Posted on 02/23/2024 10:37:06 PM PST by nickcarraway
Favourite is subjective. Many people have a favourite guitarist, drummer and bassist, but there is no definitive answer; the beauty is that everyone is right in their opinion, as whatever moves them the most is rightly their favourite. However, while we have to respect everyone’s opinion, someone like Ray Charles, who is often dubbed one of the most influential and iconic musicians in history, has one that carries a little bit more weight to it. So, when he describes Carol Kaye as the world’s best bassist, we better hear him out.
Carol Kaye has always been in demand as a bassist, playing on an estimated 10,000 tracks. While she doesn’t doubt her ability, there are some songs where she is confused about why she has been asked to play, given they lack complexity. When asking Charles why he has her play some of the more tame numbers, he revealed she was at the top of his list of the best bassists ever to pick up the instrument.
“Ray Charles told me a long time ago, because I did a lot of hits with Ray and a lot of them were like, ‘I don’t need no doctor,’ it was fast and ‘bom-bom-bom-bom-be-be,’ that kind of stuff,” she recalled. “And then I get on some slow tunes with him, some ballads and things like that.”
Kaye continued, “I said, ‘Ray, why do you call me on the slow tunes, because anybody can play these?’ The bass parts were easy. He says, ‘Listen, Carol. Yes, you can play any part you want to fast, but it takes a real good player to play it slow and still groove.’ So you have to keep that groove going in the slow tunes, too.”
Indeed, a lot of the time, exemplary musicianship is often mixed with the ability to play fast. Consider Eddie Van Halen, for instance; when he made the guitar-tapping style of play mainstream, it was all anybody wanted to do. But don’t let it be confused that just because Eddie did it well doesn’t mean playing fast is the only thing that makes a good guitarist. The same applies to the bass guitar, as while some can play a complicated rhythm that pricks the ears of anybody listening (as Carol Kaye could), it is also just as essential to tap into various play styles.
Kaye was one of the best at this, as her varied discography shows. Regardless of whether you wanted her to play something fast or slow, her music is always full of personality. It doesn’t sound like a musician playing what they’ve been asked to play to get paid and leave; you hear someone genuinely feel the music and move from there.
Of course, other bass players could be put forward for the mantel of the best ever. But in this case, let’s just take Ray Charles’ word for it.
according to wiki, carol kaye has not passed away (?)
Nahhh, Ray Charles didn’t know what he was talking about when it comes to bassists. Any bassist worth anything could easily cover ALL of Ray Charles’s songs. No sweat at all.
Yes, she’ll be 89 next month. There was an interview recently.
No, but Ray Charles has. She was his favorite bass player.
Carol is a legend. She played electric bass on half the hit records made in L.A. in the ‘60s... probably 80% of the TV themes, countless movie scores. As early as the ‘50s, she was playing guitar on hits like Ritchie Valens’ “La Bamba.”
She’s also notoriously touchy. Even though she appeared in Denny Tedesco’s “Wrecking Crew” documentary, she hates and rejects the “wrecking crew” nickname for the clique of studio musicians of which she was one of the principals. In the biopic “Love and Mercy,” an actress portrays Carol in a friendly dispute with Brian Wilson about key changes in one of his composition. Carol hated the scene and hated her character’s wardrobe and talked on social media about possibly suing... even though the scene was harmless and her attire was a near-replica of what she’s seen wearing in studio photos from the 1966-67 period.
> No, but Ray Charles has. She was his favorite bass player.
Somehow my brain is wired to read the title and receive the incorrect implication that she had passed away... oh well...
Also Brian Wilson’s go-to bass player
I think I heard Glen Campbell say he actually played bass on Wichita Lineman but that the intro and bass riffs in the song were Carol Kaye’s ideas. It might not be too complicated but her contribution is the main reason that is one of my all times favorites. Am I misremembering? Did she actually play on the recording? I think, other than Hal Blaine, she might still be the most heard musician in music history.
She’s still around. I’ve chatted with her by email, she is a sweetheart.
She came up with the lead into Wichita Lineman. Glen Campbell borrowed her bass guitar for the instrumental riff on the song. It was a Danelectro bass that she had customized for the unique sound Glen really liked.
“she is confused about why she has been asked to play, given they lack complexity…”
Most of what she’s famous for lacked complexity.
She was an accomplished Jazzbo. She was making money playing live jazz six string guitar (not Bass).at a time when that audience knew what they were talking about.
Like a lot of good jazz players she was advised that there was money to be made in studio work for this Rock n Roll flash in the pan crap. This was a great deal for many of these players as they could bang out a Rock guitar rock line and, say, balance their checkbook in their head at the same time.
One day when the Bass player failed to show Kaye was asked to give it a go.
The rest is history. She is a great musician in the complete sense of the word. She has total command of her instrument. Total command of theory. And that indefinable something that very very few have to manipulate sound and silence in a way that affects.
She has admitted that sheer boredom has played a role in her bass line here and there when she would on take eleventeen go off and play what ever the hell she wanted…and they’d keep it.
That third from the last paragraph in your excerpt is *so true*. Playing fast guitar doesn’t cut it for me.
Its much more important to play with feeling or a groove.
Hmmm. Well many great artists are indeed touchy.
> ...I’ve chatted with her by email...
me also (several years ago)
That song features a solo played on a 6 string bass, which is unusual. My guess is that the intro bass line was Carol Kaye’s idea and the solo was Glen Campbell’s creation, and GC probably played both.
Here’s an interesting live performance of Wichita Lineman:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qoymGCDYzU
The backing instrumentation is prerecorded but his vocal and the 6 string bass seem to be live.
When you see these A list studio musicians interviewed it’s amazing to hear how much of the actual producing of these hits came from people like Kaye.
It really is. A great thing nowadays is how we’re being given a view into the making of these great songs, in the form of interviews with the key players and previously unreleased outtakes and raw tracks and stuff. Every recording has a story behind it and now we’re getting to hear those stories.
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