidding? Fantastic band.
Other than them, I dig a lot of the non-prog artists already mentioned (Ani's the Queen Bee), plus the legendary Mike Watt. He should be up there with Jaco, Bootsy and Jamerson in my opinion. Nobody working today wrings more expression from four strings or has worked harder for their honor.

[811952]

The bass line of Chicago's Dialogue Pt. I is pure genius.  I wish Pete Cetera still bothered to play like that.  Mel Schacher (?) of Grand Funk did some nice stuff.  Tyran Porter's (Doobie Brothers) lines have a lyric bent to them.  Kasim Sultan with Utopia played some really great rock bass.  The RA album with Kasim is full of splendid bass work.  Whoever played bass for Elvis Costello in the early '80s was tough as well.  And of course, Stan's Rocks, Pebbles and Sand had some BIG bass sounds.  Animal Logic has Stan doing some very restrained-yet-not-restrained stuff.  Another Place from their second CD has one of my favorite opening bass riffs.  This is a great thread, because it's making me revisit lots of very good music.
John

[dadabass2001]

Okay, lyrical and expressive ... Jaco's work with Joni Mitchell on Hegira (Refuge of the Road) and Don Juan's Reckless Daughter (his intro to Cotton Avenue); and (various players) sooo many Steely Dan tracks I couldn't list them all.
Mike

[andrewknight]

I'm kind of surprised that their aren't more reggae bassists listed, although all that are listed are great. As a guitar player, reggae makes me want to play bass. Burning spear has some great rythm section stuff, and then Cat from Third World plays some really nice bass on Rydim of Life from their album 96 degrees in the shade. With the rythm section so prominent, I figured more of the bassists would into it. Another note, sorry I don't know his name, but will ask my bro, the bassist for the Tony Furtado Band out of Colorado is amazing. He was matching the speed and accuracy that Furtado had finger picking a banjo. Incredible stuff...I'll try to get that guy's name.
 
(Message edited by andrewknight on December 01, 2004)

[effclef]

Reggae, yeah! Some great reggae bass albums:
 
1) Natty Dread by Bob Marley
2) LKJ in Dub by Linton Kwesi Johnson
3) Red by Black Uhuru
4) Marcus Garvey/Garvey's Ghost double album by Burning Spear
 
The LKJ one is a must...like most reggae there's not much treble to the bass recording but it's clear and bouncy.  
 
EffClef

[richbass939]

I'm not surprised that Alembic people are into every genre of music.  I wonder if there are any types of music where you won't find Alembics recorded.  
Joey, the Brain Salad Surgery I got is Rhino # R2 72459 reissued in 1996.  I asked around in music stores several years ago and was told that BSS wasn't on CD.  I gave up on it until one time as a fluke I asked again.  The store had one in stock.  Man, have I enjoyed it.  It's like meeting an old friend you haven't seen in 20 years.  The cover on the CD is both the inside front and outside front covers put together.  The CD case has one of those oscillating-type, 3D-type things on the cover.  I can't really describe it but it is really cool how the 2 covers work together.
It sounds like you and I were running around TX at about the same time.  I had a lot of fun and saw a lot of bands in the early '70s.
Rich

[the_mule]

My influences are Grateful Dead, Phish, King Crimson, Primus/Les Claypool, P-Funk, Gov't Mule, ABB, Stanley Clarke, Return to Forever, TOOL, Sonic Youth, Tea Party, YES, Rush and Frank Zappa for the musicianship, but also artists/bands like Guided by Voices, Belle & Sebastian and Drive-By Truckers for the songwriting. There isn't a genre of music that isn't part of my collection actually...
 
Wilfred