''Bass Player'' was a magazine for bassists. Each issue offered a variety of artist interviews, lessons, and equipment reviews. The magazine was founded in 1988 as a spinoff of ''

Guitar Player ''Guitar Player'' was an American magazine for guitarists, founded in 1967 in San Jose, California San Jose, officially the City of San José ( ; ), is a cultural, commercial, and political center within Silicon Valley and the San Francis ...

'' magazine, with Jim Roberts as its first editor. The original headquarters was in San Francisco, CA. It began as a regular edition magazine in 1990. The magazine was published by

Future US Future US, Inc. (formerly known as Imagine Media and The Future Network USA) is an American mass media, media company, corporation specializing in targeted advertising, targeted magazines and websites in the video games, music, and technology ...

, ''Bass Player'' held an annual event for bassists, Bass Player LIVE!. From 2004 until 2007 Bass Player LIVE! was held in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

; from 2008 until 2017 it was held in Hollywood,

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. The magazine ceased publication of print issue after October 2022 issue and became online-only.

Editors

*Jim Roberts, March 1990 to December 1996 * Karl Coryat, January 1997 to January 1998 *Richard Johnston, February 1998 to July 2001 *Bill Leigh, August 2001 to March 2009 *Jonathan Herrera, April 2009 to December 2010 *Brian Fox, January 2011 to June 2014 *Chris Jisi, July 2014 to October 2018 * Joel McIver, November 2018 to October 2022

Lifetime Achievement Awards

In most years since 1998, Bass Player has awarded Lifetime Achievement Awards to notable bassists, as follows: * 1998 Milt Hinton, Bobby Rodriguez * 1999 Chuck Rainey * 2000 Joe Osborn,

Percy Heath Percy Heath (April 30, 1923 – April 28, 2005) was an American jazz bassist, brother of saxophonist Jimmy Heath and drummer Albert Heath, with whom he formed the Heath Brothers in 1975. Heath played with the Modern Jazz Quartet througho ...

* 2001 Jerry Jemmott, Leo Fender * 2002 o award* 2003 o award* 2004 Anthony Jackson, Will Lee * 2005

Ron Carter Ronald Levin Carter (born May 4, 1937) is an American jazz double bassist. His appearances on 2,221 recording sessions make him the most-recorded jazz bassist in history. He has won three Grammy Awards, and is also a Cello, cellist who has reco ...

, Jack Bruce * 2006 Stanley Clarke * 2007

Lee Sklar Leland Bruce Sklar (born May 28, 1947) is an American bassist and session musician. He rose to prominence as a member of James Taylor's backing band, which coalesced into a group in its own right, The Section (band), The Section, which supported ...

, Tony Levin * 2008 Carol Kaye, Verdine White, Mike Watt * 2009 Rocco Prestia,

Charlie Haden Charles Edward Haden (August 6, 1937 – July 11, 2014) was an American jazz double bass player, bandleader, composer and educator whose career spanned more than fifty years. Haden helped to revolutionize the harmonic concept of bass playin ...

* 2010

Bootsy Collins William Earl "Bootsy" Collins (born October 26, 1951) is an American bass guitarist, singer, and songwriter. Rising to prominence with James Brown in the early 1970s before joining the Parliament-Funkadelic collective, Collins established himse ...

, Alphonso Johnson * 2011 Jack Casady,

James Jamerson James Lee Jamerson (January 29, 1936 – August 2, 1983) was an American bassist. He was the uncredited bassist on most of the Motown Records hits in the 1960s and early 1970s (Motown did not list session musician credits on their releases un ...

, Larry Graham * 2012 Chris Squire, Aston Barrett,

Jaco Pastorius John Francis Anthony Pastorius III, also known as Jaco Pastorius (; December 1, 1951 – September 21, 1987), was an American jazz bassist, composer, and producer. Widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential bassists of all time, ...

* 2013

Geezer Butler Terence Michael Joseph "Geezer" Butler (born 17 July 1949) is an English musician, best known as the bassist and primary lyricist of the pioneering Heavy metal music, heavy metal band Black Sabbath. He has also recorded and performed with Heave ...

, Lee Rocker * 2014 Abe Laboriel, Sr * 2015 Lemmy,

Nathan East Nathan Harrell East (born December 8, 1955) is an American jazz, R&B, and rock bass guitarist and vocalist. With more than 2,000 recordings, East is one of the most recorded bass players in the history of music. East holds a Bachelor of Arts ...

, Louis Johnson * 2016 Billy Sheehan, George Porter Jr, Tim Bogert * 2017

Flea Flea, the common name for the order (biology), order Siphonaptera, includes 2,500 species of small flightless insects that live as external parasites of mammals and birds. Fleas live by hematophagy, ingesting the blood of their hosts. Adult f ...

, Jimmy Johnson, Donald "Duck" Dunn * 2018 o award* 2019 John Patitucci * 2020 o award* 2021

Marcus Miller William Henry Marcus Miller Jr. (born June 14, 1959) is an American musician, songwriter, and record producer. He has worked with trumpeter Miles Davis, pianist Herbie Hancock, singer Luther Vandross, and saxophonists Wayne Shorter and David Sa ...

, Gail Ann Dorsey, John Taylor, Charles Berthoud

References

{{Authority control Future plc 1988 establishments in California 2022 disestablishments in California Guitar magazines Magazines established in 1988 Magazines disestablished in 2022 Magazines published in San Francisco Monthly magazines published in the United States Music magazines published in the United States