Blake n Blue

Solo at the Station 2 at Bridge Street Wednesday March 10

noreply@blogger.com (Blake Nix) — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 06:02:00 +0000

Come on out! check out the web site www.thestation.net. As you head towards the Monaco (the movie theater at Bridge Street) it is on the right past the bridge. Up here (second floor-you take an elevator to get there) there is a restaurant, bowling alley, VIP room, air hockey, pool tables and more. Nice place, I will be playing solo acoustic guitar mostly but may have some of my talented pals from some of my other projects stopping by. I'm sure you'll hear the Beatles, The Stones, Tom Petty, Townes Van Zandt, John Prine and more.

Sunny day

noreply@blogger.com (Blake Nix) — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 20:05:00 +0000

Had a quiet little gig with Jerry at the Copper Top last night. Had some laughs and shot some video, which I will post here soon. At the Station 2 at Bridge Street tomorrow (Monday) for a happy hour gig, with any luck some of my pals will stop by and sing a few with me. The calender has some new dates up so please check em out. There are solo dates up and some duo stuff with Jerry and the rest of Shine. More in the works too, doing some stuff with our friend Marge Loveday and looking forward to working with Matt Ross, a bass player I have listened to and respected for years. Both of these folks are very talented and have a stout resume. Also, if you haven't bought yours there are still copies of Mr Adams' Blues available and several places to hear samples of the tunes. I hope you like them as much as I liked making them. Catch you soon!

Wild Horses and Ben

noreply@blogger.com (Blake Nix) — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 05:38:00 +0000

That was an amazing time Sunday. I'm not good with words these days, can't seem to find the right way to communicate exactly what I want to say. Can't quite say what being at that benefit made me feel. I just wanted to go and listen and hear what all these other people had to say about our friend Ben Trussell. I learned a lot. The Huntsville music scene has some great talent and some great love. Ben wrote some great songs. I believe these songs are going to be heard again. It was such a privilege to be there. Jerry arrived late and we eventually got on stage and played Soulshine, by the Allman Brothers and Government Mule, Steal My Kisses by Ben Harper. With us were Marge, Bill, Matt Ross, Ryan Tillery on drums and whoever else was left on stage! It was a mass of musicians who wanted to be in on the fun. The crowd was giving it back. Pictures of Ben to our right on the screen. Going to remember this one for a while. If anything, I wish I had played Wild Horses, it was the last song Ben and I played together at my gig at Voodoo Lounge that he sat in on. There will be time to play that one and remember. In the mean time I'm just glad I could soak Sunday up. Really glad to be a part of that, very thankful to be able to share. I don't think anyone will forget this anytime soon.

Ben Trussell

noreply@blogger.com (Blake Nix) — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 05:03:00 +0000

We lost Ben Trussell this weekend. Ben was a talented singer songwriter from the area, and way too young to be lost. There are a lot of people here hurting right now. We all knew him, every musician I know has partied, played and laughed with Ben. We jammed on some Stones at the Voodoo Lounge the last time I saw him and then he took my guitar, retuned it and played Stevie Wonder's Superstitious in that tuning he was using. He sounded great, I hadn't heard it that way before. It will be a tough week. There's pain here now, but there are also a lot of people remembering how much they loved his music and his spirit.

Shine this week at Humphrey's

noreply@blogger.com (Blake Nix) — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 23:15:00 +0000

Looks like we won't be doing that battle of the bands at Crossoads this time around. Instead, the first full band appearance of Shine will be at Humphrey's on Saturday the 13th. Shine features my pals from around town Jerry Pearson-guitar and vocals, Marge Loveday (Marge at Large)-keyboard guitar and vocals, and my pal from Nashville drummer Wade Hachler (Rosie Flores, Sticky Fingers and others) . Shine will start at 9 and play until 1 or so.

A little coffee shop for ya

noreply@blogger.com (Blake Nix) — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 07:59:00 +0000

One of my fave people to make music with. The lovely Katy Dunn helping me out with Things I Can't Say.

