Mark Lettieri Trio, Featuring Wes Stephenson: Slide Rule

Wes Stephenson has one of the deepest pocket grooves I’ve ever heard. Here’s a clip of the Funky Knuckles bassist holding it down for guitarist Mark Lettieri on “Slide Rule,” live at the RBC in Dallas, Texas.

Stephenson forms a tight bond with drummer Mike Mitchell for the song’s main riff as they back Lettieri up, and his solo at the 3:56 mark that will take you for a ride.

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Share your thoughts

  1. Concerned Citizen

    Deep pocket groove? Not quite. Pedestrian at best.

    • Sal Funkenstein

      Pedestrian??? You should be ashamed of your comment. The man is pouring out his heart and soul playing. Do you go to art museums and say paintings are ok? Maybe you should go say how pedestrian he is directly to his face or do you only troll from behind a screen

    • Marcus

      This is the douchiest comment on this website

  2. Bass lover

    I also thought this performance could be better. Love The Funky Knuckles, but he wasn’t very locked in, imo. Also, the unison like he and Mark played didn’t sound tight.

    Interesting solo though.

  3. Give the drummer some credit here, nice!!!!

  4. Mike Matthews

    All and all I thought this was pretty cool; but I think his octa bass pedal wasn’t tracking to well. Those things sound pretty good in the higher reg; but in the low reg they kinda sound like crud. His bass solo was pretty cool too.

  5. Wes Stephenson

    Sorry guys I’ll practice.

    • Mark Lettieri

      Wes, isn’t it fun to play music with your friends, maybe film it and share it with some more friends, and then get crapped on by people? I love the internet.

    • juicy j

      Sounding great man!

    • chance

      wes, do you remember (me) chance in the bass department at larry morgan music a million years ago? i hadnt thought about you in ages but always knew you were a real player and would be doing this forever. check out fearless guitars, that is my gig now. and go man go!

  6. Nice use of the octave pedal!

  7. Curse that music stand – would have liked to have seen more of his playing. Keep up the great work, Wes!

  8. andy alonso

    Wes is serious business!

  9. PhiDeck

    Enjoyed, except for the music stand.
    Nice form, Wes: never saw your left thumb.

  10. This is one of the coolest and soulfull basssolos ive heard in a long time, especially the slow sections, Wes is singing!
    And the general performance bandwise is also great

  11. Johannes Stenfors

    In my opinion Wes is doing a thing that is not so common these days: really involving himself in a musical process and boldly going where his heart takes him.
    Jimi Hendrix, Oscar Peterson, Jaco, Charlie Parker, and numerous other passed and living legends are good examples, When it’s solo time they don’t concentrate to execute scales, fancy tricks on their instruments, metronome perfect quarter, eight, sixteenth, triplets, etc. They do something I call “flying above the beat”
    That’s exactly what Wes is doing.
    As a bass player I love to support other musicians and don’t play solos very often but when I do I choose similar route with Wes! (BTW I think his octaver tracks just well)
    I hope Wes keep up with his good work, it would be fun to take solo turns with him!

    Cheers, Johannes

  12. FunkEBass

    That was just all around fun to listen to. There’s so many sides of a beat and that dude sure knows the backside! Cool post.

  13. The start of that bass solo…. woooh! and kept on it

  14. Adam

    Can’t believe people are criticizing this. I loved the bass solo!