Greatest Bass Playing...(acoustic/electric)

Dave Holland

Charles Mingus

Danny Thompson

Phil Lesh

Jim Ferguson

Jaco Pastorius

Miroslav Vitous

Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen 

so many more and so diverse, too!

- Ed

Charlie Haden, especially his more out work

+1 on Carter and Mingus

+1 on Charlie Haden too!

I'm gonna throw in one folks seem to forget until they hear the name:

Jack Bruce

He's a man whose career accomplishments definitely put into the "don't forget" category.

- Ed
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by tru blu 

I'm gonna throw in one folks seem to forget until they hear the name:

 

Jack Bruce

      Michael Manring - Soliloquy (the album)

*Solo bass (fretless and more than a normal bass - to be spesific: the zon hyperbass)
*Superior technique

*Presents great journey through the album

*and the list goes on.

      I do not post normally, I'm generally a reader. But I had to use this opportunity to share these pieces of art (tracks i mean).

Wrote those facts just to get you a little excited so I'm not revealing %100 of it. Just a great great album with sincere pieces of melodies.

Nothing on the album feels like it's there for just filling. Just original, organic pieces. I hope that as many people would listen to it.

…was looking for something else and came across this…is it just me, or is there sort of a resemblance between Jack and Beck Hansen?

Some solo bass performances I return to from time to time:

• Miroslav Vitous - Emergence - A soft-spoken album that came out around the time new age music became a genre, but there's a sense of struggle and challenge that elevates it above the usual sort of head-nodding noodliness. I have to qualify this - it's not a great album, it's an interesting failed experiment. As such, I prefer it to many safe successes.
• Victor Wooten - A Show of Hands - I feel weird about complaining that something's too playful, but that's about the case here. Wooten's showing off how all-over-the-place he can be. But when he's not indulging in virtuosic wankery, he's playing music that's compelling like you wouldn't believe.
• Rob Wasserman - Solos - The musicianship is excellent and the music is somewhat conservative. But new ground doesn't have to be broken at every step all the time, right?

Some bass solos on other albums:

• Jaco Pastorius' turns on Weather Report's 8:30 and Joni Mitchell's Shadows and Light - taking cues freely from a crazy-mad array of sources which all become Jaco's own, perfectly illustrating how good artists borrow and great artists steal.
• Charlie Haden's extended solo on "Two Folk Songs" from the album 80/81 by Pat Metheny - it still haunts me in my dreams from time to time, it was the melodic eye of a musical storm.

As far as bass as a part of the rhythm section, there are many good performers that other people are mentioning. So I want to highlight a lesser-known: Jane Dodd's work with The Verlaines. The early albums (especially Bird Dog) are nothing short of amazing specifically because of her contribution - nimble, melodic, involving, and working as a perfect complement to a band surging through pop songs with complex meters and changes.