Top Show Off Bass Guitarists

While my Show Off Bass Guitarist Tracks playlist is fairly small I thought it would be worthwhile for people beginning to explore instrumental bass, even those who are not necessarily into jazz-fusion. This playlist is a broader umbrella of music and includes funk, smooth jazz and rhythem and blues. It is an unfortunate that many excellent bass players have not created albums and therefore I feel that my playlist is lacking in what I know to be out there which could grace your ears. I have seen various bass players I have enjoyed on youtube who do not appear to have albums under their name. One bassist that comes to mind is Federico Malaman who I discovered through fusion demon Hadrien Feraud. His music is tasteful, groovy, melodic and expressive while being able to shred when needed. Anyone who loves bass should check him out. There are very few bassists who combine all those facilities, but alas, I cannot add him on Spotify yet. Many bassists I enjoy are in my mother playlist Burning Jazz-rock Fusion, however they are difficult to find if you are not familiar with their names already. So without further ado, lets have a look at some top bass guitarists and bands with good bassists from my playlist.

Sharing the top spot are the incredibly funky Victor Wooten, melodic grove master Cristiano Parato and session player and composer Yiorgos Zikoyiannis. The second spot is held by slap phenominon Doug Johns tying with the always smooth Marcus Miller. The third spot is held by chart topping Wayman Tisdale and Russian bass player Anton Gorbunov. I'd also recommend listening to world music bassist Bakihi Kumalo who was most known for playing 'You can call me Al' with Paul Simon.

For those interested in solo bassists in jazz-fusion be sure to check out Tal Wilkenfield, Adam Nitti, Bunny Brunel, Alain Caron, Damien Erskine, Matthew Garrison, David Dyson, Gary Willis, Etienne Mdappe, Yves Carbonne, Dominique Di Piazza, Janek Gwizdala and Tony Grey. Each of these players brings something different to the table - either their rootedness, tone, phrasing, sense of groove, their feel for space, their chordal or compositional ideas or their fretless bass sound.

If you don't have Spotify you can check out my youtube playlist Best Bass Players and a youtube version of my Show Off Bass Guitar Tracks.


Top 50 Artists by Number of Songs




Show Off Bass Guitar Songs per Year