Agree on the influence on some of the lesser hearalded studio musicians like Osborn whose influence is promoted by the tons of songs they played on. David Hood was a founder of the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section AKA The Swampers (the name given to them by Leon Russell) and recognized in the song line "Muscle Shoals got The Swampers" (Sweet Home Alabama)...check them out along with their discography. Hood was also a member of Traffic for a time.

OK Ariel, Ssoyd, or any others. Have you heard of Tony Newton? He was one of Motowns very first bassists and did most of the Motown tours when Jamerson became studio bound as well as being Smokey Robinsons personal bassist. After Motown Tony formed a band...8th day and they had a big hit on the Invictus label (Holland Dozier Holland) She's Not Just Another Woman, and did studio work for Invictus. Tony then moved to L.A and was the bassist with Tony Williams for some time. He's worked and toured with a LOT of artists over the years. More recently he did a European tour with Funk Brother Jack Ashford. If you check him out I'll give you another story from the StuBass files.

Were Hood & Cogbill widely recorded? Where did Cogbill play, was he a backing band guy like the others we're discussing? Same era, 60s? Did those two play on a lot of 'hits' of the era, or important recordings?

Haven't heard of Mr Newton I'm afraid. Was he in the Miracles too? (You mention Smokey) Was Invictus the post Motown H-D-H label?, was he part of their (label) band? Tony Williams as in THE Tony Williams? As much as I'd love to hear another StuBass story ( ) it's easier I think if we add new suggestions to the 'possibles' list for now and worry about where to place them in the bassists list (thread list) later, after fixing up the current names, otherwise I'll feel like we're getting distracted a lot. (NOT trying to discourage people from bringing up new names! Please do bring up deserving names and tell me about 'em, we'll just place 'em later!)

Stu and Ssoyd do you guys consider Duck Dunn notably creative, or basically derivative in terms of his style? Pitting him against Stu Hamm is proving to be a lot more interesting than I originally assumed it would be (which is a good thing!)

EDIT: Listening to "She's Not Just Another Woman"...man some sick playing here, he does a damn good Jamerson impression, which is hard to do. Creative player, like a mini Jamerson, not as good as the real deal but still excellent imo

Cogbill and Hood were WIDELY recorded. Jaco cited Tommy as a major influence. Cogbill recorded for Elvis, Dusty Springfield, Aretha, etc. He played a memorable bassliine on Wilson Picketts Funky Broadway. Also a terrific guitarist. He overdubbed those masterful funky guitar licks on Arethas Think. He was booked as the session bassist and during a ploayback he suggested to Jerry Wexler that he dub in some guitar licks.

Much the same on Hood. Tons of recordings down in Muscle Shoals in the 60's and 70's.

The reason I brought up Tony is that he's often mentioned in R&B bass circles. Several threads on him in the Talk Bass forum. He was not a Miracle, but a backup bassist for them. That's where I met Tony, when I was about 14...down the street at Smokeys house.

Read my last post again, I edited it!

I'll have to read up on Tommy and Hood online, see what I can find out. Appreciate the info you're giving me. Cheers

You knew Smokey?! Badass

Newton will almost assuredly get a spot somewhere on this list, I'd reckon. Very impressed by his playing. Cheers

BTW...I've realized Brian Wilson needs a spot here, and a HIGH one, for his bass performances. No, he didn't play bass on those songs, but he wrote the bass parts out entirely himself, and Carol Kaye having played on them is irrelevant. Those parts are some of the most harmonically brilliant and groundbreaking in the history of rock, and Macca has spoken very highly of Wilson as a result. Thoughts?

Yeah...Smokey moved in down the street from us after he started having Motown success. I hung out there a lot and that's where I met many of the Motown artists when they would drop by.

I remember running into Tony one day when I was in my late teens and he invited me over to his house to meet the group he had just formed...8th day. They were signed to Invictus which was the label started by Holland Dozier Holland when they left Motown over royalty disputes. They had a lot of hits for artists like Freda Payne, Chairman Of The Board, Honeycone, etc. Another friend of mine, Bruce Nazarian was 8th days lead guitarist. Yes...Tony played with THAT Tony Williams.

Check out Hood ( and The Swampers) and Cogbill. You'll be REAL impressed.

Brian was a brilliant composer...both on bass and vocals. His playing wasn't all that great, but he definitely had the musicality down.

Here's one of the better known Cogbill recordings.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIuJH3qroDY

To be honest I've never been particularly impressed with most of Duck Dunn's work.

I don't think Jaco ever cited Cogbill as a Major influence but on his "Modern Electric Bass" video be did use Cogbill's bass line from "Funky Broadway" as an example of the stuff he played early in his career. I don't mean to correct you but Jaco and his career has been of particular interest to me as he's probably my favorite all time bassist. Anybody interested in Bass guitar in general or Jaco in particular should give that DVD a listen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZSa9niKKE4

From my recollection Ssoyd, Jaco has cited Cogbill and Rocco Prestia as major...or at least significant influences. Jaco was mostly influenced by R&B or Funk bassists, despite being a good...but not a great R&B player (he was losing auditions to Ralphie Armstrong)...but his true genius came about when he focused on jazz fusion...IMO.

I have read that that about Cogbill and Prestia but it has been second and third hand info. I have never heard that as a source straight from Jaco so for now I doubt the accuracy of such reports. Listen to the video I referenced where he sites several influences. He mentions and plays Cogbill's bassline to "Funky Broadway" but there is no mention of Prestia. Prestia was a contemporary of his and about the same age which reduces the chances of him being an influence. More likely they had common influences.

The "Modern Electric Bass" video gives a great look into Jaco's technique and musical thinking even though his playing on it is a bit sloppy as it was made shortly before his death and he had just sobered up enough to do the video.

Here's some Jaco playing on a Rock Album.
With Ian Hunter

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXiYkOEBv8U

Many don't realize that Jaco Could play just about any kind of music with ease and was used as a side man by a lot of different artists.

With Herbie Hancock

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuVq1tEO ... A6DF235574

With Joanie Mitchell

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bSuCOcL39U

With Pat Metheny

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXvKRNyQ520
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5eX4m4v ... ure=relmfu

With Albert Mangelsdorff and Alphonse Mouzon

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8oYtqyK ... creen&NR=1

Some amazing Jaco stuff. He absolutely transformed bass guitar from the mid 70's on. Prior to that, Jaco was developing his style as primarily a backup bassist (CC Riders, BST, and other artists and bands). During the early 70's...Rocco was the guy recognized as the "latest" great innovator on bass with the fingerstyle funk he developed with TOP. Before Jaco had broken out (from day 1 with Weather Report and Pat Metheny) around 1976, Rocco was already being hearalded for lines like What Is Hip, Soul Vaccination, Don't Change Horses...all around the 72-74 period with Tower Of Power...before Jaco began garnering worldwide attention. It was during that period that Jaco, by his own admission according to many bass historians, closely studied to Rocco, and used Roccos style in developing his own. Jaco has also cited James Jamerson, Jerry Jemmott, Cogbill, and a couple of others as his influences...Rocco perhaps being the closest to Jaco from a contemporary perspective...but there are definite Rocco influences in Jacos later style, which he developed and advanced in a somewhat different genre where he ultimately gained his worldwide notoriety and expanded the posibilities of the instrument.

I'm still not convinced. Jerry Jemmott was far more of an influence and he predated Prestia. Listen to this King Curtis recording and the great Jemmott bass playing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Loy55z4GpA