Bass Guitar Legend | James Jamerson
The purpose
of the segment featuring Jamerson is an attempt to trace the provenance of an
Ampeg B-15 amplifier that has Jamerson’s name stenciled on the side. Did it
once belong to the legendary bassist? In addition to an answer, the program’s
viewers get a historical tour of Motown, and an explanation of how Jamerson was
pivotal in making the label’s signature rhythm and blues music popular.
- Jamerson, who died 29 years ago, played on more No. 1 hit songs than Elvis, the Rolling Stones, the Beach Boys and the Beatles — combined. In music circles, his technique of playing — treating the electric bass like it was an upright acoustic, plucking notes with his right index finger in a style he called “The Hook” — is credited as changing the sound and mix placement of the bass guitar.
James Jamerson
/Courtesy of Motown Archives,
Universal Music Enterprises
He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000.
“James
Jamerson was to bass what Jimi Hendrix was to the guitar,” Steve Fishman, who
owns the amp, says in the episode.
The episode
will add more steam to Anthony McKnight’s quest to get his cousin inducted into
the South Carolina Hall of Fame.
“I’m not
going to let this go away. I’m sorry,” said McKnight, who was not interviewed
for the show. “I think Jamerson ranks above Dizzy Gillespie. I’m not taking
anything away from Dizzy’s credit, but James has more credits.
“They put in
who the heck they want to put in there. How can you ignore all the stuff that’s
going on with one of your native sons?”
Forgotten history
- James Lee Jamerson was born in 1936 on Edisto Island, near Charleston. In the mid-’50s, he and his mother joined the migration of southern blacks to Detroit where he picked up the upright bass during high school band class. It wasn’t long before he was playing “The Hook” in local clubs where he met Jackie Wilson, who introduced him to Motown legend Smokey Robinson. Because of his connection to Robinson, Jamerson found steady session work at Berry Gordy’s Hitsville U.S.A. studio, the home of Motown Records.
“Nobody
wanted to record unless they had Jamerson on the track,” McKnight, a Charleston
resident, said.
Jamerson was
known to include jazzy flourishes in his lines, which irked Gordy.
“Jamerson was
the hardest to handle because he was a jazz person,” Gordy told Rolling Stone
Italia in 2009. “I would say ‘James Jimmy Jamerson, you can’t do that.’ And so
he would say OKokay, and he kept slipping little notes in.”
But Gordy,
who wanted to protect Motown’s trademark sound, didn’t fire Jamerson because he
knew he wouldn’t be able to replicate his sound. Gordy hid session players like
Jamerson because he didn’t want to engage in a bidding war for their service.
“If I was
producing I’d always have to have Benny Benjamin on drums and James Jamerson on
bass,” he said in Rolling Stone Italia.
Motown’s
indelible hits such as Robinson’s “The Tears of a Clown,” The Temptations’ “My
Girl” and Stevie Wonder’s “Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours” were recorded
in Hitsville’s Studio A, colloquially known as The Snake Pit. Eduardo Pagan,
the host of Jamerson’s “History Detectives” segment, understood the
significance of filming inside the studio.
“I told the
crew that I felt like we needed to remove our shoes,” said Pagan, the Bob Stump
Endowed Professor of History at Arizona State University. “It was just amazing.
The concentration of talent in that relatively small space was sort of
phenomenal.”
Pagan, a fan
of Motown’s music, admittedly was not familiar with Jamerson before his quest
to reveal the amps authenticity.
“I think like
many, even those who appreciate Motown, it’s the artist you knew about,” he
said.
James
Jamerson Jr., an accomplished bassist himself who has laid session bass lines
for Randy Crawford’s “Street Life,” Lenny Williams’ “Cause I Love You” and The
Temptations’ “Treat Her Like a Lady,” grew up in The Snake Pit before Motown’s
operations was moved to Los Angeles.