Stuff we like. More Humble Pie

noreply@blogger.com (Blake Nix) — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 07:13:00 +0000

Here ya go. This was the guy that so many of the great bands wish they had. Steve Mariott with Humble Pie.

Flying around...

noreply@blogger.com (Blake Nix) — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 09:12:00 +0000

Busy busy busy with new events. Rehearsing Shine for the upcoming gigs at Humphrey's on the 13th of February and the battle of the bands at the Crossroads on the 11th, and beyond. We'll be playing all original music at the battle of the bands. Haven't been in one of those in years. Jerry's the mover and signer upper there. I'm just looking forward to playing a little music with some pals. So much to do, adding songs to the set like a mad man and watching some my students make the transition to live performance. I'm also changing the solo set around a bit. I have Chris Smither to thank for inspiration. What an amazing artist, a great player and a great songwriter. His finger style arrangements are so smooth, and his lyrics so clever. I'll post some video for you guys to see but trust me, you want to see and hear him. So much to listen to and so little time... See ya

yawn... Goofy can help

noreply@blogger.com (Blake Nix) — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 08:31:00 +0000

This is a classic. Up late, Goofy to the rescue. These cartoons are priceless and available on amazon. I've bought some for myself and given some as gifts. Old school Disney, they just don't make them like this any more...

What am I up to? Shine, for one thing.

noreply@blogger.com (Blake Nix) — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 07:59:00 +0000

This is a duo performance here with my pal Jerry Pearson at a local club called the Copper Top. Shine is the name of the band we are putting together, featuring Jerry on lead vocals and guitar and me on guitar and backing vocals with an occasional lead vocal. Shine will be doing a lot of the tunes Jerry and I play together when we do the duo thing, like Jack Johnson, Ben Harper and many others but also feature some of the arrangements of some of our favorite Stones tunes, and other tunes we've reworked. Shine will also feature Wade Hachler (from Sticky Fingers, and Nashville's Rosie Flores and Cosmic America) on drums, Bill Hovik on keys and Katy Dunn on vocals when she's not off doing rocket science. Some of our other pals will likely be joining us as availability allows. Should be a fun collaboration and I'm looking forward to seeing how the music develops.

It's a twister!

noreply@blogger.com (Blake Nix) — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 07:50:00 +0000

On a non musical note, there was a tornado in town this past Thursday. I happened to be teaching some lessons at a local music store called the Fret Shop when I'm guessing it went right over us. I hear the tornado made the national news. There's lots of youtube video of this as well. This was taken right around 5:25. This was the first time I have ever seen one in person, and I was very impressed...

From Mr Adams' Blues...

noreply@blogger.com (Blake Nix) — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 07:09:00 +0000

Here is Coming Clean, the first track that was actually finished for Mr Adams' Blues. Patrick Saik posted this on youtube for me.

Songs we like: She Caught the Katy

noreply@blogger.com (Blake Nix) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 07:05:00 +0000

The Blues Brothers. From the soundtrack. Memphis meets New York. Stax records meets Saturday Night Live.

You can get the album on Amazon, among other places. Yes it's that good...

http://www.amazon.com/Blues-Brothers-Original-Soundtrack-Recording/dp/B000002J5K/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1258613929&sr=1-1

Songs we like: She Caught the Katy

noreply@blogger.com (Blake Nix) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 06:53:00 +0000

She caught the Katy, and left me a mule to ride
She caught the Katy, and left me a mule to ride
My baby caught the Katy, left me a mule to ride
The train pulled out, and I swung on behind
I'm crazy 'bout her, that hardheaded woman of mine

Man my baby's long, great god she's mighty, she's tall
You know my baby's long, great god she's mighty, my baby she's tall Well my baby shes' long, my baby she's tall
She sleeps with her head in the kitchen and her big feet out in the hall And I'm still crazy 'bout her, that hardheaded woman of mine

