The 70's In Bass

“The Seventies were all about lead bass!” says the mighty Suzi Q. Let’s take a 148-bassist look back and figure out what really went on back then...

- By Joel McIver

You know what? Suzi has a point... but it’s not quite as simple as it seems. Looking back from 2020, all these decades later, you could argue that the first couple of years of the Seventies were essentially an extension of the Sixties, certainly in bass terms, and indeed from many other cultural angles too. Before funk and jazz fusion really started to make themselves felt, many high-charting bass-lines were heavily indebted to the classic bassists of the previous decade, an early example being Free’s 1970 single ‘All Right Now’, anchored by Andy Fraser’s sublime, James Jamerson-alike line. On that note, Jamerson himself remained active on sessions throughout the Seventies, with recordings alongside Gladys Knight &

The Pips, Robert Palmer, Smokey Robinson, and Ben E. King making it clear that the master wasn’t about to hang up his P-Bass just yet.

Jamerson wasn’t the only Sixties stalwart playing his way into the new decade. The great Carol Kaye worked on soundtracks, and the occasional session with artists such as Barbra Streisand; Donald ‘Duck’ Dunn, who had created an influential body of work in the Sixties with Booker T & The MGs, was as busy as ever; and Jack Casady of Jefferson Airplane was still delivering the West Coast vibes. Meanwhile, Charles Mingus was still playing, although his health was poor; Israel ‘Cachao’ Lopez was sporadically active at club level; Milt Hinton was showing no signs of retiring; and Norbert Putnam and Jerry Scheff were playing with great panache alongside Elvis Presley over the doomed icon's last few years.