So I’m looking for some songs or artists with some excellent slap bass. Victor Wooten and Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers come to mind. Any suggestions?
Forget Me Not by Patricia Rushen has an excellent slap bass line by Freddie Washington that at times sounds like a Clavinet. Never Too Much by Luther Vandross also has a fine, grooving 'line. Peg by Steely Dan (Chuck Rainey) is good as well, etc., etc.
In general, I’d pay attention to R&B and fusion from the late 1970s to the mid-80s.
Doesn’t Anthony Jackson slap as well?
Wow…you want slap bass, I’ve got slap bass…
First off, you can’t go wrong with Victor Wooten, he is god as far as I am concerned. He has done MANY things, and his best slap work is with the Flecktones (a Flecktones show is worth a million dollars, so the $40 ticket price is a steal. Indulge yourself.) My favorite solo of his of all time is the Sinister Minister solo from “Live Art”. He has also done some work in a group called the Vital Techtones, which is a different vein for him, not as much slap I suppose.
Marcus Miller is the king of slap. If you want slap, check out him.
Flea, obviously,
P-Nut from a group called 311 is also an underrated slap player. This is my favorite band of all time, but they haven’t enjoyed the mainstream success of some of their followers.
Dirk Lance from Incubus has some good stuff, check out older albums like S.C.I.E.N.C.E. and Fungus Amongus
Tad Kinchla, the new bassist for Blues Traveler has some good slap, check out “Bridge” and their newest Live album.
Larry Graham from Sly and the Family Stone literally invented slap bass, so as for oldies check him out.
George Clinton and his bands have had some good slap bass.
I could go on for hours, but then I would cease to be helpful. So there are my top picks, if I think of any more, there’ll be another post.
Try Stanley Clarke, in particular the song “we supply all your funky needs”.
I only recently discovered Victor Wooten and I have to ask what is up with his fingers?, they don’t look like normal human fingers (damn he can play!).
Do yourself a favor and check out Tony Levin (the lord of the lows www.papabear.com ), he does some amazing stuff with a bass (even a regular one).
unclviny
If you like slap bass, you should check out the Luis Russell Story on the Retrieval label. Russell was a Panamanian-born pianist who, in 1929, took over a band led by King Oliver. Russell transformed the sound of the band from a standard bluesy late twenties jazz band to more of a swing sound. A big part of the change was in Russell’s hiring of Pops Foster, a slap bass player of the first order. The first several tracks of the CD collection are pre-Foster, so you can hear what the band sounded like before it changed. Post-transformation, it’s hard to believe it’s the same band.
Apart from that, the CD set is great to listen to, with one great track after another.
It’s very unconventional and different from a lot of what’s already been listed, but Les Claypool of Primus does amazing things with the bass. Their first album, the live ‘Suck On This’ is one of my favorites…I liked each album after slightly less than the one before, and I didn’t buy any after ‘Pork Soda’, they seemed to be turning into a novelty act. The first three are great, though.
i agree les claypool rules. as a bassist myself i just love what he does. there are some really good slap solos from live shows that you can download from kazaa if you want a good listen
kudos to justplainDave - Larry Graham is the originator and all slap/funk bass starts with him. Just buy/rent Prince’s Rave unto the Year 2000 to watch the master at work - he and Prince have a duelling slap bass jam that will make your eyes fall out.
Can ya say Bootsy Collins - any number of his CD’s are worthy.
Stanley Clarke is considered the preeminent bassist, and is technique is amazing, but the music overloads and bores me after a while, personally. I kinda feel that way about Les Claypool, too (for that matter, with guitarists, I feel that way about Steve Vai and Joe Satriani - I always prefer well-constructed pop songs over technique; YMMV).
