James Jamerson Archives

Let’s dig into one of the truly great James Jamerson bass lines, the Motown classic “How Sweet It Is” by Marvin Gaye. This lesson will string together descending arpeggios, the blues box pattern, and root-fifth movement.

Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On” turns 50 this year. Now, a new deluxe edition of the album has been packaged with an additional 33 bonus tracks, including 18 previously unreleased.

Edisto Island, South Carolina residents will be “Dancing in the Streets” after they rename a road for hometown hero James Jamerson.

Jaz Moss sent us his latest video, which is an incredibly well-done, detailed look at the work of James Jamerson. Jaz said it took three months of research to produce this retrospective on the Motown legend.

Today, we celebrate the birth of Martin Luther King, Jr. For today’s video, I chose Marvin Gaye’s version of “Abraham, Martin and John.” Gaye was backed by the Funk Brothers, including the always excellent work of James Jamerson.

I could watch videos by Paul Thompson (aka pdbass) all day. The way he breaks down music is remarkable. In this clip, Thompson breaks down versions of “Ain't No Mountain High Enough,” and the incredible work of James Jamerson.

Nate Marsh graduated from Berklee in 2012 and just finished his Masters of Music at the University of Colorado. He’s published his thesis, “The Influence of Jazz on R&B Electric Bassists of the 1960s and 1970s”, which is publicly available.

Leonardo van der Laat was inspired by Jack Stratton’s “visualization” videos of James Jamerson’s bass lines, so he set out to make his own. Check out Mr. Jamerson’s greatness on the Jackson 5’s “Darling Dear”.

If there’s one thing we know about Motown, it’s that the grooves are deep and bass legends like James Jamerson and Bob Babbitt have given us some incredible lines to learn from. Ryan Madora runs through “Ball Of Confusion” by The Temptations in this new “Keep It Groovy” bass lesson.

Paul Wolfe of How-To-Play-Bass.com recently released an instructional book on how to play blues rock bass. Now he’s giving you tips to play like one of the greatest with “How To Play Bass – Learning From James Jamerson Vol. 1”.

James Jamerson’s bass lines helped shape the sound of Motown and, in turn, the sound of R&B. The bassist, who passed away in 1983, will now have a proper headstone to match his legacy.

Ryan Madora has a new bass lesson series on No Treble. “Keep It Groovy” kicks off with a lesson on how to play James Jamerson’s bass line on The Temptations “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg”.