Bass Legend Nathan East Reveals His Top Seven Basslines
Photo credit: Kharen Hill
It is impossible to overstate Nathan East's contribution to music. Over 35 years the acclaimed bassist has become one of the most recorded musicians of all time with over 2000 credits including Barry White, Stevie Wonder, Anita Baker, Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Madonna, Quincy Jones (who called him "so talented it's ridiculous"), and Daft Punk's Grammy winning album Random Access Memories.
He told Bass Guitar Magazine in March 2015: "You have to make each tune sound like it’s the first time you played it and the last time you will ever play it".
After spending most of his career playing on other people's records, last year he released his debut solo album, the Grammy nominated Nathan East. Currently touring across Singapore, Korea and Japan you can also find him at ArtistWorks where he teaches bass via online lessons.
We asked Nathan for his top five basslines of all time...he gave us seven!
1) Ben E. King - Stand By Me
"As soon as you hear that bassline you have to start singing the song!"
2) Weather Report - A Remark You Made
"Probably one of the most lyrical bass parts ever written and Jaco delivers it so beautifully!"
3) Jaco Pastorius - Come On Come Over
"Straight up Jaco funk and played with absolute precision yet fun and so much fun to play."
4) Stevie Wonder - I Was Made to Love Her
"Exemplifies the genius of James Jamerson. He dances around those chord changes as if he wrote them."
5) Aretha Franklin - Till You Come Back To Me
"Listen to every note Chuck Rainey plays on this and it is an encyclopedia of how the bass should approach a song!"
6) The O'Jays - For The Love of Money
"Anthony Jackson walks into the session and sees D minor on the music stand and plays that line…really! That earned him a co-writer credit on the song, deservedly so."
7) The Beatles - Day Tripper
"In the first bar you can already identify the song just by listening to the bassline, once again the genius of Sir Paul McCartney."
http://artistworks.com/nathan-east
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