The 5 Best Bass Soloists Funk Music Ever Had

Funk music already has some of the best bassists in the industry. But to be one of the best bass soloists in all of funk, you need enough groove, technical ability, creativity, and attitude to separate you from the rest. And every bass soloist on this list is the best of the best in a genre that's already bass-heavy.

The bass guitar is often a background feature in most ensembles, but we've chosen musicians who bring it to the fore with skills capable of hitting you right in your soul, and with nothing more than four strings. They come in heavy with slaps, pops, mutes, effects, and expert composition that's unmatched in the world of funk — or, arguably, any other genre for that matter. Now, not all of our funk bass soloist picks play in the slap-pop style that defines much of the modern funk sound, but most of them tend to for reasons you have to hear to understand.

These musical legends (or soon-to-be legends) have played on some of the biggest stages, with some of the biggest names in the industry. Even so, once fingers hit strings during one of their solos, all eyes are on them. And now our eyes are on them too, so let's check them out.

Louis Johnson is a master of the slap style and a highly accomplished musician who's worked with the likes of Michael Jackson, Bill Withers, Stevie Wonder, and Paul McCartney. Johnson first achieved fame as the bassist for the Brothers Johnson in the '70s, landing several albums in the Top 20 on the Billboard Hot 200. And Johnson's bass skills were no small part of this.

Nicknamed "Thunder Thumbs" for good reason, Johnson had a long history of busting out some of the funkiest bass solos in the genre. Johnson kept his groove while rapidly slapping, plucking, and hammering on the fretboard, and he had an expert ability to mute notes at exactly the right time. And he could pull these mutes off flawlessly while busting out 16th notes with the ease of a casual walk. Bass players know that muting makes a huge difference when it comes to the discernability of individual notes on the instrument, because the low vibration of strings can easily bleed into following notes.

Johnson's bass soloing talents haven't gone unnoticed. He was nominated for six Grammy Awards and won two of them. He also took the No. 38 spot on Bass Player Magazine's list of the 100 best bass players of all time. When it comes to funk bass solos, there are few who can stand in his league.

To set the stage for the great Larry Graham, he had seven singles on the Billboard Hot 100 during his solo career and as part of the band Graham Central Station, and he was a member of the legendary band Sly and the Family Stone, with whom he was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1993. He also ranked No. 7 on Rolling Stone Australia's 50 all-time greatest bassists list. Most of all, though, he's the musical mastermind who invented slap style bass playing, and he was one of the best funk bassists to ever solo in this style.

Graham could play with wicked speed in a way that threatens the lifespan of bass guitar strings, and no matter how fast he played, he kept a funky groove going with clear and distinct tones. It's so easy for the bass to get muddled and repetitive at high speed, but not in Graham's hands, and especially to those who heard him in the early years when he was the only soloist playing slap style.

We could point out a thousand different Graham bass solos that highlight his skills, but that's well beyond our scope here: They all thump and pop and slap and groove. There's really no other way to truly describe his soloing style, since funk is more of a feel than standard. He's remained consistently elite for decades and was still slapping out wild bass solos in 2012, which is insanely impressive for a man who was in his mid-60s at the time.

There isn't a living funk bass soloist out there who brings the attitude to the frets like Meshell Ndegeocello. She's arguably the best funk bass soloist still actively playing today. Even her standard playing has some of the best bass riffs in the game, often as complicated as other bassists' solos (and groovier). While Ndegeocello isn't super well-known in the mainstream, her skills as a bassist and soloist are revered in the funk, R&B, and jazz scenes — reflected in 13 Grammy nominations since 1995, of which she's won three. So, even if you don't know her work, you'll be glad to discover it.

Her solos are exactly what people talk about when they refer to "nasty bass licks." They're fast and groovy while taking a technical approach that Ndegeocello has mastered over decades of riffing. You wouldn't call her style shredding because it's nothing like a lead guitar solo. Instead, it utilizes popping strings and mutes to create sounds on the bass you just can't make with standard finger style — though she uses finger style too.

When Ndegeocello rocked the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1997, she showcased her skills in one of the most quintessential solos of her style. But, in all truth, her live double bass solo with Yossi Fine in 1995 is one of the greatest things to ever come out of funk music.

Bootsy Collins is a name synonymous with funk music and wild style. Though the bassist played with a couple of bands previously, he really got his start as part of the J.B.'s — the band that backed up James Brown — before he headed his own operation, Bootsy's Rubber Band. Since then, he's collaborated with a multitude of musicians from various genres, including George Clinton, Jerry Harrison of Talking Heads, and DMX. But when it comes to being one of the best funk soloists, it's not who you know — it's how you play. And few could hope to match Bootsy Collins on the four-string.

Collins solos were as flashy as his star-shaped "space bass," as he calls it, and he's one of the few great funk bassists who didn't shy away from using effects in his solos. Utilizing heavy reverb, distortion, wah pedals, and envelope filters, this bass legend would lay down licks in every imaginable style. He'd shred scales like a rock star, funk it out with slap bass, and even pull out unconventional moves like full-hand slaps across all four strings. At times, his solos would sound like something sci-fi, with effects that gave his long notes the sensation of echoing in the void. And it's this uniqueness that puts Collins' solos in a league of their own.

The other bass soloists on this list were already rocking on stage when Joe Dart was born in 1991, but that doesn't make him any less qualified. He's the bassist of the funk band Vulfpeck, and in the decade and a half he's been performing on stage, he's already been on the cover of Bass Guitar Magazine and won the hearts of funk and bass aficionados everywhere.

Joe Dart is our only funk bassist entry who doesn't solo in the slap-pop style that gives modern funk bass its signature sound. Rather, Dart is a master of finger style bass playing — picking and stroking the bass strings with your fingers, rather than hard plucking or slapping with your thumb. Even so, his solos are fast to a point that's impressive by itself, but he also manages to retain a blues-like groove while blasting out 16th or 32nd notes in a high tempo.

A lot of bassists who play finger style rapidly lose the cleanliness of their groove when laying it down, since they don't have the crisp popping quality to differentiate their tones, but not Dart. His fret hand climbs the neck with the dexterity of a lead guitarist and simultaneously mutes between notes with the best of them. And, as with everyone on this list, Dart solos with an attitude that makes him as fun to watch as he is to listen to. Entertainment is, after all, the name of the funk bass solo game.