James Jamerson's Amp Found?

[stingbeelee]

Musical mystery: Did old, battered amplifier belong to Motown's James Jamerson?
By Susan Whitall Detroit News Music Writer
From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/2...#ixzz21YDkygno


Tonight, the PBS show "History Detectives" sets out to solve a Motown mystery.

At issue: Did a battered old Ampeg amplifier acquired by professional bass player Steve Fishman belong to Motown's great James Jamerson, the genius of the bass revered by Paul McCartney and countless others?

History detective Eduardo Pagán came to Detroit with his producers last spring and interviewed a number of experts, including the legendary bassist's son, James Jamerson Jr. [[also a professional bassist); Dennis Coffey, who played guitar beside Jamerson at Motown's Studio A [[and was a friend); and Tim Hewitt, owner of the venerable Dearborn music store Hewitt's.

Jamerson played bass on countless Motown hits from the early '60s on, and his style was not to play in the background as was the custom in most pop songs. His bass added an insistent, syncopated underpinning that helped give Motown records such a unique sound.

At Motown, engineers had Jamerson's bass plugged directly into the board, making an amplifier for his bass unnecessary. But he played many gigs around town with his fellow Funk Brothers and backed up Marvin Gaye and several other Motown stars on tour, so he used an amplifier at live shows.

He also used an amplifier when Motown moved to Los Angeles and he was using recording studios where he wasn't plugged directly into the board.

Whether or not "History Detectives" solves this particular mystery, it's always welcome to have a national focus on Jamerson, who was virtually unknown during his lifetime. It's now widely acknowledged that the South Carolina-born bassist, who grew up in Detroit and learned his craft in the public schools, was one of the vital cogs in the Motown machine.

Jamerson died in 1983, just 47, after several dark years in which he struggled with alcohol and a lack of recognition and gigs. It wasn't until the 1980s, the decade in which the book "Standing in the Shadows of Motown" by Allan Slutsky was published and the Motown bassist was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, that he came to broader notice.

When Pagán and producers came to Detroit, they brought the amp with them, along with Fishman. If it's proved to be authentic, it will be loaned for display to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

The amp had the name "James Jamerson" stenciled on its side, a clue that turned out to be important, and an appraiser of musical instruments told Pagán that it was manufactured in 1962.

Jamerson's namesake son was skeptical, because he thought the amp had too many knobs. But Coffey thought the stencil matched the one on his own guitar amp, the sort that a cartage company in Los Angeles used to brand musicians' gear with, when he and Jamerson were working for Motown in Los Angeles.

"I just go by the facts that I had," Coffey says now. "To me it's not a memory issue; memory sometimes fades. But there's the same stenciling process on my amp, from the same storage area."

The program shows both opinions on the amp's provenance, and comes to a conclusion at the end.

Along the way, some important points are made about Motown and Jamerson, some great shots of Detroit are aired, and as a special finale, Fishman gets to jam with Jamerson's son James Jr. and Coffey.


From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/2...#ixzz21YEHGfvV

[chidrummer]

History Detectives has been doing quite a few stories concerning musicians. In the last episode they disproved an autographed photo of The Beatles and found Bob Dylan's Strat from his first "electric" concert at Newport in '65.
I would really watch if they ever thought they had found Jamerson's '62 Precision Bass. Now that would be an awesome find.