Well I love my baby, she's so fine
I wish she'd come and see me some time
If you don't believe I love her, look what a hole I'm in
If you don't believe I'm sinking, look what a shape I'm in

She caught the Katy, and left me a mule to ride
She caught the Katy, and left me a mule to ride
Well my baby caught the Katy, left me a mule to ride
The train pulled out, and I swung on behind
I'm crazy 'bout her, that hardheaded woman, hardheaded woman of mine

Henry Saint Clair Fredericks (born May 17, 1942), who goes by the stage name Taj Mahal, is an internationally recognized blues musician with two Grammy Awards to date who folds various forms of world music into his offerings. A self-taught singer-songwriter and film composer who plays the guitar, banjo and harmonica (among many other instruments), Mahal has done much to reshape the definition and scope of blues music during his 40+ year career by fusing it with nontraditional forms, including sounds from the Caribbean, Africa and the South Pacific.

There are bands who create entire albums out of covers, often performing the songs in a genre completely unlike the original songs. For example, The Blues Brothers covered blues, R&B, soul, country and rock'n'roll songs, but with their own particular, fresh and raw style of interpretation, a successful blend of the Memphis Stax sound provided by MGs band members Steve Cropper and Donald "Duck" Dunn, and the New York City sound from the horn section (Alan Rubin and Lou Marini, for example). The outcome sometimes gave a new life to songs. Some became even more popular after the Blues Brothers had played them, than before. The best example is "Soul Man", more remembered as a hit by The Blues Brothers rather than by the original singers, Sam & Dave. The same can be said of She Caught the Katy (originally created by Taj Mahal) and Jailhouse Rock (sung by Elvis Presley) or Sweet Home Chicago (Robert Johnson), acknowledging the fact that covers can become even more famous than original performances.

What is "The Katy?"

The Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad (reporting mark MKT) was incorporated May 23, 1870. In its earliest days the MKT was commonly referred to as "the K-T", which was its stock exchange symbol; this common designation soon evolved into "the Katy".
The Katy was the first railroad to enter Texas from the north. Eventually the Katy's core system would grow to link Kansas City and St. Louis, Missouri; Tulsa and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Dallas, Fort Worth, Waco, Temple, Austin, San Antonio, Houston, and Galveston, Texas.
Congress had passed acts promising land grants to the first railroad to reach the Kansas border via the Neosho Valley and the part of the Katy had been the Union Pacific Railway, Southern Branch was in a heated competition for the prize. On June 6, 1870, Katy workers laid the first rails across the Kansas border winning the race. Ironically the promised land grants never materialized; the courts overturned the grants promised by Congress because the land was in Indian Territory and was the property of the Indian tribes.

Still, the Katy continued its push southward, laying track and acquiring other small railroads, extending its reach to Dallas in 1886, Waco in 1888, Houston in April 1893 and to San Antonio 1901.
When the railroad reached Houston, joint ownership of the Galveston, Houston and Henderson Railroad gave the Katy immediate access to the Port of Galveston, and access to ocean-going traffic on the Gulf of Mexico.

In 1896, as a publicity stunt set up by William George Crush, the Katy crashed two locomotives, pulling heavily loaded trains, at a site that came to be known thereafter as Crush, Texas. The collision occurred before over 40 thousand spectators, three of whom died (and there were several injuries) when the exploding boilers sent debris flying. Ragtime composer Scott Joplin, who was performing in the area at the time, commemorated the event in "The Great Crush Collision March" (which he dedicated to the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railway).

Another early blues song, "Bad luck blues", written by Blind Lemon Jefferson refers to the railroad:

Sugar, you catch the Katy, I'll catch that Santa Fe,
doggone my bad luck soul,
Sugar, you catch that Katy and I'll catch that Santa Fe;
I mean the Santy, speakin' about Fe,
When you get in Denver, pretty mama, look around for me.

