Michael Thurber: Story of the Bass

Michael Thurber gets a huge thumbs up in our book. As a co-founder of cdza, he’s been creating musical video experiments, including this awesome all bass Ace of Bass medley.

The group now has a series called “The Instrumentals” in which they chronicle the history of different instruments. Here, Thurber rips through 45 songs on nine basses to tell the story of the bass, starting with its humble origins in the Viola de Gamba all the way up to modern funk rock and beyond.

Thanks to Facebook friend Dan Davis for the heads up.

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Leave a Reply to Rodney Garrison Cancel reply

  1. Seinfeld “bass” was a keyboard… :)

  2. very awesome and well played

  3. That’s just awesome!

  4. Very cool!
    fyi, it was Monk Montgomery who played in the Hampton band.

  5. Great stuff! (Bill Wyman was the first guy (in the early 60’s) to rip out his frets, tho. Fretlesses were already in production when Jaco made the switch) ;)

  6. Very cool! Dont forget the Octabass!

  7. that was just spectacular!

  8. Very interesting, neat stuff

  9. That was an outstanding production ! I really enjoyed it. Thank you.

  10. einfach genial ! fettes respekt

  11. I thought this was an amazing video. Entertaining and informative

  12. I love this video! I wish it were 4 times longer! There’s so much he didn’t touch on. When I saw this I knew you guys would dig it. Thanks for sharing with the wider bass world, No Treble peeps. YOU GUYS ROCK!!!

  13. Pity they missed the huge influence Jamaican bass players had a popular music.Big fail…

  14. Could someone tell me the tune he is playing at 5:25 (just before “Another One Bites the Dust”)?

  15. Marcus

    Argh I wish skrillex wasn’t what it ended on. So many players today are taking bass to new heights with their virtuosic soloing that’s finally making other instruments jealous (ha!) well certainly was right to say home base is always bass. Never short on gigs, I’ve always been told that and it’s always been true!

  16. laurel2012

    Where’s Carol Kaye, my dears?

  17. Wayne Renardson

    Great fun. Nicely done. Kudos.