James Jamerson
bass (Motown)
Bass player of Motown’s studio band in Detroit; Barry says Jamerson studied with him in Detroit.
- mentions
- 2
- recordings
- 2
- Barry speaking
- 1
What Barry says
In the oral history, listing the Detroit musicians who learned from him, such as Joe Henderson, Yusef Lateef and Kirk Lightsey, Barry adds that James Jamerson, Motown’s bass player, studied with him in Detroit, and that the pianist Johnny Griffith learned some things from him too.
In the Almeria talk Barry says everybody in Detroit knew where to come to learn, the Motown people included, and names Motown’s bass player (the captions give ‘Jameson James’), going straight on to a little kid who used to come to him to learn how to play; the garbled captions leave it unclear whether that kid is Jamerson.
Believe: a talk to musicians6:51
Both times he points to a yearbook as proof: in Almeria he calls it DownBeat’s 1958 yearbook, and in the oral history he says it stated that most of the musicians who came out of Detroit came through him.
Believe: a talk to musicians6:517:26Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program ¶125
In his own words
The people at Motown – the bass player at Motown, James Jamerson studied with me in Detroit, you know.
Every mention
2 moments in the recordings, 1 of them Barry speaking. Each says who is talking.
Believe: a talk to musicians
- 6:51
Names Motown’s bass player (captioned ‘Jameson James’) among the Detroit people who came to him to learn.
Ep. 20 | Charles McPherson: Meeting Charlie Parker, Studying with Barry Harris, and the Art of Bebop
- 0:00
Interviewer
Introducing Charles McPherson, the host lists Jamerson among future Motown stars on McPherson’s Detroit scene.
In the interviews and notes
Barry names James Jamerson, the Motown bass player, among the Detroit musicians who studied with him, alongside Joe Henderson, Yusef Lateef, Kirk Lightsey and the pianist Johnny Griffith.
Method ideas nearby
Ideas of the method taught in the classes where they come up, with how many mentions fall in each.
- 1.4Triplets and thinking in six1
- 11.1Two hands together1
- 11.2Keep the left hand low and make it interesting1
- 12.2Know the song; learn many songs; find your key1
- 2.2The two whole-tone scales (‘man and woman’)1
- 2.3The three diminished seventh chords (‘the children’)1
- 8.3Four dominants from every diminished chord1
- 8.6The diminished scale as diminished chord + four dominant roots1