There are plenty of others - but start with James Brown and Sly Stone’s stuff, then move through Parliament and Prince and you will get a good exposure to funk and slap and move out from there. Flea is a wonderful bassist, but he would be the first to say that he owes his technique to Graham and others…
Yeah the victor wooten solo on sinister minister is amazing as has already been stated, although technically les claypool probably play stuff as difficult as vic does, but I have always though that les’ music was always more inventive and less derivative then wooten, I mean jerry was a racecar driver, I just cant understand how he thought that one up, plus les is definitely better when he uses an upright bass, such as “Mr. Krinkle” And you have to admit that primus is the only band that you actually listen to the bass over the guitar. although most punk music is devoid of really good bassists you should check out rancid particularly “maxwell murders” the song is less than two minutes long but that bass solo is insane, and although he isnt everyone’s cup of tea Jaco Pastorius just doesnt get enough credit especially considering how long ago he was playing that stuff download “portrait of Tracy” or it might be tracey, It has clever uses of harmonics and you can definitely tell wooten was inspired by it in some of his lighter songs on his album a show of hands
But to me my personal fav. will prob always be les claypool his music is unbelievably original compared to the drab shit they play on the radio
yeah victor wooten’s solo on sinister minister is unbelievably good
and so is a lot of his other live stuff he is very good at improvisation. But for me my favorite bassist is probably les claypool, his music is just so original especially compared to shit you hear on the radio. Although most of the stuff he plays is probably technically not as hard as that which wooten plays I think his style is more original, than wooten’s which sometimes seem too derivative to me. I mean listening to jerry was a racecar driver it is hard to believe a human being could come up with something like that and I also think it is cool when he uses a more vast array of thing like uprights(Mr. Krinkle) and the bass banjo!!! muhahahahaha(dont know the song name but it is on the punchbowl album) although I do like when vic uses a tenor bass. But you have to admit that Primus is probably the only band where you listen to the bass line over the guitar.
Although punk music for the most part is usually devoid of exceptional bassists the one from rancid is very cool listen to “maxwell murders” its under 2 minutes but that bass solo is awesome. And although he is not everyone’s cup of tea I also lthink Jaco Pastorius is very good especially considering how long ago he was playing that stuff “portrait of tracy” is a very beautiful song and if you listen closely you can tell his playing style was very influential on some of wootens softer less funky songs especially on his album a show of hands in songs like I think the name is “overjoyed”
Also check out the dude from dream theatre, I know I have been praddling on but I play bass and it is an interesting topic to me.
damnit I thought my first post didnt work so I tried to remember it and retype it sorry about that…God! Idiot! a mod can delete the first one
Check out Laura Love. She’s got some interesting roots in her bass playing and goes from folk to funk to world to genre-blending goodness. Her solo bass and vox cover of Nirvana’s Come As You Are from her Octoroon CD has to be caught. Other songs of note are Mahbootay which is an “ode to her butt” as I call it, Bad Feeling got a nice underground bluesy funk to it, and Fly Like an Eagle/Come Together mix has a great feel to it.
She’s not for everyone though, her vocal timbres can either be engaging and beautiful for some or dismissive to others. Her politics are left and she does have lyrics that occassionally reflect that (esp. I Want You Gone which is her indictment of how Bush Jr dealt with the aftermath of 9/11).
Check out the clips on amazon.com before purchasing but I’d still recommend her.
A lot of the Fishbone albums have some funky ass slap bass.
The Reverend Horton Heat’s Jimbo uses a standup bass that he plays slap style.
Primus of course, Les Claypool is one hell of a bass player.
I gotta say that I agree with all of you folks. But nobody said a thing about Daryl Jones, session bassist with Sting, the Rolling Stones, and Miles Davis, to name a few.
Check out Miles Davis “Decoy” from some really groovy work. There’s a good bit of slapping going on on track 4. Can’t remember. Lent the cd, never saw it again.
Slapping and tapping is close, isn’t it? I’ve never understood the attraction to Billy Sheehan, but John Entwistle was a mother.
But, that’s not funk. Sorry. I fell out of the pocket. Ok, back to bed.
Didn’t Mark King of Level 42 play a mean bit of slap bass back in the 80s? Maybe they never made it big outside the UK, but I believe they made some 17 albums before disbanding in the mid 90s.
A slap/funk bassist with a Chicago connection…Joe Thomas. I’ve heard him on a Buddy Miles tribute to Jimi Hendrix CD. Not a personal idol or anything, but notable and local to Chi Dopers.
Some of my personal favorite bass tunes:
Silly Putty - Les Claypool (Stanley Clarke did the original, but Claypool’s version is smoother)
Tommy the Cat, Rhinoplasty version - Primus
Stanley Clarke - We Supply (this has been mentioned before but I feel the urge to nominate it again)
Golden Boy - Primus
Jaco Pastorious - Most of his stuff is too weird for me, but he was a god on the bass
And finally, probably the best slap bass song done by two of the most talented bass players of all time:
Power Bass Fusion Crunch Time - Les Claypool and Stanley Clarke