Born in South Carolina in 1936, James Jamerson inherited his musical awareness from his grandmother and aunt and, by the age of 10, was good enough on piano to be able to sit in with the choir in his local church. Relocating to Detroit with his mother, at high school he decided that he wanted to take up a second instrument, and soon found a natural affinity for the upright bass thanks to his large, powerful hands.
By the late Fifties, Jamerson’s playing in Detroit clubs gained him sessions with local record labels who paid him the princely sum of $10 or, if he was lucky, $20 for cutting a track. This beat working in the car factories and warehouses of Detroit, and with each session Jamerson refined his style and pulled in more work.