Best Electric Bass Player

some of my favourites:

Eberhard Weber

Hugh Hopper

Colin Hodgkinson

Percy Jones

Michael Henderson

Holger Czukay

Harvey Brooks

Jean-Herve Peron

John Greaves

Been shopping in Manchester today. For Jazz fans, Fopp & HMV have a stack of albums on sale for £3 or £4 including some Jaco Pastorius albums (I bought "Introducing...", "Invitation" & "Birthday Concert"). Also stacks of Brad Mehldau trio and Bill Evans albums........

Vlad

I very strongly vote for Paul McCartney. We all know what 'best' means: nothing, in absolute terms, unless we are judging technical agility and pure manual mastering of the instrument.

But McCartney, even in the very first album by The Beatles (1963, he was 21) shows a complete harmonic intuition, makes use of inversions (for non-musicians: using a note different from the root of the chord, what, in simple terms, distinguishes music from a pitched doubling of the bass drum) while the usual repertoire of pop bass players is confined to the three fundamentals of the three chords used; his bass lines are, in fact, lines: not succession of notes. He thinks harmonically and melodically, and examples of this can be found everywhere: on I saw her standing there (has anyone of you tried to do that bass part while singing? I did), on Paperback writer, on all of Sgt. Pepper's, not to mention his doubling the guitars on the riff of Day Tripper, which - at the pitch in which he does it, not starting from the lower E string but one octave higher - requirers a tricky fingering, just try it, you fans of fancy jazz players...

He is a harmonically complete and inventive musician, and this reflects on his bass work, which he very generously undertook giving up his guitar role, from scratch. Just watch a video, he sings and plays and never once looks at the fretboard. 

McCartney may not be Marcus Miller nor Jaco Pastorius, but if one listens to something more in the Beatles songs than the lead voice or the basic chords, his craftsmanship will appear clearly. If I was the type who spends the word 'genius' freely...

Max

+1 for Colin Hodgkinson. Especially in his "Backdoor" phase. He can play rhythm and lead at the same time. Not many do chords on the bass, and his use of harmonics is exceptional.

Who was the bassist with Greenslade again? - he was good. Inventive use of the bass plus wah-wah pedal. 

Saw yesterday Christian McBride - have to add him

Roger Glover

Agree with most on here, would have to add Louis Johnson to the list (brothers Johnson) did a lot of session playing for Quincey Jones through 70's/80's as well some own stuff through the 70's.

 John Entwhistle for rock bass, fusion Stanley Clarke, 

I think its time someone took this thread seriously..

No offence, but most of the guys named here are 'pub band' standard, but very famous..

Jaco, Pattituci, Marcus Miller et al...then youre onto something...

(cue hate mail!)

Stuart Hamm.  Long-time session player, toured with Satriani and Vai.

If you like jazz/fusion and bass-led instrumental rock, then I recommend his solo albums. "Radio Free Albemuth" and "Just Outside of Normal" are both great listens.  He's a very creative player, and uses plenty of pops, slaps and two-handed taps.  I like the variety of his music -- each one of his albums cover multiple genres and playing styles.

ATB.

Hook

I can never decide with bass players whether I prefer the more prominent players - Jaco (not worthy), Fraser, Bruce or the less demonstrative who just act as the foundation - nothing more.

All the Weather Report bass players were great, Andy Fraser, Bruce, The Ox, Darryl Jones, Chuck Rainey, Duck Dunn, Willie Weeks, John illsley (unfussy but never a note wrong), Carl Radle, Anthony Jackson - wow!!

Great bassist, great album

Seconded. No contest.

There can be only the "best" at a particular genre/style etc, and even then it can only really be a top 10.  But my "favorites" are:

String Bass/Jazz - Ron Carter

Fusion - Jaco Pastorius

Alternative/Avant-Rock - Les Claypool

Punk - Rob Wright (NOMEANSNO)

Metal - Cliff Burton

Heavy Metal - Steve Harris

Experimental - Trevor Dunn

Avant-Garde - Shanir Ezra Blumenkrantz

Classic Rock - John Entwistle (THUNDERFINGERS!!!)

Technical/Funk/Bluegrass - Victor Wooten

Post-Punk - Andrew Rourk

R&B - James Jamerson

There are so many....

As a player if you asked my who the "best" is, I would say "Victor Wooten is the best modern electric bass player".  If you asked me my favorite, refer to the non-exhaustive list above.

-Patrick

oh and....

Art Rock/Avant-Metal - Justin Chancellor (Tool)

Electronic - Squarepusher

Both are sick!

Technically, he is disgustingly good.  No soul though.  Lots of those studio wizards around.

-p

This thread is a bit blokey. So here's probably the best female jazz bassist around, Esperanza Spalding:

And of course the coolest bassist, of whatever gender, there has ever been, the divine Kim Gordon:

I agree, boring. Hooky, everyone's favourite stubbly low-slung bass Viking, is not an especially technically gifted player, but his work for JD and NO oozes soul, and I'd take him over a hack like Hamm or Miller any day:

And, lest we forget, The First Lady of Leather, the mighty Suzi Quatro. The way she used to thwack that bass around... sigh

Paul Denman  from Sade and Gary W Tallent from the E Street band. Both great bass players

FYI Nick Beggs rejoins Steve Hackett band for the "extra" Genesis II tour gigs, next year.

+1 for Andy - nothing clever but rocked away on those early Free recordings - 15 years old when he first recorded with them!

Saw him on breakfast telly earlier this year (plugging a new project) - didn't look very well and apparently had been close to death a while back.

Lots of great jazz bassists (largely dead) to put on the list too:

NHOP

All the guys that played with Bill Evans

Ray Brown

and so on