“The room is
basically a museum now,” he said from his home in Detroit. “Still, sometimes I
look up and I say, ‘Wow, I didn’t know I was around all those legends.’ I
didn’t know my father was a legend and a pioneer. He was just dad to me. I
didn’t get the gist until we moved to L.A.”
The Motown
sound is an integral part of music history, but before Allen Slutsky published
“Standing in the Shadows of Motown: The Life and Music of Legendary Bassist
James Jamerson” in 1989, Jamerson was a forgotten piece of the label’s history.
The book was adapted into “Standing in the Shadows of Motown,” 2002’s
critically hailed documentary film about The Funk Brothers.
“Anybody that
has played the instrument and heard a Motown record has been influenced by
him,” Slutsky told The State in 2009. “Everybody knew about this guy, whether
by name or not. He was the father of modern electric bass.”
Howard
Kramer, chief curator of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, said Motown wouldn’t
have been the same without Jamerson.
“You can’t
overstate the importance of James Jamerson,” he told The State three years ago.
“Talk about someone who played as beautifully and mellifluously as he did.”
‘Incomparable’
Through
researching personal items and artifacts, “History Detectives” hunts for the
truth within each object’s past. At the start of the investigation, Pagan was
skeptical about the amp’s authenticity.
“There wasn’t
a whole lot to go on,” he said. “As artifacts go, you want to have
documentation.”
There wasn’t
a photograph of Jamerson playing with the tube amplifier. Jamerson’s son, who
was visited by Pagan and the show’s crew in January, said the amp had too many
knobs. Pagan also visited Hewitt’s Music, a Dearborn, Mich., store where
Jamerson purchased equipment, but the owner couldn’t verify that the amp was
sold there.
The trail led
Pagan to Dennis Coffey, a member of The Funk Brothers who was able to provide
an answer that satisfied Pagan, one that won’t be revealed here. At each stop,
a bit more was revealed about Jamerson and his connection to Motown. For Pagan,
“History Detectives” is not just about tracking down artifacts.
“Our ultimate
goal is to really teach history,” he said. “Our goal is sharing history. Sharing
what we know is an important part of the show.”
At the end of
the episode, Fishman, the owner of the amp who said he would donate it if it
was authentic, jammed with Coffey and Jamerson Jr., who learned how to play on
his father’s bass. The 1962 Fender Precision, with its tortoise-shell pickguard
and chrome finish was known as “The Funk Machine.” The younger Jamerson
tried to play with The Hook.
“Two fingers
was much easier for me,” he said. “When he saw I got serious he got me my own. He
got tired of me asking to play his bass.”
- Before Jamerson died in 1983 from complications of pneumonia, cirrhosis of the liver and heart failure, “The Funk Machine” was stolen. He was 47 and said to be bitter about his legacy. It wasn’t until 1971 that he was acknowledged — as “the incomparable James Jamerson” on the sleeve of Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On” — on a major Motown release.
The fight for
recognition in South Carolina continues.
“He changed
the history of bass playing,” Jamerson Jr. said. “That’s where he was raised at
before he came to Detroit.”
Nominations
for the S.C. Hall of Fame are made each year by the Confederation of South
Carolina Local Historical Societies, the hall’s official selection
organization, which has 10 districts in the state. The nominations are voted on
by the hall’s board of trustees. Only two people are inducted each year — one
living and once deceased — and the competition is stiff. It took Pat Conroy,
author of novels such as “The Prince of Tides” and “The Lords of Discipline,”
six years to get inducted.
Jamerson was
a 2012 finalist, said J.R. Fennell, the confederation’s incoming president.
“Any kind of
musical innovation like that deserves to be recognized,” he said.
Fennell, the
executive director of the Lexington County Museum, couldn’t confirm whether or
not Jamerson would remain on the ballot.
A message
left at the S.C. Hall of Fame, which is in Myrtle Beach, was not returned. McKnight,
who has campaigned for his cousin’s inclusion for me than a decade, said
Jamerson’s resume is worthy.
“His
contribution to Motown Records and his contribution to music period,” he said. “What else do you
need to do?”
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