James Jamerson was born on Edisto Island, South Carolina, in 1936. His family encouraged his interest in music, enabling him to learn piano and trombone. As a teenager, he listened to Gospel, Blues and Jazz, all of which influenced his later playing style.
When he moved to Detroit in 1954 with his mother, he enrolled at Northwestern High School, where he started to play a new instrument, the upright bass. He was soon playing in local Blues and Jazz clubs, acquiring a solid reputation. He had the opportunity to take up a scholarship at Wayne State University to study music, which he turned down in favour of playing and learning from fellow professional musicians. Instead of learning music formally, Jameson joined Jackie Wilson’s touring band. He met Earl Van Dyke during this period and his reputation filtered through to Mickey Stevenson.
James Jamerson
Photo: Experimento69 (Wikimedia Commons)
In 1959, Jameson was offered work as a session musician at Motown, where he went on to play on twenty-three number one songs on the Billboard 100 chart and fifty-six number ones on the R&B chart! Did he make the right decision when he rejected Wayne State’s offer? Well, only Paul McCartney played bass on more number one hits. In 1964, Jameson stopped touring in order to focus totally on studio work. He was the number one bassist at Motown between 1963 and 1968.
Sadly, poor health was a problem that dogged him for most of his life, following a bicycle accident in his youth. He spent a year recovering, using a wheelchair, but continued to walk with a limp throughout his life. Alcohol later added to his difficulties.
During the early sessions at Motown, Jameson played an upright bass from Germany, which he had bought after leaving school. It can be heard on Mary Wells’ “My Guy” from 1964. From 1960, Jamerson also started to use an electric bass, having bought a 1957 Fender Precision model from bass-player Horace Ruth. It was black with a maple fretboard and a gold-coloured pick guard; Jamerson called it Black Beauty. He must have been distraught when the instrument was stolen soon after he got it! Its replacement was also stolen, to be followed by a 1962 stock model, which was much less desirable to thieves. This is the bass that can be heard on so many Motown hits, so important to the Motown sound that the band christened it the Funk Machine. Jamerson duly inscribed the word Funk along the bottom of the guitar. He kept this instrument for twenty years, until it too was stolen just before his death in 1983.
Jamerson’s playing style was heavily influenced by Jazz musicians that he had grown up listening to or later playing with. He learned on an upright bass at school, using a technique that he then adapted for electric bass. He used just his index finger to pluck the strings, with his middle and fourth fingers resting on the pick-up cover. He also used open strings to help him move around the fret-board, another Jazz technique. His preferred make of strings was La Bella, heavy-gauge and flat-wound. In Studio A he generally plugged the bass directly into the studio console, as did the three guitar players.
For most sessions he turned the volume control to maximum but his playing was actually light and fluid. Berry Gordy regarded Jamerson as a genius for his ability to play Jazz riffs and downbeats in succession without losing his timing. Gordy also recognised the value of the partnership that soon developed between Jamerson and drummer Benny Benjamin. They would “feel the groove” together. Jameson was blessed with perfect pitch and a dynamic musical intelligence. He was truly a master musician who played a key part in Motown’s long-term success. George Clinton said: “James Jamerson was the epitome. He started Fender bassing. All that funk bassing, Jamerson was it. He started all that bottom thing, and even though Motown had a pop appeal to the wide market, they still had some serious bass of tremendous power” (reported in “The Motown Story” written in the 1980s). Earl Van Dyke, another member of the band, felt that the basis for the whole Motown sound was “the way Benny’s foot (the one playing the bass drum) and James’ bass functioned as a unit”.
When Motown moved to California in 1972, he was one of the few session musicians who joined the new operation in Los Angeles. He was clearly hoping to continue as the number one bassist on Motown recordings, but very quickly it became clear that Berry Gordy was happy to hire local musicians. Jamerson didn’t stay long, and his problem with alcohol abuse did not improve.
In 1983, Suzanne de Passe produced a television special to celebrate the twenty-five years of Motown’s success. The show was filmed on 25th March and broadcast by NBC on 16th May. James Jamerson was sitting in a seat at the back of the Pasadena Civic Auditorium for the live show. He had paid for the ticket. Later that year, his death passed almost unnoticed.
In the year 2000, Jameson was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 2017, Bass Player Magazine rated him number one. Recognition came very late to such a talented musician.