Modern guitar players: Tommy Emmanuel

noreply@blogger.com (Blake Nix) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 05:24:00 +0000

This guy came up again in lessons this week. Tommy is a superb Australian guitar player who some of you might not know about. I first saw him a while back at one of the Nashville music trade shows and he was a pretty laid back fella. Great player and fun to watch. Go check out his albums!

The Great Sam Cooke: You Send Me

noreply@blogger.com (Blake Nix) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 01:58:00 +0000

'Nuff said...

Influences: Cream's Crossroads

noreply@blogger.com (Blake Nix) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 01:52:00 +0000

Speaking of Van Halen, Eddie claims he learned the studio version of this song note for note and that his playing was full of licks he learned from Eric Clapton. This is a live version from 1968.

Reality Check: Contract Riders

noreply@blogger.com (Blake Nix) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:31:00 +0000

Remove the green/brown M&M's! Remember all those funny things you hear about in contracts? Spoiled rock stars or sensible management making sure the venue and/or promoter fulfills its obligations? Here is Van Halen's side of it, from Wikipedia.

Contract riders

Van Halen had a notable effect on the modern rock music tour with their use of the concert technical contract rider. They were one of the first bands to use contract riders to specify a "wish list", a practice now used throughout the music industry. As one of the first major bands with a traveling stage show, Van Halen had extensive requirements including power availability and stage construction details. The band's demands were not limited to technical issues; their now-infamous rider specified that a bowl of M&M candies, with all of the brown M&M's removed, was to be placed in their dressing room. According to David Lee Roth, this was listed in the technical portion of the contract not because the band wanted to make capricious demands of the venue, but rather as a test of whether the promoter actually read the contract, as it contained other requirements involving legitimate safety concerns.^[49] On an early tour, a member of Van Halen's road crew was nearly killed by shoddy workmanship on the part of a local venue, and which ended up causing approximately $85,000 in equipment damage. Because of this incident, the band developed the M&M's demand as a means of checking whether the venue was properly honoring all of the contract. Subsequently, if the bowl was missing, or if there were brown M&M's present, they had reason to suspect that the venue may not have honored legitimate technical and safety concerns within the contract. As a result, the band would be within their rights to inspect the technical side of the performance prior to going on stage.^[50]

The classics: Sam Cooke

noreply@blogger.com (Blake Nix) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 07:23:00 +0000

Samuel "Sam" Cook (January 22, 1931 - December 11, 1964) was an American gospel, R&B, soul, and pop singer, songwriter, and entrepreneur. He is considered to be one of the pioneers and founders of soul music.

"Considered by many to be the definitive soul singer, Sam Cooke blended sensuality and spirituality, sophistication and soul, movie-idol looks and gospel-singer poise. His warm, confessional voice won him a devoted gospel following as lead singer for the Soul Stirrers and sent “You Send Me,” one of his earliest secular recordings, to the top of the pop and R&B charts in 1957. It was the first of 29 Top Forty hits for the Chicago-raised singer, who was one of eight sons born to a Baptist minister.

Cooke’s career was defined by his early embrace of gospel and his subsequent move into the world of pop music and rhythm & blues. Joining the Soul Stirrers at age fifteen, he served as lead vocalist from 1950-56. He recorded his first pop song, “Lovable,” as Dale Cook, choosing the pseudonym so as not to jeopardize his standing within the gospel community. Nonetheless, he’d crossed a line that made it impossible for him to carry on with the Soul Stirrers. Cooke’s first solo successes came on the Keen label, for which he recorded “You Send Me,” “(I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons” and “Wonderful World,” among others. In 1960 Cooke signed with RCA, where his hits included “Chain Gang,” “Cupid,” “Another Saturday Night” and “Twistin’ the Night Away.” A versatile singer who never really settled on a style, Cooke tackled everything from sophisticated balladry and lighthearted pop to finger-popping rock and roll and raw, raspy rhythm & blues.

