Your top 5 session bassists

[Grassie]

Evening all,

 

So who do you regard as the best guns for hire in our world of low end? Our go-to gurus, those unsung heroes of the bass world that lurk in the background either on rekkid or on stage?

Heres my 5 in no particular order:

 

Gail Ann Dorsey

Guy Pratt

Pino

Tony Levin

Doug Wimbish

 

Some mighty players there, plus some bonafide iconic lines from some (I’m looking at you Pino, Levin, and Pratt). 😎

 

[msb]

Add Lee Sklar. 

[ezbass]

Tony Levin

Pino

Lee Sklar

Sean Hurley

Chuck Rainey

[msb]

Jamerson , David Hood .

[Doddy]

My current favourites....

Will Lee 

Nathan East

Jimmie Lee Sloas

Steve Pearce

 

 

[chris_b]

Duck Dunn

Wilton Felder

James Jamerson

Nathan East

Tommy Cogbill

[Doctor J]

Tony Choy

Steve DiGiorgio

Sean Malone

Robin Zielhorst

Jeroen Paul Thesseling

[Reggaebass]

There’s only one non reggae player I follow ,and I think I’ve explored most of his videos and that’s Sean Hurley, he’s an amazing player and seems to be able to just drop right into the groove 

[Bolo]

Billy Sheehan needs to be mentioned 

[Mykesbass]

Tommy Cogbill 

Joe Osborn 

Bob Babbitt 

Robbie Shakespeare

Donald Duck Dunn

 

 

[Paul S]

8 hours ago, Doddy said:

My current favourites....

Will Lee 

Nathan East

Jimmie Lee Sloas

Steve Pearce

 

 

 

Nice to see him on a list.  He is Hamish Stuart's bass player of choice when he tours, seen him a few times in that context and his playing is just sublime.  One incarnation of the band,called 360 Band, has Steve Ferrone on drums and I reckon that is the best rhythm section I have seen live.

[paul_5]

As a fretless player (almost exclusively these days) I’d go for John Giblin any day of the week.

 

 

[ambient]

Anthony Jackson

Tony Levin

Pino

Leland Sklar

I’m checking out Nate Navarro at the moment too. He’s a very technical player, currently on tour with Porcupine Tree.

[scalpy]

8 hours ago, chris_b said:

Duck Dunn

Wilton Felder

James Jamerson

Nathan East

Tommy Cogbill

Beat me to it!

 

5 is tricky though, so…

Chuck Rainey

Nate Watts

Carol Kaye

Pino

David Hood 

 

…for good measure.

[Mrbigstuff]

Adam Blackstone is in the mix for me. But…..
 

I’m told 90% of being a session player is how you are on the hang, how easy you are to get along with and punctuality. There are other added bits such as programming for the production or arranging too, stuff we never get to see from the stage. 
 

Unless you’ve hired them, it’s hard to know how valuable they are outside of the hour or so on stage/ on the records.

[lowdown]

Purely because of the amount of different situations they could all drop into with absolute ease. TV, Film, Albums, Commercials etc:

Of course, all from the golden days of 1st call studio musicians.

 

Neil Stubenhaus

Anthony Jackson

Abe Laboriel

Chuck Rainey

Will Lee

[steve-bbb]

Fmflwtfaf none of you fkrs have mentioned anthony jackson yet 😳

[steve-bbb]

Lol @lowdown posted simultaneously - top marks 😁

[lowdown]

I could easily add another five to my list. But, I won't be greedy.

[lowdown]

Just now, steve-bbb said:

Lol @lowdown posted simultaneously - top marks 😁

 

[steve-bbb]

Does sharay reed and andre gouche fall in this category?

[Mrbigstuff]

20 minutes ago, steve-bbb said:

Does sharay reed and andre gouche fall in this category?

For sure. Especially in Gouche’s case he is on a very long term gig

[cetera]

James Jamerson

Lee Sklar

Neil Jason

Will Lee

David Paton

[Gray C]

Carol Kaye

Gail Ann Dorsey

Tony Levin

John Giblin

Guy Pratt

 

[Rib13Bass]

16 minutes ago, Gray C said:

Carol Kaye

 

 

👍

+

Louis Johnson

David Hungate

Marcus Miller

 

Edited September 10, 2022 by Rib13Bass