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. Like Jamerson, most of the Funk Brothers were jazz musicians who had been recruited by Gordy. 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. This close-knit group of musicians performed on the vast majority of Motown recordings during most of the 1960s. There he became a member of a core of studio musicians who informally called themselves The Funk Brothers. 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). Starting in 1959, he found steady work at Berry Gordy's Hitsville U.S.A. His increasingly solid reputation started providing him opportunities for sessions at various local recording studios. He joined blues singer Washboard Willie's band and later toured with Jackie Wilson. After graduating from high school, he continued performing in Detroit clubs. He was offered a scholarship to study music at Wayne State University, and he declined. He began playing in Detroit area blues and jazz clubs and was influenced by jazz bassists Ray Brown, Paul Chambers and Percy Heath. He attended Northwestern High School there he started on the upright bass. Jamerson moved with his mother to Detroit in 1954. He listened to gospel, blues and jazz music on the radio. As a teenager he was a reserved person, and passionate about music. As a child he was a competent piano player and performed in public. He was raised in part by his grandmother who played piano, and his aunt who sang in church choir. In 2020, Rolling Stone magazine ranked Jamerson number one in its list of the 50 greatest bassists of all time.Ī native of Edisto Island, South Carolina, he was born to James Jamerson Sr. In its special issue "The 100 Greatest Bass Players" in 2017, Bass Player magazine ranked Jamerson number one and the most influential bass guitarist. 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. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000. 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. James Lee Jamerson (Janu– August 2, 1983) was an American bass player.
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