Artist: James Jamerson

James Jamerson (January 29, 1936 – August 2, 1983) was an American bass player. He was the uncredited bassist on most of the Motown Records hits in the 1960s and early 1970s (Motown did not list session musician credits on their releases until 1971), and is now regarded as one of the most influential bass players in modern music history. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000. As a session musician he played on twenty-three  Billboard Hot 100 number-one hits, as well as fifty-six R&B number-one hits. 

In its special issue "The 100 Greatest Bass Players" in 2017, Bass Player magazine ranked Jamerson number one and the most influential bass guitarist. In 2020,  Rolling Stone magazine ranked Jamerson number one in its list of the 50 greatest bassists of all time. 

A native of Edisto Island, South Carolina, he was born to James Jamerson Sr. and Elizabeth Bacon. He was raised in part by his grandmother who played piano, and his aunt who sang in church choir. As a child he was a competent piano player and performed in public. He briefly played the trombone. As a teenager he was a reserved person, and passionate about music. He listened to gospel, blues and jazz music on the radio. 

Jamerson moved with his mother to Detroit in 1954. He attended Northwestern High School; there he started on the upright bass. He began playing in the Detroit area blues and jazz clubs and was influenced by jazz bassists Ray Brown, Paul Chambers and  Percy Heath. He was offered a scholarship to study music at Wayne State University, and he declined. After graduating from high school, he continued performing in Detroit clubs. He joined blues singer  Washboard Willie's band and later toured with Jackie Wilson. His increasingly solid reputation started providing him opportunities for sessions at various local recording studios.

Starting in 1959, he found steady work at Berry Gordy's Hitsville U.S.A. studio, home of the Motown record label. He played bass on the Smokey Robinson single "Way Over There" (1959), John Lee Hooker album Burnin' (1962) and The Reflections' "(Just Like) Romeo and Juliet" (1964). There he became a member of a core of studio musicians who informally called themselves The Funk Brothers. This close-knit group of musicians performed on the vast majority of Motown recordings during most of the 1960s. Jamerson's earliest sessions were performed on double bass but, in the early 1960s, he switched to playing an electric Fender Precision Bass for the most part. 

Like Jamerson, most of the Funk Brothers were jazz musicians who had been recruited by Gordy. For many years, they maintained a schedule of recording during the day at Motown's small basement "Studio A" (which they nicknamed "the Snakepit"), then playing gigs in jazz clubs at night. He also occasionally toured the U.S. with Motown artists. For most of their career, however, the Funk Brothers went uncredited on Motown singles and albums, and their pay was considerably less than that received by the main artists or the label, hence their occasional freelance work elsewhere. Eventually, Jamerson was put on retainer for $1,000 a week (US$7,792 in 2021 dollars), which afforded him and his expanding family a comfortable lifestyle. 

Jamerson's discography at Motown reads as a catalog of soul hits of the 1960s and early 1970s. His work includes hits such as, among hundreds of others, "You Can't Hurry Love" by The Supremes, "My Girl" by The Temptations, "Shotgun" by Jr. Walker & the All Stars, "For Once in My Life" and "I Was Made to Love Her" by Stevie Wonder, "Going to a Go-Go" by The Miracles, "Dancing in the Street" by Martha and the Vandellas, "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" by  Gladys Knight & the Pips and later by Marvin Gaye, and most of the album What's Going On by Marvin Gaye, "Reach Out I'll Be There" and "Bernadette" by the Four Tops. He occasionally recorded for other labels, such as "Boom Boom" by John Lee Hooker in 1962 and "Higher and Higher" by Jackie Wilson in 1967. 

Motown released 537 singles in the 1960s and over 200 albums. Jamerson stopped touring in 1964 and did studio work on a full-time basis. He is reported to have played on nearly every Motown recording between 1963 and 1968, which includes over 60 top-fifteen pop singles. Jamerson performed 23 number-one hits on the pop charts, a record narrowly surpassed only by Paul McCartney of The Beatles  who cites Jamerson as an influence, and he performed on 56 number-one hits on the R&B charts. 

Jamerson is noted for expanding the musical style and role of bass playing in popular music of the time, which largely consisted of root notes, fifths and simple, repetitive patterns. By contrast, many of Jamerson's basslines relied heavily on chromatic  runs, syncopation, ghost notes and inversions, with frequent use of open strings. His nimble bass playing was considered an integral part of the "Motown Sound". He created melodic lines that were nonetheless locked to the drum groove. 

Jamerson's transition from upright to electric bass was at a time when electric bass was a relatively new instrument, and its use and style of play was not well established.  Jamerson's background as a jazz musician and upright bassist informed his playing style, and over time his technique and improvisational approach became more nuanced. By the mid-1960s, his style became an indispensable part of the Motown sound and in turn impacted popular music. Early examples of Jamerson's impact are "Rescue Me" by Fontella Bass and "You Won't See Me" and "Nowhere Man" by the Beatles.