In addition to being a performer, Cooke established himself as a successful and even groundbreaking black entrepreneur operating within the mainstream music industry. Cooke produced records for other singers, founded his own publishing company (Kags Music) and launched a record label (Sar/Derby). He also helped such fellow artists as Bobby Womack, Johnnie Taylor, Billy Preston and Lou Rawls make the transition from gospel to pop. Tragically, Cooke was shot to death at a Los Angeles motel on December 11th, 1964, under mysterious circumstances. RCA posthumously issued “Shake” b/w “A Change Is Gonna Come.” Regarded as one of the greatest singles of the modern era, it matched a hard-hitting R&B number (later cut by Otis Redding) with a haunting song about faith and reckoning that returned Cooke’s voice to its familiar gospel home.” (rockhall.com)

His influences can be heard in the work of artists as varied as Michael Jackson and the Heptones, but is most profoundly felt in the singing of Otis Redding, Rod Stewart, and Al Green. The 1994 compilation Sam Cooke's SAR Records Story 1959-1964 suggests that his impact as a producer, though less widely recognized, was no less important.(history of rock.com)

Sam Cooke was a true superstar in his lifetime. After his death, his legend became even larger. His influence can be heard in the precise phrasing of Smokey Robinson, in the conscientious songwriting of Marvin Gaye, in the raw emotion of Lou Rawls and in Aretha Franklin's controlled passion.

Like most R&B artists of his time, Cooke focused on singles; in all he had twenty-nine top-40 hits on the pop charts, and more on the R&B charts. In spite of this, he released a well received blues-inflected LP in 1963, Night Beat, and his most critically acclaimed studio album Ain't That Good News, which featured five singles, in 1964.

Cooke died at the age of thirty-three on December 11, 1964, at the Hacienda Motel in Los Angeles, California. Bertha Franklin, manager of the motel, told police that she shot and killed Cooke in self-defense because he had threatened her. Police found Cooke's body in Franklin's apartment-office, clad only in a sports jacket and shoes, but no shirt, pants or underwear with penis out. The shooting was ultimately ruled a justifiable homicide, however, some of Cooke's family and supporters believe that there was a conspiracy to murder Cooke and that the murder took place in some manner entirely different from Franklin's, official account. In her autobiography, Rage to Survive, singer Etta James claimed that she viewed Cooke's body in the funeral home and that the injuries she observed were well beyond what could be explained by the official account of Franklin alone having fought with Cooke. James described Cooke as having been so badly beaten that his head was nearly separated from his shoulders, his hands were broken and crushed, and his nose was mangled. Nevertheless, no solid, reviewable evidence supporting a conspiracy theory has been presented to date. The details of the case involving Cooke's death are still in dispute.

* Shortly following his passing, Motown Records released We Remember Sam Cooke, a collection of Cooke covers recorded by The Supremes.
* In 1986, Cooke was inducted as a charter member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
* In 1999, Cooke was honored with the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and in 2004 Rolling Stone ranked him #16 on their list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time".
* In 2008, Cooke was named the fourth "Greatest Singer of All Time" by Rolling Stone.

--from Wikipedia

The great Otis Redding

noreply@blogger.com (Blake Nix) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 08:13:00 +0000

Chills often. Often more.

Otis!

noreply@blogger.com (Blake Nix) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 08:05:00 +0000

The great Otis Redding. And that backing band!

Otis Redding

noreply@blogger.com (Blake Nix) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 05:26:00 +0000

Otis Ray Redding, Jr. (September 9, 1941 – December 10, 1967) was an American soul singer. Often called the "King of Soul", he is renowned for an ability to convey strong emotion through his voice. According to the website of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (where he was inducted in 1989), Redding's name is "synonymous with the term soul, music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm and blues into a form of funky, secular testifying.

