In a message dated 6/30/03 4:49:34 PM Eastern Daylight Time, ahorton@vt.edu writes:

The Flaming Lips' Michael Ivins. Starting with "clouds taste metallic", he's done some very, very neat and interesting basslines, usually playing more melodically and higher on the neck.

andrew

Bruce Thomas's work with Elvis Costello from about 78-83 is quite good if your friend is looking for an example of tasteful, melodic playing. For rock/jazz/funk gymnastics there's Victor Wooten (one of the Flecktones), Gary Grainger (esp. on Scofield's "Blue Matter"), Nathan East (saw him live with Clapton once and he played half the guitar solos on his bass), Steve Harris (Iron Maiden), Geddy Lee (Rush), Chris Squire (YES), Muzz Skillings (Living Colour), Doug Wimbish (ditto, plus Tackhead), the guy from Fishbone (forget his name -- John Norwood Fisher?), Andrew Weiss (Rollins Band, this guy is Flea's favorite bassist), Billy Sheehan (Talas, the self-proclaimed Eddie Van Halen of the four string), Geezer Butler (Black Sabbath), James Jamerson (tons of Motown), Fernando Saunders (jaw dropping work with Lou Reed), Stu Hamm (worked with Vai, Satriani and other shredders), Mike Bean (did an album with Vinnie Moore, this guy is amazing and very few people have seen or heard him), and of course Flea and Claypool and Pastorius as others have mentioned. Tom