James Jamerson

This article is about the bassist. For other uses, see James Jamerson (disambiguation).

James Jamerson
Jamerson in 1964
Jamerson in 1964
Background information
Birth nameJames Lee Jamerson
Born(1936-01-29)January 29, 1936
Edisto Island, South Carolina, U.S.
DiedAugust 2, 1983(1983-08-02) (aged 47)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Genres
OccupationMusician
Instruments
  • Bass guitar
  • double bass
Years active1956–1983
Formerly ofThe Funk Brothers

James Lee Jamerson (January 29, 1936 – August 2, 1983)[1][a] 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 greatest and 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 called him the most important and influential bass guitarist.[2] In 2020, Rolling Stone magazine ranked Jamerson number one in its list of the 50 greatest bassists of all time.[3]

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  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference jj-100greatest-2017 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference jj-rs-july2020 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).


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