Bob Rolontz wrote the following within his sleeve notes accompanying the 1966 Volt album “Otis Blue - Otis Redding Sings Soul”: ‘Soul is a word that has many meanings. In the pop-R&B world of today it usually means an intensely dramatic performance by a singer, projected with such feeling that it reaches out and visibly moves the listener. It means that the singer is saying something, sometimes more than the lyrics themselves might normally convey. Soul is not something that can be feigned - you either have it or you don’t. Otis Redding has it, to a degree almost unrivalled by any other young singer in sight.’

Rolontz continued: ‘The moving style of Otis Redding is a fusion of blues, pop and gospel. It comes as naturally and normally to him as crying to a baby. His sound is real. It is also personal and individual, and at the same time it is universal. Anyone who listens to Otis Redding understands his message. That, perhaps, is the true meaning of soul.’

Rolontz concluded: ‘It is part of the quality of Otis Redding’s dramatic and highly personalized style that he makes every song he sings completely his own, even when the material has previously been recorded by another outstanding singer. He does it here [on this album] too, and that perhaps is another meaning of soul, or the Otis Redding version of it.’

Redding sang in the choir at church, and as a teenager won the talent show at the Douglass Theatre for 15 weeks in a row. His earliest influence was Little Richad. Redding said, "If it hadn't been for Little Richard, I would not be here. I entered the music business because of Richard - he is my inspiration. I used to sing like Little Richard, his Rock 'n' Roll stuff, you know. Richard has soul, too. My present music has a lot of him in it."

In 1960, Redding began touring the South with Johnny Jenkins and The Pinetoppers. In addition to singing, Redding also served as Jenkins' driver since the bandleader did not possess a driver's license. That same year he made his first recordings, "Fat Gal" and "Shout Bamalama" with this group under the name "Otis Redding and The Pinetoppers"

In 1962, Redding made his first real mark in the music business during a Johnny Jenkins session when, during studio time left over, he recorded "These Arms of Mine", a ballad that he had written. The song became a minor hit on Volt Records, a subsidiary of the renowned Southern soul label Stax, based in Memphis, Tennessee.

Redding built his fan base by extensively touring a live show with support from fellow Stax artists Sam & Dave. Further hits between 1964 and 1966 included "Mr. Pitiful", "I Can't Turn You Loose" (which was to become The Blues Brothers entrance theme music), "Try a Little Tenderness" (a remake of the 1930s standard by Harry Woods, Jimmy Campbell, and Reg Connelly, later featured in John Hughes' film Pretty in Pink), "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" (written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones), and "Respect" (later a smash hit for Aretha Franklin).

Redding wrote many of his own songs, which was unusual for the time, often with Steve Cropper (of the Stax house band Booker T. & the M.G.'s, who usually served as Otis's backing band in the studio). Soul singer Jerry Butler co-wrote another hit, "I've Been Loving You Too Long". One of Redding's few songs with a significant mainstream following was "Tramp," (1967) a duet with Carla Thomas.

"(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" was recorded only three days before Redding's death. According to Nashid Munyan, curator of the Stax Museum of American Soul Music, Redding considered the song unfinished, having whistled the tune of one verse for which he intended to compose lyrics later. The song was released (with the place-holding whistling intact) in January 1968 and became Redding's only number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100, and the first posthumous single in U.S. chart history. "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" was a significant stylistic departure from the bulk of his previous work, and might have presaged a change in direction for the singer.

On December 9, 1967, Redding and his backup band, The Bar-Kays, made an appearance in Cleveland, Ohio on the local "Upbeat" television show. The next afternoon, Redding, his manager, the pilot, and four members of The Bar-Kays were killed when his Beechcraft 18 airplane crashed into Lake Monona in Madison, Wisconsin, on December 10, 1967
Redding's body was recovered the next day when the lake bed was searched. He was entombed on his private ranch in Round Oak, Georgia, 23 miles (37 km) north of Macon. The cause of the crash was never precisely determined.

Otis is survived by his wife, mother and father, his sons Dexter and Otis III and his daughter Karla.

