The Influence of Jazz on R&B Electric Bassists of the 1960s and 1970s

Graduate Thesis Or Dissertation

Citations

Citeable URL: https://scholar.colorado.edu/concern/graduate_thesis_or_dissertations/pg15bg28r

Abstract

Many popular R&B recordings of the 1960s and 1970s prominently feature electric bass lines. The electric bass, first commercially available in 1951, has a compact physical design that allowed its early adopters to employ syncopation, chromaticism, and other idioms associated with jazz double bass performance in novel combinations and at rapid speeds. This unique, jazz-inflected R&B electric bass style was originally made popular by James Jamerson in the early 1960s and then developed further by bassists such as Chuck Rainey, Wilton Felder, and Nathan Watts. This thesis draws upon literature, interviews, and transcriptions to highlight the significant influence of jazz double bass techniques on these four seminal R&B electric bassists.

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