Online Bass Instruction with Rusty Springfield
Required Listening

Know your "roots!"

There are so many great players out there it's impossible to list them all, so I'm inevitably going to leave some out. For funk playing there are many notable players to check out. Here are some that you should definitely be aware of:
  • James Jamerson: Motown session bassist
  • Larry Graham: Sly And The Family Stone/ Graham Central Station
  • Bootsy Collins: James Brown, Parliament/Funkadelic
  • Louis Johnson: The Brothers Johnson
  • Verdine White: Earth, Wind & Fire
  • Rocco Prestia: Tower Of Power
Here are a few more which blur the line a bit between funk, R&B, and jazz:
  • Stanley Clarke:Return To Forever, solo albums
  • Jaco Pastorius:Weather Report, Joni Mitchell, solo albums
  • Victor Wooten-:Bela Fleck And The Flecktones, solo albums
  • Marcus Miller: Miles Davis, Dave Sanborn, solo albums
Some early rock heavyweights:
  • John Paul Jones: Led Zeppelin
  • Tim Bogert: Vanilla Fudge, Cactus, Jeff Beck
  • Jack Bruce: Cream
  • John Entwistle: The Who
  • Chris Squire: Yes
  • Felix Pappalardi: Mountain
  • Colin Hodgkinson: Backdoor, Spencer Davis
  • Paul McCartney: Wings and some other band...
For jazz listening, the list is almost endless. Here are a few prime choices:
  • Milt Hinton: Cab Calloway and countless sessions from the 30's to the 90's
  • Paul Chambers: John Coltrane
  • Scott LaFaro: Bill Evans Trio
  • Ray Brown: Oscar Peterson, lots of album credits
  • Eddie Gomez: Bill Evans Trio, Chick Corea, lots of album credits
  • Ron Carter: Miles Davis, lots and lots of album credits
  • John Patitucci : Chick Corea, solo albums
  • Edgar Meyer: Bela Fleck, solo albums
Go to the next lesson: Glossary