Monday, December 21, 2009

A List Of 21 Must Listen Fretless Bass Recordings


From the jazziness of Jaco to the wildness of Mick Karn, I've compiled a list of twenty-one recordings that have fretless bass featured, if not exclusively, at least prominently on them. This is in no way a comprehensive list, although I did try to include as many players as possible, I also tried to include many landmark albums of players like Jaco and Gary Willis, who are two of the more prominent players of the instrument.If you are serious about playing fretless, I feel these recordings are a great place to start and are basically required listening to get a sense of the wide variety of sounds and styles out there for the fretless bass. Also check out: Michael Manring, Baba Elefante, Bill Wyman, Sting, Mark Egan, Alphonso Johnson, Tony Franklin, Steve Bailey, Jeff Ament, Les Claypool

  1. Jaco Pastorius - Jaco Pastorius
  2. Masques - Brand X (Percy Jones)
  3. The Waking Hour - Dali's Car (Mick Karn)
  4. The Secret of Association - Paul Young (Pino Palladino)
  5. Us - Peter Gabriel (Tony Levin)
  6. Heavy Weather - Weather Report (Jaco Pastorius)
  7. Bright Size Life - Pat Metheny
  8. Nomad - Tribal Tech (Gary Willis)
  9. No Sweat - Gary Willis
  10. Slaughterhouse 3 - Slaughterhouse 3 (Gary Willis)
  11. Night Passage - Weather Report (Jaco Pastorius)
  12. Tin Drum - Japan (Mick Karn)
  13. Elegant Punk - Jonas Hellborg
  14. Hejira - Joni Mitchell (Jaco Pastorius)
  15. Bestial Cluster - Mick Karn
  16. Polytown - Torn/Karn/Bozzio
  17. Paul Motian and the Electric Bebop Band - Paul Motian (Stomu Takeishi)
  18. Actual Fiction - Gary Willis
  19. I, Assassin - Gary Numan (Pino Palladino)
  20. Antipodes - Steuart Liebig
  21. Have We Met? - 3 Squares (Daren Burns...hey it's my list!)

1 comment:

  1. Thanks to Steuart Liebig, I had forgotten about Rick Danko (The Band, Dylan) was an early fretless bassist and didn't that Boz Burrell (Bad Company, King Crimson) also was a fretless guy.

    Need to keep adding to the list...

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