What’s Going On

[greghagger]

There's a James Jamerson bass line that I return to time and time again, because it's so inventive and there's so much to learn from it. This bass line is from Marvin Gaye's classic, 'What's Going On'.

 

Jamerson is at his finest in this iconic song and and although this bass line is full of syncopation, time displacement, chromatic ideas and enclosures, it still grooves. It just flows perfectly in and out of the vocal line.

 

I've started a brand new YouTube series called 'Bass Lines That Changed Music Forever', and this bass line features in the very first video of the series.

 

I'd love for you to leave me a comment under the video with suggestions of any other bass lines that you think may be worthy to feature in this series.

 

Enjoy!