My Top-10 Female Bassists

Having written two blogs about her favourite instrument, the bass guitar: one covering the top 10 bass intros and one about the top 10 bass solos, guest blogger Marlies has noticed that female bassists have been overlooked. In this blog, she seeks to level things off by presenting a list of top 10 songs driven by bass lines penned by some of the most iconic bassists of all time – who also happen to be female.

Photo (edited): Nik West, by Frolzart, license CC BY-SA 4.0

#1. Carol Kaye

Carol Kaye is one of my favourite bassists ever and her lines can be heard on thousands of numbers – more than 10,000 in fact! Living the session musician’s life, she was never visible or recognised and always stayed in the background, even though some of her bass work is now so iconic it’s become immortal. Carol Kaye wrote and played for some of the most influential bands and artists of all time, including Sam Cook, The Beach Boys, The Doors, Nancy Sinatra, Barbara Streisand… the list goes on, and on. A remarkable and undeniable hero of a musician. Where can I get a T-shirt?

#2. Esperanza Spalding

Esperanza Spalding is widely known within jazz and sometimes pop and, while she prefers the double bass, occasionally plays a bass guitar. If she’s playing live near you, do everything in your power to go – she’s an astounding performer. I recommend having a listen to her version of Samba Em Prelúdio by Baden Powell.

#3. Gail Ann Dorsey

Gail Ann Dorsey doesn’t just play the bass, but the guitar, clarinet and the drums. She even sings. As a seasoned session musician, she’s played with some of the greats, including Bryan Ferry, The Indigo Girls, Lenny Kravitz and David Bowie. When she performed Stop On By by Bobby Womack with nothing but her voice and a bass on the ‘80s Channel 4 music series The Tube, she suddenly exploded into the public consciousness.

#4. Kim Deal

Kim Deal co-founded two of the most iconic post-punk bands there ever was: The Pixies and The Breeders. While she split from the notoriously dysfunctional, prolonged group-therapy session that was The Pixies in 1993, she still fronts The Breeders to this very day. Since she usually plays the guitar in The Breeders line-up, I’ve included an example of her bass work on this number from when she was still part of The Pixies, which came out in 1989: Monkey Gone To Heaven.

#5. Kim Gordon

This list would definitely be incomplete without the second of the famous Kims: Kim Gordon, bassist and singer of Sonic Youth, one of the most influential bands of all time. Kim has always found the question “What’s it like to be a girl in a band?” understandably stereotypical and even hostile. Were any of her male band mates asked “What’s it like to be a boy in a band?” In a word: no. Musically, there’s plenty to say about Kim, but to illustrate a little of it, I’ve included the band’s breakout hit Kool Thing which came out in 1990.

#6. Meshell Ndegeocello

Meshell Ndegeocello was the first woman ever to appear on the cover of Bass Player Magazine and she earned it, because she is one world-beating bassist – among other things. In 2018, she released the album Ventriloquism and toured the jazz festivals the following summer. Her most well known solo hit is If That’s Your Boyfriend (He Wasn’t Last Night) which was first released on her debut album Plantation Lullabies in 1993.

#7. Nik West

Nik West is a punk, purple and (very likely) Prince devotee, because that’s what’s written all over her music. In 2017, she dropped the bombastic, shimmering, purple-coated funk banger Purple Unicorn.

#8. Rhonda Smith

Rhonda Smith is already renowned for being part of Prince’s backing band The New Power Generation and has also worked with Chaka Khan, Sheila E. and bass hero Larry Graham. These days she tours with the Jeff Beck group. At the Montreux Jazz Festival in 2008 she also played with Candy Dulfer.

#9. Suzi Quatro

In the 1970s (next to her cameos on Happy Days as Leather Tuscadero) Suzi Quatro was churning out the glamrock hits. Quatro was the first female bassist to reach the dizzying heights of rock stardom and, for that reason, this list wouldn’t be complete without her. Can the Can came out in 1973 and was a smasher.

#10. Tina Weymouth

Tina Weymouth was both the bassist and one of founders of Talking Head and later Tom Tom Club. She’s an autodidact and actually taught herself to play the bass by listening to none-other-than Suzi Quatro on repeat. Her seemingly simple staccato and funk-influenced playing style is one of the details that made the music of Talking Heads so unique and so needed. One of my favourites (and a lot of other people’s) is Psycho Killer, which was first released in 1977.

Did I miss any out?

To be honest, this list could have been at least 20 or 30 names long, so if you think there are any names I missed out and should have been included, let me know in the comments and don’t forget to include a YouTube link.