I started on guitar due to Buffalo Springfield, CSNY, as my first attraction. Then Cream, Clapton, ABB, Jefferson Airplane/Hot Tuna, Ten Years After, and Hendrix. At the same time I dug into the real blues these muscians learned from so I was real into Howlin' Wolf, Robert Johnson, The King Family (Albert, BB, and Freddie). My favorite bassists at that time were Jack Bruce, Jack Cassady, and Berry Oakley. So, when I started playing bass, those were my guide posts. And early on (around 1973) I discovered Bonnie Raitt and her incomprable bassist Freebo.
Funny thing is that I was playing in a country band at the time so I was playing stuff like "Good Hearted Woman", "Mama Tried", a bunch of Creedence stuff, and who knows what else. When they told me I played too many notes, I couldn't understand, coming from litenting to Cassady and Bruce!
But then I got into a band with a GOOD drummer, and things started changing. We did a lot of Emmylou Harris and Linda Rondstad stuff (this was around 1977) so I was drawn to Emory Gordy, Leland Sklar, Bob Glaub, Tim Drummond, Kenny Edwards, etc.
I saw Fleetwood Mac right after Buckingham/Nicks joined the band (I think goat woman still had black hair then) and was mesmerized by how cool John McVie was.
Then I got serious about playing and a local prodigy buddy of mine (Curt played with the local university Jazz band while he was still a junior in high-school 'cause he was the only one in town who could read the parts, swing, and still play the Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea charts convincingly- he got bored with Yes after "Fragile" because he found Squire's parts "a bit to predictable") gave me some great advice. He dropped by a gig and we talked for a while. He gave me a couple of pointers about my connection with the drummer, but he also handed me a nakpin on which he'd written "Heavy Weather by Weather Report" and "Jaco Pastorious". My life changed the next day...
The guy who owned the drum shop next door to the guitar store I managed loaned me "Gradually Going Tornado" and "Feels Good To Me" by Bill Bruford with Jeff Berlin on bass. At the same time I was getting more and more drawn to Stax, Motown, Aretha et. al. And over the years I've been a voracious reader of Guitar Player, Bass Player, Rolling Stone (before it became Time Magazine for Old Hippies), Guitar World, and the only really good music magazine ever, Musician. Reading a Tommy Shannon interview (though I think of SRV as the blues equivalen of Kenny G), I was reminded of Wilie Weeks so I hunted up a copy of the live Donnie Hathaway album. And I saw Bela Fleck with New Grass Revival on TV, so a few years later when Austin City Limits was going to have "Bele Fleck & The Flecktones" on, I made a point of watching it- and didn't expect what I heard!
So, my influneces? Jack Bruce, Carl Radle, Nathan East, Willie Weeks, Freebo, Jack Casady, Berry Oakley, James Jamerson, Carol Kaye, Joe Osborne, Duck Dunn, Emory Gordy, Leland Sklar, Jaco, Tim Drummond, Chris Hillman, Jerry Jemmott, Chuck Rainey, Bee Spears, Family Man, Larry Graham, Louis Johnson, Tommy Cogbill, Leo Lyons, Timothy B. Schmidt, Jeff Berlin, Pino Pallidino, Victor Wooten, David Hood, Peter Cetera, Jim Fielder, and Kenny Edwards.
The ones I consciously think about and think "what would [instert name here] do here?" are still Jack Bruce, Jaco, Duck, Leland, Freebo, Nathan, Emory, Pino, and Willie.
And I gotta mention four who influenced my approach to LEARNING music too- Carol Kaye for all those monthly columns in Guitar Player Magazine I went back to when I started playing bass. I didn't wind up using a pick, but all she taught about music is still the foundation of my learning. Jeff Berlin for his absolute no BS, it's a lot of work wiithout secrets approach to education. Darryl Jones inspires me with EVERY interview of him I've ever read. He did one for Bass Player maybe 10 years ago where he talked about repeating the same riff over and over until one gets past the mechanics and finds the music- like a trance or something. I did that with "I'll Take You There" and learned so much about focus, locking into the groove, and being THE BASS PLAYER. And I find Vicotor Wooten's words to be a bigger influence on me than his music.
jte
