Instruments
Bass
The electric bass guitar, an offshoot of the Telecaster electric guitar, was an invention of the great Leo Fender. Despite its name and the electric-guitar stance it requires from the player, it bears a strong relationship to the string bass, which it was intended to replace in high-volume nightclub settings where amplified instruments were the rule. Its four strings are usually tuned like those of the string bass. As was true of most other electric instruments, the bass found most of its first customers in the tavern-based genre of country music when it came on the market in 1951, but it later became ubiquitous in rock. A significant innovation in playing technique came at the hands of Sly and the Family Stone bassist Larry Graham, who in the late 1960s began to hit the lower strings with his thumb while playing melodic material with his fingers. This technique, which realized the full potential of the bass as a percussion instrument, contributed to the characteristic sound of funk, and its direct descendant hip-hop. The word "bass" also refers to the modern string bass itself, which serves as a foundation at once harmonic and rhythmic in jazz and many other musical genres. Its illustrious ancestor is the classical double bass (also known as the contrabass or string bass), which first took on its recognizable form at the beginning of the sixteenth century; large bowed stringed instruments surely existed even before that. Early basses, which often have five or even six strings rather than four, were often used as continuo (harmony) instruments in Baroque-era ensembles, but the double bass really came into its own along with the modern orchestra in the middle of the eighteenth century. Massed basses add an unmistakable power to the string section of the symphony orchestra.
Artist Highlights
| Artist |
Active |
Styles |
| Jaco Pastorius
|
1960s - 1980s |
Fusion, Post-Bop, Progressive Jazz |
| Charles Mingus
|
1940s - 1970s |
Avant-Garde Jazz, Bop, Hard Bop, Post-Bop, Progressive Jazz, Jazz Instrument, Piano Jazz |
| Nathan East
|
1970s - 2020s |
Contemporary Jazz, Crossover Jazz, Modern Jazz, R&B Instrumental, Smooth Jazz, Adult Contemporary R&B |
| Carol Kaye
|
1940s - 2020s |
Instrumental Pop, Post-Bop, Soul Jazz |
| Les Claypool
|
1980s - 2020s |
Funk Metal, Heavy Metal, Alternative Pop/Rock, Alternative/Indie Rock, Bluegrass, Progressive Bluegrass |
| John Paul Jones
|
1960s - 2020s |
Rock & Roll, Album Rock, Alternative Pop/Rock, Alternative/Indie Rock, British Metal, Hard Rock, Heavy Metal |
| John Entwistle
|
1960s - 2000s |
Album Rock, Hard Rock, Arena Rock |
| Jimmy Garrison
|
1950s - 1970s |
Avant-Garde Jazz, Free Jazz, Post-Bop |
| James Jamerson
|
1950s - 1980s |
Motown, Funk, Pop-Soul, Soul |
| Stanley Clarke
|
1960s - 2020s |
Fusion, Jazz-Funk, Post-Bop, Contemporary Jazz, Crossover Jazz, Funk |
| Rob Wasserman
|
1970s - 2010s |
Fusion, Neo-Bop, Contemporary Jazz |
| Paul McCartney
|
1950s - 2020s |
Album Rock, Contemporary Pop/Rock, Soft Rock, Singer/Songwriter, Adult Contemporary, Rock & Roll, AM Pop, Film Score, Choral, Orchestral |
| Larry Graham
|
1960s - 2020s |
Funk, Soul, Quiet Storm |
| Bill Laswell
|
1970s - 2020s |
Ambient, Art Rock, Dark Ambient, Dub, Experimental, Fusion, Modern Creative, Ambient Dub, Worldbeat, Club/Dance, Electronica, Jungle/Drum'n'Bass |
| Bill Wyman
|
1950s - 2020s |
Rock & Roll, Roots Rock, British Blues, British Invasion, Blues-Rock, Contemporary Pop/Rock, Regional Blues |
| Milt Hinton
|
1920s - 1990s |
Early Jazz, Swing, Opera, Film Score, Show/Musical |
| Flea
|
1980s - 2020s |
Alternative Pop/Rock, Alternative/Indie Rock, Indie Rock, Post-Punk, Punk, Punk/New Wave |
| Pops Foster
|
1910s - 1940s |
Early Jazz, New Orleans Jazz |
| Bernard Edwards
|
1970s - 1990s |
Disco, Funk, Film Score |
| Richard Davis
|
1940s - 2020s |
Hard Bop, Post-Bop, Fusion, Mainstream Jazz, Modern Creative |