It's just so refreshing to find a list of bassists where McCartney isn't at #1 😅 I've been playing bass for decades and knew exactly zero of these beyond the top five. Different styles - different circle - different reference points. That's cool though.
Absurd-Jaco is #1, like Hendrix is #1 on guitar-innovation beats everything else; and while Victor Wooten is phenomenal, he is sometimes not spot on, and in any case he would tell you (as Marcus Miller has previously stated), who was and is no.1 !
Fabulous list… in fact, you could easily have reversed the order and still be right!!! However, there are some omissions: 1. Ralphe Armstrong Amazing bass player with John McLaughlin and Jean Luc Ponty, every bit as good as as any of these other amazing players. 2. Jonas Hellborg 3. Neil Jason Formerly of the Brecker Bros and a session player for decades, a fabulous soloist going back decades. above. 4. Maybe just maybe Alphonso Johnson, though he may be great but more along the lines of Marcus Miller who’s good but not quite top 25. PS. There are three wonderful bass players who have NO business being on this distinguished list despite being quite excellent… -Tal Wilenfeld is decent but NOWHERE near even top 75 (and yea I’ve seen her live just 5 feet away from me and NOTHING impressive by any stretch), come on, Steve Bailey runs circles around her! -And of course Mohini Dey, though she’s quite excellent and decidedly and dramatically better than Wilkenfeld, not quite worthy of a top 50 even. -And yes, we love him but he’s NOT quite top 50 cuz his main (and over used and abused) trick is slapping, and that would be Marcus Miller… I really like Miller as I do Geddy Lee and Les Claypool, but clearly they’re NOT top 50 worthy by any stretch despite my personal love for them as players. These three bass players can’t even touch the 3 omissions from above.
Always gonna be a subjective minefield, but I guess 253 comments is the result. Yeah, half these players are just playing musak. I'm all for virtuosity and technique but surely somewhere there has to be melody and innovation too. That would be Palladino, Sting, Jack Bruce, Simon Gallup...But for the whole package, I find it difficult to look beyond Charles Berthoud, who seems to have it all...and then some. Although interesting to see a couple of players I'd never heard before...interesting though not particularly memorable.
Añadiría a ese excelente listado Jack Bruce de Cream, Stuart Zender de Jamiroquai, Steve Swallow que acompaña regularmente a John Scofield y Nathan East que es fiel escudero de Eric Clapton. Son 4 bestias del bajo.
It's a dang physical instrument. Those people all look muscular and fit, even more than most drummers. For this type of player, I like George Anderson Junior, from Shakatak. I know this isn't a list of rock stars, but Boz Burrell from Bad Company and King Crimson is one I'd mention. He learned bass in his 20s in King Crimson, and went on to become industry-standard, excelling on fretless bass.
All great players but as others have mentioned they are all Jazz fusion or funk groove players chosen for soloing abilities. What is the number one thing that makes a bass player great - great bass lines. It’s odd to have a list of great bass players none of which are chosen for actually playing great bass lines. Jameson, Skylar have been mentioned in comments, and Geddy Lee. In the rock world you also need Chris Squire, Entwhistle and John Paul Jones and Flea. I like all your choices. Their awesome. But no value seems to have been placed on bass players who made great songs sound great
The two guys that changed bass forever is Jamerson and Graham. Every bassist after them is a copy of them to some extent. Afterward, Jaco P. Without those three at the top, there IS no list.
You are entitled to your opinion, but this kind of musical "mast***ation" just means they play fast. Bass is about groove and foundation .... not just chops. Geddy Lee, Chris Squire, Les Claypool, Paul Turner, John Enthwisle and Tony Levin all deserve to be on this list
Nice Jazz list - bassists can soar when masturbating to unstructured music, but I prefer my bassists to follow a groove, like Jamerson, Kaye, Entwistle, and Squire.
Oh PA-LEEEZE!!! Slap, pluck, dweedle dweedle...jazz snobbery alert!!! MIA and you should be ashamed James Jameson Francis Rocco Prestia Paul McCartney Chris Squier Carole Kaye Bob Babbitt And Pino only gets HM???
I can appreciate that this list represents “your” greatest 25 bass players. I agree with you about many that are on my favorite list and there were several I was unaware of. Thank you. I played with Gerald Veasley in my youth and find it odd that you missed my other friend Brian Bromberg (no disrespect to my friend Gerald). I invite you to check him out. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-0WQzl4_gLXo.htmlsi=T-SmGPKsdZfAVtRb
I know this is your list of greatest bass players, about I respect your list. But I would rather hear simple bass players like John intwistle, John Taylor, Billy Sheehan and so on. No disrespect, but can't get into the jazz or prog stuff. Les Claypool is about as weird as I get.
John Entwhistle John Paul Jones Paul McCartney Bernard Edwards Thomas T Bone Wolk. I stopped watching after several bassists were listed. These are jazz fusion bassists. How about some rock bassists like I listed?
Seems all those you picked are of the same ilk. How about all the bass players who actually created bass lines to enhance the songs their bands wrote. Chris Squire-YES , Geddy Lee- RUSH , John Myung - Dream Theater, John Paul Jones-LZ, Paul McCartney. I found the clips to be incredibly boring- bass guitar solos are useless- technically amazing but without music to what end.
