Best Fretless Bass Guitarists of All Time
Today I want to take a few minutes to share the list of my favorite fretless bass players of all time. Note that I’m focusing strictly on guys who play a lot of their material on the fretless, which eliminates masters like Stanley Clarke who just mixes it in. I’m also focused on fretless bass guitar, not standup or other formats, which eliminates most of the pure jazz guys (jazz purists on standup might make another really solid list to share, although the standup is not a core focus of this site).
The fretless bass guitar, as you all know, is an animal of its own. For all the similarities it holds to the fretted counterpart, there are nearly as many differences. Plus, I find it eons more enjoyable to play because of that sweet smooth sound and ability to use microtones a’la middle eastern music.
Here is a short list of the fretless bassists I put at the top of my list. This is not an exhaustive list, as I had to really work hard to pare it down. Outstanding guys like Pino Palladino, Matt Bissonnette, and Mick Karn were unfortunate casualties of the paring process. Maybe I’ll do a list of guys I like “almost as much”. We’ll see.
Without further ado, here is my list of best fretless bass guitarists of all time (in alphabetical order). In other words, my favorites.
Jeff Ament
I first heard Jeff Ament’s playing on the album Ten by Pearl Jam, and I became an immediate fan. He didn’t do anything too flashy, but his tone and approach really made the whole album stand out for me. Later I heard more of his other music, such as Mother Love Bone, Temple of the Dog, Green River, and Tribe After Tribe. This guy is talented, driven, and versatile.
Steve Bailey
You likely already know I’m a fan of Steve Bailey based on the instructional video series (this links to the first one) I shared in late 2011. But my interest in his playing goes back over a decade. Heck, I still have my original copy of the instructional publication he did with Victor Wooten in the late 90s. He overplays a bit more than I typically enjoy, but it would be tough not to appreciate the ability he offers. And I still can’t match his technique for playing high notes up around the cutaway using the side of his thumb to fret notes. My thumb no like-y.
Les Claypool
If I had chosen to put this in order of preference, Les Claypool would have been top 5 without question. Heck, he may have taken the top spot. There was a time where I would rush to the CD/record store (remember those?) the day each new Primus album dropped, just so I could be the first guy in town to figure out how to play the best songs on the compilation. I took the time to learn every single track on Frizzle Fry, and we even covered a couple of them in Pipe Dream, my funk/metal act from the early/mid 90s. This guy has been a HUGE influence on my playing due to his eccentric, campy, virtuoso stylings. Les rules.
Tony Franklin
As the guy who really brought the fretless bass sound to rock music, Tony Franklin is quite simply an icon in his own right. I particularly enjoyed the work he did with The Firm (which also included heavy weights Paul Rodgers on vocals and Jimmy Page, who you all know), Blue Murder (with John Sykes, guitarist from Thin Lizzy and later Whitesnake), and Jimmy Page (solo album). Listen to him play, check out his discography, and you’ll see why I hold him in such high regard.
Steve Lawson
I approached Steve Lawson for the interview you saw on here because he is an outstanding bass player, musician, and composer. He’s a music generating machine, rolling out new videos and tracks on an ongoing basis. And one thing I really like is that he can take a fretless bass with no accompaniment, and turn it into ambient loveliness. Listen for the bass playing AND the quality music and you won’t be disappointed. By the way, he just released a new live, all-improv album and is offering it up for donations of your choice, so go get it!
Michael Manring
As an easy member of my top three of all time, Michael Manring has been an influence on my since I first stumbled on his music around 1990. How could you NOT love a guy who can play three axes simultaneously, mix and match complex technique, and do it all on fretless basses, not all of which are in standard tuning? Listen to his solo performance pieces first if you haven’t heard him yet, because that is the most special of all his work. Also check out the interview we had with him early in 2011.
Marcus Miller
Marcus Miller is an outstanding bass player on fretless or fretted, but his fretless work was especially interesting when he chose to focus on it. He’s another jazz fusion guy from 15 years ago, but one that threw in some nice funk flavors. He clearly spent time listening to guys like the aforementioned Stanley Clarke and Larry Graham, and you can hear it in his playing.
