There's a club here that once a year has "The Bass Summit". (We're in Summit county. Get it?) It's a night of bass player fronted bands and solo artists. They each get 20 minutes. I have never had so much fun in my life instigating discussions that got so heated sometimes that players has to be pulled apart.
So if you are ever in a room full of bass players, drop these names.
Charles Mingus. James Jamerson. Stanley Clarke. Jaco Pastorius. Victor Wooten. Pino Palladino.
And watch the fur fly as all those bottom dwellers defend their favorite.
I mean, we ALL know Jaco was the greatest ever, right?
And....go!
LOL!
And by the way, those nights present some GREAT music. The last one I went to, the next to last group opened with The Chicken and morphed right into Donna Lee. I was awestruck listening to a guy name Jared Lees play Donna Lee on his 6 string Prat bass. That's one of the most difficult pieces of music ever written. By either Miles Davis or Charlie Parker, depending on who you choose to believe.
An interesting subject for sure, and I had a good laugh last year when Marty called us "bottom feeders" (brings back catfish fishing memories as a kid).
How Rick tackles this subject is one reason why he is so successful at what he does.
https://soundcloud.com/user-646279677 BiaB 2026 Windows For me there’s no better place in the band than to have one leg in the harmony world and the other in the percussive. Thank you Paul Tutmarc and Leo Fender.
The Chicken is one of my favorites for bass .. Teentown is pretty awesome too for its melodic line. So I'd vote Jaco, but as the topic suggests, just my preference.
Although Levin and Jeff Berlin have also impressed me quite a bit .. and 'coz I'm old, also Chris Squire .. playing bass along with Yes isn't easy even after you know the songs, being the guy 'writing' the bass on a lot of their stuff as it was being created gets my respect
I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome Make your sound your own!
BIAB. CbB. Mixbus 32C 8 HP Envy. Intel core i7. 16GB RAM W10. Focusrite Scarlett 18i 20. Various instruments played with varying degrees of proficiency.
Hang out in LA long enough at the Baked Potato, and you might just get to play with this guy...lol Not my cup of tea but many like all that 90-notes a nanosecond stuff.
Lead - Steve Vai Bass Vocal - Billy Sheehan Drum Vocal - Mike Portnoy
ROTH, SHEEHAN, VAI & BISSONETTE ( a little too rude to post here) Gregg is the only drummer I know who can keep up with these crazy guys...lol
Billy
Last edited by Planobilly; 04/11/2304:24 PM.
“Amazing! I’ll be working with Jaco Pastorius, Charlie Parker, Art Tatum, and Buddy Rich, and you’re telling me it’s not that great of a gig? “Well…” Saint Peter, hesitated, “God’s got this girlfriend who thinks she can sing…”
Side note: I played in a band with a guy who taught Jaco bass when Jaco was quite young. He said Jaco progressed so quickly, that after so many lessons, he told Jaco that he had nothing left to teach him.
This list could be 6 pages long depending on what you listen to. I don't listen to metal so that whole section of the lists is lost on me. As we age and our tastes shift, our list changes. During my "pop jazz" phase I was exposed to names I never head before, like "Meat Man Meeks" in Mangione's band. Jean Luc Ponty had a new bass player each of the 3 times I saw him. All outstanding, but on the list of "greatest", no.
You can make a case for a lot of people I didn't name in those 6, as those 6 were just to get the party started. And thus far I have seen names I didn't know, went right to Wiki and read about them. Sting could be there, Paul McCartney, Abe Laboriel, Mark King, Lemmy... So many ways to be great. Great can mean "sitting in the pocket and not drawing attention from the star" (Flea does that), and great could mean exactly the opposite where the bass player gets a LOT of attention (Vic Wooten, John Entwistle).
Been a great, educational thread so far. Somewhat lacking country guys though. Mike Leech, Mike Rhodes... Lovin' this!
And this is a window into how the Bass Summit audience battles went.
Of course it also depends on what one means by bass. I'm a fan of John Patitucci, but of course he plays an upright.
