Tommy Cogbill (Elvis Presley, Dusty Springfield)

Courtesy of Elvis The Music Com - Elvis with Tommy Cogbill and Tommy’s Fender bass Courtesy of Elvis The Music Com - Elvis with Tommy Cogbill and Tommy’s Fender bass

Courtesy of Elvis The Music Com – Elvis with Tommy Cogbill and Tommy’s Fender bass

A master counter-melodic / pocket player and certifiable giant of the instrument – and unquestionably deserving of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame recognition – the late Thomas Clark Cogbill was among the go-to Nashville / “Memphis Boys” session cats who established the electric bass in country music, rock, soul, pop, rhythm and blues, and permutations thereof.

 

A former guitarist, Tommy’s weapon of choice was a Fender Precision and flats, tweaking the treble tone just enough to rise through the mix. Where to begin with Cogbill’s canon?

 

Dusty Springfield (“Son of a Preacher Man”), Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett (“Funky Broadway”), Elvis, Neil Diamond (“Sweet Caroline”), King Curtis (“Memphis Soul Stew”), Dolly Parton, Herbie Mann, Dobie Gray, and Kris Kristofferson, to cite a select few…

 

Tommy Cogbill Sound & Vision… 

 

Tommy with Elvis on Take 9 of “Kentucky Rain” https://youtu.be/ElumTJWwXWA

 

Dusty Springfield “Son of a Preacher Man” https://youtu.be/oAZLgsDRUv4

 

Wilson Pickett “Funky Broadway” https://youtu.be/QICXaxkBJMk

 

King Curtis “Memphis Soul Stew” https://youtu.be/U5swo4ibjYk

Duck Dunn (Booker T & The MG’s)

Courtesy of Duck Dunn Remembered Com

“I listen to the first playback, then go back into the studio and play half of what I did!” Donald “Duck” Dunn

 

Along with James Jamerson Jr., Carol Kaye, and many of the Wrecking Crew players of the early 1960s, Duck established the electric bass as the bedrock of popular music by way of his work in Booker T. and the MG’s and as an in-demand A list studio player.

 

Dunn’s style is a master course in the use of rhythm and space. Play through his transcriptions and you discover not a superfluous fill, grace note, nor rapid-fire motif. Duck let the music breathe, and by doing so you can hear the song within his bass passages.

 

A player whose influence is incalculable, Duck’s legendary weapon of choice was the Fender Precision outfitted with heavy gauge LaBella’s akin to his peer Jamerson – which he amplified with various Ampeg rigs, most notably the B-15, again akin to the aforementioned Motown icon. 

 

So what Donald “Duck” Dunn done? Booker T. & the MGs, Ray Charles, The Blues Brothers, Roy Buchanan, Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, Isaac Hayes, Albert King, Ritchie Havens, Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding, Elvis Presley, Diana Ross, Muddy Waters, Bill Withers, Neil Young, The Manhattan Transfer, The Staples Singers, Boz Scaggs, Tom Petty, Stevie Nicks, Freddie King, Crosby Stills Nash & Young, Jerry Lee Lewis…to name a scant few. 

 

Nick Rosaci’s transcription book Soul Fingers: The Music & Life of Legendary Bassist Donald “Duck” Dunn – is essential reading for all bassists who work in a pop, rhythm and blues, soul, funk, rock context.

 

Every track Duck cut is worthy of exploration – so rather than choose one of his more popular passages, dig this somewhat obscure Slowhand recording “The Shape You’re In” https://youtu.be/yFVXxxvkFiU

 

Tony Senatore’s Booker T. medley with some of Duck’s classic passages: https://youtu.be/6KdK2KyZlAg

 

Kenny Aaronson, Tom Semioli in the Duck Dunn shed!