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Joseph Makwela practically invented South African bass. He was the heartbeat of the Makgona Tshole Band, who were Johannesburg’s version of Motown’s Funk Brothers or L.A.’s Wrecking Crew — the house band who played on countless hits in the Sixties and Seventies, creating the sound of mbaqanga. Makwela had the first electric bass in South […]

During their heyday as indie- and alt-rock pioneers, nothing about Sonic Youth was standard issue, from their arty videos to their preferred layers of weirdly tuned guitar scuzz — and even Kim Gordon’s bass parts. Gordon had never played the instrument before when she co-founded the band in the early Eighties, and by her own […]

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 […]

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.” She may have been the only one to show up, but her sugary singing voice and punk-rock bass […]

Though they come from different scenes and generations, Peter Hook has always been the Keith Richards of the bass — a groove master cranking out the definitive riffs of his era, with plenty of outlaw mystique. In Joy Division and New Order, he redefined the instrument for the postpunk Seventies and Eighties, and generations of […]

Though he made his primary innovation in the 1930s, Israel Cachao López has exerted an influence you can hear throughout pop music to this day. Working with his brother, pianist and cellist Orestes López, he hot-wired stately Havana ballroom music to create mambo, an Afro-Cuban fusion that would influence salsa, Cuban jazz, R&B, rock & […]

Nothing exemplifies groove quite like the rhythmic interplay between Meters bassist George Porter Jr. and drummer Zigaboo Modeliste, a relationship that required extreme tightness to evoke the laid-back party atmosphere of their New Orleans hometown. Thanks to his long tenure in one of popular music’s funkiest groups, Porter held down the low end on classic […]

If Louis Johnson had done nothing other than play the relentless, shuffling bass line that shapes and drives Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean,” he would still probably merit inclusion on this list. But as one of Quincy Jones’ go-to session bassists, Johnson played on slew of late-Seventies, early-Eighties hits, helping create some of the most sophisticated, […]

Tony Levin has contributed his unmistakable style to everyone from John Lennon to David Bowie to Cher. But he’s best known for his work with King Crimson and Peter Gabriel, who calls him the “Emperor of the Bottom End.” Levin’s done more than anyone to make the Chapman Stick famous, playing the sleek, tapping-oriented guitar […]

Few musicians in any genre have put radical theory into musical practice quite like Mike Watt, who founded the Minuteman in San Pedro, California, during the late Seventies with singer-guitarist D. Boon and drummer George Hurley. “He wanted the bass way up front and the drums, too,” Watt said of Boon. “He wanted it like […]

The Talking Heads’ 1977 breakthrough single “Psycho Killer” sets an ominous mood before frontman David Byrne even sings a word. That’s because it opens with Tina Weymouth playing one of the most haunting bass parts in rock history. She’s unaccompanied for the first eight seconds, setting the stage for a tale of madness and fear […]

You could throw a rock in the Bay Area in the late Eighties and hit a thrash-funk bass player, but Les Claypool immediately stood out among the legion of aggressive slap-poppers. The lanky Primus captain treated the bass more like a lead than a rhythm instrument, driving songs with everything from hyperactive left-hand fretboard tapping […]

Shortly after joining Black Sabbath, Geezer Butler switched from rhythm guitar to bass and divined his own freewheeling style. Since he’d never played the sort of four-on-the-floor bass that defined Sixties rock, he came to the instrument with a guitarist’s sensibility, adding harmonies and ornate filigrees to guitarist Tony Iommi’s parts. The secret to Black […]

Motörhead’s most iconic song, “Ace of Spades,” opens with Lemmy Kilmister playing a tap-dancing lead bass line before falling into a melody that sounds like his Rickenbacker is headed straight to hell as he sings about feeling “born to lose.” Both in his poetry and his bass playing, Kilmister’s aesthetic was all about reckless abandon. […]

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. Toward that goal, the likes of James Taylor, Jackson Browne, Carole King, David Crosby, and Graham Nash regularly rang up Leland Sklar. “We understood that we were supporting them […]

Some of the funkiest records of the Sixties and Seventies — the Staple Singers’ “I’ll Take You There,” Etta James’ “Tell Mama,” Aretha Franklin’s “Oh No Not My Baby,” R.B. Greaves’ “Take a Letter, Maria” — had one thing in common: bass player David Hood. First working at Fame Studio in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, before […]

When John Entwistle died suddenly in 2002, the Who could have called up just about any bassist on Earth to replace him. They went with Pino Palladino. By that point, the Welsh musician had played with everyone from Jeff Beck and Elton John to John Mayer, Don Henley, and B.B. King. But his true wheelhouse […]

At the center of the emotional tempest that is Fleetwood Mac, sturdy, empathetic John McVie has mixed old-school rock solidity and California smooth, grounding the band’s sound for five peerlessly even-handed decades. McVie got his start with John Mayall and Bluesbreakers in the mid-Sixties, and he transferred that bedrock drive to Fleetwood Mac (a band […]

