How Could I
Not a huge Cynic fan, to be honest. My best friend loves them, but I've just never felt like they put out something that made me feel anything but bored.
Tower of Power, James Brown
I met Rocco recently and was a fawning fanboy. Somewhat embarrassing, but I don't care. I would also like to add Sam & Dave to the pile.
Soulive
I am morally obligated to dislike Soulive's "bass" parts because they're not played by a real bassist, but by that same token, I should hate Chris Potter's "Underground," and I so don't.
UGggggggh. Can there be one conversation about bass that doesn't bring up fucking Chris Squire or fucking Geddy Lee.
They were pretty decent bassists who are well-known because they actually played some interesting lines. I'm quite surprised Flea hasn't come up. Maybe it's still not cool to mention Flea. I'm fine with that, because all he did was make the bass more visible.
Next everyone will be sucking off Jaco Pastorious (who, by the way, has a tone like the grown-ups in Peanuts having a seizure, it is NOT something to aspire to have).
Yeah, but Jaco was so fucking musical I don't care. I don't care that he played "too much," because all of it fit. Now, I've not heard anyone else who could make it work like him, but Jaco just had a great sense of music.
In this is the most important lesson you can learn playing bass: Keep it simple, don't be a wanker. People are not impressed by that.
Let's be honest here, some people are impressed by that, unfortunately. I'm not automatically repulsed by bass lines that are a bit busy, but I am if they're TOO busy. Sometimes a song needs a bit of a bass kick. I was always getting yelled at for doing too little when I was playing for a living, which is probably why I don't like playing rock music to this day. I always think it should be really simple, and no one else agrees with me. I know what to do in jazz, but not rock.
Now, I'm going to throw in that I think pretty much all bass lines that Reid Anderson (The Bad Plus) has played are fantastic, and have such fantastic tone.