The legendary Tony Levin is really a bass participant for all seasons. Who else straps wooden sticks to their fingers after they play? Having spent a few years supplying basslines of impeccable high quality in Peter Gabriel’s band in addition to holding down excursions with maybe essentially the most progressive of all of the old-school prog acts, King Crimson, Levin’s credentials converse for themselves.

1. Oscar Pettiford – Oscar Pettiford (1954)

“Oscar Pettiford’s Tricotism is an album I grew up with. I’m not likely positive the identify is correct – it’s actually a collection of albums with the identical gamers, Julius Watkins on French horn, and Charlie Rouse on sax. It has nice, tasty enjoying, particularly by Pettiford – he at all times hits the best notes, they usually’re at all times positioned completely for optimum groove.”

2. D’Angelo – Voodoo (2000)

“D’Angelo’s Voodoo made me need to return to highschool, figuratively, as a bassist. It was a brand new type of groove (to me) that broke all the principles I grew up with, however was amazingly cool. I raved to my fellow gamers about it, and tried to introduce that type of enjoying to a few of my music – I couldn’t do it… so it’s nonetheless on my listing of ‘acquired to be taught this, dude.’” 

3. Sleepytime Gorilla Museum – In Wonderful Occasions (2007)

“Then there’s Sleepytime Gorilla Museum’s In Wonderful Occasions. I like this type of music – it has nice energy, nice musicianship and nice bass enjoying by Dan Rathbun, typically on devices he constructed himself. One factor you gotta love about music: this band could have been influenced a bit by King Crimson, however then I, a member of King Crimson, was very a lot influenced by them! With Stick Males, I insisted we do a chunk of theirs for our first yr on the street, although it was powerful and never an incredible rendition, simply to get us pondering in that vein.”

4. Joni Mitchell – Hejira (1976)

“Lastly, there’s Joni Mitchell’s Hejira. Jaco’s enjoying earlier than that had impressed me, but it surely didn’t transfer me, perhaps as a result of it was so removed from the types I performed. However the bass enjoying on this album is classy: to me it’s the apotheosis of fretless enjoying behind a singer. It’s fantastically melodic by itself, however by no means interfering with the nice vocals, distinctive harmonically, with a mode of its personal, and impeccably in tune… I put the fretless bass away for 10 years!”

Tony Levin will quickly be becoming a member of Peter Gabriel’s long-awaited i/o – The Tour. Tickets for the 2023 run throughout Europe and North America can be found from Peter Gabriel’s official site (opens in new tab).