Carol Kaye
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Carol Kaye is an American electric bass player renowned as a Los Angeles based session musician in the 1950s and 1960s. She was a member of The Wrecking Crew, a term coined by "Drummer Man" Hal Blaine. Kaye played on several Phil Spector and Brian Wilson productions and was the bassist for The Zodiac; among her most notable work is anchoring the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds.
Life and career
Born in Everett, Washington to musician parents, Clyde and Dot Smith, both professionals. She has played and taught guitar professionally since 1949, played bebop jazz guitar in dozens of nightclubs around Los Angeles with top groups (also in Bob Neal's jazz group with Jack Sheldon backing Lenny Bruce, with Teddy Edwards, Billy Higgins etc.), accidentally got into studio work late 1957 with Sam Cooke.She worked under the direction of Michel Legrand, Quincy Jones, Elmer Bernstein, Lalo Schifrin, David Rose, David Grusin, Ernie Freeman, Hugo Montenegro, Leonard Rosenman, John Williams, Alfred & Lionel Newman.
Beginning in 1969, she wrote her first of many bass tutoring books, "How To Play The Electric Bass" effectively changing the popular term from "Fender Bass" back to the manufacturer's term "Electric Bass" and began teaching hundreds of Electric Bass students, many of them now famous.
There is some controversy about exactly which hit tracks Kaye recorded. Some of the recordings she claims to have made for Motown Records are sometimes ascribed to James Jamerson: Kaye played bass on demos and finished tracks for Motown in Los Angeles, while most Motown recordings were done in Detroit with Jamerson and the Funk Brothers studio band.
Selected recordings
- "These Boots Were Made for Walkin'" (Nancy Sinatra)
- "Come Together" (Count Basie)
- "Dont Change on Me" (Ray Charles)
- "Feel So Bad" (Ray Charles)
- "Feeling Alright" (Joe Cocker)
- "Games People Play" (Mel Torme)
- "Good Vibrations" (Beach Boys)
- "Happy Together" (Mel Torme)
- "Hicky Burr" (Bill Cosby)
- "I Dont Need No Doctor" (Ray Charles)
- "I Chose to Sing the Blues" (Ray Charles)
- "If I Could Build My Whole World Around You" (Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell)
- "I Was Made To Love Her" (The Beach Boys, Cover Version)
- "Little Green Apples" (OC Smith)
- "Out of My Head" (The Lettermen)
- "Out of This World" (Nancy Wilson)
- "Peace of Mind" (Nancy Wilson)
- "Understanding" (Ray Charles)
- "Willie" (Mel Torme)
- "When I Die" (The Motherlode)
- "Wichita Lineman" (Glen Campbell)
- "You Made Me So Very Happy" (Brenda Holloway)
References
- Kaye, Carol, Electric Bass lines series Nos 1-4. Publ by Gwyn Publishing 1971-1974
External links
- [The Official Carol Kaye Web Site], including online forums
- [Playing demonstration] (Window Media film)
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