Jaco Pastorius
What else do I need to say about Jaco? He influenced a generation of bassists back in the 60s and 70s, and he is still influencing all of us today, 25 years after he was prematurely taken from us. Check him out solo or with the Weather Report and watch the rapidfire notes fly by!
John Patitucci
I first found John Patitucci when he was holding down the grooves for the one and only Chick Corea. Corea has a tendency to go for flash (i.e. technique and complexity) even if that elevates the cheese factor, but damn those guys could / can play. Patitucci really caught my attention with his solo work, which is what I’d really advise you to listen to if you are not a fan of 80s/90s jazz fusion or general wanking on the instruments.
Sting
I won’t go on and on about Sting. He isn’t the most flashy or over the top player, but solid, melodic, and a great composer. When you factor in that he sings while playing his materials, and the fact that they can be sneaky technical without being showy, he has earned my respect.
Victor Wooten
Victor Wooten is a lock for my top 5 bassists of all time, so he would logically fall into my top 5 fretless bassists. I was a fan of his from the first day I heard him play with Bela Fleck & the Flecktones. Bela’s style is not really my cup of tea, to say the least (I can’t stand the sound of the banjo in 99% of the cases), but Victor is a beast. Then I was fortunate enough to see him play live in Austin, TX at a very small club in the mid-90s. We were just next to the stage and could see everything he did. If you ever get a chance to do the same, trust me and do it!
Summary
So there you have it, my top fretless bass guitarists of all time. Who would you add to the list and why? Did I overlook someone important? Disagree with any? Start conversing now!
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Not a “fancy” player but very solid and innovative, David J. of Bauhaus and Love and Rockets.
I can find no evidence Patitucci ever played fretless unless you count upright .
Ok I did find a couple things but not on his solo work . He considers 6 string fretted his voice and I agree.
You can’t go about a list like this and then leave fretless bass players linke Mick Karn, Pino Palladino and Alain Caron out of it. Especially the first two dit a major contribution to the techniques Jaco Pastorius introduced for the first time. Playing fretted on a fretless bass doesn’t make you a fretless player. How about Paul Webb (Talk Talk)? Off course it is ones opinion to put in the first place that bass player that is YOUR favorite, however then it has to be a bass player that uses the fretless bass including the techniques and not just for the sound of it! Don’t get me wrong I think Pearl Jam and Jeff Ament are awesome, but he rarely uses fretless techniques and plays his fretless bass like a fretted bass. So to my opinion he can never be in a list like this. No offense.
Percy Jones !
Alain Caron should be on top of that list, I don’t understand why he is not even there. He is the fretless master, his main instrument. I can’t see anybody who can touch his little toe right now; saw him xxxx times, shows, clinics, bands, etc and he is the no 1, ahead of all others I saw. The only one I saw who i can say was still a lot ahead of him, was the ultimum continuum master of fretless (and still is)the one and only God of fretless, well everybody knows who it is… Jaco ! Man, just his presence onstage, he was magnetic, but then the sound, oooooh my god that sound, these full clean strong irreal notes with his extremely long fingers, from these uge 18 inches speakers box with the Acoustics, it was so unbelievable, forget these low res Youtube videos of Jaco you can’t heard nothing, you had to be there to hear and feel these absolutely fantastic harmonics, grooves, his touch, his jumps and all & all; man it was just fantastic, i never heard anything like this since, and i saw more than 350 shows with the greatests bass players alive (i’m 63). No one have is sound, zillions of klone try to get it but are not able to sound like him live. Another plus for Alain Caron, who stop listening to him for a long time, to develop his own signature sound and music, not like the zillions klones of Jaco.
And yes, it’s an outrage to not having include Alphonso Johnson, Gary Willis, Jimmy Haslip, Bunny Brunel, Mark Egan, Percy Jones, even Jack Bruce.
But Sting (i like his bass playing but we are taking about masters of fretless here), Ament, Wooten, even MM (slap ok, but fretless, common) and these metal so guys should not be ever mentioned in the same fretless master’s list, even if it’s ”your” list. It’s an outrage to these grand masters.
Please, listen to these i’ve mentioned, your understanding and learning of fretless mastery would benefit forever.