-From Wikipedia

Old Wives Tales

noreply@blogger.com (Blake Nix) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 05:05:00 +0000

So we were all standing our brooms up the other night (lol) and this topic came up. Enjoy!

http://everymagicalday.wordpress.com/2008/10/21/what-old-wives-know-or-think-they-know/

Those Were the Nights, video by Patrick Saik

noreply@blogger.com (Blake Nix) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 07:52:00 +0000

Patrick is one of my guitar students.

Who is James Jamerson?

noreply@blogger.com (Blake Nix) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 06:34:00 +0000

James Lee Jamerson (January 29, 1936 - August 2, 1983) was an American bassist. He was the uncredited bassist on most of Motown Records' hits in the 1960s and early 1970s (Motown did not list session musician credits on their releases until 1971), and he has become regarded as one of the most influential bassists & the father of modern bass guitar players in modern music history. Starting in 1959 he found steady work at Berry Gordy's Hitsville U.S.A. studio, home of the Motown record label. There he became a member of a core of studio musicians who informally called themselves The Funk Brothers. This small, close-knit group of musicians performed on the vast majority of Motown recordings during most of the 1960s.

According to fellow Funk Brothers in the 2002 documentary Standing in the Shadows of Motown, Marvin Gaye was desperate to have Jamerson play on "What's Going On", and went to several bars to find the bassist. When he did, he brought Jamerson to the studio, who then played the classic line while lying flat on his back. He is reported to have played on some 95% of Motown recordings between 1962 and 1968. He eventually performed on nearly 30 No. 1 pop hits -- surpassing the record commonly attributed to The Beatles. On the R&B charts, nearly 70 of his performances went to the top. James Jamerson (as is the case with the other Funk Brothers) received little formal recognition for his lifetime contributions. In fact, it wasn't until 1971, when he was acknowledged as "the incomparable James Jamerson" on the sleeve of Marvin Gaye's What's Going On, that his name even showed up on a major Motown release.

Jamerson's discography at Motown reads as a catalog of soul hits of the 1960s and 1970s. His work includes Motown hits such as, among hundreds of others, "Shotgun" by Jr. Walker & the All Stars, "For Once in My Life", "I Was Made To Love Her" by Stevie Wonder, "Going to a Go-Go" by The Miracles, "My Girl" by The Temptations, "Dancing in the Street" by Martha and the Vandellas, "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" by Gladys Knight and the Pips, and later by Marvin Gaye, and most of the album What's Going On by Marvin Gaye, "Reach Out I'll Be There" and "Bernadette" by The Four Tops, and "You Can't Hurry Love" by The Supremes.

His relationship with Motown officially ended in 1973. He went on to perform on such 1970s hits as "Rock the Boat" (Hues Corporation), "Boogie Fever" (The Sylvers), and "You Don't Have To Be A Star (To Be In My Show)" (Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis, Jr.). But as other musicians went on to use high-tech amps, round-wound strings, and simpler, more repetitive bass lines incorporating new techniques like thumb slapping, Jamerson's style fell out of favor with local producers and he found himself reluctant to try new things. By the 1980s he was unable to get any serious gigs working as a session musician.

Jamerson is noted for expanding the role of the bass in popular music, which until that time largely consisted of root notes, fifths and simple repetitive patterns. By contrast, many of Jamerson's bass lines for Motown were more melodic, more syncopated, and more improvisational than had been heard before. His bass playing was considered an integral part of the "Motown Sound". He transcended the standard "bass line" and created a duet with the singer. Prominent bassists who have claimed Jamerson as a primary influence include James Brown's Bernard Odum, Rick Danko, Anthony Jackson, Jack Bruce, John Entwistle, Bernard Edwards, Jaco Pastorius, John Patitucci, John Paul Jones, Robert DeLeo, Mike Watt, Billy Sheehan, Geddy Lee, Victor Wooten, Paul McCartney, and Matt Rubano