A big part of the Motown sound was the studio band there, commonly referred to as "The Funk Brothers". James Jamerson worked for Motown Records as a member of this band, and in his career performed on nearly 30 #1 pop hits. His style favors improvisation and creates almost a duet with the soloist. If you listen to Darling Dear, you can hear how his playing dances around the solo without overpowering it. Wilton Felder is the one who played on I Want You Back and ABC. His playing style is much more pop-centric, because he would create a hook much like the one in I Want You Back. I found it very interesting that from a musician's standpoint Jamerson is a godlike entity, while Wilton Felder is creating more popular music. It is this vague concept of success that you'll see tossed around from time to time. (Disregarding the fact that the in house Motown musicians received little recognition for their work) Wilton Felder was successful in the sense that he played the songs that everyone knows, but James Jamerson went down in history as a legend among musicians. A good way to describe the magnitude of his influence is looking him up on Wikipedia, and scrolling down to Style and Influence. You will find a list of bass players that named Jamerson as one of their primary influences, and if you asked someone to rattle off the most influential bass players they can think of off the top of their head, chances are they will name few that aren't already on that list. How Jamerson got there has been somewhat of a mystery to me, and is one more reason for me to delve deeper into the really early influences of popular music. Mainly early Jazz and Blues music; that has always been kind of a blurry area for me, but I keep coming across the influence shown in popular music enough that I think it's time to take a closer look. A lot of my approach has been following the trail of influence backwards. I'm just not sure where I should start.Sunday, December 13, 2015
James Jamerson
I've found myself going through a Jackson 5 phase lately, but there are times when I'm not sure if I'm just in love with their bass player. The two that I know have played with them are Wilton Felder, and James Jamerson. I found myself last night listening to the album ABC, and trying to figure out who played on each song just by hearing it and comparing it to what I know of each of them.
A big part of the Motown sound was the studio band there, commonly referred to as "The Funk Brothers". James Jamerson worked for Motown Records as a member of this band, and in his career performed on nearly 30 #1 pop hits. His style favors improvisation and creates almost a duet with the soloist. If you listen to Darling Dear, you can hear how his playing dances around the solo without overpowering it. Wilton Felder is the one who played on I Want You Back and ABC. His playing style is much more pop-centric, because he would create a hook much like the one in I Want You Back. I found it very interesting that from a musician's standpoint Jamerson is a godlike entity, while Wilton Felder is creating more popular music. It is this vague concept of success that you'll see tossed around from time to time. (Disregarding the fact that the in house Motown musicians received little recognition for their work) Wilton Felder was successful in the sense that he played the songs that everyone knows, but James Jamerson went down in history as a legend among musicians. A good way to describe the magnitude of his influence is looking him up on Wikipedia, and scrolling down to Style and Influence. You will find a list of bass players that named Jamerson as one of their primary influences, and if you asked someone to rattle off the most influential bass players they can think of off the top of their head, chances are they will name few that aren't already on that list. How Jamerson got there has been somewhat of a mystery to me, and is one more reason for me to delve deeper into the really early influences of popular music. Mainly early Jazz and Blues music; that has always been kind of a blurry area for me, but I keep coming across the influence shown in popular music enough that I think it's time to take a closer look. A lot of my approach has been following the trail of influence backwards. I'm just not sure where I should start.
A big part of the Motown sound was the studio band there, commonly referred to as "The Funk Brothers". James Jamerson worked for Motown Records as a member of this band, and in his career performed on nearly 30 #1 pop hits. His style favors improvisation and creates almost a duet with the soloist. If you listen to Darling Dear, you can hear how his playing dances around the solo without overpowering it. Wilton Felder is the one who played on I Want You Back and ABC. His playing style is much more pop-centric, because he would create a hook much like the one in I Want You Back. I found it very interesting that from a musician's standpoint Jamerson is a godlike entity, while Wilton Felder is creating more popular music. It is this vague concept of success that you'll see tossed around from time to time. (Disregarding the fact that the in house Motown musicians received little recognition for their work) Wilton Felder was successful in the sense that he played the songs that everyone knows, but James Jamerson went down in history as a legend among musicians. A good way to describe the magnitude of his influence is looking him up on Wikipedia, and scrolling down to Style and Influence. You will find a list of bass players that named Jamerson as one of their primary influences, and if you asked someone to rattle off the most influential bass players they can think of off the top of their head, chances are they will name few that aren't already on that list. How Jamerson got there has been somewhat of a mystery to me, and is one more reason for me to delve deeper into the really early influences of popular music. Mainly early Jazz and Blues music; that has always been kind of a blurry area for me, but I keep coming across the influence shown in popular music enough that I think it's time to take a closer look. A lot of my approach has been following the trail of influence backwards. I'm just not sure where I should start.
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