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My Favorite Jazz-Rock Fusion Musicians from the "Classic Era": The Bass Players

(In some semblance of order:) - Anthony Jackson / Billy Paul, MFSB, Buddy Rich, The O'Jays, Funk Factory, Norman Connors, Roberta Flack, Chick Corea, Al Di Meola, Lalo Schifrin, Harvey Mason, Lee Ritenour, Joe Farrell, Michal Urbaniak, Steve Khan, Jun Fukamachi, David Spinozza, Earl Klugh, Eric Gale, Chaka Khan, Teo Macero, Steely Dan, Donald Fagen, Terumasa Hino, Sadao Watanabe, Grover Washington, Jr., Gato Barbieri, Masaru Imada, George Benson, Tania Maria, Peabo Bryson, Hiromi Uehara - Chuck Rainey / King Curtis, The Rascals, Hubert Laws, Yusef Lateef, Aretha Franklin, Gene Ammons, Larry Coryell, Roberta Flack, Quincy Jones, Gato Barbieri, The Voices Of East Harlem, Steely Dan - Carole Kaye (The Wrecking Crew) - James Jamerson / Motown's Funk Brothers - Ralphe Armstrong / Mahavishnu Orchestra (second incarnation), Jean-Luc Ponty, Michael Henderson -  John Lee  / Chris Hinze, Gerry Brown, Toto Blanke -  Roy Babbington  / Nucleus/Ian Carr/Chris Spedding, The So...
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Carlos Santana

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Mexican-born Carlos had gravitated to San Francisco with the rise of the "hippie" culture in the mid-Sixties. There, in 1966, he formed a band with three other musicians, eventually calling themselves the Santana Blues Band. By January of 1967 the band had built up enough notoriety and following performing in and around the Bay Area that promoter Bill Graham recruited them to audition for a regular appearance schedule at his Fillmore Auditorium--for which they were hired. In June Graham fired the expanding band from the Fillmore gig for attendance irregularities--which prompted Carlos to fire everybody in the band in order to start from scratch--to hire "serious musicians" who would take their commitment and responsibilities more seriously.      The newly revamped Santana band was helped to secure a higher-profile place in the performance order for the Woodstock Music & Art Fair in the beginning of August, 1969. Their now-legendary performance (well-documented i...
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Bob James: The Man with the Golden Touch

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Bob James and I go back pretty far. I fell in love with his production sound with the 1977 arrival of Kenny Loggins' amazing Celebrate Me Home album. BJ4 was my first purchase and it quickly became a "comfort" staple in my record play--for some years. Though I know look upon Bob's contribution to music as one of having helped establish, define, and solidify the now-ubiquitous presence of "Smooth Jazz" in our world (a phenomenon that I resent for its destruction of the momentum of joyful creativity that Jazz-Rock Fusion had built up during the first half of the 1970s) but I accept it because A) there's nothing I can do about it and B) I understand the other levels of joy and comfort that Smooth Jazz has provided our (though I see it as a parallel trend and symptom of the dumbing down of our society).      There is certainly no shame in Bob James' start as a arranger and studio musician for the likes of Quincy Jones and Creed Taylor but as his solo ca...
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