Bass Player: Jimmy Garrison Garrison was raised in both Miami and Philadelphia where he learned to play bass. Garrison came of age in the 1950s Philadelphia jazz scene, which included fellow bassists Reggie Workman and Henry Grimes, pianist McCoy Tyner and trumpeter Lee Morgan. Between 1957 and 1962, Garrison played and recorded with trumpeter Kenny Dorham; clarinetist Tony Scott; drummer Philly Joe Jones; and saxophonists Bill Barron, Lee Konitz,…

Bass Player: Nick Beggs Nick Beggs started his career as the man who created ‘that’ bass line for the tune ‘Too Shy’ by Kajagoogoo. Since that time, he has gone on to perform with some of the UK’s finest Prog artists including Steve Hackett, Lifesigns and Steven Wilson, amongst others. The transcription is the complete…

Bass Player: Dave LaRue Steve Morse’s 1999 album, Major Imopacts’ has a back story that Morse himself relates on the band’s Bandcamp page. ‘In late 1999, Magna Carta had an idea that sounded like it would be an interesting project for me to work on. Some months later, I have to say that “Major Impacts”…

Bass Player: Gary Brown Born into a family of musicians Gary Brown’s inevitable musical career began at an early age. By his eleventh birthday Gary was already performing in jazz bands with his two brothers and his father, jazz trumpeter Wilbert Brown. Gary went on to form his own bands and develop a talent and…

Bass Player: Geddy Lee Another Rush instrumental transcription requested through the website, this is the tune ‘Malignant Narcissism’ from the 2007 album, ‘Snakes And Arrows’. A driving bass part, the transcription was tough to capture because the bass sound is loud, grungy and crammed with overtones. Some of the heavy low notes are hard to…

Bass Player: Geddy Lee Rush occasionally chose to present the odd instrumental tune on their records and many of these have become staples of the live set; La Villa Strangiato and YYZ are probably the tunes that are most well known. The tune ‘Leave That Thing Alone’ is a bass driven grunge fest that featured…

Bass Player: Rob Palmer (Bilbo) A simple track to play and to read, the track ‘In Or Out’ features Bilbo’s own bass playing on the 2018 Tim Ainslie and The Vibes album, ‘Pint Half Full’. A riff driven shuffle, there isn’t too much going on and there are probably only about three lines that are…

Bass Player: Andy West Andy West (born February 6, 1953) is an American bass guitarist and composer who is an original founding member of the Dixie Dregs along with Steve Morse. Since the breakup of the original band in 1983, West has been on albums with Mike Keneally, Henry Kaiser, Paul Barrere, Vinnie Moore, and many others. His frequent style of playing bass is with…

Bass Player: Jeff Berlin This is another complete transcription of the bass part to the tune ‘Hiper K’ from the 1987 Kazumi Watanabe Trio recording ‘The Spice Of Life’. The band also features Bill Bruford who, at this point, was exploring the potential of the Simmonds drum kit. The transcription includes a lovely bass solo…

Bass Player: Jeff Andrews Mike Stern writes great tunes, that’s all you can say on the matter. His composed bass parts are generally very strong but the chord sequences he constructs are often quite tricky and yet he weaves these profoundly melodic lines through them which results in compositions that are so natural that they…