YEAR
2000
INDUCTED BY
Mike Stoller
CATEGORY
Musical Excellence
He bestowed the funkiest, grooviest basslines in the Motown catalogue.
James Jamerson played the bass with an intuition like no one else. Although he was a sideman, he revolutionized the bass and brought it out of the shadows and to the forefront of music.
James Jamerson
HALL OF FAME
ESSAY
By Allan "Dr. Licks" Slutsky
I walked into Berry Gordy Jr’s basement recording studio on Detroit’s West Grand Boulevard, the electric bass was still an infant. Leo Fender’s 1951 brainchild had yet to find an identity – a situation that ended with the first note Jamerson played on a Motown record.
In one momentous and soulful trifecta, the instrument found its voice, a fledgling record company discovered its heartbeat, and a generation took a bold step toward finding its groove.
