Here are my favorite basslines of the last fifty years, across genres.

John Coltrane – “My Favorite Things”

Simple, hypnotic, effective. Read more.

John Coltrane – “Equinox”

Another devastatingly simple groove.

Duke Ellington – “Half The Fun”

Paired with an incredible Sam Woodyard drum part. I love sampling it:

Nature Boy megamix by ethanhein

Duke Ellington – “Fleurette Africaine”

Charles Mingus’ strumming on the intro might be the most beautiful few bars he ever played. Hear a mashup I did of this tune and some other jazz classics:

Autumn Leaves by ethanhein

The Beatles – “Dear Prudence”

I could have chosen any of a dozen Beatles tunes here, I love those McCartney lines. But this one has the most emotional power for me. Here’s a blog post about it, and here’s a mashup I did of “Dear Prudence” with “Never Can Say Goodbye” by the Jackson 5:

Prudence Never Can Say Goodbye by ethanhein

Miles Davis – “It’s About That Time”

From my favorite of Miles’ funk albums. Read a blog post about it.

James Brown – “There Was A Time (I Got To Move)”

Pretty sure that’s Bootsy Collins playing bass, and he kills it.

Herbie Hancock – “Chameleon”

Here’s a visualization I made of this loop.

Talking Heads – “Once In A Lifetime”

Read more about this track, and check out the megamix:

Once In A Lifetime megamix by ethanhein

Michael Jackson – “Billie Jean”

Of course.

Janet Jackson – “What Have You Done For Me Lately”

The song that made the Latelybass sound famous.

Paul Simon and Ladysmith Black Mambazo – “Diamonds On The Souls Of Her Shoes”

Bakithi Kumalo on the fretless makes this tune for me.

Michael Jackson – “Remember The Time”

Love those Teddy Riley sequenced lines.

Digable Planets – “Rebirth Of Slick”

The bassline is sampled from “Searchin’” by Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, but the Digables flipped it into something new.

Black Sheep – “The Choice Is Yours”

Another creative flip of a jazz sample, from McCoy Tyner’s recording of “Impressions.”

Morphine – “Buena”

No embedding; click the image to hear the song:

Two-string slide bass and baritone sax!

Daft Punk – “Around The World”

Never get tired of this one.

Kanye West – “Love Lockdown”

Kanye has been using tuned 808 kick drums to play his basslines lately, which is a dazzlingly hip idea. The kick and the bass are supposed to be in tight sync anyway; why not just fuse them into a single part? I know he’s a ridiculous human being in a lot of ways but the man knows how to put a track together.

Let me know if I missed anything critical, I’m sure I did.

Original post on Quora

Nile Rodgers has led an action-packed life. As a teenager, he played with the Sesame Street band, and then with the Apollo Theater house band, where he backed such luminaries as Aretha Franklin and P-Funk. He was an active Black Panther. His Allmusic bio lists various NYC bands he played in before forming Chic, including a new wave rock outfit called Allah & The Knife Wielding Punks. He later went on to write most of the disco songs and eighties pop hits that I like, and helped lay the cornerstone of hip-hop. He deserves a blog post and then some.

My favorite Chic song is “Le Freak.”

Nile Rodgers treats electric guitar as a tuned percussion instrument, an approach descending from James Brown. The breakdown section with the long string build presages “Thriller.” The lyrics are kind of goofy and dated, but what a groove.

Chic is best known to hip-hop heads for “Good Times,” which the Sugarhill Gang interpolated for “Rapper’s Delight.” The groove was also the inspiration for Blondie’s “Rapture” and Queen’s “Another One Bites The Dust.” The Chic sound is highly infectious. Here’s a sample map showing tracks that have either sampled or interpolated Chic.

Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards’ stupendous production career began with Sister Sledge. “We Are Family” has the signature Chic sound: jazz harmony arranged in funky, percussive, sampling-friendly sixteen-bar blocks.

From here, Rodgers and Edwards went on, together and separately, to basically define the sound of the eighties. Their resume includes a staggering run of hits. From Allmusic:

Rodgers produced blockbuster albums like David Bowie’s Let’s Dance, Madonna’s Like a Virgin, and Mick Jagger’s She’s the Boss. Edwards wasn’t as prolific as a producer, but did join the one-off supergroup the Power Station along with Tony Thompson as well as Robert Palmer and members of avowed Chic fans Duran Duran; he later produced Palmer’s commercial breakthrough, Riptide. Edwards also worked with Rod Stewart (Out of Order), Jody Watley, and Tina Turner, while Rodgers’ other credits include the Thompson Twins, the Vaughan Brothers, INXS, and the B-52′s’ comeback Cosmic Thing.

Rodgers also produced, played guitar or programmed for Peter Gabriel, Debbie Harry, Laurie Anderson, Steve Winwood, Paul Simon, Mariah Carey, Cyndi Lauper, Carly Simon, Michael Jackson, Britney Spears, Robert Plant and the Gremlins soundtrack.

This is a mammoth collective impact on my ears, from guys whose names I didn’t even learn until the past year or two. It would have been really hard to track all this information down without the internet. Kids today, they can’t begin to appreciate how information-starved we were not so very long ago.

When I got my music education, I was discouraged from liking dance-oriented pop music, especially the stuff from the seventies and eighties. All these decades later, “good taste” dictates that I be suspicious of synths, drum machines, repetition and fun. My music teachers and mentors would be willing to give Nile Rodgers props for his guitar chops but collectively take a dim view of his work with Madonna et al. Duke Ellington had it right when he said, “If it sounds good, it is good.” Here’s to taking pleasure seriously. Awww, freak out!

Update: My friend Adam suggested that I mash up David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance” and Lady Gaga’s “Just Dance.” Enjoy.

Let’s Just Dance

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