Thanks.
Couldn’t agree more!
To this day I will never understand why Alain Caron’s name never comes up on these lists. Probably because he is Canadian and stayed in Montreal. Originally played with the band Uzeb which I first saw in the early 80’s and was blown away with his playing. Check out his stuff on Youtube and I guarantee you will add him to any best bassist list and certainly fretless.
Bathiki Kumalo is the guy that hooked me on the fretless bass tone back when I was wee.
I also agree with other posters that you might be overlooking some of the best fretless players by ignoring extreme and progressive metal. I recommend checking out Steve DiGiorgio on Death’s “Individual Thought Patterns”, Sean Malone’s work with Gordian Knot, Cynic and Aghora, and most especially the fantastic Dominic “Forest” LaPointe’s work (he has some great playthrough vids on YouTube). Forest is the reason I’m trying to upgrade my fretless basses because my current tone is nowhere close to the one he gets on his boutique Lutherie MF 6-string bass.
Patrick O’Hearn
no Jeroen Paul Thesseling?
Wow, no Percy Jones. But Jeff Ament is in there?
Search for Pedro Aznar, a bassist of Argentina, he played with Patheny.
Sorry I mean Pat Metheny
I kinda knew fretless bassist Steve Di Giorgio wasn’t going to be on this list which really bothers me. Steve is a tremendous fretless bassist of iconic bands such as, “Sadus”, “Death”, “Quo Vadis”, “Charred Walls Of The Damned”, “Testament”, “Obituary”, “Iced Earth”, “etc.But his fretless bass playing is just amazing.Steve not only plays in metal bands but us also as jazz bassist also.
Surely Mick Karn should get a mention!
Karn was one of the names I completely overlooked and should not have. After publishing the original post, I was kicking myself!
By the way, I added the commentary about Palladino and Karn 2 days after publishing this. He’s only mentioned in the intro now.
All personal subjective list and all of these guys are great.
I’ve thought a lot about this, too. My picks would’ve included Pino, Alain, but also Bakihithi Kumalo, Richard Bona, and Gary Willis.
Great additions, although I’m not too familiar with Kumalo’s work. Time to go check out another virtuoso!
In addition to the guys mentioned above, how about Alphonso Johnson, Percy Jones, Mick Karn, Jimmy Johnson, Jean-Marc Jafet, Gary Willis, Bunny Brunel, Mark Egan, Jack Bruce…probably I’ve forgot to mention many more….
I thought hard about including Willis, Egan, and Bruce, and completely forgot Karn when writing the post. Those are very much worthy candidates for a list like this one.
funny Jeff Ament was on the list..what about bigger talents / innovators like Percy Jones? ..Pino Palladino..Mick Karn….Tony Levin….Alain Caron…..
not a a very good article..
Too bad you didn’t like it. I am a big fan of those guys, but this was my personal list. Ament, while not one of the flashiest players in the world, has a very nice rock fretless style that resonates with me. Each to his own I suppose…
Thanks for commenting.
“…guys who play a lot of their material on the fretless” Sorry, but Marcus, Sting, Patitucci and Victor are people I would call “part-time” fretless players, and Ament is close that term also. The fact that they beat out people like Mick Karn and Pino Palladino is kind of a crime. What about Bakithi Kumalo, Steve DiGiorgio, Fernando Saunders, Alain Caron, Jack Bruce, Patrick O’Hearn, Juan Alderete, Steuart Liebig?
Fair points. This was a fun post to write, but after seeing all the feedback, it appears I need to do a follow up to cover all the folks I left out the first time. Many votes for Karn, Palladino, Kumalo, Caron, Bruce, etc.
Also, I was focused on folks who I like vs. players who blow the roof off. That makes it pretty subjective. Perhaps the next post should be the “most impressive full time fretless players of all time”. I like the idea, so thanks for the feedback.
What about Bakithi Kumalo? Bass player for Paul Simon.
You way overlooked a master of his craft.
I mentioned on another comment that I don’t know his work well enough, apparently. Never was much of a Paul Simon fan, but perhaps that needs to change now.
How about Pino Palladino?
Hey, where’s Alain Caron ?