Bass Player UK Magazine 94 August 2013 Edizione posteriore

There are lots of amazing bass players out there. We should know: we feature a lot of them in this magazine every four weeks. But how many of those great bassists are true innovators? That’s a term you can apply to a small handful of musicians down at the low end – Jaco, Larry Graham, Marcus Miller, Geddy Lee, Cliff Burton – but no more. One obvious candidate is, of course, the great James Jamerson, Motown bassist in the label’s heyday, tragically absent these last 30 years after succumbing to alcohol addiction in August 1983. His story, a simultaneously uplifting and saddening tale of immense talent offset by a criminal lack of recognition, is at the heart of this issue. Read Ben Cooper’s masterful analysis of why the late JJ matters to all of us, and raise a glass to him.

This issue is packed with other bass-heavy content, of course. We’ve interviewed a whole range of bassists, from Simple Minds’ Derek Forbes to Megadeth’s David Ellefson and beyond, and we’ve shaken hands with master luthier Michael Pedulla, another man who deserves the status of innovator. We get down and dirty with the best gear the bass world has to offer, including Dingwall, Zon and Veillette basses, plus Billy Sheehan’s amazing new EBS drive pedal and Hughes & Kettner’s new Basskicks combo series. As ever, we’re also offering you serious bang for your buck if it’s advice about the bass world you’re after. Jeff Berlin answers your queries in his monthly column, the Musicians’ Union’s Ben Jones addresses your copyright concerns, the four-bassist Front Line report back from the coalface of bass, and then of course we have no fewer than eight tutors, all master educators and musicians, taking you to new levels of ability.