great bass players


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Most of the Motown Bass parts were played by this little lady

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she also played a lot of the guitar parts too.

At least 95% of them were Jamerson. Carol Kaye did a few sessions if any at all and played on none of the hits. She's a bullshitter going by the songs she claims on her website which are clearly Jamerson.

1) The songwriting-production team of Holland-Dozier-Holland attested to the fact that James Jamerson played on almost every one of their productions, and they never allowed others to produce songs that they had written. Brian Holland signed a notarized affidavit categorically stating that "Bernadette", "Reach Out", "Can't Help Myself", "Keep Me Hanging On", "Standing in the Shadows of Love", "Reflections", "Baby Love", "Back In My Arms Again", "Come See About Me", and "Can't Hurry Love", (all tunes claimed by Carol) were in fact, played by James Jamerson. Most damning was his statement that he had never even heard of Carol Kaye.

2) Smokey Robinson who wrote or produced probably 30-40 percent of Motown's biggest hits also denied that she had any major role in the Motown story, and had no part at all on the songs in question.

3) The performance credit that Carol has pursued with the greatest tenacity over the years is the bass part on Stevie Wonder's "I Was Made to Love Her". Hank Cosby who co-wrote, produced it, and who, in his own words, "was there every step of the way from the writing of the song to the day the 45's were shipped", vehemently denied any participation by Carol Kaye on this recording. Cosby added, "Fifty percent of the song was James Jamerson's bass line. No one played like that but Jamerson." Cosby also signed an affidavit similar to Brian Holland's attesting to Jamerson's performance.
 
Sorry mate but that is a bit controversial to say the least! Kaye claims that she played on most of them but the majority of the Motown musicians laughed it off. Even the musicians she claimed would back her up said Jamerson was responsible for most of the basslines that she claims as her own.
Bullshit! I actually post on a couple of forums, where the head sound engineer (Bob Olhsson) at Motown back in those days, is a Mod and a regular poster

I've posted on there for over 10 years, not once has he ever came out with a statement like that, and Motown and C.K have been discussed many times.
Sometimes It really pisses me off that people read Bullshit on the Internet
believe that crap, then spout it out on here, learn the facts before you spout shite.
 
Bullshit! I actually post on a couple of forums, where the head sound engineer (Bob Olhsson) at Motown back in those days, is a Mod and a regular poster

I've posted on there for over 10 years, not once has he ever came out with a statement like that, and Motown and C.K have been discussed many times.
Sometimes It really pisses me off that people read Bullshit on the Internet
believe that crap, then spout it out on here, learn the facts before you spout shite.

Whoa there, mate! Not having been alive at the time of a lot of those recordings, I can only go by what I've read in books, magazines, the internet etc. I've never read anything (with any detail) other than people denying Kaye's claims. Point me in the direction of other evidence and I'll check it out. That's why I said it was controversial, I understand there are still those who do claim Kaye is responsible for them.
 
Jaco

Not for his solo twiddley shite, for being a truly groundbreaking musician. Teen Town and Cannon Ball sum up how diverse he was, knew his role as a bassist precisely.

Also, nothing gets me dancing like a Jamerson bassline.
 
Whoa there, mate! Not having been alive at the time of a lot of those recordings, I can only go by what I've read in books, magazines, the internet etc. I've never read anything (with any detail) other than people denying Kaye's claims. Point me in the direction of other evidence and I'll check it out. That's why I said it was controversial, I understand there are still those who do claim Kaye is responsible for them.
Sorry I the post came across a bit tetchy mate..:lol:
I've cut and pasted this from one of the forums, just did a quick search, I'll try and find more. this is from the guy that recorded C.K and J.J
in the Motown sessions.

Motown was a record label that was owned by Smokey Robinson and Berry Gordy Jr. Berry Gordy's music publishing company, Jobete Music, had offices and full staffs in New York and L.A. who cut numerous demos using session musicians in those cities as part of an effort to get our songs cut by singers on other labels.

A typical demo session was six songs in three hours. Lots of musicians kept a list of those songs and some believed that we used their tracks later on as masters. Unfortunately the American Federation of Musicians had (maybe still has?) a long standing policy of destroying the financial records of sessions as soon as IRS requirements permitted. There is little left but people's memories about who really played on what prior to the 1970s when 16 track, smaller rhythm sections and overdubbing reduced the number of musicians typically used on an album to the point that credits became common.

and another

She was frequently doubling what the bass player was playing.

This was the style Harold Bradley pioneered a decade earlier only using a 6 string Danelectro bass and never referring to himself as being a bass player. Harold was also keeping up with bass player Bob Moore's improvisations rather than reading bass lines from a chart.

It just boils my piss when people are discredited for the great work they've done.


another quote from a different producer.

Carol Kaye has kept log books of all her sessions since the early sixties. Stevie Wonder himself claims it was Carol Kaye.

I think Carol might be James biggest defender. She tried to help him when he moved to LA and was the only one out there finding him recording work.

They're both great musicians and they both cut lots of tracks for Motown.

Don't kid yourself about the LA group recording demos though. They were the highest paid, most in demand session musicians of all time.

But we might as well argue about JFK's assassination or who really brought down the WTC.
 
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Sorry I the post came across a bit tetchy mate..:lol:
I've cut and pasted this from one of the forums, just did a quick search, I'll try and find more. this is from the guy that recorded C.K and J.J
in the Motown sessions.



and another



It just boils my piss when people are discredited for the great work they've done.

No worries, mate. Nice to see someone else with passion for a bit of plonking! :-D

Interesting stuff. Which bass forums do you get on? I'll have to have a look at them.
 
No worries, mate. Nice to see someone else with passion for a bit of plonking! :-D

Interesting stuff. Which bass forums do you get on? I'll have to have a look at them.
I don't mate! these are recording forums, by the way Bob Babbitt also played a lot of the Bass parts on Motown records, he's every bit as good as Jamerson..:cool:
There's a lot of shit spouted on the Internet and people believe it religiously
there's so much hype attached to music though that it's hard to know what to believe.
 
Aye jean jacques made me pick up a bass 30plus years ago.....mick karn(rip)..geddy lee,les claypool,flea,john paul jones,justin chancellor..
 
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