Jazz relative beginner, starting at a much older age than was helpful. AVL:MXE Linux; Windows 11 BIAB2025 Audiophile, a bunch of other software. Kawai MP6, Ui24R, Focusrite Saffire Pro40 and Scarletts .
Although Levin and Jeff Berlin have also impressed me quite a bit .. and 'coz I'm old, also Chris Squire .. playing bass along with Yes isn't easy even after you know the songs, being the guy 'writing' the bass on a lot of their stuff as it was being created gets my respect
+1 It's hard for Chris Squire to not be on any greatest list. I consider this intro phenomenal.
https://soundcloud.com/user-646279677 BiaB 2026 Windows For me there’s no better place in the band than to have one leg in the harmony world and the other in the percussive. Thank you Paul Tutmarc and Leo Fender.
Although Levin and Jeff Berlin have also impressed me quite a bit .. and 'coz I'm old, also Chris Squire .. playing bass along with Yes isn't easy even after you know the songs, being the guy 'writing' the bass on a lot of their stuff as it was being created gets my respect
+1 It's hard for Chris Squire to not be on any greatest list. I consider this intro phenomenal.
Even the main groove was cool, fitting into what they were doing at the time was something I would never come up with. Thanks for the live version link.
I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome Make your sound your own!
Although Levin and Jeff Berlin have also impressed me quite a bit .. and 'coz I'm old, also Chris Squire .. playing bass along with Yes isn't easy even after you know the songs, being the guy 'writing' the bass on a lot of their stuff as it was being created gets my respect
+1 It's hard for Chris Squire to not be on any greatest list. I consider this intro phenomenal.
Even the main groove was cool, fitting into what they were doing at the time was something I would never come up with. Thanks for the live version link.
Yes happens to be one of my favorite prog rock bands, and although I have attempted to jam along with a handful of other bands I have yet to attempt a jam-along with any Yes song.
They have a complex syncopated timing ability and brain wiring far different than mine. For me, significant study time of any of their chord progressions/basslines would be required to even decide to give it a go. Maybe someday, but I doubt it . . . but they sure are fun to listen to.
I wonder if anyone here is confident (on any instrument, except tamborine) to tackle a Yes song?
https://soundcloud.com/user-646279677 BiaB 2026 Windows For me there’s no better place in the band than to have one leg in the harmony world and the other in the percussive. Thank you Paul Tutmarc and Leo Fender.
Band-in-a-Box 2026 for Windows Special Offers End Tomorrow (January 15th, 2026) at 11:59 PM PST!
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Band-in-a-Box 2026 Video: The Newly Designed Piano Roll Window
In this video, we explore the updated Piano Roll, complete with a modernized look and exciting new features. You’ll see new filtering options that make it easy to focus on specific note groups, smoother and more intuitive note entry and editing, and enhanced options for zooming, looping, and more.
Band-in-a-Box 2026 Video: AI Stems & Notes - split polyphonic audio into instruments and transcribe
This video demonstrates how to use the new AI-Notes feature together with the AI-Stems splitter, allowing you to select an audio file and have it separated into individual stems while transcribing each one to its own MIDI track. AI-Notes converts polyphonic audio—either full mixes or individual instruments—into MIDI that you can view in notation or play back instantly.
Bonus PAK and 49-PAK for Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Windows®
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MIDI Styles Set 92: Look Ma! More MIDI 15: Latin Jazz
MIDI SuperTracks Set 46: Piano & Organ
Instrumental Studies Set 24: Groovin' Blues Soloing
Artist Performance Set 19: Songs with Vocals 9
Playable RealTracks Set 5
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SynthMaster Sounds Set 1 (with audio demos)
Android Band-in-a-Box® App (included)
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MIDI Styles Set 93: Look Ma! More MIDI 16: SynthMaster
MIDI SuperTracks Set 47: More SynthMaster
Instrumental Studies 25 - Soul Jazz Guitar Soloing
Artist Performance Set 20: Songs with Vocals 10
RealDrums Stems Set 10: Groovin' Sticks
SynthMaster Sounds & Styles Set 2 (sounds & styles with audio demos)
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