Latest articles by Chris Jisi
“You’re always trying to get rid of buzzes when recording, so I came up with the idea of trying to make them groove instead”: How Victor Wooten created a groove without touching his bass guitar
Victor Wooten gives a track-by-track tour of his second solo album, What Did He Say?
“When someone wants to rehearse before the session, that’s the kiss of death”: Watch Lee Sklar’s playthrough of Steve Lukather’s Stab in the Back
Bass legend Lee Sklar used his “Frankenstein 4-string” on Lukather’s 2008 nod to Donald Fagen
“There was bass before Jaco and after Jaco; his playing turned my whole life around”: How Norman Watt-Roy brought a bit of Jaco to Ian Dury’s Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick
Just a few weeks after seeing Weather Report at London’s Hammersmith Odeon, Norman Watt-Roy found himself in the studio with Ian Dury and the Blockheads
“Bass players can solo through changes just like a horn player or a guitarist”: Watch Nathan East raise the bar as a soloist on Al Jarreau’s Our Love
Recorded live at Wembley Arena, Nathan East’s melodic 16-bar solo was played on a Yamaha BB3000 5-string
“We had it in about two takes. The funk was there as soon as we hit it”: Watch Louis 'thunder thumbs' Johnson slap a classic bass solo on the Brothers Johnson’s Stomp!
Johnson used a Music Man StingRay (which he helped design), and strung it with new D’Addario roundwounds
“I introduced Sting to Miles Davis, and that blew Sting’s mind!” Darryl Jones on providing the punch for Sting, Madonna, and the Rolling Stones
After stints with Miles Davis, Madonna, and Sting, Darryl Jones found a home on The Rolling Stones’ Voodoo Lounge
“The higher up you wear your bass, the more it makes you think about what you’re playing. I don’t want to think that much”: Tim Lefebvre explains the belt-level placement of his low-slung P-Bass
From Tedeschi Trucks to Knower to Saturday Night Live, how Tim Lefebvre became the bass player everyone wants to work with
“I knew Eric was going to put his guitar on later, so the bass fills were like telegraphed messages”: Listen to Nathan East’s fill-laden bassline on Eric Clapton’s Change the World
Nathan East recorded with his Yamaha Signature 5-string direct through a custom DI box
“Marvin Gaye was used to hearing James Jamerson, so he had me overdub a second bass part to fill out the original track”: An untold story from Motown’s Studio A. How Bob Babbitt's '65 P-Bass drove Marvin Gaye’s Inner City Blues
By 1971, James Jamerson’s demons had started to affect his consistency, so Bob Babbitt was called for this Motown classic
“The whole track is driven by the bassline!” How “Ready” Freddie Washington conceived the dance-funk classic that later became a massive hit as Will Smith's Men In Black
The story of Patrice Rushen’s Forget Me Nots, the song that became more famous as the theme from the Will Smith and Tommy Lee film Men in Black and was sampled by George Michael
“Unlike Jimi Hendrix, we never deliberately tuned down”: Listen to Jack Bruce’s bassline on Cream’s Politician
Jack Bruce wrote with Pete Brown for Cream’s third album, 1968’s Wheels of Fire
“Daft Punk was dancing in the booth while we cut it!” Listen to James Genus stretch out on Giorgio by Moroder from Random Access Memories
While Nathan East played on the chart-topping Get Lucky, James Genus added a fresh spin to Daft Punk’s Grammy-winning album
“I'd never heard somebody play the bass like that”: How Don Blackman’s 1982 classic album inspired a young Marcus Miller
The session ace-turned-solo artist recalls his earliest bass hero, and the swung-funk bassline on Don Blackman’s Heart’s Desire
“You played on Midnight Train to Georgia? You don’t need no other credits!” How Bob Babbitt bolstered a ’70s soul classic with a touch of James Jamerson
A graduate of “Motown Funk University,” Babbitt said that he took from James Jamerson, but rightly so: “he was the original”
“Like James Jamerson, Tommy Cogbill was a take-charge guy in the studio”: Inside the recording of Son of a Preacher Man
Why Dusty Springfield’s mega hit was indebted to bassist Tommy Cogbill
"If you’re overplaying, you’re under-listening": Rocco Prestia on 50 years with Tower of Power
From the archive: in our last in-depth interview with Rocco Prestia he looked back over his five decades with Tower Of Power
Sheryl Crow: the bass is my muse
The singer songwriter tells us about how bass has become central to her creative process and performances
Men in the mirror: the bassists of Michael Jackson
How Alex Al and his predecessors pumped up The King Of Pop
Jack Casady's 10 best bass performances
The highlights of the Jefferson Airplane bassist's hugely influential career
Joe Jackson bassist Graham Maby looks back at four decades of bass playing with the songwriting great
"Pushing the bass out front and center was carte blanche for me to take as many risks as I wanted"
Sean Hurley talks touring with John Mayer and how to succeed in the LA session scene
"While I mostly played my Jazz Bass when I broke in, now it’s predominantly a P-Bass world"
The history of the legendary Ampeg B-15
The full story behind the bass amp of choice for James Jamerson, Duck Dunn and Chuck Rainey
Sting: The secrets of steering a band from the low end
The superstar talks "57th & 9th", the "R" word and getting back to bass-ics