As a primary member of Nashville’s famous A-Team, Bob Moore’s upright-bass work can be heard on hits by everyone from George Jones to Bob Dylan. Alongside fellow session legends like Charlie McCoy, Buddy Harman, Ray Edenton, and Hargus “Pig” Robbins, Moore’s sophisticated stylings helped transform Nashville into one of the nation’s musical power centers when […]

When Metallica formed, all James Hetfield, Dave Mustaine, and Lars Ulrich wanted to do was rage on finger-breaking thrash metal — until they met Cliff Burton. The bassist had been playing with a rival metal group, and when they saw him play a jaw-dropping bass solo, they wanted him in Metallica so badly that they […]

Maurice White, an accomplished singer-songwriter-drummer-producer, brought his brother Verdine out to L.A. to join a young Earth, Wind, and Fire in 1970. Verdine had studied under Louis Satterfield, whom he described as “the James Jamerson of Chicago,” and scrutinized jazz players like Ron Carter and Richard Davis. He brought it all to Earth, Wind, and […]

Memphis native Donald Dunn — whose father gave him his lifelong nickname “Duck” while the two watched Disney cartoons together — wasn’t an original member of the influential Stax house band Booker T. and the M.G.’s. But when he took over bass duties from Lewie Steinberg in 1964, the group hit its stride. Dunn’s tenure […]

Bill Black — Elvis Presley’s early bassist and part of the Blue Moon Boys, the singer’s famed trio with guitarist Scotty Moore — was never known as one of the flashiest instrumentalists of his era, but his innovative slap-bass technique was a cornerstone of Presley’s revolutionary rock & roll. “Bill was one of the worst […]

Although Led Zeppelin seemed to come out of nowhere, fully formed, in the late Sixties, both guitarist Jimmy Page and bassist-keyboardist John Paul Jones had years of session playing behind them. Drawing inspiration from Motown records and jazz bassists like Charles Mingus, Jones played on recordings by Donovan, Jeff Beck, and Dusty Springfield, among others, […]

Although Willie Dixon is best remembered as one of history’s most influential bluesmen, whose songs were sung by Howlin’ Wolf and Muddy Waters, that’s just a portion of his legacy. He played bass on early rock recordings by Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley, and tunes he wrote like “I Can’t Quit You Baby” and “I […]

As half of the rhythm section for Bob Marley’s Wailers, Aston Barrett and his younger brother Carlton played a primary role in introducing the sound of reggae’s one-drop rhythm to international audiences. But the influence of the self-proclaimed “Architect of Reggae” extended far beyond that genre into pop, R&B, and funk: His strutting bass line […]

“There must be hundreds of better bass players than me,” Bill Wyman told Rolling Stone in 1974. “I mean I could never play like Jack Bruce. If I was ambitious in that direction I’d practice, [but] I don’t.” But while he undersells his talent, his fellow Rolling Stones disagree. “Bill Wyman’s an incredible bass player,” […]

As a member of Sly and the Family Stone, Larry Graham helped popularize the slap-bass technique with hits like “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)” and “Dance to the Music.” He developed the unmissable, percussive approach — Graham calls it “thumpin’ and pluckin’” — while playing in a trio with his mother in San […]

Robbie Shakespeare and his rhythm and production partner drummer Sly Dunbar have implanted their immediately recognizable imprint on decades of reggae. “It was the whole body of the bass, the sound and the way it flowed against the drummer,” Dunbar said of first hearing Shakespeare’s playing in the early Seventies. “At a certain part of […]

In the same way that the Grateful Dead reconfigured how a rock band should sound — looser and jammier, incorporating equal parts jazz and country — Phil Lesh made us hear the bass in a new way. The Dead’s founding and longtime bassist grew up on experimental and classical music and played trumpet and violin […]

Many musicians came and went from Yes over the decades, but the only constant (at least until his death in 2015) was bassist Chris Squire. The prog-rock giants could survive without titans like keyboardist Rick Wakeman and guitarist Steve Howe, but Squire’s work was the bedrock of their sound. Drawing inspiration from the likes of […]

It’s hard to think of Paul McCartney as being underrated in any category. But for all the praise he’s earned as a singer, songwriter, and live performer, it’s quite possible he hasn’t gotten enough for his low-key low-end verve. He first took up the bass as a matter of necessity, after Stu Sutcliffe quit the […]

Cutting her teeth in Fifties jazz clubs and breaking out as a studio guitarist for hitmakers like Sam Cooke, Kaye went on to become the most recorded bassist of all time — with more than 10,000 tracks under her belt. From the sunny swing of the Beach Boys’ 1965 track “Help Me, Rhonda” to Richie […]

