Jamerson started out playing a German acoustic upright or double bass which he bought as a teenager. What’s even more stunning, is the fact that Jamer Jamerson played on every one of them. Evidently, the number of successful and famous hitsingles mentioned on these pages is stunning. Off these songs, almost thirty went to the number-one position of the Billboard pop chart (the Beatles had twenty-seven) and almost seventy to the top of the Billboard R&B chart. Some say Jamerson played on approximately ninety-five percent of all songs recorded for Motown between 19. In the 2002 documentary Standing In The Shadows Of Motown, it is claimed that the Funk Brothers have played “on more number-one hits than the Beatles, Elvis Presley, the Rolling Stones and the Beach Boys combined”. The majority of them were also improvised from chord symbols.
#JAMES JAMERSON BASS TRANSCRIPTIONS FULL#
Whereas most bass players until the early sixties were satisfied playing root notes, fifths and simple repetitive patterns, Jamerson’s groovy lines were full of semitone chromatic leading notes - making them more melodic and more syncopated. This didn’t only show in their improvisational way of playing the instrument but also in their daily schedules: when not touring the US or recording in the small garage Studio A with one of the Motown acts, they played gigs in jazz clubs at nights. Jamerson was one of the Funk Brothers who was schooled as a jazz musician and then recruited by Gordy. Other members included guitarists Robert White, Eddie Willis and Joe Messina, keyboardist Earl Van Dyke, drummers Benny ‘Papa Zita’ Benjamin, Richard ‘Pistol’ Allen and Uriel Jones and from 1967 on bassist Bob Babbitt. Jamerson was part of the Funk Brothers, the nickname the session musicians who played for Berry Gordy’s legendary Motown label received.
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