One bassist who, many years ago,  was my inspiration to keep on playing and trying to get better as a bassist was Mark Yakes.  The Leamington based player helped to record and produced an early demo for a band I was in at the time.  Mark had already been in a successful band by then – touring with Pzazz and supporting the likes of Level 42 in their heyday – but when we met him he’d just started playing and performing as a solo bass player and singer.  I was knocked out by his playing back then and still am by what he’s doing now.  I can’t find any videos of him playing from that time but here he is with one of his recent songs on the “tenor guitar” he invented – a 4 stringed instrument that’s somehow halfway between bass and guitar.

My next bassist has a related playing style to Mark Yakes – they both play with fingers and not a plectrum – but she’s very definitely playing in bands.  My thanks to my studio client Michael Groth (also a muso) who put me on to this player and in particular this bass solo. I’d not heard of Tal Wilkenfeld before but this solo from a couple of years ago when she was playing at Ronnie Scotts with the Jeff Beck band is a bit of a corker! (Solo starts around 1’28”)

I’ve been checking out some other stuff from Tal Wilkenfeld including her solo album – she’s a player to watch!

But now here’s a real contrast to those two – Mike Kerr.  I’ve only very recently come across this guy and the band he plays in: Royal Blood.
He plays the bass but makes it sound like guitar and bass – adept use of a mountain of pedals and separate guitar and bass amps apparently. I saw these guys on Later with Jools and was totally transfixed. It reminded me of Jack White – hints of the Dead Weather and also the White Stripes (but much heavier) with a hint of Queens of the Stone Age.

Mind you I had to get past the fact that he looks a bit like Jack Whitehall (from Fresh Meat). Still, apparently there’s an album on the way to add to a 4 track ep they released recently. Can’t wait!

Chris Radley – dVoiceBox