Bootsy Collins — or “Bootzilla,” “Casper the Friendly Ghost,” or “The World’s Only Rhinestone Rock Star Doll, Baba,” depending on the song — redefined soul and funk bass playing in the Seventies and, by proxy, rap and pop in the Eighties and Nineties. Collins joined James Brown’s backing group, the J.B.’s, in 1970 and immediately […]

The Who’s John Entwistle had a lot of nicknames, including the Ox, due to his imposing build and endless appetites, and the Quiet One, because of his stoic demeanor. But the most apt was one Thunderfingers, a name bestowed upon him because every time he played a note on the bass it sounded like a […]

Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker got much of the attention in Cream, but Jack Bruce gave the group the thrust to make them a true power trio. When Clapton would play his soaring blues licks and Baker explored jazzy new strata behind his drum kit, Bruce, also the group’s lead vocalist, kept the band together […]

James Jamerson anchored the Motown rhythm section, expanding the possibilities for bass players with hit after hit after hit, all while remaining mostly anonymous, because session players were rarely credited on Sixties Motown recordings. “James Jamerson became my hero,” Paul McCartney once said, “although I didn’t actually know his name until quite recently.” When Jamerson […]

The Red Hot Chili Peppers have gone through many drummers and guitarists since their formation in 1983. But Flea has been their sole bassist, a player whose signature sound — an earthy, wildly charismatic hybrid of punk, funk, and psychedelia — forms the backbone of the band. Born Michael Balzary, Flea was heavily influenced by […]

“Look, have whatever in your collection at home, but everybody needs a little Friday night,” Chic’s Bernard Edwards said in 1979. Edwards built upon his devout study of jazz and classical to become disco’s most influential bassist, turning any minute into Friday night with his bandmate and longtime friend Nile Rodgers and soundtracking thousands of […]

Sting has received so much attention for his songwriting skills and singing chops over the years that his technique as a bassist sometimes gets overlooked. The former Police frontman learned to simultaneously sing and play by listening to records at 78 rpm, so he could hear the bass parts more clearly. “I had been a […]

Charles Mingus was so much more than a bass player — composer, conceptualist, classically trained cellist, social critic — that it’s sometimes easy to forget how much of a force he was on his instrument. But at the heart of his lush, kaleidoscopic pieces was a relentless rhythmic drive that flowed from his fingers through […]

“My name is John Francis Pastorius III, and I’m the greatest bass player in the world.” That was Jaco Pastorius’ opening line to Joe Zawinul when he met the Weather Report keyboardist backstage at a 1974 Miami show. Zawinul scoffed at the time, but he wasn’t laughing a few years later, once Pastorius had joined […]

The legend of the Band centers on their down-home appeal, but revisit their classic records and it’s impossible to miss just how funky they were. Rick Danko’s bass work — spare, stylish, and always situated deep in the pocket — was crucial to the inimitable lope of tracks like “Up on Cripple Creek” and “King […]

“On the bass, that’s my man, Ron Carter,” Q-Tip says proudly on the outro to A Tribe Called Quest’s super-funky Low End Theory track “Verses From the Abstract.” A milestone for the intersection of jazz and hip-hop, the track was just another day at the office for the great Ron Carter, who’s been turning up […]

Take in any one performance by Esperanza Spalding and chances are you’re only hearing a fraction of what she can do, from crooning old-school standards to performing boldly futuristic originals that draw equally on smooth R&B and gnarly prog rock. Her virtuosic and consummately versatile bass playing is the engine that drives it all. She’s […]

Onstage with Rush, Geddy Lee was always a master multitasker, playing keyboards and foot-controlled synths while nailing daredevil vocal parts. But his bass playing, tough and sinewy yet beautifully nimble and accented with just the right amount of daredevil flash, is what’s made him a legend to fans of forward-thinking rock, and one of the […]

The first thing you hear in the opening seconds of “Lonely Woman” — Ornette Coleman’s 1959 out-jazz masterwork that captivated a young Lou Reed along with an entire generation of open-minded listeners — is Charlie Haden strumming a yearning, pulsing bass melody over Billy Higgins’ double-time ride cymbal. His intro makes the tune feel ancient […]

Richard Davis’ Sixties résumé reads like a survey of some of that decade’s most challenging and enduring musical statements, from progressive-jazz landmarks like Eric Dolphy’s Out to Lunch! and Andrew Hill’s Point of Departure to Van Morrison’s free-folk masterpiece Astral Weeks. But that’s just a fraction of his overall output: During the past 60-plus years, […]

A whole generation of bassists — from Dave Holland with Miles Davis to Miroslav Vitous and Jaco Pastorius with Weather Report and Rick Laird with the Mahavishnu Orchestra — helped to wed the sophistication of Sixties postbop with the power of arena-scale rock. But it was Stanley Clarke who truly defined the role of the […]

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. Born Stephen Bruner, the bassist grew […]