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Favorite bass lines?


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Not so much a bass line, but check Esperanza Spalding and her band from 2013 performing the Wayne Shorter composition
- Nice multitasking there Esperanza, scatting while playing funky bass line. The Chuck Sher New Real Book Vol 1 has three charts, for melody, bass and keys - bristling with complications, but excellent charts and tune.
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Was just listing to the Toronto gig in the Yes Progeny set and was reminded of a specific bass line that really, really curls my toes: Heart of the Sunrise, about 30 seconds in...Chris Squire shifts from the fast riff that opens the piece to a more measured line. Love that idea. Would never have thought of it. It's just not in me to come up with such an elegant riff.

 

Grey

I'm not interested in someone's ability to program. I'm interested in their ability to compose and play.

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Out of a few bazillion of my favorite bass lines a few that come to mind in no particular order are:

 

Dancin" Feet ( Montrose ,Alan Fitzgerald on bass)

Paper Money (live Midnight Special version again Montrose,Fitz)

Tear your Playhouse Down (Paul Young, Pino Palladino on bass)

Lose Myself With You (Beck Bogert Appice)

Parchman Farm (Cactus)

The Jam (Graham Central Station)

Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick (Ian Dury and the Blockheads Norman Watt-Roy on bass)

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Loved this one. Wish I'd been on it! That was a better record than some people thought. Putting Don Was and Tony Brown together was somebody's great idea, and while there's a couple of weaker tracks on it, there's a ton of great playing and singing. Almost 30 years ago! Cripes, I'm old! :o
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Chuck Rainey's bass on Aretha's Franklins Rock Steady.

 

[video:youtube]

 

Jerry Jemmott on King Curtis Live at Fillmore play Memphis Soul Stew. This is one my all time favorite song intro's. They were also the band behind Aretha for her Live album done the same night.

 

[video:youtube]

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Footloose - Kenny Loggins

 

 

A young Nathan East absolutely tearing it up. I was talking about this one today, great call.

Kawai C-60 Grand Piano : Hammond A-100 : Hammond SK2 : Yamaha CP4 : Yamaha Montage 7 : Moog Sub 37

 

My latest album: Funky organ, huge horn section

https://bobbycressey.bandcamp.com/album/cali-native

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Song For My Father - Horace Silver

Haitian Fight Song - Charles Mingus

Weather Report - Procession (Victor Bailey - bass)

Cal Tjader - Black Orchid - from the 1977 release "Here and There" (Clare Fischer - Rhodes)

The Doobie Brothers - Here To Love You (Tiran Porter, greatly unappreciated, imo)

Devo - Whip It

Thomas Dolby - She Blinded Me With Science

Nik Kershaw - Don Quixote

Come Together - The Beatles

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Lots of great things about the production of 'Man in the Mirror', but to me the synth bass is what makes the whole thing come alive:

 

[video:youtube]

 

Similarly, David Bowie's 'Magic Dance' from the movie Labyrinth is all about the synth bass:

 

[video:youtube]

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Jerry Jemmott on King Curtis Live at Fillmore play Memphis Soul Stew. This is one my all time favorite song intro's. They were also the band behind Aretha for her Live album done the same night.

 

 

What a band! Purdie! Dupree!

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RE the Rhythm, Country & Blues record that included Funny How Time Slips Away, it had several inspired (and seemingly unlikely) pairings, you could hear just how "up" the musicians were for the project. I believe passionately in the premise of that record- that a very thin line separates the 2 genres. IMO it deserves it's own thread.

 

Other great, old school bass lines where something other than the tonic is played on the "1":

 

Quincy Jones "The Streetbeater"

 

Booker T and the MG's "Hip Hugger"

 

and others I can't think of right now.

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Lots of great things about the production of 'Man in the Mirror', but to me the synth bass is what makes the whole thing come alive:

 

Similarly, David Bowie's 'Magic Dance' from the movie Labyrinth is all about the synth bass:

 

"Man in the Mirror" was one of the songs that got me hooked on synth bass too.

 

10 bucks on you also digging Peter Wolf's "King of Wishful Thinking".

 

[video:youtube]

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George Clinton - Atomic Dog

Parliament - Flashlight

New Order - Blue Monday

Yaz - Situation

Edgar Winter Group - Frankenstein

Scritti Politti - Wood Beez

The Police - Walking on the Moon

Bob Marley - Is This Love?

Pat Metheny Group - Eighteen

Weather Report - Cucumber Slumber

Rush - Tom Sawyer

Tom Browne - Funkin for Jamaica

Herb Alpert - Rise

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Some fantastic suggestions here, and a heap of stuff mentioned I need to check out.

 

Here's my 3 offerings. The first is in my opinion a masterclass in melodic bass line playing which compliments and enhances the song beautifully:

 

 

. . . and for something more subtle and completely different:

 

 

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